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.
The vote totals from yesterday’s election:
Should city ordinances be changed to allow the city clerk position to be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the Common Council?
No: 956
Yes: 490Should city ordinances be changed to allow the city treasurer position to be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the Common Council?
No: 955
Yes: 492
Good work, voters.
Since I’m a day late with the gradebook, it’s a good thing a lot of people took notes, like Mary Katharine Ham (who did the debate in lolDebatez format) Matt Lewis, Vodkapundit, and Huckleberry Dumbell, to back up my own PG-13-rated notes (rated such for language). Let’s break out the red pen and start grading both the candidates and the moderators:
Maria Bartiromo – B – She had the benefit of having Chris Matthews as the co-host, and most of her questions were decent economic ones.
Sam Brownback – B – The good: Flat tax, drill’em oil policy, no tax increases, focus on the family. The bad: electric cars (batteries do not work too well at zero degrees and colder, and it’s not a Wisconsin or Michigan winter without a few sub-zero nights), lack of stage presence, like of Greenspan, flat tax plan “optional”.
Rudy Giuliani – B – The good: Once again laid the smackdown on Ron Paul (though I would’ve dipped back to 12/7 instead of 9/11), seems to have turned over a new leaf from his ’80s witchhunt of Wall Street, good stage presence, sense of history (he actually dipped back before 9/11 for once). The bad: Wrong side of line-item veto (to be fair, I don’t want a President with Wisconsin’s Frankenstein veto), I still can’t get over his ’80s witchhunt of Wall Street.
John Harwood – I, leaning toward F – My semi-drunk notes (I would’ve been racing Vodkapundit, but I had to pace myself because of Drinking Right later last night) only show him asking 2 questions, but both started off with “Wah!”
Mike Huckabee – D+ – The good: He won’t wait for a public opinion poll if inbound nukes are on the way, faith in the American consumer. The bad: Repeating the “end of underground economy” lie vis-a-vis the “Fair”Tax, predicting a union comeback, supporting corn-a-hole, willing to spend billions just to deny the ‘Rats a political win (and giving them the actual win instead).
Duncan Hunter – C – The good: Understands we’re in a trade war, and that the Pubbies need to be more “human”. The bad: He’s turned into a one-note pony, blind support for the “Fair”Tax.
Chris Matthews – F – Once again, Prissy Chrissy proved the truth behind the ancient Egyptian fable of the scorpion and the horse. It was at the 45-minute mark, right after the first set of commercials, he plunged his stinger into the debate.
John McCain – C- – The good: Once again the most-quoted by his opponents, against compuslory union membership, command of history, won’t make the mistake of McShame-Slimeroad Lieberal Protection Act with the Internet, earmark-hater The bad: Big-government lover, way out of his league on economic issues, bad stumbler (and that doesn’t count the problems hearing a couple of questions), egotistical.
Ron Paul – F – The good (yes, there is a good here): dislike of subsidies. The bad: Utter stupidity with regard to foreign relations, brain-dead on history, latent goldbug, dislike of subsidies seems more pro-forma than an actual core belief.
Mitt Romney – B- – The good: “(S)moother than a smoothie smoothed over with fine-grit sandpaper” (shamelessly stolen from Vodkapundit), says most of the right things. The bad: The record doesn’t support the rhetoric, support for farm subsidies while also supporting corn-a-hole, support for HiliaryCare Lite (i.e. TaxachusettsCare).
Jeffrey Seib – B+ – Two of the three questions he posed were very good ones. He got the corn-a-hole monster out on the table (promptly flubbed by both candidates it was posed to).
Tom Tancredo – C- – The good: The only candidate to recognize that the 3,000-lb hippo in the government part of the economic room is SocSecurity and Medicare, and the 3,000-lb hippo in the trade half is imported oil, won’t raise taxes. The bad: Somehow ties everything back to illegal immigration (stretching too far sometimes), gratuitous cheap shot at Brownback’s mother (which knocked the grade down a full grade).
Fred Thompson – B – The good: Avoided the Prissy Landmines with aplomb, said that unionizing ballots should remain secret ballots, generally got stronger as the debate went on. The bad: Slow start, fumbled the one “specifics” question from Bartiromo.
I still have a vote to cast, and my feet to remove from my mouth (don’t ask until I’m good and drunk), so I’ll be a wee bit late to Drinking Right, and my post-debate react will have to wait until tomorrow.
Sorry about that.
That 800-lb gorilla would be Pajamas Media. Now, who thought that I was worthy of a link from there? Thank you.
The fun starts in just over an hour from Dearborn, Michigan, on CNBC. As usual, there will be a heap of paraphrasing (I’m not the fastest keyboardist around), with the questions in italics and my own comments in parentheses. The updates will be on the 24-hour clock, set to Central Daylight Time (after all, that’s where I am). I’ll probably insult supporters of every candidate before it’s over, and you can guarantee I’ll take gratuitous shots at Prissy Chrissy Matthews, so be forewarned.
