No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for March, 2008

March 25, 2008

Here we go again

by @ 17:24. Filed under Weather.

The Winter That Won’t Die™ is taking aim at us here in the land of cheese and beer again. Yes, we dodged a bullet overnight, when it was a bit warmer than anticipated and the moisture for the most part missed the bunker and the measuring sticks at Mitchell, but the National Weather Service is calling for at least 6 inches of snow Thursday (note; the link is highly dynamic, and the forecast is valid at the time listed at the bottom of this post), with an unspecified higher amount near the lake. The bad news; the bunker and the measuring sticks are in the traditional lake-effect belt, and we only need 11.8 inches to bust the record. The ugly; it’s going to be another wet, heavy snow.

I suppose the good news, such as it is, is I’m seeing bare spots outside the bunker. Of course, that isn’t good news for those along rivers. Further (and actual) react is banished to Page 2 for the reason of excessive vulgarities.

“Thank” you, Envirowhackos

by @ 17:12. Filed under Envirowhackos.

(H/T – Kate)

Investor’s Business Daily nails the reason for out-of-control fuel prices ($3.20+/gallon for unleaded, $4/gallon for diesel here in the land of cheese and beer):

With demand rising, prices must move up. If they don’t, shortages will follow. Unless, of course, supply is increased.

In the case of oil, though, this isn’t happening.

Naturally, the oil industry is blamed. The popular complaint is that it is holding back because of greed. But the problem is due to government policy, both here and abroad….

As we have noted before, nine of every 10 barrels of crude reserves are either owned by a government or are under the authority of state-controlled companies. Poor policy decisions have made sure that supply has not been able to keep pace with demand.

In the U.S., a Congress cowed by hysterical special interests has refused to allow the development of a rich oil field in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It has similarly forbidden the harvesting of crude from fertile fields off of our coasts.

We watch helplessly while prices at the pump reach $4 point in the priciest U.S. markets and as much as 131 billion barrels of oil remain off-limits beneath our soil and our waters. Even the prospect of that oil hitting the world market would hit crude prices hard. Imagine what its actual arrival on the market would do.

But as long as the governments that run OPEC can be sure there are no plans for the U.S. to allow development in those fields, they can continue to limit production and keep prices high.

Roy Innis testified about this last week, and really blasted the envirowhackos. Thank you for bringing him to Wisconsin, Mark.

Oops!

by @ 15:51. Filed under Miscellaneous.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military mistakenly shipped four fuses for nuclear missiles to Taiwan in 2006 and never caught the error, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, acknowledging an incident likely to rile China.The military was supposed to ship helicopter batteries to Taiwan, but instead sent fuses used as part of the trigger mechanism on Minuteman missiles. Taiwan returned the parts to U.S. custody last week.

I’ve got so many questions on this…

Do you think Taiwan had to call ahead to get a return authorization request for the fuses?

2 years. Do they still get a refund? Did they still have the receipt?

Based on the information now known, the four fuses, which do not resemble helicopter batteries,

Really? They don’t look alike? Who’d a thunk?

How long did they tried to install the the part labeled “battery” before they realized it didn’t look like the one they took out?

I’ve gotten plenty of stuff made in Taiwan that had instructions that, well…. let’s just say I can see how they could have confused a fuse for a battery.

Do you think the US military stores nuclear missile fuses in the same warehouse as helicopter batteries? I suppose it’s that whole hazardous waste thing.

The fuses, which send an electronic signal to the device that starts the nuclear weapon’s trigger process, are among a class of sensitive equipment that must be accounted for on a quarterly basis.

Walmart has figured out how to do their inventory accounting more frequently than once a quarter. Can someone send the area code for Bentonville, Arkansas to the Pentagon?

When Taiwan realized it had received the incorrect shipment, it notified the U.S. military. …But U.S. military officials did not understand the nature of the problem until last week.

What part of “Wrong part” do you think they were having trouble understanding?

Henry said there was no indication Taiwan tampered with the fuses before returning them.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!   Has anyone checked Ebay to see if the schematics are available yet?

Egg’s mandatory reads

by @ 11:29. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Since John Hawkins asked nicely, I may as well share my “must reads, even if hung over, sicker than a dog, and have but 5 minutes to catch up on the reading” blogs, in no particular order. For those I don’t list; don’t fret. I usually am not hung over, sicker than a dog, or short of time, so I’m reading all of those blogs that are on my bloated roll to your right:

Boots and Sabers – Owen is one of the elders of the Cheddarsphere. He and Jed have one of the most-active comment sections around; in fact, that’s where I really got introduced to the blogosphere.

