No Runny Eggs

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

Archive for May 6th, 2008

Late-night Indiana live-blogging

by @ 22:09. Filed under Politics - National.

Since I’m not running CoverItLive (it was too late to get it started), do scroll down and hit refresh for updates. The last one went up at 12:12 12:23 am 5/7/2008.

Guess I’m taking over for ST and Ed/Allahpundit. I don’t feel like firing up CoverItLive, but I’ve got my Mountain Dew, and a quick recap:

– With 86% in, Clinton’s up 560,720 to 521,415.
– They’re hand-counting about 11,000 ballots in Lake County (the county closest to Chicago), so no results from them yet.
– There’s also no results from Union County in east-central Indiana, which is Clinton country.
– Obama and CBS have conceded Indiana to Clinton, but nobody else is calling it.

10:09 pm – For those thinking that Lake could deliver the state for Obama, I’m estimating he’ll need about 38,000 votes. Ed noted in the Hot Air live thread that there were about 110,000 votes for Kerry in 2004, so if that’s the base, Obama would need about a 35-point win. The primary numbers are actually running about 30% higher than that statewide, so there’s likely about 143,000 votes out there. That would suggest he would need a 27-point win.

10:21 pm – Karl Rove just ripped Hillary for having a red-faced Bill out there. I guess it has to be said…”Rove you magnificent bastard! Hill should’ve read your book!”

Lead’s now 568,039-528,432, 87% in. Projected pre-Lake (and pre-Union County) lead still holding within a couple hundred.

10:39 pm – Lead’s down to 574,643-536,332, 88% reporting. The memes are already starting for Clinton to drop. I say, “No sleep ’till Denver!”

We’re down to 8 counties with partial or no results:
Lake – no results
Union – no results
Porter (81% in) – Clinton up approximately 16,900-12,300
Laporte (88% in) – Clinton up approximately 13,100-12,100
Hamilton (99% in) – Obama up approximately 25,300-16,500
Hancock (98% in) – Clinton up approximately 6,100-4,100
Marion (98% in) – Obama up approximately 121,900-60,200
Monroe (67% in) – Obama up approximately 8,900-4,600

10:50 pm – Statewide, with 91% in, it’s 587,973-566,988 Clinton. That’s Lake County’s Gary’s effect (that’s from CNN); with 28% in Lake County, it’s 27,991-9,470 in Obama’s favor. Porter’s also all in.

11:01 pm – It’s 588,106-567,104 Clinton. American Pundit is also burning the midnight oil (literally).

11:09 pm – Wolf Blitzer really laid into the Hammond mayor (Clinton supporter) for Lake County’s refusal to release partial results. Somehow I doubt CNN will be joining the Drop Hill meme.

Meanwhile, Laporte finished reporting, Clinton up statewide 588,823-568,156 (92% reporting). Still no results from Union County.

11:18 pm – No new numbers, but some back-of-the-envelope math of what’s still left to be picked up in the other counties reporting partial results:
– Hamilton (99% in) – Obama should pick up about 100 votes
– Hancock (97% in) – Clinton should pick up about 100 votes
– Marion (98% in) – Obama should pick up about 1,300 votes
– Monroe (67% in) – Obama should pick up about 2,100 votes

Union County, which still isn’t reporting, should get Clinton about 2,000 net. That would cut Clinton’s statewide lead to under 20,000, which would give the state to Obama if Lake matches Marion (Indianapolis). Lake is the second-most-populous county behind Marion, and is essentially a suburb of Chicago.

11:22 pm – Er, make that even approaches Marion. The rest of the county would need to go 60-40 Obama to put it in the margin of error.

American Pundit, who’s kept an eye on Fox, notes that 6,000 absentee ballots may not be counted tonight. Oh brother.

11:27 pm – Guess I better listen to Fox rather than the Clinton News Network (where a flack is trying to spin) – they’re reporting that Clinton has canceled her morning appearances (thanks again, AmerPundit).

11:37 pm – More numbers from both Lake and Monroe Counties. Clinton’s lead is now 606,497-589,888 with 95% reporting. Will be back with analysis shortly.

11:53 pm – Bear in mind that there are potentially 6,000 absentee ballots that won’t be counted tonight. The freshly-reporting portion of Lake County went 55-45 Obama, putting the county thus far at 65-35 Obama. If the rest of the county reports the way the fresh numbers came in, Clinton should have about a 10,000-vote win. If they report the way the county overall reports, it should be about a 2,000-vote win for Obama.

AmerPundit notes that it came from Merrilville and part of Munster along with the rest of Gary, so those more-familiar with the lay of the land can tell me which way the wind’s blowing.

