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 September 12th, 2008

Charity Begins At Home

by @ 13:34. Filed under Politics - National.

While the old adage tells us that “Charity begins at home,” it apparently doesn’t start at Joe Biden’s home!

Joe Biden released 10 years of tax returns  today.   Joe would be considered amongst the wealthy, according to Barack Obama, as he’s averaged about $270,000 of income over the past five years.   And, while Joe managed to pay nearly $185,000 in mortgage interest during that five years, he was only able to find $2,655 to give to charities!   No, that’s not $260,000, it’s not even $26,000.   Joe Biden gave $2,655 to charities over the past five years.

While Barack Obama has increased his charitable contributions since he has received a significant income bump from his book royalties, the maximum he and Michelle were unable to give prior to that bump was $3,400.   In fact, prior to his bump, even though he and Michelle averaged over $240,000 per year, they could only find an average of $2,154 of contributions in the same years.

In Barack Obama’s mind the “wealthy” including himself and Joe Biden who make around $250,000 contribute less than 1% of their income to charity.   In fact, in Joe Biden’s case the contribution is only .3% of his gross income.

Like so many other things in life, our opinions about charity are often  derived by our own actions and influenced by the actions of those close to us.

I’m beginning to understand Barack Obama’s desire to raise the taxes on the rich.   I’m beginning to understand why Barack Obama doesn’t believe that individuals are better set to support charities that support the unfortunate rather than bloating the government ranks with more and ever less efficient, welfare programs.   Barack Obama believes the government needs to do that task because his own experience, and that of his friends shows that they don’t support charities.

In the world of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, charity does not begin at home it begins and ends with government!

The Morning Scramble – 9/12/2008

by @ 9:28. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

I don’t have my Scramble song list to see if I duplicated this one, so sue me if I duplicate things…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtCfO7V-S5E[/youtube]

Despite the fact I haven’t had a “regular” Scramble since Monday, this one’s going to be limited and in no particular order. FeedDemon’s giving me all sorts of grief on the laptop today, and those crazy Libertarians from Reason had a late-night open bar last night I couldn’t miss (they had me at “open bar”).

