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 February, 2008

February 29, 2008

McCain is as confused as I am

by @ 7:52. Filed under Miscellaneous.

about him……

“I’m a proud conservative liberal republic — conservative Republican. Hello, easy there. Let me say this. I am a proud conservative Republican and both of my possible or likely opponents are liberal Democrats.”

See the link here.

February 28, 2008

Roll bloat – Rolling through Technorati again

by @ 20:59. Filed under The Blog.

I really have to roll through Technorati’s “Blog Reactions” more often. I found a couple of blogs that saw fit to add me to their blogrolls, so I best return the favor:

Try 2 Focus
Tundra Politics (side note; I probably wouldn’t have caught this one without Shoebox)

Busted

I love it when a plan comes together. The gang at Gop3 whack the Journtinel’s attempt to do some fishing for a hit piece on Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. First, the initial cast by the Journtinel:

Have county transit changes affected you?
How have you been affected by Milwaukee County Transit System fare increases and service cuts? Please contact Journal Sentinel reporter Larry Sandler at lsandler@journalsentinel.com to let him know, and please include your name and a telephone number where you can be reached.

Next, the definitive answer that won’t be published from Brian Collar:

Larry,

As a student of Marquette I’ve been affected by the bus transit situation. It costs more and more to go to Marquette because the property taxes that landowners have to pay to work and live in Milwaukee that finance an ineffective and costly bus transit situation mean that I can’t have a car without hefty parking fees, whether for Marquette sponsored parking or for landlord sponsored parking. The fact that city and state leaders, with the notable exception of County Executive Scott Walker, keep relying on out-dated systems of transportation means that more money drive (sorry, bad pun intended) less efficient modes of transportation as politicians try to decide for us how to run our lives. Fewer taxes in Milwaukee (and Wisconsin, for that matter) means more opportunity for business and landowners to invest and compete in the near-Marquette community which could provide the very opportunities for less costly parking options that employment-opportunities seeking students like myself need.

I’m sure this won’t make the story your editors were asking for but I thought you might appreciate some input.

Thanks,

Brian Collar

It’s a good thing Scott Walker doesn’t have a birthday tomorrow; next thing you know, the local sorry excuse for a paintcatcher would take a cue from the Gray Lady and say Walker’s too young to be county exec.

Oh, and what’s affecting me is having to pay an outrageous gas tax so that those too lazy to own a car don’t have to feel the full effects of a 50% increase in the cost of fuel (closer to 100% if one uses diesel, like MCTS).

I don’t mind sharing the judging duties

The boss at Hot Air and USA Today both agree that this comment from 29Victor on the New York Times’ hit piece on John McCain’s place of birth (in the Panama Canal Zone to two wed American citizens) is the Comment of the Day™:

Good thing McCain wasn’t born on February 29th, they’d be debating whether or not he is over 35.

29Victor on February 27, 2008 at 11:46 PM

Somebody get the Slimes to stop before they get to their waist, please. They’ve already put all their feet in their mouths and have made it to knee level.

“Hope” is spreading!

by @ 14:34. Filed under Business, Politics - National.

I don’t write on business issues much even though I do follow them pretty closely.   The main reason I don’t write on these issues  is that they tend to be specific to the business or industry and rarely are they a broad or pervasive issue.   However, here’s one that is spreading faster than ants on a picnic….HOPE!

Sears Holdings  (the company that operates both KMart and Sears stores) and Sprint Nextel Corp both reported disastrous financial results from the previous quarter.   Over the past couple of years, both companies have managed to become “Worst in class” in their respective industries.  

Both companies had their analysts calls today.   After a recap of the results of the quarter it is typical for the company management to answer questions from analysts that follow the stock.   As I reviewed the information from the analyst calls I noticed a trend;   both companies have horrible strategies, are executing horribly and have no real specifics for turning their stock plunge around.   In spite of that, both companies hold out HOPE that things will get better, HOPE that they can raise their stock price, HOPE that they can get customers to forget their past experiences with them and buy from them again.

