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.
(H/T – Gaius)
Major Brian Shul (ret.) talked about the fastest trip the SR-71 Blackbird ever took. Xformed over at Chaotic Synaptic Activity has an interesting sea story about that flight.
I’ve just put Shul’s book, Sled Driver, on my short birthday list. Of course, since it is $427, that is going to be a very short birthday list :-)
A friend of Kathy Carpenter’s decided to put the question to all 18 ‘Rat State Senators. You can head to Kathy’s site to read all of the responses, but I’ll do some summarizing here (the numbers will not add up because some Senators fall into more than 1 category):
– Against voter ID on general principles: 7
– Following Doyle’s instructions: 3
– Unavailable for comment: 5
– Staff unaware of their bosses’ position: 4
– Claims there was no public hearing, but too chickenshit to call for a public hearing: 2
– Would rather have a law, but too chickenshit to author one: 2
– Admitted (s)he would rather have vote fraud: 1
That’s right; if you’re reading this this morning without the aid of electric lights and the clock says 6:30 am, you’re likely an hour behind everybody else (either that, or you’re in one of the places that doesn’t do Daylight Savings).
Tech note for those with WordPress blogs, you’ll want to check that time offset in the General Options. WordPress does not automatically correct for Daylight Savings, so if you’re in the Central Time Zone, you’ll want to change that offset to -5 hours.
It’s official, John McCain is no longer adoringly referred to as “The Maverick.”
In another “Are we living in Bizzaro world or what?” story, the AP reports several Dem blasts of John McCain as the person responsible for Boeing’s loss of the Air Tanker contract. Somehow McCain’s work to uncover corruption that included a former Boeing CFO and a former Air Force official being jailed and a $6B overcharge to the US taxpayers is now a bad thing!
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This is the Emergency Blogging System. Old dumbshit Egg failed to activate it at 7 pm to make the warning 96 hours, but this is not a test.
The March edition of Drinking Right will be at the usual place on the usual date at the usual time. For those not familiar with that, we drink at Papa’s Social Club (7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee) on the second Tuesday of the month unless otherwise rescheduled (this month, that’s March 11) at 7 pm.
Be there, or be nowhere.
This concludes this activation of the Emergency Blogging System.
(H/T – Bill Quick)
I’ll give the standard warning for language in my response (on page 2) now. The Daily Times of Salisbury, Maryland is reporting that a bunch of RepublicRATs who are pissed that RepubicRAT Representative Wayne Gilchrest got ousted in the primary are lining up to support the DemocRAT nominee rather than the winner of the Republican nomination, Andy Harris:
Republicans unhappy with the outcome of last month’s congressional District 1 primary are wasting no time becoming activists and fundraisers for the Democratic nominee.
Queen Anne’s County State’s Attorney Frank Kratovil, who won the district’s Democratic nomination last month with 40 percent of the vote, will attend a fundraising breakfast in Chestertown on March 11 sponsored by Republicans for Kratovil. The members of this group comprises a large disenfranchised group of U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest supporters, such as longtime Gilchrest aide Karen Willis.
“I’m deeply saddened that Wayne didn’t make it through the primary,” Willis said. “I’ve found lots of people who feel the same way. I’m just trying to get behind Mr. Kratovil to continue to have 1st District representation from a thinking person.”
This isn’t fleeting support from Willis. She’s worked for Gilchrest for nearly his entire career in Congress, and she doesn’t support Baltimore County Sen. Andy Harris’ more conservative views, whether the issue be Iraq or the economy.
Again, for those with weak eyes, don’t turn the page. The rest of you, please, read on.
Revisions/extensions (9:06 pm 3/7/2008) – I need a copy editor, one that doesn’t mind the occassional expletive :-)
(H/Ts – Sister Toldjah and Matt Lewis)
The NYT reports the ‘Rats are salivating over the prospects of getting a filibuster-proof majority in the 111th Congress to go along with the Oval Office. The numbers seem to suggest that it’s possible; while they hold a 51-49 advantage now for the purposes of caucusing, there are 18 Republican incumbents (including 2 freshly-minted ones) and 5 Republican open seats up for election, while there are only 12 Democratic incumbents up for election. It currently is unlikely they’ll actually get to 60, though it is likely they will pick up 3.
Matt says that a filibuster-proof majority would really change things. Versus the current political/philosophical situation, perhaps a bit, though I tend to believe that is more a function of whether they (or the Pubbies) get a clean sweep rather than whether one party or another gets a filibuster-proof majority. What would really change the operational dynamic is if they fail to get to 60, especially if they get the White House. Unlike the Republicans of the 109th Congress, they may well not hesitate to jettison the filibuster in order to push their agenda through, especially if they do get an absolute majority without Joe Lieberman’s caucusing help.
Conversely, if they do get to 60 (or depending on how the chips fall, simply get close), they won’t need to get rid of the filibuster to get their agenda through. Therefore, they would keep it around as a hedge against the next time things don’t go their way.
Jim Geraghty has the perfect response to the NYT/McCain spat Shoebox highlighted below:
Call me when McCain drops the F-bomb or recommends anatomically difficult forms of mating.
