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 May, 2006

May 27, 2006

1 week to the BBA Spring Fling

by @ 7:27. Filed under The Blog.

You are cordially invited to The Badger Blog Alliance Spring Fling Picnic. It will be held at Waukesha County’s beautiful Naga-Waukee Park, picnic area 3, on Saturday, June 3, starting at noon. Trust me; your fellow bloggers are a friendly bunch – I had the privlege of heading to the get-together at State Fair’s Microbrew tent last year.

Directions: Take I-94 to Hwy. 83, then head north about a half-mile. Naga-Waukee Park is on your left.

What to bring: $5 per car as a park entrance fee (don’t blame us, blame Waukesha County), food (the county has some grills, and we’ll have the coals), drink (Chris got a liquor license, so you can bring beer and wine coolers), and you and yours. If you forgot something, or just don’t want to drag it across the state, there’s basically everything from food stores to the twin Wal-s to even ATMs (I don’t think Waukesha County takes American Express) right at the freeway and 83.

Who to RSVP: Chris at gbfan001 – at – gmail – dot – com, though if you just get the urge to show up, you’re welcome as well.

This is a test of the Automated Blogging System

by @ 1:00. Filed under The Blog.

Had this been an actual post, I would have had some serious drivel for you. We now return you to your regular blogging.

May 26, 2006

Anti-Freeze Sublimation, MPS Edition

by @ 19:49. Filed under Politics, Taxes.

‘Tis a curious headline the Journtinel put on their story of the MPS budget passed by the board yesterday (“MPS keeps reins tight”). Let’s explore the numbers:

– Enrollment is forecast to be down 2.8% from this year
– The number of teachers is cut 2%
– Total spending is only cut 0.9%

And the killer for property owners in the city of Milwaukee:

– The property tax levy is expected to go up 3%

Sure is looking like the suckers in Milwaukee who voted for Craps in 2002 and will likely vote for him again in 2006 don’t mind being lied to.

Oversight on the roll corrected

by @ 17:07. Filed under The Blog.

In double-checking to make sure everything is ready for my annual Great White North Walleye Hunt, I noticed that I was missing a certain something in my blogroll. If you’re missing Phelony Jones and The Confidentials like I was, correct that oversight now!

Senate passes “Amnesty first, border enforcement never”

by @ 9:03. Filed under Immigration, Politics - National.

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that the Senate passed their version of the immigration “reform” bill 62-36. One of the public parts of the bill, which (thankfully) still has to go through a conference committee with Jim Sensenbrenner, would authorize construction of 370 miles of fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers.

However, Michelle Malkin has the details on how that means nothing. It seems that Arlen Specter (tell me again why the RNC and President Bush supported him in the 2004 primary) snuck in a provision that Mexico be consulted before any new barriers are built.

As for the rest of the trash that the Senate passed, let’s see:

  • Guest-worker program – 200,000 per year with an initial 3-year visa. That visa can be renewed once, and once that “guest” is here for 4 years, they leap to the head of the citizenship line.
  • Amnesty for the invaders already here –
    • Those here 5 or more years as well as those working on farms for at least 863 hours in 2004-2005 (or willing and able to lie) leap to the head of the citizenship line without going back to where they came from and become citizens in 6 years after paying a modest fine
    • Those here between 2 and 5 years (or those not willing and able to lie enough to qualify for the 5-year rule) get citizenship 13 or so years after sneaking out across the border and coming back through a port of entry.
    • Those here less than 2 years, not working on a farm, and too stupid/lazy to lie allegedly get deported.
  • Penalties for being caught here illegally – misdemeanor, and any deportation ordered can be appealed ad nauseum
  • Other conditions of deportation – a felony non-immigration or 3 misdemeanor non-immigration convictions, which applies to both illegal and legal aliens.
  • Employers’ actions – they will eventually have to screen new hires’ Social Security numbers, with $20,000 fines per illegal they’re caught with.

    • All in all, if anything resembling this makes it out of conference committee, it’s over.

    May 25, 2006

    Yet another diamond in the rough for the roll

    by @ 11:32. Filed under The Blog.

    It’s past time to add Josh Schroeder. If his prose demonstrated in Jenna’s “Caption Doyle” contest hadn’t done it, his obsession with Klingon cutlery would have.

    Amnesty – the election question

    by @ 10:49. Filed under Immigration.

    I’ve heard the arguments from conservatives in favor of giving amnesty and citizenship to illegal aliens that if we throw the 12 million illegal aliens out of our country (namely, the 7 million Mexican invaders), that Mexico will go Communist like Venezuela. If that’s true, what makes them think that if we give them amnesty and citizenship like El Presidente Vicente Bush and the ‘Rats on both sides of the Senate aisle want, they won’t do the same here?