Semi-confirmed fellow live-bloggers (H/T – Sister Toldjah):
– Right Wing News
– TownHall (dunno exactly who has this duty just yet)
– HotAir (it’s AP as of 14:41; I still expect Michelle to live-blog from her site)
– Free Republic (live thread up and finally noticed by me at 14:17)
I’m settling in for the last hour of a tape-delayed Rush.
14:21 – CNBC.com will be streaming live for those of you without access to CNBC on your TVs (I’ll change the link to the live feed if I remember).
14:39 – Today’s lineup:
Sam Brownback
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Fred Thompson
Asking the questions: Maria Bartiromo and the aforementioned Prissy (I’ve got my gas mask and all the sources of ignition are under control, so rip away, Seditionous One).
14:57 – Live link to CNBC’s coverage
15:00 – And we’re LIVE! John Harwood and Jeffrey Seib (sp?)
15:01 – Maria to Thompson – Are we headed to a recession? – Nope. Listing the tax cuts, low inflation, low interests, mentions the stock market (new record for the Dow Industrials and S&P 500). “We’re spending money we do not have…. That has to do with our mandatory spending.” But, but, but 2/3rds say we’re in a recession or heading there – There hasn’t been enough done to tell the story.
15:03 – To Romney – Whose job is it to fix unemployment? – Everyone’s. It’s a uniquely-Michigan problem “The President has to say to the auto industry the door is always open.” Hits on the Detroit public schools graduation rate (22%), smacks Gov. Jennifer Granholm for raising taxes instead of cutting it.
15:05 – Prissy to Giuliani – Is there a downside to private equity markets? – Praises the free markets (hmm, that’s a switch from the ’80s). The fundamentals are keep taxes low, regulations moderate, spending under control, and tame the legal system.
Neocon News has joined us (at least if he gets the database fixed).
Giuliani and Matthews want Torre to stay with the Yankees.
15:07 – To Paul – Wah, we’re in a recession because of the monetary system. STFU, goldbug, you’re about a century off.
Matt Lewis drew the short straw at TownHall
15:09 – Maria to McCain – Is the tax code fair? – “We’re losing industrial jobs and not taking care of those left behind.” SocSecurity and Medicare are going broke. Hammers pork-barrel spending. Maria pounds the question again, and McCain gaffed. First said it was fair, then said we need to fix it.
15:11 – Chrissy to Huckabee – Will the FairTax kill spending? – Nothing will kill American spending. It will untax exports, end the underground economy (Bravo Foxtrot Sierra). For a lot of Americans, the economy is not doing well.
15:13 – To Hunter – “I’m a sponsor of the FairTax” (DAMMIT!) Hammering the loss of manufacturing capability to Red China.
Jonathan Martin at The Politico is also live-blogging.
15:15 – Chrissy to Thompson – Respond to the charge of Free vs Fair Trade – Points out that the Red Chinese have devalued their currency to maintain their edge, but free trade is still best.
15:16 – Maria to Brownback – No new taxes? – “We don’t need to raise taxes. Pushing an optional flat tax (why just optional, Sam?). Hammers on spending. Name a program you’d cut – Advanced Technology Program, corporate welfare. It’s tough to cut.
15:18 – Same to Tancredo – Absolutely. Cutting earmarks aren’t the end-all/be-all to balancing the budget. It’s ‘mandatory’ spending; you could cut the entire discretionary spending and not balance the budget. You need to address Social Security, privatize it or forget about ending deficit spending.
15:20 – Chrissy to Giuliani – Differenciate yourself on taxes. – “I’ve cut taxes 23 times” (what about fees, Rudi?).
To Romney – “I did so too…. If you’re going to cut taxes, you’re going to have to cut spending.” Notes Giuliani fought to kill the fed line-item veto (I need to verify this).
To Rudy – “Spending went up by 8% under Romney, down 7% under me.” Line-item WAS unconstitutional (BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!)
CATFIGHT!!!! Romney trots out different spending numbers from Club for Growth showing Giuliani raised spending more.
Mary Katharine introduces LOLdebatez
Giuliani still fighting against S(l)ick Willie.
15:24 – FINALLY to somebody else – John Harwood to Thompson – Wah; those losing creme manufacturing jobs can’t replace their income with no new education. Defend – Growth is good, and we should figure out how to get America back to manufacturing parity. We have the 2nd-highest corporate tax, and try to fix devaluation.
15:26 – To Hunter – Hammering Red China again.
15:26 – Chrissy to McCain – Will we ever go back to industrial dominance again? – Nope. Points out there’s a lot of costs, including health care, holding Americans back. Faith in government’s broken. More spending to make up the difference (WTF?)
15:28 – To Tancredo – “Government’s broken thanks to the Senator’s support for illegal immigration.”
15:29 – Seib to Romney – Do you believe in trade? – Yes, but I believe in two-way trade. We have to protect intellectual property. The ChiComs have to start floating their currency and not ripping off our patents. Pandering to Michigan.
Giuliani isn’t looking well.
15:31 – Maria to Giuliani – Wah, the Islamokazis couldn’t take over our ports and the ChiComs couldn’t take over Unocal. P-p-please tell me you’re for free trade. – In 3 of 4 deals, we would have been exporting more. There’s economic protection, and there’s security protection. Let’s get back our entrepenurial spirit. Should Dubai own 20% of NASDAQ? Yes. Protectionism caused the Great Depression.