To that I say, that would probably make me more inclined to insert the noseplugs and vote for McCain.
Fresh from their shoutdown of a press conference held by Senate Republicans asking for a final legislative vote on a constitutional amendment that would require voter ID, all 18 ‘Rat Senators voted to keep said final vote from happening. Given that no less than the Milwaukee Police Department asked for this as one of their two recommendations to remove much of the odor of tainted elections, and nobody is talking about taking up the other one (elimination of same-day registration), I can only believe that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is in favor of vote fraud.
What is exceptionally troubling is Jeff Plale, who owes his continued presence in the Senate to the fact that his opponent was accused of and ultimately convicted of fraudulent voting, is marching in lock step with the rest of the fraudsters.
I have a message for the DPW – when the worm finally does turn, and you lose power despite your desperate attempts to hang onto it, payback will be a cast-iron bitch.
The AP, amongst others, is trying to drum up a story about John McCain and his temper.
A New York Times reporter attempted to ask John McCain questions about his conversation with John Kerry re: the possibility of being his VP for the 2004 election. From what I can see, the reporter was trying to do a “got ‘cha” over some dates.
I’m no John McCain acolyte. I’ve watched this, I’ve listened to it without the video and I’ve read the transcript. Maybe there is a story here, I don’t know. But if the reporter isn’t able to frame the question in a way other than “let me try and trip you over dates,” she needs to find another occupation. Other than another attempt to create a front page piece over nothing, I don’t see any HERE, HERE. I’ve seen more pointed responses in church meetings.
I think this is one time I’m glad McCain doesn’t suffer fools gladly!
I’ve heard this too many times over the past year to put much stock in it. However, here’s an article arguing that oil is in a bubble and likely to drop fast and hard to $50/barrel once it starts down. An interesting argument made by in the article is that the drop in oil will have a negative impact on the economy. I find that hard to agree with.
The US uses about the equivalent of 400 million gallons of gasoline daily. That amounts to about 4 gallons per day for each of the 110 million households. If oil dropped to $50/barrel, that should put gas back in the range of $2/gallon. How can reducing the cost per household by and average of about $110/month be a bad thing?
Jim Geraghty sniffed something wafting from a Washington Post poll that had John McCain down nationally by 6 to Hillary Clinton and 12 to Barack Obama. He took a look at the crosstabs, and found that 15% weren’t even registered to vote.
Ed Morrissey dug a bit deeper and found a serious flaw in the identification. Self-idenitying party idenfitication in the WaPo poll was 40% Democratic, 28% Republican, 28% independent, which isn’t exactly what Rasmussen recently found (38.7% D/33.1% R/28.2% I). Worse, when WaPo pushed the independents and folded it into the results, it turned into 55% Dem, 36% Pubbie.
The takeaway paragraph from Ed is worth archiving:
The result is an unreliable poll, but one hell of a headline. McCain trails by twelve! And when McCain beats Obama or Clinton, we’ll hear once again that the election had to have been stolen "” because all of the polls showed McCain behind.
Just how inaccurate? Rasmussen’s tracking poll has had McCain up on Clinton since the start of the track on February 7, and McCain up on Obama since February 23.
Of course, we don’t do a national election, but 51 individual state-by-state-by-federal-district contests. I believe you know how much salt should be taken with any national poll; the question is whether you have enough left after The Winter That Won’t Die™.
Of course, we have to go to Maine to find Slublog, who blames his cold on winter and George W. Bush.
I have no idea who to give this hat tip to, so I’ll go to that after I deliver the news from Britain and the Daily Mail:
Britain’s first ‘Safe Text’ street has been created complete with padded lampposts to protect millions of mobile phone users from getting hurt in street accidents while walking and texting.
Around one in ten careless Brits has suffered a “walk ‘n text” street injury in the past year through collisions with lampposts, bins and other pedestrians.
The 6.6million accidents have caused injuries ranging from mild knocks and embarrassing cuts and bruises through to broken noses, cheekbones and even a fractured skull.
Now, let’s see. Fred is running a caption contest, Nick wonders how they won WWII, Mary Katharine says that state-issued helmets and elbow pads are up next, and John Hawkins relates a story one of his college buddies had about walking into a pole while observing a Brazilian heartbreaker. Naturally, I won’t have anything nearly as good as that, but I’ll try anyway.
I guess when basic health care is rationed, and the populace becomes too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time, preventative measures are a must. At least they’re not talking about banning “walk ‘n texts” yet.
“If I have to be remembered because of statistics then I did something wrong along the way.”
Brett Farve at the press conference announcing his retirement
“Come on guys; I answered like eight questions. We’re running late."
Barack Obama at his first unfriendly press conference.
Let’s see some chatter out there; Shoebox can’t do it all himself :-)
The “Lost Generation” is a term that often refers to the generation of literary greats that moved to Europe following WWI. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound are some of the names included in this group.
