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.
This is the first Memorial Day I spent on this side of the border since 1995. Last year, Patrick put up a video of his trip to Wisconsin Memorial Park. I’ll rerun it for you.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4fuyBI5o_s[/youtube]
I thank those that made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may be free.
While everybody else has been getting charcoal and propane for the unofficial start for summer, the Dems on the Joint Finance Committee have been busy working on the budget deficit. Of course, by work, I mean reward their campaign contributors and raid the few funds that have even a pittance of cash.
Greg Bump has been keeping track over at WisPolitics’ Budget Blog. The short version is that criminals (via in-state tuition for illegal aliens, the decriminalization of driving after revokation, and the non-felony welfare fraud), unions (via “prevailing wage” requirements for most public works projects), and homosexuals (via both a sex-neutral domestic partner benefit package for state workers and a homosexual-specific domestic partner registry) are the big winners, while the Attorney General’s office, municipalities, counties, and those who use health care are big losers.
I also recommend reading Rep. Robin Vos’ (R-Racine) Twitter stream.
(H/T – Alamo City Pundit)
The AP reports that, fresh from a denial by bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzalez to delay the expedited sale of portions of Chrysler to Fiat, the US and Canadian governments, and the UAW, three Indiana trust funds that held senior secured debt in Chrysler, the Indiana Major Moves Construction Fund, Indiana State Police Pension Trust (both managed by Indiana’s Treasurer, Richard Mourdock), and the Indiana State Teachers Retirement Fund will be appealing to district court to try to stop the sale and the 29-cents-on-the-dollar return for the senior secured creditors.
The Louisville Courier-Journal puts the losses suffered by the teachers’ fund at $4,600,000, the police fund at $147,000, and the road-construction fund at $896,000. The NEA, which just took over operation of the largest teachers’ union in Indiana after possible fraud committed by the union’s insurance arm, can’t be happy about that.
As a result, Treasurer Mourdock has instructed the funds run by his office to not buy any more secured debt from companies receiving federal bailout money. I guess we can now add state/local public capital to the list of capital no longer flowing to bailed-out companies.
(H/T – Rob Port)
Politico found a stupid Florida Dem, Rep. Alan Grayson, wondering how to make Disney World even more crowded. His solution? In the middle of a major recession, demand that companies with more than 100 employees immediately start offering both full-time and part-time employees with at least a year on the job a week of paid vacation, then 3 years after that goes into effect, bump that up to 2 weeks and require companies with 50 or more employees offer both full-time and part-time employees with at least a year on the job a week of paid vacation.
Somebody better ask Milwaukee how that 9-day paid-“sick”-leave deal is going. Last I checked, that wasn’t going so well.
What else should one expect from a Congress that gives itself almost as much vacation time as teachers? Speaking of that, the story finds Sen. Lisa Murkowski (“R”-AK) whining that isn’t enough. I may not have a quarter to give, and even if I did, I wouldn’t give her it, but I can still say, “Call someone who cares.”
I’m headed up north of the border for the annual Spring Walleye Hunt next week Saturday. Since Shoebox is still busy with his special project, and because Sister Toldjah gave me the keys to her place last month, I’ve brought in a couple more guest-bloggers:
– Sister Toldjah, a very nice North Carolina blogger
– Phineas, who runs Public Secrets out of California and who was one of my cohorts when ST took a week off
Let’s have a kegger before I go :-)
(H/T – Hot Air Headlines via Flip)
Remember what I relayed from Dad29 in what turned out to be Part 1 of what seems to be an ongoing series? Bloomberg reports that fund managers are now wary of lending money to unionized companies with unfunded pension liabilities because of what happened at Chrysler. Quoting George Schultze, head of Schultze Asset Management, one of the last Chrysler holdouts:
Lenders will have to figure out how to price this risk. The obvious one is: Don’t lend to a company with big legacy liabilities or demand a much higher rate of interest because you may be leapfrogged in a bankruptcy….
It’s terrible precedent. The sad thing is it impacts the manufacturing sector and the companies that have legacy liabilities directly. It will be nearly impossible, or much more expensive, to get secured financing for these type of companies.
I do want you to read the entire article. However, I can’t let the closing paragraph escape notice:
“People are starting to think ‘This is a very activist administration, even more than we counted on,’” said Martin Fridson, CEO of money manager Fridson Investment Advisors in New York. “If it comes down to the interest of creditors or labor unions, the administration is going to override what you thought you could do.”