  • Before I begin, a PSA from John Little – he rebroadcasts a very grim warning for those who are stupid enough to stay in Hurricane Ike’s path.
  • Patrick pictures the S.S. Hope and Change. Yep, she’s doing down by the stern.
  • Paul Socha questions the Milwaukee Elections Commission’s decision to use Tuesday’s partisan primary election to make a massive same-day registration drive at UWM. I am not amused, especially since gerrymandering puts the UWM campus on Milwaukee’s Upper East Side in the same state senate district as me in Oak Creek via the Jones Island sewage treatment plant.
  • Bruce explores the multiple links between Barack Obama and convicted tire-slasher-for-political-advantage Sowande A. Omokunde, who just happens to be the son of Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI). I guess Supreme Solar Allah was just doing some late-night “community organizing” when he ensured his mother’s ascention to Congress and John Kerry’s win in Wisconsin in 2004 </sarcasm>.
  • Dad29 reports Wisconsin’s Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (the only Republican to take a statewide/Congressional office away from the ‘Rats in 2006, if memory serves) is suing the Government “Accountability” Board for not checking voter registration records entered prior to August 6, 2008 against drivers’ license records as required by federal law. I’ll remind you that, while the GAB did check records entered between 8/6/2008 and the end of August this year, they’re not going to do anything about it. Do not miss Dad29’s takeaway line.
  • Zip is shocked, SHOCKED that Google ignored 9/11. I’m not surprised; they ignored Memorial Day as well, and their motto should be Don’t Be Evil Conservative or patriotic.
  • John notes that even Microsoft (yes, that EEEEEEEVIL Microsoft) had more sense than Google. I’ll point out that they also had more sense than Yahoo, but if memory serves, Yahoo doesn’t celebrate leftists’ birthdays.
  • James Wigderson got a hold of an e-mail on how the local paint-catcher planned on burying the expansion of the news that out-of-state gay rights activists are pumping money to buy the last piece of Wisconsin’s government not under ‘Rat control.
  • Moe Lane caught the ‘Rats trying to fix the election on the federal level. Well, they nominated a typical Chicago pol and one of the most-ossified members of Congress to be their standard-bearers, so of course they’ll pull Chicago Machine tactics to win by every nefarious means possible.
  • Headless Blogger wonders just how in Sam Hill Wisconsin could have over 1 million new registrations among 4.25 million adults in less than three years. I actually account for two of them with a pair of moves, though each time I changed my registration (at the city clerk’s office and nowhere near election day), I specifically instructed the clerk to remove the old record.
  • Lance Burri goes into the numbers behind Toofer Kevin Barrett’s Libertarian primary win in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District. I don’t know what’s scarier; that Barrett won the primary on a Toofer platform, or that less than 1 voter per precinct decided that election.
  • Jon Ham deconstructs Charlie Gibson’s and the LeftStreamMedia’s attempted ambush of Sarah Palin last night. I know I put out a call for somebody to DVR it, and I know Shoebox has it on DVR, but now I need a way to get it.
  • MataHarley found absolutely, positively no “cone of silence” around Obama last night. Once again, that proves how bad Obama is without somebody spoon-feeding him answers (I won’t mention that those he chooses to spoon-feed said answers are just as bad).
  • Jon Ham found that the envirowhackos have discovered jury nullification. It’s now a race to see whether Eurabia enters the 13th or 8th Century (or at least the 8th without the one French win).
  • Sister Toldjah wonders how today’s Left would have dealt with FDR. I wonder if his Communistic tendencies would outweigh his “warmongering”, praying ways in their eyes.
  • Mary Katharine Ham reports on the dedication of the Pentagon 9/11 memorial. For those tracking the bouncing ball that MKH has become, she is now part of the Weekly Standard crew (site note; since the DC Examiner emptied out Ham Blog, I pulled it from the temporarily-shrunken roll).
  • John Hawkins lists the top 7 reasons conservatives love Palin.
  • Owen is taking volunteers to do what the GAB and county clerks won’t; check the rolls.
  • Mary caught the Washington Post in full PDS mode.
  • Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin find it’s not easy for the ‘Rats to be green. They forgot that “being green” is for us little people while the apparachniks live high on the hog.
  • GayPatriotWest chronicles Joe Biden’s Greatest Gaffes, August/September 2008 Edition.
  • Kat found the original Al Qaeda in “a world of hurt”. I caution that they’re still franchising, and if we let up now, the fight won’t be far from our shores but on our soil.
  • Shoebox points out the fight on drilling is about to shift to the Senate and the Gang of 10 16. DRILL BABY, DRILL!
  • Mary notes the Obama campaign will officially join in their surrogates’ slime. Doesn’t surprise me; after all, they have a middle to turn off to politics.
  • John Washburn reports that local election officials are taking the half-mile given to them by the GAB and stretching it to a mile to prevent effective citizen oversight of the election process. Worse, that’s not in Milwaukee, or Racine, or Madison, or another bastion of Wisconsin vote fraud.
  • Fausta has the latest example of why The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted™ doesn’t want its headlines quoted.
  • Mary Katharine Ham tracks the rest of the Palin/Gibson interview headlines.

Missed It By That Much!

by @ 5:32. Filed under Energy.

I still laugh at every episode of “Get Smart.” I never tire of the, obvious as a train at 10 yards, jokes that hit you over and over again. One of the more obvious ones that are repeatedly used, is variations on a situation where the outcome is obvious and assured but the writers cause what should be assured to foul up.   After one of those you almost always hear Agent Smart adding the insulting “Missed it by that much,” and his thumb and pointer finger indicating a space of just an 1/8th of an inch.

I’m getting the feeling we have a similar situation lining up for us with the issue of increasing drilling for oil.

A headline in Rollcall confirms what has been suspected for the past few weeks:

Democrats Lack Votes to Extend Drilling Ban

House Democrats appeared ready Wednesday to allow offshore oil drilling nationwide after leaders realized they do not have the votes to extend a drilling moratorium.

While that is great news and is a direct result of the focus that the House Republicans have had on energy during the recess, all the news is not good.