Question down the line — Paul – Yes, there’s no security concern.
Huckabee – Dodged.
McCain – Yes, if they pass the security requirements. Protectionism caused WWII.
Romney – Yes.
We can compete and win, but we need to make sure the agreement is for our benefit.
Thompson – Yes, points that NASDAQ would get 30% of the Dubai company. (If memory serves, Thompson pushed the Dubai ports deal).
Hunter – No, I don’t trust them. Dubai was involved in trying to move nuclear triggers to Pakistan. Mirror-trade; if you want to stick 15% tarrifs on our goods, we’ll do it to you. If you stick 1%, we’ll do that to you too.
Brownback – Yes. I did trade, and the Pubbies need to stay the party of free trade.
Tancredo – No. If they wanted WalMart, maybe. Points out that the ChiComs are waging economic war on the US.
15:39 – Prissy to Thompson – Wah, we tax-and-spenders need the Alternative Minimum Tax money, even if it targets 20 million. Bravo Sierra. Points out lower taxes and lower tax rates grow the economy. It should be phased out, but in the interim, at least index it.
15:41 – BREAK!
15:45 – Prissy to Thompson – P-p-p-please say Booosh lied, Iraqis died. – Bugger off, Prissy. We made mistakes before, but now we’ve got a good strategery. Islamokazis are THE threat because “they play by no rules and are intent on bringing down Western Civilization and America.”
15:46 – Maria to McCain – What would you have said after 9/11? – Consider volunteering SOMEWHERE! I said Iraq was failing 4 years ago, but I thank the American people for giving us a window to allow it to work.
15:47 – Prissy to Paul-nut – Would we have gone to war if not for the oil? – Not necessarily. It’s a mistake. (Would you rather have allowed Saddamite to run over Saudi just to play RealPolitik?) Oh, go join the DhimmiRATS already.
15:48 – Same question to Brownback – “We saw in Iraq what we thought was a mixture of terrorism and WMDs.” We haven’t found the WMDs (hint; look in Syria, where the Israelis bombed last month). Pushing the 3-state solution.
15:50 – Prissy to Thompson – When did the WMDs leave? – “He had them prior. He used them against his own people…. He had designs on restarting his nuclear program.” If they were left to their own devices, Saddam and Sons would still be attacking their neighbors and developing WMDs.
15:52 – Prissy to Romney – Would you need to go to Congress to go after Iran? – You’d double-check with your attorneys. Bush got the approval of Congress to go into Iraq. Did he need it? Let the lawyers decide that. It was outrageous for the UN and Columbia University to invite him.
Around the table with the question — Hunter – Depends on the timing. If it’s a very narrow window to take out the target, no. If he has time, he should go to Congress for approval.
Paul – Absolutely. “We’ve never had (an imminent attack on us) in 220 years” (what the fuck do you call Pearl Harbor, you dumbfuck?)
Huckabee – If it’s actionable now, nope. You do what’s best for the American people and suffer the consequences later. You never let the American people get hit with nukes.
McCain – If it’s immediate, nope. If it’s a long-term buildup, go to Congress, at least the leaders.
Thompson – McCain has it right. There is a conflict in the War Powers Act between the President and Congress. In any close call, you should go to Congress whether it’s legally-required or not.
To Giuliani (Prissy now brings out that Hiliary brought forth legislation to do just that) – What do you call 9/11, Toofer? We have to be willing to use military force to bring Iran’s nuclear program to a halt.
16:00 – Maria to Giuliani – Something on oil and energy independence? – Goes back to the earlier Iraq/oil question. Have to do everything we can to get energy-independent (didn’t hear drill). Would you include drilling off California? Nothing’s off the table, going to nuclear power.
To Brownback – Drill off Florida? – Dodge by saying we should be energy-‘sufficient’ in 15 years. Pushes electric cars (that’ll fly REAL well in January in Detroit; you hear of zero degrees?) Pushing on drilling – Yes, with environmentally sound practice.
To Tancredo – Same – The biggest chunk of our trade deficit is oil, which goes to those that want us dead, so let’s drill, baby.
16:04 – Harwood to McCain – Wah, I don’t think Big Oil’s paying enough taxes – Avoids that, I wouldn’t drill unless the locals want it. McShame is a Gorebal “Warming” disciple (BOOO!!!!!!)
16:06 – Seib to Huckabee – Does corn-a-hole make economic sense? – It’s part of the plan, even if it doesn’t now. (BRAVO FOXTROT SIERRA!)
16:08 – Same to Thompson – Apologizes to Goober. See Huckabee’s answer (BRAVO FOXTROT SIERRA! Oh, Sean, methinks you need to talk to the boss).
16:10 – Maria to Romney – Will gubmint need to bail out farmers again? – Oh, hell yeah. (BRAVO FOXTROT SIERRA! We can’t be both the breadbasket and play with our food in the gas tanks)
16:11 – Prissy to the group – How do you get the economy issue back) — Paul – We need to be goldbug isolationists. At least he doesn’t like subsidies.