    Jessica whacks amnesty like a rotted pinata

    by @ 10:43. Filed under Immigration.

    First, she serves up the item that the INS will not go after one J. Carmen Navarette (the brother of the illegal alien who did a couple “jobs” Americans wouldn’t by robbing a bank and shooting it out with Waukesha police), despite the fact he admitted to the press he’s here illegally, sought to acquire his brother’s liquor license, and is in the phone book because they “can’t” identify him, he didn’t appear to break further laws, and he “might” have moved on. What makes me think the INS won’t start enforcing deportation laws against illegal aliens when the number temporarily drops to nearly zero after we give most of the 12 million amnesty-“lite”?

    Next, she exploded the “didn’t appear to break further laws”, finding out that J. Carmen Navarette appeared to break state of Wisconsin tax laws. Why am I not surprised, and why won’t I be surprised when the INS continues to refuse to try to deport Navarette?

    Finally, she questions whether those pushing for amnesty-“lite” will start pushing for deportations when the predictable happens, and many of those 12 million they want to give amnesty to refuse to follow those rules, with some claiming poverty and others simply staying underground. My prediction – this becomes amnesty-“heavy”, with all the hoops removed.

    Carnival of the Badger – Blog Warming edition

    by @ 10:19. Filed under Carnival of the Badger.

    It’s over at Nick’s new place. Check it out, then volunteer to host a future edition. He only has people for the next 2 weeks, then everything after that is open.

    May 24, 2006

    Caption contest at Jenna’s

    by @ 19:02. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    Mash to enter

    Out-of-control Congress protecting the most-corrupt of their own

    by @ 10:25. Filed under Law and order, Politics - National.

    It really shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the RepubicRAT half of the Party In Government is backing ethically-challenged Louisiana DemocRAT Representative William Jefferson in his battle to remain in office and free of corruption charges despite videotape evidence that he accepted a $100,000 bribe and convictions of his associates on charges of bribing him, going so far as to threaten a legal challenge to a search warrant execution on Jefferson’s Congressional office. After all, Congress exempts its members from just about every law they saddle the rest of America with.

    Sensitive types need not click

    by @ 8:17. Filed under The Blog.

    The rest of you (which means the 2-3 readers I have), enjoy Clint’s brand of humor.

    The exodus from Blogger continues unabated

    by @ 6:48. Filed under The Blog.

    First, Jessica McBride makes a sideways move to the 620 WTMJ corporate world, then Nick moves The World According to Nick to dasBlog and his own domain.

    Craps tax anti-freeze-year 2 begins to sublimate again

    by @ 6:21. Filed under Politics, Taxes.

    Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale), on his wholesale rewriting of the tax freeze put into the budget by Legislative Republicans in July 2005 (a rewrite that specifically exempted unelected taxing authorities like technical college districts), as quoted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – “‘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.”

    The Milwaukee Area Technical College proposed 2006 tax levy increase, after a 6.3% levy increase in 2005 – 5% (or $6.3 million, with a minimum of $2.2 million and potentially as much as $4.4 million going to increased compensation for the already-overpaid teachers), which the Journtinel helpfully points out is well above the rate of inflation.

    Tell me again why every single elected DemocRAT, and the RepublicRATs and RINOs in my Rogues Galleries believe that it isn’t necessary to restrain the taxing authority of unelected taxing bodies?

    May 23, 2006

    If 12 million illegal aliens are too many to deport,…

    by @ 17:22. Filed under Immigration.

    …then what should we have done when 9 million Southerners out of 31 million Americans (both numbers including slaves) revolted over the election of Abraham Lincoln, and they mustered up over 1 million under arms (compared to 2.2 million Union soldiers)? Surely the US couldn’t muster up the spine, much less the ability, to defeat the separatists, could they?

    Of course, Abraham Lincoln didn’t listen to the nay-sayers, and despite a very heavy toll, the Union prevailed in the Civil War.

    May 16, 2006

    The middle of the road isn’t safe

    by @ 7:37. Filed under Immigration.

    And that’s exactly the path that President Bush’s prime-time speech on illegal aliens took. Liberals are whacking at the plan to tighten the border, especially the part about using the Guard temporarily; while conservatives hate just about everything else. Let’s review the “high” points:

    • Moderately-increased enforcement of the border – It truly is only moderate, even though we’ll start out with a temporary non-combat/border enforcement deployment of National Guard troops. We’ll have more than double the number of Border Patrol agents we had at the start of 2001, but 18,000 agents for 2,000 miles of border isn’t enough. As for not “militarizing” the border, when the Mexican Army is taking potshots at both civilians and Border Patrol agents, maybe it’s time to “militarize”, complete with shoot-to-kill orders.
    • Increased enforcement against companies who hire illegal workers, along with “tamper-proof” ID cards for legal aliens – Good idea, even though most of those employers still won’t be able to tell the difference between a legitimate card and a forged one. Something’s missing; requiring state and local governments to sift through those they come in contact with to determine who is and isn’t here legally.
    • A “guest-worker” program – Well, we’ve seen just how successful that’s been in France. Sure, they might be “required” to go home after their two years, but between a continued “anchor baby” policy and a complete lack of enforcement of current laws, something tells me they won’t go home after their two years.