DUmmie FUnnies – Let me put it this way; PJ-Comix and sometime contributor and parody writer extraordinaire Charles Henrickson got robbed in last year’s Weblog Awards. I usually catch this over on Free Republic, where most of the follow-on comments happen.

Mary Katharine Ham at TownHall – What can I say? HamNations, insightful commentary; in short, everything a blogger can aspire for. The bonus; she is as nice as can be.

RealDebateWisconsin – Fred has become a good friend. The establishment in Racine fears him.

Hot Air – If you need first-rate sarcasm (as opposed to the bulk-rate my best is), Allahpundit is your man. He delivers it all, including video everybody else misses (I’ve called him the blogosphere’s DVR more than once). Throw in Ed Morrissey, a few appearances here and there by the boss (Michelle Malkin), and the three-person site is better than most overloaded staffs around.

Sykes Writes – Charlie Sykes is the Blogfather of the Cheddarsphere. It helps he has a 50,000-watt microphone.

Sister Toldjah – Take out the video, add in love of the NFL, and see the summary for MKH.

Badger Blogger – Patrick is a relentless news hound whose header tag (“Covering Wisconsin the way the media won’t. Covering the media, the way they fear!”) rings true.

Ace of Spades HQ – I said it before, I’ll probably say it again; we morons are legion. Besides, what’s a run through the blogosphere without a few expletives?

The Campaign Spot – Jim Geraghty is a one-man political blogging machine. ‘Nuff said.

Blackfive – Even if it were just Uncle Jimbo there, I would be reading it every day. Matt (Blackfive Actual), Deebow, Laughing Wolf, and the rest just make it that much more compelling.

Michelle Malkin – There is a reason why she is a “who’s who”. She’s THAT GOOD.

Tom McMahon and 4-Block World – If you’re looking for it, Tom probably has it.

The American Mind – Sean Hackbarth is one of the originals, going all the way back to 1999.

The Asian Badger – Pilot, venture capitalist, man of adventure; men want to be him, women want to be with him.

TheWisconsinSportsBar – Yes, I’m a contributor to The Bar, but I don’t quite consider it self-promotion because I’m far from the best writer there, even on my supposed sport of expertise (NFL football). There are some serious baseball sharks there, and Badger hockey gets some well-deserved love.

It’s not quite John’s 40, but like I said, I’m usually not reduced to 5 minutes of reading while sick and hung over, so I’m reading a lot more than just this.

Crapweasel of the day

by @ 10:22. Filed under Compassionate Lieberals, War on Terror.

Uncle Jimbo, who is on the National Heroes Tour, has found some crapweasels in the greater Twin Cities area. The oh-so-tolerant left couldn’t abide a few veterans giving the youth at Forest Lake High School some positive words about the media, so they got linguini-spined principal Steve Massey to cancel the event because it was “too political”.

Too political, Massey? As Uncle Jimbo pointed out, the only ones making this political are the Gorons who cannot abide any positive message about the military being told to the skulls full of mush. Peter notes that The Corner found out it it was the DUmmies behind this. I’m shocked, SHOCKED.

One of the commenters on Michelle Malkin’s thread notes there are schools giving students extra credit if they go to anti-war rallies. It would be very interesting to find out if Forest Lake High School is one of those; something tells me it is.

Revisions/extensions (4:30 pm 3/25/2008) – A couple of extensions. First, a tip of the cap to Cory down in the comments for Dan Riehl’s little expose on Mr. Massey’s past. While it doesn’t definitely answer my suspicions on whether the school offered extra credit for protesting the war, it does reinforce my suspicions that he is a liberal crapweasel.

Related to that, one Eric Langless, a school board member there, has promised in Dan’s comments that he will look into this.

Finally, a bit of good old-fashioned student protest against the administration, conservative edition, comes to us from Powerline via Michelle Malkindozens of students walked out of school to see the rescheduled speech at the American Legion. Student Elijah Miller summed up the actions of the school, “My brother’s in the armed forces…it’s a slap in the face for people with family members in the armed forces.”

Roll bloat – Wocketing edition

by @ 9:59. Filed under The Blog.

No, that’s not a typo on my end, that’s JihadGene channeling Krazy Kim over at Great Reader. If you’re not going to be reading that, I have but one bit of adivce for you – When somebody gets the Uncle Jimbo Stamp of Approval, you best recognize. He (and I) don’t care if your rolls and readers are so overloaded it takes 3 hours to go through.