Apparently the “Audacity of HOPE” is not just limited to presidential politics!   I suspect that HOPING for improvement will work about as well for shareholders of Sears Holdings and Sprint Nextel Corp. as it will for those of us that are shareholders in America, if Barack Obama is elected President.

On the “death-wish” crowd comments

by @ 13:31. Filed under Politics.

If you miss the Back of the Book segments Wednesday’s on The O’Reilly Factor (approximately 7:50 pm), you miss a pretty good segment. Last night’s segment (thanks for the DVRing, AP) is no different, as Mary Katharine Ham explained the difference between the Huffington Post and the Nazis to Bill O’Reilly. She expanded upon that today, which leads me to throw in my own two cents’ worth.

Political discussion has never been “civilized” in the main. With the “common folk” able to put their ruminations out there almost-completely unfettered for the whole world to see, with nothing more than access to a library, I doubt it is as “civilized” as it was in the recent past. Heck, I’m as guilty of the cheap shot as the next person. However, there are some lines I try not to cross, like kicking a public figure when he or she is down for health reasons and joining the “death-wish” crowd. That sense of self-control is something lacking, relatively speaking, on the other side of the aisle. I’ll admit there are those on my side of the aisle that harbor similar lack of graciousness, but the term “lack of graciousness” describes that perfectly.

I tend to fall into Charlie Sykes’ camp that the best way to combat “bad” speech is with more speech, not just from the other denziens of a particular website but from the powers-that-be. It generally is illuminating to see who falls into the “death-wish” crowd, and who repudiates it. Fortunately, I haven’t had to deal with that aspect here, but depending on how ugly it gets, I can see the proprietors getting involved by removing the “death-wish” crowd.

Like MKH, I don’t see a role for government to get involved, at least without a credible, specific threat. That involvement is the true analog of Nazism, or more-properly, the parent governmental philosophy of totalitarianism. Indeed, it is one of the main reasons of the “free speech” portion of the First Amendment and the various state analogs.

Yet again, I’M SHOCKED

by @ 9:12. Filed under Guns.

Who’d a thunk there was a relationship between gun ownership and political and civil freedom….I remember, it was the guys who wrote our Constitution!

Hey, New York Times, I’ve got a lead for you!

by @ 9:02. Filed under Politics - National.

Wasn’t the New York Times all heated up about John McCain writing a letter to the FCC?   As I recall, that letter didn’t suggest to the FCC how to decide the issue but rather to JUST DECIDE?   So………how come, after the article that the New York Time’s wrote about John McCain, an article that had no facts and tried to create a controversy from something that didn’t rise to the level of hear-say, they haven’t had a chance to write a front page store on Obasmic securing $855,000 in fees for a political contributor who wasn’t even a constituent?

At the risk of asking a rhetorically squared question (that’s a question that is so rhetorical it hurts to ask):

Am I missing something? Obviously the New York Times is; an ability to investigate NEWS!

February 27, 2008

A tough week for Tim Pawlenty

by @ 20:41. Filed under Politics - National.

It’s hard to know how to read this one. On the one hand, Pawlenty was advocating a position that would align with McCain’s goofy gorebal warming perspective. On the other hand, getting shot down by the National Governor’s Association, an association Pawlenty leads, can’t help on the credibilty front.

I think Pawlenty may be in trouble as this is the second time he’s been thunked this week. Earlier in the week, Pawlenty was unable to hold  his minority, Minnesota House Republicans together to sustain his veto on the largest tax increase in Minnesota history.    This  could spell the end for Tim Pawlenty’s VP aspirations.

2/28/08 update: This portrayal of the NGA meeting makes it sound really bad for Pawlenty.

Rest in peace, William Buckley

by @ 17:23. Filed under Miscellaneous.

I apologize for being late to the news, but William Buckley passed away this morning. May God comfort the Buckley family.

Roll bloat – very lazy edition

by @ 17:20. Filed under The Blog.