11:54 pm – Make that 7,000 absentee ballots in Lake County (thanks again, AmerPundit). Also, Monroe County is 98% in.

12:02 am 5/7/2007 (assume the new date) – The Clinton News Network just got done grilling the mayor of Gary (an Obama superdelegate). Also, it’s all-but-official in North Carolina – Obama took it 56.7%-41.9% with 99% reporting.

12:06 am – This is just too rich; the Hammond mayor (Clinton supporter) accusing Lake County election officials of hanky-panky on CNN. Reap what you sow…. AP, you getting this?

12:12 am – Time’s almost out for Obama to declare a sweep. Almost all of Lake is in, and the statewide Clinton lead is now 637,389-615,370. Lake’s at 98% and Obama’s lead is 66,265-53,310.

CNN calling it for Clinton. So is Fox, ABC and NBC. Union County, which won’t report until 2 am, won’t matter.

Good night, good fight.

12:23 am – Meh; call me a pol. CNN got the numbers out of Union, which Clinton won 803-383 (everybody reporting). Statewide, it’s Clinton up 638,192-615,753.

NOW I’m history.

More Bad News for Candidate Al Franken

by @ 14:09. Filed under Miscellaneous.

I’ve documented Franken’s problems with obeying tax laws his accountant here and here.
Some folks have been skeptical that these issues would impact Franken’s bid for Senate. I however believe that while we from Minnesota are politically confused, our compasses point pretty much north regarding ethics and integrity. It appears my knowledge of Minnesotans is proving out.

In a new poll, SurveyUSA  is showing that Franken’s tax issues are having a negative impact on his campaign. 59% of those surveyed say that Franken’s tax problems make them less likely to vote for him. Perhaps worse, 51% say he should step out of the race.

Obviously things can change but Franken is one of those guys who is difficult to find anything likable about. With 59% saying they are less likely to vote for Franken,  I’m hoping it won’t  be too long before he is referred to as “Former Senate candidate, Al Franken.”

Barack Obama – Postpartisan with the Undead!

by @ 13:45. Filed under Miscellaneous.

OK, this isn’t Bordello of Blood but still, this is pretty funny.
From the website:
Barackula is a short political horror rock musical about young Barack Obama having to stave off a secret society of vampires at Harvard when he was inducted into presidency at the Harvard Law Review in 1990.

If you have 10 minutes…take a look!

The real life parallels are amazing:
Barack leading blood suckers!
Barack negotiating with the undead!

The Morning Scramble – 5/6/2008

by @ 9:27. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Today is somebody’s last stand, though I hope it lasts another 3 months…

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

– Blogs4Bauer has a reason for Dave Bauer to get off his duff and save DC; the Attorney General is an envirowhacko.
– Owen has the appropriate two-letter answer to Fed chair Ben Bernanke’s call for intervention in the mortgage market.
– William Teach notes Mad Vlad Putin wants Georgia as a going-“away” present. Looks like it truly is back to the USSR.
– That goes so well with this item; Slublog notes the Soviet Union Russia is going back to the old practice of marching weapons through Red Square. Maybe I shouldn’t have struck out the once-and-likely-future name of that country.
– Staying with the Communists, Lawhawk and Jim Hoft run through the contents of the computers that belonged to former (dead, actually) FARC head Raul Reyes. Did I mention that Interpol didn’t find Karl Rove’s fingerprints on some rather damning evidence against the ‘Rats and Barack Hussein Obama?
– The folks at Investor’s Business Daily dip into the memory hole to rescue Obama’s rather-lenghty and cozy relations with Marxists both past and present.
– Michelle Malkin took my first choice for today’s song in what should be her live-thread for today’s primaries.
– Mary Katharine Ham notes one bad side-effect of Operation Chaos/NRE Spring Hill campaign; S(l)ick Willie got his groove back.
– Slublog breaks out the Hulk for Hillary Clinton’s plans to “smash” OPEC. But, but, but I thought she wasn’t for blood-for-oil (or maybe she thinks they’ll listen to lawyers like they didn’t do in the 1970s).
– Meanwhile, Fausta found out Hillary didn’t “exactly” report $24 million of Bill’s income to the Senate. Then again, she’s a ‘Rat and a Clinton, so other than PMSNBC and the rest of the Obama Media focusing on this, expect nothing from the LeftStreamMedia.
– Jim Geraghty explodes the myth that it is one man, one vote in the party of the Rat.
– Allahpundit rolls the official DVR of the blogosphere on CNN’s smug announcement that they’re a Wright-free zone. My answer; this place is neither Wright-free nor Hussein-free.
– Staying with the media, Amanda Carpenter notes that a pair of sinking ships are tying the knot to tag-team against the person who used to be their favorite Pubbie. Grey Lady, meet the Leg Thrill.
– One more free shot at the presstitutes; Plebian stole AP’s new style book.
– Doubleplusundead has today’s McCain Photoshop.
– Shoebox has today’s lesson of supply and demand. The same thing that happened to oil is happening to the bipartisan Party-In-Government’s prefered substitute, corn.
– Random10 exposes yet another reason why the Gorons that run the Sierra Club are not conservationists but Marxist envirowhackos.
– Bill Quick notes even Jay Leno realizes that, had we started drilling in ANWR when Bill Clinton shot that down, we’d have that oil on-line now.
– Josh Schroeder says the Rats are preparing for the inevitable overturning of Roe v Wade as only they can. Now, who said that abortion was not an issue?
– JammieWearingFool asks, “You got change for a ZW$250,000,000 bill?” On the black market, that’ll get you about US$2.50.
– CDR Salamander has a couple of gripes about LCS (PCU) 2. Nothing like leaky aluminum on a ship designed to fight in close to shore.
– I missed out on the initial react to the proposed $10 county-wide wheel tax for the buses, but Donna Martinez sums up why it’s a bad idea, using Durham, North Carolina as the example to not follow.