The Morning Scramble – 3/25/2008

by @ 6:47. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

I have to thank B4B for the inspiration for today’s song…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwqYsoDqbCQ[/youtube]

Blogs4Bauer has nuked Detroit.
– Staying in Detroit, Lawhawk (a B4B contributor), William Teach, Ed Morrissey, JammieWearingFool, Jon Ham, and Jim Hoft all play “Name That Politician’s Affiliation”.
Mesablue cooks. Mmmmmm, lamb.
– Crank up that CO2 machine; Ace says the ChiComs are the first to go in the event of out-of-control Gorebal Warming.
The Emperor answers a registered sex offender’s attempt to become mayor (I must put a content warning on this one).
Allahpundit notes DC is trying to grab all the guns it can before they’re slapped down by SCOTUS.
Fausta puts the hate on Skype phish.
Chris delivers an economics lesson.
James T. Harris compares a pair of preachers and finds a lot of changes in 13 years’ age difference.
Michelle Malkin is running a photo caption/PhotoShop contest.

March 24, 2008

Abandon all hope, my MRQ of the week competitors

by @ 18:28. Filed under Miscellaneous.

It seems Rule #2 of my Rules for Hiring Hookers is worthy of being in the running for last week’s MRQ of the Week. So, go over to Fred’s site and vote for “If you’re stupid enough to ignore rule #1, always pay cash.” If you don’t, I’ll find out who you are, and tell Knock-Knees Tony you are me.

The Morning Scramble – 3/24/2008

by @ 7:51. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

There really is only one song that sums up my bracket…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaWzWVo7o9U[/youtube]

Nobody reads this place on the weekends, but some people do weekend blogging. Let’s roll:

– A “nervous” Mary Katharine reads the Sermon on the Mount. MKH, nervous? Surely she can’t be serious.
Elliot questions the removal of a secular Easter display on the grounds that it would offend non-Christians in Saint Paul, Minnesota (emphasis in the original commentary). Yes, it has come to this, folks; the secularization of a religious holiday isn’t secular enough for the everybody-but-Christians (and sometimes Jews) crowd.
Peeps, Peeps, Peeps, Peeps everywhere, but not a Week in Peeps in sight yet (in order of the links, Michelle, E.M., Keith, Phelony Jones and Kevin, who would rather have a chocolate egg).
Tom McMahon sums up the Winter That Won’t Die™.
Ruthless is hunting RINOs out in northwest Wisconsin. Good hunting.
– I’m surprised Jib didn’t get the frying pan for his observation on Hollywood’s obsession with stick figures. Of course, since Mrs. Jib agrees, that reduces the risk a lot.
JammieWearingFool discovered what happened to the folks behind the video version of M-m-m-m-max bin Laden. Guess they became victims of coicumstance and American-made ordnance, but mostly American-made ordnance.
– Since this is the post-weekend edition, and it’s my rules, I can double-dip on my sources. JWF discovered what donors to freshly-minted New York governor David Paterson’s campaign bought for Paterson.
– I’m not much of a jazz person (my dad failed to pass that along), but Headless Blogger is.
Trail-Mix, the Disgruntled Truck Driver, goes YouTubin’. ‘Tis a good first effort, IMHO.
– Speaking of YouTubin’, Uncle Jimbo discovers Google doesn’t like dead jihadi body parts flying around the screen, but mixes some buildings holding jihadis getting blowed up real good with lefty music (always a great “tweaking” combo).
Tom asks, “Snowpocalypse or Stormageddon?”

Words matter, but actions matter more

by @ 7:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

“Don’t tell me words don’t matter. ‘I have a dream’ — just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’ — just words. ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ – just words. Just speeches.”

…Barack Obama

In a well publicized speech, Barack Obama tries to dodge the accusation that he is an empty suit with flowery language and nothing else.   He tries to equate his words to those of words that have formed the history of the United States.  

While Obama makes a valid point showing that well crafted words can encourage, challenge and motivate us, he misses a more important point that if all we had were these words, without the action that followed them, none of these words would be remembered.

And so it is now with Obama.   For the past ten days he has been using words to attempt to explain his affiliation with Jeremiah Wright and to distance himself from Wright’s hateful language.

Words like:  

"I reject them completely "” they are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals or Michelle’s."

or

"If I thought that was the repeated tenor of the church then I wouldn’t feel comfortable, but frankly that has not been my experience at Trinity United Church of Christ.”