I should’ve done this months ago, but I’ve got a pair for your perusal:

Gateway Pundit
Wolking’s World

Did someone say Gorebal Warming?

by @ 17:18. Filed under Global "Warming".

(H/T – Gateway Pundit, who I really need to get in on the next roll bloat)

Lorne Gunter of Canada’s National Post has some rather interesting numbers and stats about this not-yet-over winter:

– Snow cover over North America, much of Siberia, much of Mongolia and much of China is greater than any time since 1966 (that’s right, sports fans, that’s before either Gorebal Warming or The Next Ice Age was all the rage among the envirowhackos)

– The U.S. National Climatic Data Center reported that January 2008 temperatures were 0.3 degrees (Fahrenheit) cooler than the 20th-century average

– Toronto just smashed their previous snowfall record, set in 1950 (again, before Gorebal Warming and The Next Ice Age)

– The Canadian Ice Service reports that the Arctic Ocean ice field is 4-8 inches thicker than last year

– The last time the Sun was as inactive as it is now, we had the Little Ice Age between 1350 and 1850

Guess Gorebal Warming isn’t as “real” as the socialists shoveling the bullshit would want us to believe.

AT THE MOVIES; Hollywood Soul-Searching

by @ 15:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

That’s the title of this article in the New York Times.

I have to believe Terry Press of Dreamworks was referring to  the search for Hollywood’s  soul when he was quoted saying

”I don’t think Hollywood knows where its place is yet.”

Well, at least their looking.   I wonder if they’ll ever find one?

February 26, 2008

No drunkblog of tonight’s ‘Rat debate (at least from steveegg)

by @ 19:42. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Sorry about that, but I have more-important things to do (like defrag the hard drive and sleep). Unless Shoebox sets one up, I recommend catching Stephen Green’s drunkblog, Michelle Malkin’s liveblog, or Free Republic’s rolling live thread. Besides, I can’t stand PMSNBC, and the liquor cabinet is strangely empty after the last ‘Rat drunkblog.

Milwaukee Police Department in favor of voter ID, no same-day registration

I’m a bit late to the party, as Brian, Charlie, Fred, Owen and Jim Geraghty have already jumped all over MPD’s Special Investigations Unit’s report on the November 2004 election, released this morning. The troubling part is that the entire election apparatus in Milwaukee fouled things up so much, it was nigh impossible to prosecute any individual participating in vote fraud. That goes to something John Washburn noted a while back (paraphrase because I can’t find the exact post right now): it’s the entire system, not individual cases.

Speaking of the system, I’ll repost the recommendations from the SIU (page 26 of the report), interjecting where necessary:

It is the opinion of the Task Force investigators that more than any other recommendation we could make, our investigation has concluded that the one thing that could eliminate a large percentage of fraud or the appreance of fraudulent voting in any given Election is the elimination of the On-Site or Same Day voter registration system. It is the opinion of the Task Force investigators that given the inability of Election Inspectors to check the eligibility of voters (e.g. felons) or in other cases the reluctance of Election Inspectors to check the eligibility of a voter (e.g. verification of information on cards), on the day of any election, there is no other way to ensure that only eligible voters are voting on Election Day. It is our opinion that as it relates to not only the irregularities encountered with the 1305 ‘un-entered’ cards, but with the 2004 Election overall, a time period for the verification of registering voters prior to any Election must be included to ensure that the person registering is an eligible voter. If a verification period would be provided to the Election Commission before any Election, the majority of the problems detailed in this report would not have existed.

That last assumption is assuming, of course, the Election Commission is interested in honest elections. The facts do not exactly support that assumption. I’ll repeat one particularily-troubling item from that paragraph – “…in other cases the reluctance of Election Inspectors to check the eligibility of a voter….”

As it relates to felons, a verification period would have allowed Election Commission employees to check those potential voters registering with an up to date list that could be provided by the State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections. If this would have been done and those persons who are in the Ward book would only be permitted to vote, felons who are ineligible would not have been included.