Huckabee – It’s a message issue, and we need to reform taxes.
McCain – Restore trust after failures in Katrina, Iraq and spending. Stop spending like DhimmiRATs.
Romney – By being confident (take that McShame and Paul-nut). Oh, and bring it, Hiliary!
Thompson – Tell the truth that security, economy are on the line. Spend more than 4% of GDP on defense. Accept responsibility, and help people help themselves.
Giuliani – Energy independence, and sell it to Red China and India. Brings up the Hitlery KinderBond and the new Hitlery 401(k).
Hunter – Hammer on the trade deficit, kill the bad trade deals.
Brownback – Optional flat tax (why optional, Sam?). Points out that 40% of the world’s R&D spending is here.
Tancredo – Kill illegal immigration. Stop pandering to special interests.
16:18 – BREAK!
Michelle’s sleeping through this one (her loss), but she points to a few more live-bloggers:
– Vodkapundit
– John Henke at Thompson’s site
– The News Junkie
– Blogging For Michigan
Welcome Pajamas Media readers.
16:22 – Maria to Thompson – Describe the specifics of your touching the third rail of SocSecurity – We need a growing economy, with low taxes and lower discretionary spending, we need to allow some privativization, and we need to index benefits to inflation instead of wages. The last is only a stopgap. (Specifics? What specifics?)
16:24 – Tancredo – “The worst thing I did was vote for FastTrack.”
16:26 – Seib to Romney – P-p-p-please endorse HitleryCare – I want HitleryCare Lite like I foisted upon Taxachusetts. Health care is a Pubbie issue and a ‘Rat fundraising issue.
16:28 – Prissy to the group – Defend unions — Paul – Don’t deny the right to organize, but don’t give them special rights.
Huckabee – I see unions coming back because of the pay inequities (who wrote that one, Hitlery or Karl Marx?)
McCain – They were good once, but there should never be compulsory union membership.
Romney – There’s some good and bad. Can you name the good? Names the carpenters’ union. I won’t name the bad ones (because he doesn’t want to get whacked).
Thompson – I’m a union member, but there shouldn’t be compuslory union membership and the vote should be secret.
Giuliani – Unions got my grandma out of poverty. Sing the Union Label song, Rudy. I’ll pass. There are bad unions as well, and McCain’s right.
Hunter – The steelworkers’ union is a good one.
Brownback – They have been good to my postal-office mother. There are some abuses, and the government has to ensure effective oversight.
Tancredo – Whacks Brownback’s mother. Conflict between unions and management is usually a good thing, but they go off the rails when they go into politics.
16:34 – Maria to McCain – Do you agree that Ford and GM need to produce better products rather than look for bailouts? McCain missed the question the first time. Can you hear me now? Yes, and they have to do it on their own. It’s the job of the feds to create the climate that they can succeed in. Flop back on corn-a-hole, now against it again (HUZZAH!).
16:36 – Maria to Thompson – Should the gubmint step in to stop a pending strike against Chrysler? – Not now because it’s not a national security concern. Not even if they say they’re at a disadvantage? They’re at a disadvantage now, so….
16:38 – Prissy to Giuliani – How do you police the Net? – We should police the ‘Net against child predators, working with the states and locals. Do we need the FCC on the Net? – If what we have doesn’t get a handle on it,… but I’m not big on that.
16:39 – Same to McCain – HELL NO! (funny, you created the current FCC monster).
16:40 – BREAK!
16:43 – Lightning round from Prissy. To Huckabee – Would you have sunk the SCHIP? – The issue wasn’t about children, it was about political posturing. Bush lost the battle. I dunno if I would have vetoed it. (Principles, Mikey)
16:45 – Maria to Romney – How would you change the feelings of Arab-Americans that they’re being shunted? – We welcome people of all backgrounds and faiths.
Maria to Thompson – The dangers of the weak dollar. – The weak dollar helps our exports, but we need to have a strong dollar.
Prissy to Giuliani – How do you handle foreign-held debt? – Trade.
Prissy to Brownback – Who do you trust on economic issues? – Phil Gramm, Alan Greenspan.
Maria to McCain – Has Bernanke cut interest rates enough? – I don’t know, but that’s why he’s there.
Prissy to Paul – Will you support the Pubbie nominee? – Nope unless they run on the Hitlery platform.
To Tancredo – Same – I don’t want to do the “lesser of 2 evils” again.
To Brownback – Same – Yep.
To Hunter – Same – Yep, but I’m going to impress my views on him.
Maria to Giuliani – Will London replace NYC as the financial capital of the world? – HELL NO!
Follow-up on SarBox – Avoids by saying the world’s lowering corporate taxes, but the ‘Rats want to raise it?
To Romney – Same – Nope on London, let’s fix SarBox, and I’ll support the Pubbie nominee.
Thompson – “And to thought I would be the best actor on the stage.”
Prissy to Thompson – Name the Canuck PM, and how would you get along with him? Harper, and we’ll get our act together.
Maria to Huckabee – How do you fix air traffic, and how do you pay for it? – Upgrade the ground equipment, and tell the airlines to stop holding the passengers hostage.