Now it is found that Jeremiah Wright used his column in the chuch newsletter to reprint a Hamas hate manifesto, Obama uses these words:

“I have already condemned my former pastor’s views on Israel in the strongest possible terms, and I certainly wasn’t in church when that outrageously wrong Los Angeles Times piece was re-printed in the bulletin,”

Hey Barack, there is a point where words without actions mean nothing.   You have reached that point.   No one should believe another word about your alledged disgust with the positions of Jeremiah Wright until you not only talk about it, but denouce your affiliation with the church that has been the host of his hate messages for these past 20 years.  

If you don’t follow your words with actions, we can only assume that in fact, they are JUST WORDS!  

March 23, 2008

Which #1 will drop out first?

by @ 20:23. Filed under NRE Polls, Sports.

It’s time for the Second Annual Who Will Drop First poll. Last year, nobody took the “winner”, Kansas. They’re back for more, along with UCLA, Memphis and overall #1 North Carolina.

I’ll even give you a bit of help with the schedule because seconds do count. North Carolina goes against #4 Washington State Thursday at 6:27 pm, UCLA goes against #12 Western Kentucky Thursday at about 8:40 pm, Kansas goes against #12 Villanova Friday at about 8:40 pm, and Memphis goes against #5 Michigan State Friday at about 8:57 pm. If all 4 make it to the Elite Eight, North Carolina and UCLA would go Saturday at times to be determined (not against each other), and Kansas and Memphis will go Sunday at times to be determined (also not against each other). If I remember, I’ll close the poll while the games involving the #1s are played; if not, I’ll toss out all answers cast during those games.

Now, vote.

Which #1 will drop out first? (open until Saturday)

Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed

  • Kansas (hint; they play North Carolina in the nightcap) (33%, 5 Vote(s))
  • Memphis (hint; they play UCLA first on Saturday) (33%, 5 Vote(s))
  • UCLA (hint; they play Memphis first on Saturday) (27%, 4 Vote(s))
  • North Carolina (hint; they play Kansas in the nightcap) (7%, 1 Vote(s))

Total Voters: 15

Loading ... Loading ...

Mumblin’ bumblin’ stumblin’ into the Sweet 16

by @ 19:46. Filed under Sports.

Today was Cinderella Sunday, as not one, not two, but three Cinderellas won. Of course, the fact that two Cindys would win was guaranteed because there were two 12-v-13 matchups. Still, Davidson had its biggest game of its history in knocking off Georgetown. The bad news for them is they get Bucky on Friday, known around The Bar as the Terminators.

Despite there being three lower-bracket teams in the Sweet 16, we only had three “upsets” in the second round, and one of those can’t really be called an upset because it was a #5 knocking off a #4. It was a rough weekend for the #2s, as a pair of them got rejected and the other two got the stuffing scared out of them.

For those keeping track of conferences at home, the Big East and the Pac-10 each have 3 teams, the “down-year” Big Ten and the Big 12 each have 2 teams, and the “all-mighty” ACC, the “almost-all-mighty” SEC, the “used-to-be-mighty” Atlantic 10, the “stripped-bare” Conference USA, and the mid-major twins (Southern, Sun Belt) each have 1 team.

Incredibly, despite going only 21-11 in the first round and 10-6 in the second (including three games that were dead to the bracket), I’m set to do some serious damage in the later rounds as I’ve only lost two of my Elite Eight and my Final Four is still intact. I don’t remember a year when I could say that after the second round.

In case you haven’t noticed, I am a moron

by @ 13:37. Filed under The Blog.

That’s right, kids, I’m a regular at Ace of Spades HQ.

Conservative Belle ran with this graphic…

moronblogger.png

…from doubleplusundead (actually done by S. Weasel) and put together a Moronblogger blogroll. I’ve wedged it on the left side (no sense making you do an unbelievable amount of scrolling).

A lot of them should look familiar; after all, we are legion.

Revisions/extensions (6:18 pm 3/24/2008) – I should’ve recognized S. Weasel’s work. Mea culpa maxima.

And she wants to be your next Milwaukee County Executive?

by @ 12:46. Filed under Politics - Milwaukee County.

(H/Ts – Owen and Patrick)

Our friends in the Scott Walker campaign remembered to bring their cameras to one of the debates, where they caught this gem from his challenger, state Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee)…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHqIFT4HtQ8[/youtube]

Mouth, meet foot. Foot, meet larynx.