What’s left of private capital for at-risk companies is about to exit stage left.
(H/T – Mary Katharine Ham)
Buried at the end of a Washington Post story on the failures of the government version of the Porkulus “watchdog” web presence is a telling quote from Earl E. Devaney, the Interior Department inspector general who has been placed in charge of stimulus oversight:
“We have four and a half years to turn this thing into its final product. My intent is not to have people come once and never come back. I want it to be good enough that the citizens who look at this site become the eyes and ears for the [inspector generals] and see things that normally an IG would have to stumble across.”
And here I thought the money was supposed to be spent this year and next.
Fausta has a few questions after President Obama’s speech this morning:
So, does this mean the “war on terror” should be called “the war on al Qaeda”?
And the specific statement, “like other prisoners of war”, raises the issue whether the Obama administration is considering changing the detainees’ status to that of POWs….
Closing Gitmo? Where’s the plan?
Supermax prisons taking Gitmo detainees? Which ones?
“New legal regime to detain terrorists”? Where’s the plan?
Very interesting questions. Do read the entire post.
Revisions/extensions (2:06 pm 5/21/2009) – Karl Rove found 5 different straw men in that speech, which he added to his longer list of 2009 Obama Straw Man Watch. My favorite from today:
“And we will be ill-served by some of the fear-mongering that emerges whenever we discuss this issue. Listening to the recent debate, I’ve heard words that are calculated to scare people rather than educate them; words that have more to do with politics than protecting our country.”
It is Thursday, so I’m resting from heavy lifting. Fortunately, Rick Moran isn’t. Rick may average a post a weekday, and he does at times have a bit of contempt for social conservatives, but those posts are must-reads.
This one is no different. Rick runs with a letter from a Dodge dealer getting shut off from the Dodge brand with no assistance from Dodge to relieve him of his soon-to-be-worthless inventory of cars and parts into why Obama is able to get away with what he’s doing, to an explanation of why it’s not merely an extension of what Bush did. I’ll give you a mid-post taste:
It can happen because at the moment, the opposition forces are scattered, dispirited, and engaged in a fruitless quest to determine who is a “real” conservative and who is an Obama loving, free market hating, wimpy, squishy RINO.
It can happen because we are barking up the wrong tree when we accuse the Democrats of practicing socialism. Any Chicagoan recognizes what’s going on as pure gangsterism – the application of power through the use blackmail, threats, and pure muscle and the devil take the Constitution, the rule of law, and simple fairness.
One of the good things about going through the logs is I’m able to find some good places that link here that otherwise would slip through the cracks. Rabbit does some pretty good howling from the park bench over at Moons End.
Last Friday, I gave you the original Heritage Foundation estimates of the economic effects of the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade-Tax plan. Because it couldn’t get enough support from rank-and-file ‘Rats, it went back to the drawing board. The Heritage Foundation found that the effects are even worse the second time around:
- Our original economic analysis had the government auctioning off the allowances (rights to emit) carbon dioxide. The auction revenue, the equivalent of tax revenue, went into the hands of the government, which in turn created more government jobs. In the second version of the bill, the government distributed allowances to various businesses in an attempt to mitigate the near-term economic damage done by the bill. As a result, jobs in the private sector fell less than the original but the government jobs decreased more because the government did not receive the allowance revenue from the auction. Overall employment fell.
- Think of the allowances given away as subsidies to businesses. When these subsidies stop and allowances begin to be auctioned off, the economy is again “shocked” with higher indirect taxes and businesses must make costly adjustments to this new economic condition.
- Real GDP losses increase an additional $2 trillion from the bill because investment for businesses is worse under the new bill. Again, the government is not auctioning off the rights for businesses to emit carbon dioxide; they are giving them away in the near-term. These giveaways add to the national debt, crowd out private sector investment and drive up interest rates. Increased interest rates further drive up the debt. This creates a vicious cycle in which businesses significantly reduce their investment. The lack of investment (that drives the overall economy) produces higher real GDP losses and lowers the potential of the overall economy.
But wait, it gets even worse. Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) reports that the ‘Rats added, on a party line vote, mandates that all home sales include an energy-efficiency inspection and a study be made in preparation for every product sold in the United States to be labeled as to their CO2 “content” (i.e. how much CO2 is emitted in the manufacture of each product).
Somehow, I think the fine folks at Heritage understated the damage to the economy.
Revisions/extensions (7:42 am 5/21/2009) – (H/T – McQ) I’m suddenly feeling like Billy Mays here. But wait, that’s not all! As part of their Top Ten list, Heritage included this handy graphic showing just how big a bite Cap-and-Trade-Tax will take.