Prissy to McCain – How would you catch bin Laden? – Reconstitute the OSS, and give them cart blanche. Oh, I’ll support me.
Maria to Romney – What is the greatest long-term threat to the economy? – America has to realize that optimism conquers all. We are the envy of the world.
Same to Brownback – Breakdown of the family. Greatest economic threat? Yes.
Prissy to Giuliani – Third-party? – We’ve had them before, but the two-party system is best. Refering to the last question, it’s education. Takes a swipe at HitleryCare, saying that if we adopt it, the Canucks would have nowhere to go for better care.
Maria to Thompson – Did you wait too long? – Nope, it’s just about right.
AND WE’RE OUT!
For some reason, my feed reader didn’t catch Huckleberry Dumbbell’s live-blog. Sorry about that.
Fred Thompson will finally start participating in debates later today (I’ll be here putting up with Chrissy Matthews at 3), so Mary Katharine Ham offered up some good pointers. The last is the biggest one that I feel Thompson needs to work on; then again, I’m not exactly impressed by flash and fluff.
Those looking for alternatives to the anti-Christian/pro-Mexican Invasion Miller brand of beers just had their choices cut. The AP is reporting that SABMiller PLC and Molson Coors Brewing are combining their American operations.
That gives new meaning to Blue Moon Beer, which also has been ejected from the cooler.
Once again, I’m only dipping a bit south of the Root River, and Stu doesn’t post much, but when he does, Ravings From A Right Wing Wacko is one hellova read.
Well, Fred, Sean, Kevin and I can’t have all the fun. Usual time (7 pm), usual place (Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee). Be there or be nowhere.
If you’re in Oak Creek, like me, there is an election today. The mayor and city administrator want to turn the city clerk and city treasurer from elected to appointed positions, and already managed to get the Common Council to agree. Fortunately for us taxpayers, they had to do it via the Charter Ordinance route, and enough of us signed petitions to force this to a referendum:
– Shall Charter Ordinance No. 12, which provides that the method of selection of the City Clerk be by appointment by the Mayor, subject to cofirmation by a majority of the members of the Common Council, be enacted?
– Shall Charter Ordinance No. 13, which provides that the method of selection of the City Treasurer be by appointment by the Mayor, subject to confirmation by a majority of the members of the Common Council, be enacted?
I recommend NO votes on both questions. The current system has served this city very well for the last 52 years. If the positions become appointments, the pay required to attract “qualified” candidates will increase substantially for no appreciable benefit.
With Bad Behavior behaving badly, I disabled it. Unfortunately, it also invited in some spammy comments, and my suite of anti-spam software does not fully-work with the default link structure. I’ve now adopted a “pretty permalink” structure.
Don’t worry; you do not have to go back through your archives to fix links to old posts. WordPress is still smart enough to recognize the /?p=x links and get them to the right page.
I guess hiding in the belly of the gubmint beast kept me alive another week (it also had a very nice side benefit; meeting the way-out-of-my-league Mary Katharine Ham), but it kept me from figuring out just how many torpedo/shell/bomb holes the USS Egg has in it. No time for that now as we steam into the mine field known as Week 5, once again using the slightly-whacked Bodog.com lines via Vegas Insider:
Chicago @ Green Bay (-3.5) – Brian Urlacher nailed it – “We stink right now.”
Detroit (+3.5) @ Washington – Counter-contra stat of the day – Detroit is 0-17 in DC.
Carolina (+3.5) @ New Orleans – Deja vu all over again; the 1996 Aints started off 0-4.
Jacksonville (-2) @ Kansas City – Make sure that cup is on; this one’s going to hurt just watching it.
Atlanta (+8.5) @ Tennessee – Too much lumber, though the Tennesseeans aren’t missing the arcade one bit.
Miami @ Houston (-6) – 5, 6, it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t take the Deadfins until the line moves into AC voltage territory.
Seattle (+6.5) @ Pittsburgh – The FAA has issued a severe turbulence advisory over Heinz Field for all the collisions that will take place. Take the under-41.
Cleveland @ New England (-17) – We all know what happened the third time Neo met Smith.
Arizona (-4) @ St. Louis – Two quarterbacks are better than none.
New York Jets “@” New York Giants (-4) – I also talked to Jimmy Hoffa this week, and he said take the G-men.
Tampa Bay @ Indianapolis (-10) – There’s no Cadillac, so jump on this gift from the bookies. To thank them by taking even more of their money, take the over-45.5.
San Diego @ Denver (+1) – This game’s in Denver, right? Shanahan has a piss-pot full of running backs, right? So why are the voltless Bolts favored?
Baltimore (-3.5) @ San Francisco – Nothing like fresh meat in at QB to cure defensive woes.
Dallas (-11) @ Buffalo – It’s not supposed to snow in Buffalo, and Leon Lett’s been retired for umpteen years.
(H/T – Ian Schwartz)
Brit Hume ran down the number of staffers the Big Seven (Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, Romney and Thompson) have in New Hampshire. Those numbers ought to tell you absolutely, positively everything you need to know about what they believe the size of government should be.