Kaboom, baby!

by @ 9:51. Filed under Sports.

I need to stay positive after a Day 3 that saw another Elite Eight drop and me go 5-3 (including the dead game that didn’t see Kansas choke). Let’s see…

– Wisconsin won.
– My Final Four is intact.
– I’m above .500.
– In both pools (the WSB and AoSHQ), if Wisconsin takes it all, I should win.

Of course, there are the negatives…

– I’ve lost 5 of my Sweet Sixteen teams (with a pair of dead games today) and 2 of my Elite Eight.
– The first round was an unmitigated disaster, which put me well behind the curve.

Somebody, remind me to put up the “Which #1 drops first?” poll if North Carolina and Memphis both make it into the Sweetness.

The Nader Factor

by @ 7:00. Filed under Politics - National.

On February 24th, Ralph Nader announced his Presidential Candidacy.   I didn’t post it here but I made comments on other sites saying that this was going to be a positive for the Republicans.   I made the argument that the ideologicals of the left were likely going to look for an alternative when their particular candidate (either  Hillary or Barack)  ultimately was flamed.   I was heartily pooh poohed at the time being told that the 2000 impact of Nader was a once in a lifetime event and that he wouldn’t amount to more than a raindrop in the ocean in 2008.

Zogby International released a poll on 3/15 that has not received any airtime on a rather interesting item.   In that poll, where they find McCain beating either Clinton or Obama, they have Nader receiving 5% – 6% of the vote.   I guess folks were right when they said 2004 was a one time event, Nader only received 2.7% of the vote in that election!

5%, not much you say?   Generally you’d be correct if we elected President’s on a purely popular vote but we elect them essentially,  state by state.    A quick peak under the historical numbers show some pretty interesting possibilities.  

The following chart shows the states in 2004 that  John Kerry won with less than a 5% margin and Nader’s percent of vote in those same states from the 2000 election:

State

2004 Winning Margin 2000 Nader %
Michigan 3.4% 2.0%
Minnesota 3.5% 5.2%
New Hampshire 1.4% 3.9%
Oregon 4.2% 5.1%
Pennsylvania 2.5% 2.1%
Wisconsin .4% 3.6%

Assuming Nader could do again as well as 2000 and that he pulls predominantly from Democrats, this could mean that Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and maybe even Oregon come into play.   Some of this is starting show as Rasmussen has released polls showing that McCain has pulled within the margin of error in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Take one more twist and assume that Nader did in fact nearly double is vote percentage from 2000 and that it was distributed across the states in the same way that it was in 2000.   Those numbers would look like this:

State

2004 Winning Margin Adjusted, 2000 Nader %
Hawaii 8.7% 10.9%
Maine 9.0% 10.6%
Michigan 3.4% 3.7%
Minnesota 3.5% 9.7%
New Hampshire 1.4% 7.3%
Oregon 4.2% 9.4%
Pennsylvania 2.5% 3.9%
Washington 7.2% 7.7%
Wisconsin .4% 6.7%

 This would now have the potential to put 7 states in play.

OK, we don’t know how this is going to play out.   However, I’m willing to bet that the longer Obama and Clinton beat on each other, the more likely it will be that those who are on the losing side will want to find an alternative way to express themselves This should be  especially true if this is decided at the convention and there is little time to adjust. (Hey all you we “I’ll never vote for McCain” folks, remember how that feels?)

OK, it’s early yet and we don’t know how this will play out.   My point is now, as it was when he entered the race, Nader will impact this race and it will be a negative for the Democrats.

If you’re still not convinced consider this; it was likely Ralph Nader who caused George Bush to win the 2000 election. Florida was decided by approximately 540 votes.   Nader received 97,488 votes .   Who do you think those votes would have gone to?   Do you still think Nader can’t impact the 2008 election?

He Is Risen

by @ 6:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Luke 24:1-12 (NIV):

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'” Then they remembered his words.

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

March 22, 2008

Roll bloat – Just doing my thing

by @ 19:35. Filed under The Blog.

Friend of NRE and AFP-Wisconsin director Mark Block has finally joined the land of the blogging with Do The Right Thing.

Revisions/extensions (9:17 pm 3/22/2008) – I could have swore I added Janet Evans’ In the Race earlier, but apparently my memory is starting to fail me. Mea culpa.

Isn’t having one a requirement to be a “Messiah?”

by @ 18:42. Filed under Politics - National.

I wonder if Richardson  knows that Judas never got to spend the silver he received?