For those of you who missed it, it handily beats food, clothing, furniture, the current cost of household energy, and the average property tax. Of course, those of us in Wisconsin pay a lot more in property tax, but $3,900 even beats that.
My allergies are knocking me flat, and it’s Thursday, so it’s time for another edition of Open Thread Thursday. Have at it.
I admit that I’m not one of those that watches “American Idol”. Kevin McCullough, co-host of BMX Radio along with Stephen Baldwin (yes, THAT Stephen Baldwin), does, and he links the results of the final three of this season’s run to the culture wars. Once again, I’ll tease you with the close:
There will be more debate in the days to come. And my rule still generally holds true – originality will usually trump the field.
This year, in the largest vote ever cast, America instead voted for tradition…
Now if we could just get those who focus on public policy to do the same!
Karl Rove lists a whole litany of things that, as Jim Geraghty terms it, reached their expiration date, between the Obama candidacy and the Obama Presidency. I’ll force you over to The Wall Street Journal to read the list, but I will tease you with the close:
Mr. Obama either had very little grasp of what governing would involve or, if he did, he used words meant to mislead the public. Neither option is particularly encouraging. America now has a president quite different from the person who advertised himself for the job last year. Over time, those things can catch up to a politician.
There are two questions:
Nate Beeler over at The Washington Examiner nails the Middle East situation…
(H/T – The Lid, who is now on the roll of bloat)
Yes, I believe that this particular consequence of the envirowhackos’ agenda, unlike most of the consequences, is unintended. The National Post reports that a lot of reusable cloth bags, currently in vogue among the envirowhacko set, have bacterial, yeast, or mold contamination in tests conducted for the Environment and Plastics Industry Council in Canada. Specifically:
– 64% of the bags tested were contaminated with some level of bacteria
– 30% had bacterial levels higher than what Ontario considers safe for drinking water
– 40% had yeast or mold infection
– The most troubling – some bags had fecal bacteria on them.
Given that it takes hot water (or bleach) to disinfect the bags, and a heated clothes dryer to quickly dry the bags before contaminants that survive the laundering process can really take hold in the dampness left by the water, I’m waiting for the envirowhacko screams when they realize, like corn-a-hole, the “solution” is at least as bad as the problem.
In a continuing quest to synchronize my overstuffed feed reader with the roll of bloat, it’s well past time to add The Lid to the latter.
(H/T – Asian Badger)
Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard notes something missing from the ingredients that are coming together for economic recovery – CEO confidence. Quoting Rich
The Fed has done its job. (Maybe too well, but that’s another story for another day.) Consumer sentiment and spending have bounced back. The headwinds that remain have less to do with bank stress tests and more to do with CEO mood. The Business Roundtable, which represents big business, reported “record low” CEO confidence in April:
–71% of CEOs plan more layoffs in the next six months.
–Most see declines in capital spending.
–The CEO Economic Outlook Index was negative for the first time.
Why is that so? History provides a guide (again quoting Rich):
In her book The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes wrote that the 1937–38 “depression within the Depression” occurred when capital went on strike. President Roosevelt’s willingness to “try anything” (including retroactive taxation, laws against discount pricing and an attempt at packing the Supreme Court) had businesses and their backers so confused over FDR’s rules that they simply withdrew.
This is the risk of President Obama’s willingness to “do what it takes.” Those words sound positive and action-oriented. They really mean “anything can happen.” The tearing up of legal contracts? That can happen. Limits to salary and travel? That can happen. Bullying by the Environmental Protection Agency? That can happen. Nationalization of General Motors and Citigroup? That can happen. Nobody knows for sure what will happen. Government is sorting it out day by day.
There are two things that can happen with a lack of investment from the CEOs and, as Dad29 points out in the comments over at Asian Badger, the corporate bond market, and neither of them are good: increased unemployment as business continue to shed workers, and increased inflation as more money (in this case, caused by an extremely loose Fed bolstered by consumer confidence) chases fewer goods (caused by a lack of capital investment). As they say, those who don’t remember history (or willfully ignore its painful lessons),….