      Added to that, the economics just don’t support this. The whole reason why some employers are willing to hire illegal aliens at “sub-standard” wages (whether those wages are below minimum wage or not), and why illegal aliens are willing to work for those “sub-standard” wages is because they don’t have to pay taxes on those wages. If we make every worker “legal”, those taxes will be there on both sides, eliminating the competitive advantage illegal aliens have. Further, paying those taxes would necessarily reduce the main legitimate reason why aliens come here; to earn enough to send back home to the family.

    • Semi-amnesty for the 12 million illegal aliens already here – Don’t mistake my use of the accurate term for complete opposition to this, but not sending them back to their countries of origin to begin their legal immigration is a form of amnesty. President Bush would, however, not make citizenship automatic, would first make them pay some sort of penalty taxes, and would send them to the back of the line of the path to citizenship. That is far preferable to what the Senate wants to do, a full, blanket and, for many, immediate amnesty for almost all the aliens.

    May 14, 2006

    The light; it burns!

    by @ 12:59. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    For those of you confused by that yellow ball of fire in the sky, it is the sun. Seeing we haven’t had sun for a while (though it didn’t break the gloom-and-doom record set this past winter), it’s time to once again give some basic warnings:

    • Don’t look directly into the sun.
    • Use sunglasses that block ultraviolet light.
    • If outside for extended periods of time, wear sunscreen on your face.

    Enjoy it while you can. There’s more rain coming in from the east (yeah, you heard me right, EAST).

    May 13, 2006

    Yet another for the roll

    by @ 8:12. Filed under The Blog.

    Mary hits a bunch of nails on the head over at Freedom Eden. Go, read.

    May 12, 2006

    The freeway of doom

    by @ 17:01. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    (H/T – JSOnline’s DayWatch)

    Today’s accidents on I-43/94 between the Mitchell Interchange and the Plainfield curve:

    – A semi jackknifed in the northern lanes at the north end of the Plainfield curve (which is a decreasing-radius curve northbound) mid-morning.
    – A southbound box truck ran wide and into the median wall at about the same spot the semi jackknifed around 1.
    – A semi ran off the ramp from eastbound I-894 to southbound (eastbound officially) I-94 and ended up in the median between that ramp and southbound I-94 a short while ago.

    Earlier this week, another semi fell off that same ramp and crashed through the southbound I-94 lanes. There is a reason why the speed limit is only 50 mph there.

    Liberals take their war against conservatives to the next level

    by @ 16:36. Filed under Compassionate Lieberals, Politics.

    (H/T – OpinionJournal’s Best of the Web)

    The Times (of London) columnist Mick Jones reports the saga of one Edward Atkinson…

    It is bad enough that you can be refused medical treatment on the NHS for eating, drinking or smoking too much. Now it seems that you can be denied an operation for protesting too much in support of your religious or political beliefs.

    Edward Atkinson, a 75-year-old anti-abortion activist, was jailed recently for 28 days for sending photographs of aborted foetuses to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. That draconian sentence was not deemed punishment enough: the hospital has banned Mr Atkinson from receiving the hip replacement operation he was expecting.

    Just as a reminder, Queen Elizabeth Hospital is owned and operated by the British government.

    A gas question for out-staters, especially liberal out-staters

    by @ 14:17. Filed under Corn-a-hole, Politics - Wisconsin.

    What is wrong with this picture?

    • Regular unleaded gasoline (HU) futures for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 1 pm CDT – $2.1950/gallon
    • Reformulated unleaded gasoline (RBOB) futures for June delivery on NYMEX as of 1 pm CDT (not quite the same blend as is required in southeast Wisconsin, but it is more plentiful than the special Milwaukee/Chicago blend) – $2.4450/gallon
    • Ethanol futures for June delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade as of 1 pm CDT – $2.810/gallon (it is important to note that ethanol, where it is required, is added at the terminal and is not part of either of the blends of gasoline traded on NYMEX)
    • Average pump price of regular unleaded gas in Madison (no reformulated or ethanol requirement) from MadisonGasPrices.com as of 1:30 pm CDT – $2.891/gallon
    • Average pump price of regular unleaded gas in Milwaukee (both reformulated and 10% ethanol requirements) from MilwaukeeGasPrices.com as of 1:30 pm CDT – $2.910/gallon