PORTLAND, Ore. "” "I talked to Senator Clinton last night," Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico said on Friday, describing the tense telephone call in which he informed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that, despite two months of personal entreaties by her and her husband, he would be endorsing Senator Barack Obama for president.

"Let me tell you: we’ve had better conversations," Mr. Richardson said.

But Mr. Richardson stopped returning Mr. Clinton’s calls days ago, Mr. Clinton’s aides said. And as of Friday, Mr. Richardson said, he had yet to pick up the phone to tell Mr. Clinton of his decision.

The reaction of some of Mr. Clinton’s allies suggests that might have been a wise decision. "An act of betrayal," said James Carville, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton and a friend of Mr. Clinton.

"Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic," Mr. Carville said, referring to Holy Week.

Pawlenty about to rise in Veep Sweepstakes?

by @ 14:52. Filed under Politics - National.

Note:   I am not endorsing not hoping for Pawlenty as VP.    There are many people I would  rather see in that slot.   This blog is part of “calling ’em like I see ’em.”    

Rasmussen Reports has a new Minnesota poll that shows John McCain dramatically closing the gap with his potential Democratic candidates.   McCain now leads Clinton by 1 and trails Obama by only 4, both within the margin of error.

Obviously, Obama’s issues with Jeremiah Wright’s statements have led to these increases.   I believe that with McCain this close in  a state  that has been tough to impossible for Republican candidates, Tim Pawlenty moves to the top of McCain’s VP pick list.  

While simply putting Pawlenty on the ticket could well put McCain over the top in Minnesota, leveraging him with some  other internal Minnesota  would dramatically increase the Republican vote here. (more…)

Obama, meet Obama

by @ 13:30. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/T – JonJayRay)

Remember when Barack Hussein Obama said he could no more disown his (former) pastor than either the whole black community or his grandmama? He wasn’t nearly as conciliatory when it came to Trent Lott and his endorsement of Strom Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat campaign at the latter’s 100th birthday party. It was nice of WorldNetDaily to pull that back from the memory hole.

Meet the new race pimp, same as the old race pimp.

Burning bracket

by @ 12:56. Filed under Sports.

Day 2 was pretty much the same as Day 1. One less loss, but I’m down to 13 of my Sweet 16 and 7 of my Elite 8.

I guess I know what song will be on Monday’s Morning Scramble.

March 21, 2008

Friday Night Videos – Peeps vs. Firecrackers

by @ 20:19. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(H/T – Ed Driscoll)

I know The Hammer doesn’t read this blog, so if she finds out what James Lileks has done to a few peeps, it won’t be from me. If, however, you don’t mind explosives, go ahead to Page 2 for some Egg-approved male snow-crazy explosive fun.

Jesus took my punishment

by @ 15:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Matthew 27:45-54 (NIV):

At the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” — which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God.”

Thank you, Savior.

Bloated government

by @ 14:42. Filed under Business, Politics - Oak Creek.

(H/T – Clint)

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development has a sortable list of various “top 25” employers. One can specify either private enterprise, government, or both, various industry groups, and even narrow a search down to either a county or municipality level. While Clint took a look at the larger picture, I’ll go local. With the caveat that some of the information does not appear to be accurate as to locale, I’ll roll through some selected highlights (or should that be “lowlights”):

– In Milwaukee County, no Oak Creek entity, on its own, is among the top 25 employers among both public and private employers.
– Again in Milwaukee County, among school districts, the Oak Creek-Frankin School District only trails Milwaukee Public Schools, West Allis-West Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, and is larger than any municipal government other than the city of Milwaukee.
– Among Milwaukee County municipalities, the city of Oak Creek trails only the cities of Milwaukee, West Allis and Wauwatosa. That’s right; there are more city of Oak Creek employees than city of Franklin employees or city of Greenfield employees despite a smaller population.
– In the city of Oak Creek itself, the school district trails only Midwest Airlines, Bechtel Construction (which should drop to nothing when the power plant is done), UPS and Delphi (which, the last I heard, is on the chopping block). I do have to note that the DWD numbers for Oak Creek-based employees of We Energies appears to be off.
– Meanwhile, the city also trails PPG, Reinhart/County Market, and the Postal Service. I do have to note that, if all three Pick ‘N Save locations were combined (the Ryan Rd. one is owned by Ultra Foods, the other two by Mega Foods), Pick ‘N Save should jump ahead of the city.

Is it any wonder why taxes are out of control?

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