On a related note, while I won’t be updating the fundraising post that’s currently buried somewhere below until the FEC numbers come out (because there’s been too many all-but-official numbers released between Thursday and Friday), it will be very interesting to see the “burn rate”, how fast the campaigns are going through their stash. That’s something that Kevin told us to watch on Thursday. If the massive size of the Rats’ staffs in New Hampshire are any indication, they need every penny of their fundraising advantage just to keep those that hope to be suckling off the gubmint trough less than 16 months from now happy.
I’m late to this party (I never dumped the WTMJ feeds onto the laptop, had issues with my e-mail most of the day Friday, and didn’t want to bury the DAD stuff), but Charlie found out that Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) or one of his political minions obtained the names of those who received a Wisconsin Higher Education Grant for the 2006-07 school year but were “wait-listed” for the 2007-08 school year in apparent violation of federal privacy laws, and then instructed Michelle Curtis, associate director of Student Financial Services at UW, to send out a blast e-mail to invite them to a Craps dog-and-pony show on the WHEG. Jessica McBride, who works in the UW system at UWM, points out that it is further a violation of state law for a UW employee to engage in political activities while at work, and points to a UW memo that states the prohibition includes use of campus e-mail and equipment.
One tidbit I can add thanks to my presence in DC; that federal law is so restrictive, Vicki McKenna was told by somebody back at WIBA that the e-mail addresses of those who received this coercive e-mail would not be obtainable through an open records request.
First things first, my many thanks to Mark Block, Fred Dooley, Erik Telford, and Americans for Prosperity for this opportunity. I can now tick off a couple more items on my “must do” list. Now that I’ve done that, and gathered as much reax as I could find, it’s time to try to put my thoughts in some semblance of order, and take the long view.
It is a big shame that Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson didn’t make themselves available to the bloggers and the press, and not just because we never got sound up on Bloggers’/Press Row. I wanted to see those two, especially Thompson, operate outside the safety net of a prepared speech and expected questions. To a lesser extent, I have the same complaint about Mitt Romney, though by that time, all the “real” media and almost all the bloggers had departed the Row. While Steve (no, NOT me), Fred and Leslie would’ve put up good questions, I know I wouldn’t have. While John McCain also was not available to the bloggers/media, that was more of a question of logistics (there was no place for Bloggers’/Media Row in the Hart Building).
Speaking of those questions, while the press dominated the Q&As with Ron Paul, Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee, the bloggers brave enough to ask questions (see above) did come up with some land mines. Paul definitely detonated one with Fred’s question (the 9th and last one).
The biggest limitation was that lack of audio up in Bloggers’ Row. Part of it was the fact that we had radio shows broadcasting live from the room all day (that’s the source of all the extraneous noise on my audio from Paul, Brownback and Huckabee), though it was never fixed or fixable. About the time I would catch up on blogging, I found myself too late for the afternoon session going on at that point. I made it worse by perpetuating the vicious cycle because the Wi-Fi didn’t make it all the way up to the room and the Mayflower charges an arm and a leg for wired access.
I mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again; if anybody has extended audio/video from the main hall or the afternoon sessions (yes, I know all about the Defending the Dream YouTube channel), I would like it.
Enough gripes; on to the candidates. Giuliani does indeed know his audience, and knows how to destroy the clock (I’ll get back to that). Paul is a 69-percenter (and that’s on the college 70%-to-pass scale); there’s a lot that I can relate to, yet the big negatives are completely insurmountable. Brownback doesn’t quite light my fire, though his prop of choice was great. Huckabee doesn’t know the first thing about federalism, and he’s too wedded to a national sales tax. Thompson would be a runaway in an earlier time (say, 1988 or perhaps as late as 1992), but he has some baggage. If I could ignore Romney’s past (especially on health care), I could warm up to him; unfortunately, I can’t.
On to the BIG controversy, at least for the Paul-nuts – the “silencing” of their man. That’s one of the reasons why I want the extended audio/video; I want to accurately time how long everybody got. I do know that all of the candidates ran over, and that Giuliani, who went first, went over the longest.
Mitigating that is the fact that the “minor” 3 all spent time with us bloggers and the media, while the “big” 4 (including McCain) did not. Even before one adds in the 3 stations that Paul did interviews on, he got better than 20 minutes of microphone time. I wish I had been better with the mike, but I’m still learning with that new piece of equipment as I picked it up earlier in the week and didn’t have a chance to find out its limitations.
Even with the problems in Bloggers’ Row, that was a blast. I got to meet a bunch of great people, some all-too-briefly, see some pros at work (no, I’m not talking about the press in the center of the room), and find out how at least some of the candidates handle less-than-scripted questions. If I weren’t so quiet,….
Other than missing the “working” sessions (note to self; pay for the ‘Net in the room next time so you don’t burn the “working” sessions catching up on blogging), it was simply an awesome time. Fred and I even got in some sightseeing on a foggy Saturday. Saturday, though he headed back to the hotel early. I will say that 1 hour in the Air and Space Museum is not nearly enough. Those pics will be up tomorrow.