Again, that assumes that the Election Commission is interested in honest elections. The good news here is that eventually the state-run voter registration list, with a tie to a list from the Department of Corrections, will be online. The bad is, at last check, it isn’t.

Where the “Not in City” voters are concerned, the same verification period would have allowed to (sic) the Election Commission to do the same thing that the Task Force was able to do: confirm or deny that the registering voter was or was not a City of Milwaukee resident. This system would have registered eligible voters mistakenly omitted by the Election Commission, such as the Appleton Avenue family. All members of this family will have to re-register before voting again. This verification period also would have informed those voters who were simply mistakenly voting in Milwaukee that they are not voting in the proper Ward. But, most important, a verification period could have stopped someone such as the ineligible Chicago resident fromvoting in the City of Milwaukee and now will be eligible to cast future, unchallenged, votes.

I’ll note that the Appleton Ave. family’s story is found on page 15. I am familiar with that area of Milwaukee, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how the Election Commission determined that the 11000 block of W. Appleton Ave. (approximately 6200 north), which is just over a half-mile northeast of that family’s previous residence and about 7/8 mile as the crow flies and over a mile as the car drives inside city limits, is not part of the city of Milwaukee.

That episode also points out a potential problem with the statewide voter registration list. If city of Milwaukee employees can’t determine an address is in the city of Milwaukee when there is no doubt an address is in the city, how is a state employee in Madison going to tell that, say, 7121 W. Bluemound Rd. is in Wauwatosa and 7129 W. Bluemound Rd. is in Milwaukee, or in which city the residents at 7125 W. Bluemound Rd. should vote (both Milwaukee and Wauwatosa have tax records with 7125 W. Bluemound Rd. as the address of record).

That example is of a block that was developed and had its city limits locked decades ago. I won’t even go into areas with new construction, like Oak Creek, or in areas where annexation of parcels is still possible.

As an alternative, if On-Site registration is to continue in its present form, then the presentation of a government issued identification card that includes the voter’s name, address (including city) and date of birth should be presented before that person is allowed to register and vote. The inclusion of identifcation alternatives such as a credit card bill, library card, lease, etc., where no photo is provided, does not ensure that the person presenting these types of documents is in fact the person they are asserting to be.

Why merely an alternative to ending same-day registration?

In the absence of any substantive change, it is recommended that the Election Inspectors be provided with adequate training and resources to ensure that they are not allowing persons who live outside of the City of Milwaukee to vote.

Again, that speaks to the apparent lack of interest on the part of the Election Commission to run honest elections. Given that each polling place includes a rather small section of the city, it should not take a lot of training to check addresses given by new registrants against a list of streets and address ranges to determine whether that address is plausible.

The investigators further recommend that after every election, the City of Milwaukee Election Commission fulfill its mandated responsibility to report those occurrences where persons may have violated Wisconsin State Statutes to the Milwaukee County District Attorney.

I believe mhking has the right phrase for this smackdown – “Just damn.” Of course, it also assumes that the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office has a serious interest in honest elections, and history has shown that it doesn’t under the leadership of both former DA E. Michael McCann (known around these parts as McCan’t) and current DA John Chisholm.

Anyone have Amy Winehouse’s number?

by @ 15:55. Filed under Politics - National.

Phil Kerpen at National Review online suggests that Mike Huckabee ought to cede the presidential race and run for a Senate position.  The article reports Huckabee’s response as:

Huckabee denied any interest in such a run last week, saying he would more likely "get tattooed and go out on the town with Amy Winehouse" than try for the Senate.

Frankly, Hucakbee needed to be out of this race a few weeks back. If someone can get me Amy’s phone number, I’ll pop for the tattoo!

I’m SHOCKED!!!

by @ 13:58. Filed under Miscellaneous.

No, I’m not shocked that  students don’t have an understanding of history or literature!!!  

I’m shocked that someone needed a study done to figure that out!

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana

But the veneer stays nice and shiny this way!

by @ 9:54. Filed under Politics - National.

So….Barack Obama doesn’t like working with the press.   I guess that’s best when you have a fragile shell  and nothing inside!