The Democrats, seeing that they are in a political corner, are attempting to yet again bamboozle folks into thinking that they care more about the average citizen than their own pork laden positions:

Under legislation outlined Wednesday afternoon but still under discussion among Democrats, drilling would be allowed 50 to 100 miles offshore nearly everywhere provided that states agree to it. Drilling would be allowed 100 miles or more offshore on both coasts.

States would not receive revenue-sharing from the drilling, which Republicans argue is a necessary component to give coastal states incentives to allow the drilling.

The plan being discussed is similar to the one I took to task here. Basically it keeps drilling outside of 50 miles, keeps a moratorium in place for the Eastern Gulf and still allows the individual states to veto drilling off of their coasts, even outside of the 50 mile limit.   While I’m sure the bill will have “Energy Independence” embedded somewhere in the title, the bill as currently laid out would have as much to do with energy independence as I will have on the amount of snow that will fall this winter.

While we may lose the battle in the house, there’s always the filibuster in the Senate right?   Um, no, yes, maybe?

The Senate has the Gang of 10 16.   For reasons that don’t satisfy me or the folks at the National Review, 8 Republicans have decided to aide and abet the Democrats, giving them cover.

The plan in the Senate is as bad and worse, than that being considered by the House. In addition to the 50 mile limit, the Senate bill would prohibit drilling off the Pacific coast and the Eastern Shore of Florida.

Combining  the Democrat’s 51 votes and 8 from the Republicans, it looks like the Senate may be able to squeak past a filibuster with just 1 or 2 more conversions.   May! In another RollCall article, John Stanton reports that not everyone within the Republican conference is happy with the Senate gang’s activities:

After weeks of working relatively unmolested, Republican members of the gang found themselves a target of party criticism this week.

According to lawmakers attending the weekly Conference luncheon Tuesday and the Republican Steering Committee’s Wednesday lunch, Members panned the policy provisions as well as the compromise’s potential to cripple the party’s sole advantage in an otherwise brutal campaign cycle.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) pitched the deal at the GOP gathering. One Republican Senator called the confrontation between group members and opponents at the Tuesday lunch "very one-sided."

"Saxby got up and made a presentation, and he got dumped on by a whole bunch of people," the lawmaker said.

In that same article is the notion that nothing will get pass a filibuster in the Senate:

Under Reid’s schedule for next week, the chamber will first vote on a Democratic energy bill that is widely expected to fail. Reid has said he would then like to vote on the group’s proposal, and leadership aides have said Reid has made it clear to his Members that he does not want his party to take any blame for the bipartisan agreement failing. Reid has said he would then like to have a vote on a Republican version, which is also expected to fail.

And that brings us to the most dangerous part of this exercise:

With much of the Democratic caucus likely to vote for the bipartisan deal, Democrats have acknowledged Reid is aiming to corner Republicans into either voting for the bill "” and thus limiting the impact of their energy attacks "” or scuttling it themselves.

All of the hard work done by the House Republicans and by many ordinary citizens who phone, wrote and cajoled their Representatives to get a straight up or down vote on drilling may be undone by the Senate Republicans. If the Senate Republicans aren’t careful, they may either get a bill that provides for no real increase in exploration or worse, get no bill and end up being pointed to as the reason that a bill wasn’t accomplished.

We need the Senate Republicans in the Gang of 1016 to back off their bill and stand for a straight up or down bill. The President, the House Republicans and most importantly, the American people support a straight up and down vote on drilling. Barring that, allow the moratorium to expire and let the Democrats machinate as the attempt to hide it in one of the budget authorizations that are now under a time constraint.

Oh, and lest you think that decreasing gas prices is taking the focus off this issue, the American people understand that increasing our energy production is ever more essential. Especially so in a world where the behaviour or one rogue nation can have serious implications on the cost and availability of oil. The American people now fully understand that oil is not just a pocket book issue, it is also a security issue.

We need to call, write and cajole the eight Republican Senators who are part of the gang of 10 16. If they don’t change their plan I’m afraid that at the end of this session the American People may well be saying “Missed it by that much!”

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