I’m back home in south suburban Milwaukee, where it is just as hot and humid as it was in DC, but where it gets lighter earlier, and the beer is less-expensive. The laptop is back on charge after offloading all the pics and audio to the desktop, so it’s time to dig up some reax from the rest of Bloggers’ Row (and probably others in my quick search for reax) before I have my own:
– Let’s start off with my roomie Fred (Dooley, not Thompson). There’s too many posts there to link to them all, so just start reading. Oh, and the Unreal One is VERY lucky that The Hammer is a good sport.
– Mary Katharine Ham had a bunch of reax. First, she wasn’t exactly impressed by Thompson (tempered a bit later in the HotAir thread on that). Next, she raised the ire of the Paulnuts by pointing out that while Ron Paul got Gong-showed off the stage after 10 minutes, he spent forever and a half on Bloggers’/Media Row. Finally, she highlights Mike Huckabee’s defense of a smoking ban in Bloggers’/Media Row.
– Jim Geraghty, who had the benefit of being in the “overflow” section and thus had audio, panned Sam Brownback and got the quote of the day from Michael Steele, ripped Huckabee for the FairTax, and was impressed by Thompson both on the main stage and in front of the Virginia contingent, with plenty of quotes from both appearances (hmmm, one would think that he’s a FredHead ;-)
– Steve from Dry Fly Politics ran with a massive live-blog, including getting Mark Block in a cheesehead. He got questions in on the Row, so he wins the “Questioner of the Day” award. He’s officially a Romney man, so it’s no surprise that his take of the Romney speech reflects that.
– Jo Egelhoff wisely left her perch immediately to my right when she found out that audio from the main stage would not be forthcoming and picked up several snippets, including a focus on Vicki McKenna.
– Bruce from Gay Patriot, who got the almost-ultimate seat between the Hammer and Fausta Wertz, started off hustling between the Row and the main room, came back in time to take some stills of Paul and Brownback on the Row, and poor-audio-quality video of Huckabee (I will point out that the room was VERY noisy at that point; so noisy that most of MKH’s video appears to not be of good-enough quality for public consumption). He wraps it up with a wrap-up, which includes an ironic group that was up the hall from us.
– Matt Lewis had the view from the Green Room, and didn’t like Thompson. Scary thing is, he linked to the TownHall version of NRE, and since I pulled SiteMeter (TH’s counter of choice), and I deep-linked to my audio files, I don’t know how many went there from him.
– Matthew of Right Angle Blog noted Rudy Giuliani was channeling French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and lamented the fact that Paul always manages to piss him off while taking a shot at the presstitutes (Matthew had a better angle to see their nose-picking ways).
– Brendan Steinhauser, who will eventually have video up, noted that there was a lot of energy, and Thompson didn’t match it.
– Fausta Wertz (how I missed meeting her I’ll never know, or is it just my memory failing me?) takes some serious whacks at Paul Krugman with the rest of us at the summit as the bats.
– David Weigel found that the most-positive people in the crowd, at least in the day session, were Paul-nuts.
– SWAC Girl made a long drive, but got there in time to cover the White House briefing (Fred was scheduled, but due to a delay in check-in, he was unable to make it). She was impressed by Giuliani and Romney, and less-than-thrilled with Thompson.
– Rob Port grabbed his camera and had the pic of the day (you can go and click for it; I won’t spoil the surprise), and noted that McCain was a bit tired. He put up so many posts about Day 2 that I’ll just say look for the stuff with the “Defending the American Dream Summit” title.
– Added 7:45 am 10/7/2007 –
– Jawa Ragnar Danneskjold was somewhere in the fold, and was happy with Giuliani and Thopmson, as well as most of the fiscal portion of Paul’s speech, and was less-than-impressed with Brownback and Huckabee.
– enamored by Giuliani, and not so much by Thompson.
– Chief of Freedom Dogs got a connection in the main room and live-blogged from there.
If I missed anybody, pipe up, please. I’m especially looking for “independent” audio/video from the main room for the day sessions (they never did get the audio into Bloggers’ Row).
Thanks, Steve, for letting me liveblog the Americans for Prosperity “Defending the Dream” conference with you here on NRE.
It was great to meet you, Fred from Real Debate Wisconsin, Jo from Fox Politics, Jim from NRO’s Campaign Spot, Bruce from The Gay Patriot, Jason from Citizen Watchdogs, and many more.
If you–or any other Wisconsin bloggers, of any political persuasion–would like to drop by our office in Madison and get some hand’s on coaching on how to file an open records request, just shoot us an email.
I’m on one of the “rented” laptops since mine is upstairs, so I won’t have audio for you until probably tomorrow, and long after AFP has it up on their YouTube channel, but Fred (Dooley, not Thompson) had the same reaction. Still can’t necessarily say I would vote for him, but his stock definitely went up in my book.
Revisions/extensions (6:22 pm 10/6/2007) – My crappy audio (from the far corner of the room, which made my decision to not try to shoot video a good one) is here, while AFP’s video has long since been up (part 1/part 2).
My friend Paul Jacob is here at the AFP Summit, doing interviews with reporters. The Free Paul Jacob website is central intelligence on this story–it’ll be around for a year or more as Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson tries to put Paul behind bars for 10 years.