Maybe McCain has hope too

by @ 8:49. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Byron York interviewed  two of the folks alleged to be on McCain’s short list for VP. While much of the interview had South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty agreeing with McCain on policy issues, they disagree on two of McCain’s signature issues: Illegal Immigration and McCain/Feingold.

I would never be confused about who’s actually driving the bus if either Sanford or Pawlenty were chosen by McCain. However, it would be hard to  hold strictly to  “McCain doesn’t care about conservatives,” if he were to pick a VP who has a starkly different view on key issues that have gotten McCain sideways with the base.

Tech note for those on BlueHost

by @ 7:05. Filed under The Blog.

Those of you on BlueHost may or may not have seen an option in your CPanel page to “change” the PHP configuration. I highly recommend not using it to try to change your PHP version. I’m still on a PHP4 server, and I found that using the PHP5 engine does not send out pingbacks.

February 25, 2008

New NRE poll – Who will drop out first?

by @ 17:32. Filed under NRE Polls, Politics - National.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Hillary Clinton is as dead as fried chicken in the polls. Barack Obama has caught her in Texas and is closing rapidly in Ohio, and this isn’t the infamous last-second close that never does materialize. Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee is soldiering on in his quest to top Mitt Romney’s vote total.

Guess, since I’ve had nothing the last couple days (side note; thank you, Shoebox, for bailing me out of my blogging funk), it’s time for a new NRE poll. The clock stops when the candidate officially announces he or she is either “ending” or “suspending” the campaign, not when the press says that one or the other will drop out.

Who will drop out first?

Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed

  • Mike Huckabee (59%, 10 Vote(s))
  • Hillary Clinton (41%, 7 Vote(s))

Total Voters: 17

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Is this how much Hillary is loathed?

by @ 16:00. Filed under Politics - National.

The Des Moines Register released a poll on Sundayshowing the Iowan preferences in a McCain/Clinton and a McCain/Obama head to head. In the poll, McCain beat Hillary 49% to 40%. However, Obama beats McCain 53% to 36%.

As I’ve posted before, it’s hard for me to discern much policy difference between the two Democrats. However even with my disinterested review, I can tell that while both candidates are Socialists, Hillary is Socialist lite.
(more…)

McCain rallies the base – Part 2

by @ 11:25. Filed under Politics - National.

While I’m sure it wasn’t on his “things to do this week” list, John McCain got some of the Republican base rallied last week as he turned the tables on the New York Times, junior high smear piece….”Psst, do you know who I saw with John McCain?   I think they LIKE each other!”

Now that the House is back in session, McCain should use his position as the assumed Republican Nominee (sorry Huck folks) to explain to the American people why the FISA bill, as passed by the Senate, is important to American security and should be passed without delay.   In doing so McCain will accomplish 3 things:

  1. Get important intelligence tools back in place.
  2. Define the differences between Republican priorities for the nation and Democratic priorities i.e. Security for the American people versus security for the American trial lawyers.
  3. Build upon the base awakening that was caused by the NYT and give them a rallying point for another week.

McCain can only win the general election if he gets the base to not just tolerate him, but embrace him.   Issues like FISA give him the perfect issue to work towards that goal.

Blogging with the ch-ch-ch-changes

by @ 9:24. Filed under Miscellaneous.

First, the bad news:

Bryan Preston has left Hot Air for a producer’s slot on the Laura Ingraham show. I am going to miss, among other things, the Ventilators.
Ed Morrissey is closing Captain’s Quarters. I know, I never did get around to putting the Captain on the roll (too much bloat already), but I did keep an eye on his site from time to time.

Now, the good:

– The reason Ed’s closing down CQ is because he’s replacing Bryan at Hot Air. He’s definitely moving on up.

No more war on terrorism, war on obesity instead?

by @ 8:21. Filed under Miscellaneous.

This is wrong on so many levels.

I’m just wondering….do you think they might have this backwards?

Isn’t stress a cause of obesity?

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