Another definition of the “Lost Generation” refers to the generation of people coming of age during and shortly after WWI. According to Wikipedia:
The “Lost Generation” was said to be disillusioned by the large number of casualties of the First World War, cynical, disdainful of the notions of morality and propriety of their elders and ambivalent about 19th-century gender ideals.
With Hillary Clintons “comeback” wins of Tuesday night, I think the Democratic party has a chance to create the 20th Century version of the Lost Generation. (more…)
We might have a slight problem with the NRE Spring Hill campaign, which finally yielded fruit last night in Ohio and Texas. It seems Hillary Clinton, fresh off those wins, is talking a unity ticket with Barack Hussein Obama. While a quick stroll through Memeorandum and my feed reader (those not showing up in the Memeorandum “instant reaction” links include Freedom Eden, Ace of Spades and bRight & Early, with obligatory links to Michelle Malkin and VodkaPundit) shows both the right end and the Obama half of the left end poo-poohing the prospect, the Clinton half of the left is openly cheering it. Even though it didn’t sound very serious as she only discussed the possibility of her at the top of that, it was enough for Fox News to get Michelle and Kirsten Powers together to chew this over (once again, thanks for being the blogosphere’s DVR, AP).
I’ll ignore that it probably isn’t serious on her part, and that Obama isn’t ready to discuss it yet, and cash in my E ticket. A Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket would be a nightmare for the country. The modern Democratic Party is, at its core, a group of aggrieved constituencies united only by their hatred of uniquely-American aspects of America (i.e. conservatism and Republicans), and they represent the two largest of those constituencies. Given there are rather few in the voting pool that truly are non-partisan, and given there is a not-insignificant portion of that undecided that can be persuaded to particiapte in identity politics, a “unity ticket” would be more than enough to push them over the top.
Another consideration is preserving the Dems’ money advantage. With the Republican race for all intents and purposes over, John McCain can now conserve whatever money is left for the general election and the Democrat nominee. Meanwhile, we’ve got at least 6 more weeks of Democratic winter after Clinton saw her shadow in the bright spotlights of Ohio and Texas, and Pennsylvania has a couple of rather expensive media markets.
However, preventing that “unity ticket” is one of the goals of the NRE Spring Hill campaign. As Amanda Carpenter pointed out, Clinton has been throwing the kitchen sink at Obama. It’s just going to get uglier, and while politicians have an innate ability to forget personal attacks in the primary, there is an upper limit to that ability.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham Lincoln
Apparently you can fool a majority of the people every two years!
Both Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich won thier primaries last night. Kucinich won with 50% of the vote. Paul got 70% of the vote in his primary.
Both of these guys have held office since 1996.
With folks like these (and I could list a number of others) is it any wonder there is such a division in American politics?
It’s still way early but why not join in the fun of speculation about who John McCain will pick for VP.
A new name on the list is Senator John Thune. John who? Well for starters, he’s reportedly a good friend of John McCain’s
John Thune is the junior Senator from South Dakota. As far as Republican politics though, he’s no junior.
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It’s never too early to think about 4 years from now, especially since things are officially wrapped up on the Republican side. For the eternal optimists, I’ve included John McCain and the sitting VP (I didn’t want the more-or-less optimists who think McCain will be a 1-termer but think that Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney will be the sitting VP to get pigeon-holed with the pessimists, so I broke them out). For the pessimists, I’ve thrown in the two people most-likely to lay claim to the “next in line” title (Huckabee, who will finish second in delegates if he doesn’t release them all, and Romney, who will finish second in the popular vote but released all his delegates) and the field (note for those that want the field, 4 months ago, we all thought the 56-year streak of “next in line” would finally be broken this time around). For the nihilists, I’ve even thrown in the Whig-ing of the GOP.
Who will be the 2012 Republican Presidential nominee?
Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed
Total Voters: 253
Loading ...Mike Huckabee dropping tonight is the word on the Hot Air open thread. Fox and CNN have called the nomination for John McCain as he swept all 4 states.
Revisions/extensions (8:20 pm 3/4/2008) – Huck quotes George Brett wanting to bounce weakly to 2nd for his last at-bat, calls for party unity.
R&E part 2 (8:34 pm 3/4/2008) – I did not hear him release his candidates, so we’re safe from Ron Paul being #2 there once we get to the convention.
R&E part 3 (8:47 pm 3/4/2008) – The hot rumor is that he will run for Senate. Shoe, guess you will be paying for those tattoos after all.
Last revision/extension (6:23 am 3/4/2008) – As always, Allahpundit has the video…
Really, last R&E (8:17 pm 3/9/2008) – It seems sevenload.com is a major performance hit, so I pulled the video. You can watch it over at Hot Air.
I just haven’t had the steam to do it lately. Oh well; I’m on the Hot Air live thread, as the gang discovered Cover It Live.
I know that living on the campaign trail can be a bit “seat of the pants,” I didn’t realize it was “seat of the toilet!”
This is how the Hillary campaign accomodate the press folks that were slogging along with her in Texas.
How loud a cry of “sexisim” do you think there would be if McCain had had female reporters sitting next to urinals?
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