See also Free Paul Jacob on Ballotpedia, and an article about the Oklahoma 3.
Wisconsin doesn’t have the right of citizen initiative as a state (although we do have the right of recall), but it is the source of the Frami v Ponto decision from federal judge Barbara Crabb in 2003, where she ruled against an attempt by Wisconsin election officials to kick a candidate off the ballot because some of his signatures were collected by out-of-state petitioners. She said the law was an unconstitutional abridgement of the free speech rights of both the petition circulator and the candidate.
Doc has moved The Autopsy off of Blogger and onto WordPress.com. While heading to the old address in your browser will get you to the new place, your feeds won’t change automatically. Please make sure you change them.
AFP has their channel up, and Mary Katharine crashed Fred’s appearance before the Virginia delegation. There will almost certainly be more out there.
The Bloggers’ Row quality is not particularily good because there was simply so much noise. With that bit of warning, here’s some audio:
– John McCain’s speech Thursday night
– Jim DeMint’s speech Thursday night
– Ron Paul’s appearance before Bloggers’/Media Row
– Sam Brownback’s and Mike Huckabee’s appearances before Bloggers’/Media Row (sorry about the combining, Huckabee came up right after Brownback, so I didn’t have time to stop recording.
Nan, a new blogger at the Freedom Works blog and I are sitting here, getting ready to blog-interview Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity.
Nan is adorable and young but I’ll try to be nice to her anyway.
ME: Phil, tell us about your priorities at AFP.
PHIL: At the federal level, our majority priority is to win this fight against the disgraceful earmarks we’ve been fighting for several years, and address institutional issues such as taxpayer-funded lobbying.
NAN: What do you mean by taxpayer-funded lobbying?
PHIL: Well, the forces of big government often use our own tax dollars to hire lobbyists to lobby for higher taxes and higher spending. We’ve seen an explosion in recent years of local governments hiring lobbyists to go to state capitols and Washington, DC, to lobby for higher taxes and spending. As taxpayers, we’re paying them to work against our interests and for higher government. Most taxpayers don’t even know that’s what’s going on.
ME: How does AFP plan to promote awareness of this issue?
PHIL: In March 2007, we did a public relations campaign around the time of the NCAA basketball tournament. We highlighted the fact that lobbyists for public universities could provide free tickets to the basketball tournament, free roundtrip airfare and other goodies to legislators. The University of Florida has a president’s box that provides deluxe seating and treatment to legislators. [The university] claims that because they don’t charge for these tickets, they actually have no value.
The great thing about AFP is that we already have hundreds of thousands of people that we have already trained to be activists, so when we work on an issue like this, and can get the facts and information to them, they are ready to engage with the issue at the state and federal level.
NAN: What has your role been in this event?
PHIL: I helped book speakers–Giuliani and McCain–and I’m moderating the 4:00 panel on policy issues.
ME: Well, then, Phil, are you actually having any fun and if so, please tell us about that.
PHIL: Oh, I’m having a ball. I love seeing the ordinary people from all over America, the energy in the room this morning, and the real excitement about bedrock issues of fiscal accountability that are often disregarded. I’m just really excited to see it.
Just got back from listening to John Fund, and he’s very good. Stupid me didn’t take the recorder down, so I don’t have any juicy quotes of red meat for you. I’m sure somebody else will have them.
Now, do I go to the entertainment industry seminar or the impact leggies one? The latter features Leah Vukmir from Wauwatosa. There’s also the Students for Prosperty run by Mark Block, but since I’m a bit beyond college years,….
I’m sitting here with “Captain Watchdog”, Jason Moore, a bricklayer and political activist from Odessa, Texas. Let’s hear what Jason has to say about citizen engagement and Americans for Prosperity.
ME: Jason, why are you here?
JASON: It’s time that big government politicians hear from normal people, not government trough junkies.
ME: Tell me a little bit about what you do back in Odessa?
JASON: I mostly watch taxing entities (city councils, school districts, county government) in the Permian Basin–the Odessa/Midland area of west Texas. Our motto is, “We Bark of Behalf on the Taxpayer”. We do a weekly radio show and post regular updates on the Citizen Watchdogs website.
ME: Tell me about your relationship with Americans for Prosperity.
JASON: I could not do what I do without AFP. They introduced me into the political system back when I didn’t know anything or anybody. They showed me by example and helped me find effective ways to communicate with my legislators.
ME: What goals do you have in the coming year?
JASON: To continue to change the language government officials use to communicate with taxpayers. It needs to be more straightforward and simple. Secondly, to educate taxpayers about what the proper role of government is. One of the things I always say is, you can’t demand government do more and more, and expect to pay less and less in taxes.
ME: What’s the most interesting event you’ve attended here at the Summit?
JASON: The rally yesterday on the Capitol Steps was powerful. It put a face on regular taxpayers and it put real bodies in Washington to show Washington politicians we mean business. We’re ramping up, and we’re not going to go away. I think before they relied on the meet, greet and retreat strategy. That’s not going to work again. Fiscal conservatives have to stay in the game. It requires daily vigilance.
Thank you, Jason.
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