    A couple of hints for you who have had a public-school “education”:

    • The trading-price premium for reformulated gasoline over regular gasoline – $0.2500/gallon
    • The effective trading-price premium for ethanol-laced reformulated gasoline mandated in southeast Wisconsin ($2.4896/gallon at 90% RBOB, 10% ethanol) over non-ethanol-laced regular gas available elsewhere in the state – $0.2946/gallon (side note for those stuck on corn-a-hole; mandating 10% ethanol on regular gas would add $0.0696/gallon to its effective trading price, making that $2.2565/gallon)
    • The pump-price premium for the ethanol-laced reformulated gasoline sold in Milwaukee over (mostly) non-ethanol-laced regular gasoline sold in Madison – $0.019/gallon

    That might be something you want to ask Gov. Jim Doyle about. Back in 2000, when he was Attorney General, his repsonse to a similar inflation of reformulated gasoline prices was to threaten to sue any member of Big Oil that didn’t spread the pain across the entire state. You might also want to ask current AG Peg Lautenschlager about this. It sure looks like she’s continuing the Doyle policies.

    Revisions/extensions (5:30 pm 5/12) – If Tommy Thompson jumps into the governor’s race, you might want to ask Mr. “Stick it to ’em” about this too. While Thompson did try (and fail) to get southeast Wisconsin out of the RFG mandate while he was still in Madison, he didn’t exactly try to dissuade Craps from his threats to persecute Big Oil if they didn’t spread the pain.

    In honor of the Sping City Chronicle’s move, some Friday palaver

    by @ 13:21. Filed under The Blog.

    And this is the only time I’ll be using that fancy word:

    – Mike finally had enough with Blogger, and took the Spring City Chronicle over to wordpress.com (the free host affiliated with the producers of WordPress, the software that powers this blog). While the move wasn’t without some problems, we got most of them worked out just fine.

    – Fred, along with his lovely assistants Belle and Jenna, is celebrating the 1-year blogiversary of RealDebateWisconsin. You’ll have to bring your own beer because Jenna’s still a bit too young, but there’s plenty of cake.

    Current (1:05 pm 5/12/2006) Thompson ’06 plans odds

    by @ 13:05. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

    3-2 – Tommy jumps into the governor’s race to push Mark Green out
    3-2 – Tommy doesn’t appear on any ballot
    4-1 – Tommy takes on Nobody’s Senator, Herb Kohl

    If Tommy announces his decision Sunday like the Journal Sentinel is reporting he likely will (even-money odds on that), look for it to be to enter the governor’s race. If he does, I’ll bet that 3/4ths of the original Green Team will abandon Mark Green and call him “too conservative” (remember, they already did that to Scott Walker successfully).

    For the record, I do not want Tommy anywhere near the governor’s section of the ballot. He’s a great campaigner, and he did have some decent ideas (W2, School Choice), but he’s a tax-and-spender first, last and always. Wisconsin doesn’t need one of those, especially now.

    MMSD to Milwaukee County – stink it up so we don’t have to stink up the Lake

    by @ 12:30. Filed under MMSD - The Crap People.

    Among the tips offered by MMSD, The Crappy Water People™, with the 2nd “100-year” rain of the year:

    – Don’t wash your clothes
    – Don’t leave the water running when brushing your teeth
    – Don’t flush your toilet

    Apparently, enough people took that advice; so far, MMSD hasn’t reported any dumpings. Of course, it hasn’t rained 2 inches yet, and we’re looking at solid rain for the next week.

    May 8, 2006

    The veil on Feingold’s “Retreat and Defeat” strategy is lifting

    by @ 22:48. Filed under Politics - National, Politics - Wisconsin, War on Terror.

    From an AP piece on Russ el-Slimeroad’s (Moonbat-Al Qaeda) urging his fellow ‘Rats to strengthen their attacks on President Bush:

    “I believe the situation would probably get better” if U.S. troops left, he said. “The lesson of insurgency is when the occupying power leaves, it tends to lessen, rather than increase, the level of violence.”

    Tell that to the Cambodians killed by Pol Pot after he gained power. Tell that to the Cubans still suffering under Fidel Castro. Tell that to the Vietnamese in the southern part of the country. Heck, tell that to the various ethnic groups in the Balkans. See what they’ll tell you about that.

    When the insurgency is driven by the desire to kill everyone not 110% like them, the level of violence doesn’t drop when the US cuts and runs. It doesn’t drop even the moment the insurgents gain power. Indeed, it actually increases after the insurgents gain power as they are free to fully-implement their mass-murderous desires. Only after the bulk of the people they want to kill are dead does the level of violence drop, and then it doesn’t actually stop until after the insurgents are replaced by a group not bent on total revenge.

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