Ready for higher food prices?

by @ 5:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

On March 31st, the USDA released  its crop estimates for the year.   Included was an estimate that acres planted with corn were going to drop 8% from the 2007.   Even with the reduction in acreage the overall crop yield should be about the same as 2007 which was 13.1 billion bushels.

So we’ve got lots of corn, that’s good news.

Here’s the bad news.

in 2007, approximately 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol was produced. The 2007 Energy Security Act requires that 9.0 billion gallons of ethanol be produced in 2008. 2.8 gallons of ethanol come from each bushel of corn. That means that nearly 1 billion additional bushels of corn will be required just for ethanol production this year.

What do you think will happen to food prices when overall corn production is flat but corn demand for ethanol increases by nearly 50%? They sure as heck aren’t going down!

In a recent Rasmussen poll, 54% of Americans finally understand that burning food is hurting their pocketbook.

Maybe we aren’t a nation of sheeple afterall.

I Don’t Remember the Golden Calf Working out Well the First Time

by @ 5:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

PETA pushes for tribute to honor cows killed at stockyards

An animal rights group wants a memorial to slaughtered cows erected at the site of South St. Paul’s stockyards.

In a Monday letter to Greg Miller, president of the company that is developing 27 acres of land vacated by Central Livestock last month, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urges that he “recognize this site’s historical significance and honor the millions of cows auctioned off for slaughter.”

This is one place where I’m happy to jump in with the Darwinians…we evolved further therefore we get to make the rules, we win.  

Do these look in need of subsidies?

by @ 5:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

The following charts so the price activity for the three largest US grain products.

In the face of these commodities having increases of at least 60% in the last year, Congress is looking to dramatically increase farm subsidies.

Congress is debating a farm subsidy bill  that would be $300 billion dollars over the next 5 years.   For those of you keeping score, that amounts to $2,678 for every American family.   In Barack Obama’s world, this amounts to nothing as it’s only $45 per month per family (He thinks $30 savings each month from the elimination of the gas tax is “nothing”).

While the Democrats and sympathetic Repulicans cry that these subsidies are for “the family farm,”  Citizens Against Government Waste did the legwork for the 2007 farm bill and not only dispelled that myth but give other  the reasons why a continuation of farm subsidies is wrong for America. Here are a few of their findings:

 

  • The largest 10 percent of grain farmers, with an average net worth of $2.4 million, receive 50 percent of all grain subsidies.
  • First, 60 percent of farmers don’t even produce crops that are eligible for subsidies. More than 90 percent of farmers either receive no subsidies or receive less than $2,000 annually.
  • 80% of farms GROSS $50,000 or less making it unlikely that they are farming as sole source of income.

  • 60 percent of sugar program benefits go to the wealthiest one percent of sugar farmers.

 

If at a time when many agricultural products are at record prices we need to not only continue but increase subsidies, is there ever a time when we don’t need them?  

It’s time for Republicans to show some backbone and tell Americans why this is bad for the country, bad policy and that they won’t vote for it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another “Elite” Inserts Foot Sideways

by @ 5:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Here’s a video of Stephen King, who I used to think had a pretty good brain, slandering our military personnel:

Sounds very familiar to another “Elite” John Kerry who in 2006 said that if you don’t get a good education “you get stuck in Iraq.”

From now on, those of us that can read can buy books from author’s whose name isn’t Stephen King.

 

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