(H/T – JammieWearingFool, who hasn’t had a Full Metal Jacket Reach-Around in a while)
The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted™ reports that the Senate, not content with slapping a 3-cent-per-12-ounce tax on sugary drinks to pay for nationalized universal health care, is planning on massive increases in alcohol excise taxes to do the same:
– 17% on hard liquor, from $2.14 per fifth to $2.54 per fifth
– 233% on wine, from $0.21 per bottle to $0.70 per bottle
– 145% on beer, from $0.33 per six-pack to $0.71 per six-pack
Lest one thinks that they’re going to stop there, let’s run the numbers:
– It is estimated that nationalized universal health care will cost $1,500 billion over the first 10 years. We all know that’s a low-ball figure, but let’s run with it.
– The sugar tax would supposedly bring in $50 billion over that 10 years.
– The new alcohol tax would supposedly bring in $60 billion over 10 years.
That leaves, assuming the nationalized universal health care costs aren’t understated and the revenues aren’t overstated, a $1,390 billion hole. Need I remind the bipartisan Party-In-Government that California rejected tax increases yesterday? I seem to recall excessive taxation being the reason why we don’t bow to Queen Elizabeth II.
(H/T – Robert Stacy McCain)
When I went to BlogWorld in 2007, I remember seeing something about pay-per-post, where companies would pay bloggers to write good stuff about their products. Apparently, the ninnies that can’t read the Constitution over at the Federal Trade Commission just discovered that (either that, or they got into power on 1/20 and got to this point in their checklist). BusinessWeek reports:
But such back-scratching endorsements could become tougher under a coming set of Federal Trade Commission guidelines designed to clarify how companies can court bloggers to write about their products. This summer, the government agency is expected to issue new advertising guidelines that will require bloggers to disclose when they’re writing about a sponsor’s product and voicing opinions that aren’t their own. The new FTC guidelines say that blog authors should disclose when they’re being compensated by an advertiser to discuss a product.
Don’t get me wrong; those that do accept items of value in return for raving about a particular product should disclose that. However, we don’t need the federal government mandating it.
For the record, no corporate entity has ever given me anything in exchange for blog-inches. Of course, the fact that I don’t do reviews has something to do with that.
I may not be a big blogger, but I wholeheartedly agree with what John Hawkins and Erick Erickson put together:
Dear Senator Cornyn,
We the undersigned believe that the National Republican Senatorial Committee should be committed to serving ALL the members of the Republican Party.
Additionally, the NRSC should be focused on defeating Democrats, not Republicans. Towards that end, we believe it was completely inappropriate for the NRSC to endorse a candidate in the Florida primary race.
Therefore, we request that both you and the NRSC alter your position on the Florida Senate race, maintain neutrality, and promise to spend no money directly or indirectly in that race.
Sincerely yours,
John Hawkins
Right Wing NewsErick Erickson
RedstateEd Morrissey
Hot AirJon Henke
The Next RightEric Odom
American Liberty AlliancePamela Geller
Atlas ShrugsR.S. McCain
The Other McCain, Right Wing News, Not One Red CentDan Riehl
Riehl World ViewJeff Goldstein
Protein WisdomKevin Aylward
Wizbang!Lorie Byrd
Wizbang!David Blount
Moonbattery, Right Wing NewsMelissa Clouthier
Melissa Clouthier, The Other McCain, Right Wing NewsJeff Vreeland
Tech Republican, President of VM Technologies and IT Chairman for the YRNFMatt Lewis
Politics DailyNed Ryun
The Madison ProjectJustin Hart
John Caldwell
Joshua Trevino
Co-founder of Redstate, founder of Treviño Strategies and Media.Chip Hanlon
Red CountyRobert Loewen
President of the Lincoln Club of Orange CountyRichard Wagner
Chairman of the Lincoln Club of Orange County
Allow me to add my signature to the list:
-Steve Eggleston
No Runny Eggs
Reps. Paul Ryan (R-WI, and my Congressman) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Sens. Dr. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) unveiled the Patients Choice Act earlier today. As part of the publicity push, they wrote an op-ed piece carried by Real Clear Politics. From the beginning of that:
While President Obama may believe the stars are aligned for major health reform this year it is far from certain whether Congress will pass a bill that works. The groups that are most likely to unravel this effort are not the president’s opponents, but his allies. Nothing will rally ordinary Americans against the president’s plan more than his allies arguing too forcefully for a system run by politicians and bureaucrats in Washington – what we call the “public option” in the Obama plan.
It should come as no surprise that this ideologically rigid position is coming under fire. As the Washington Post recently wrote, “the fixation on a public plan is bizarre and counterproductive … It is entirely possible to imagine effective health-care reform – changes that would expand coverage and help control costs – without a public option.”
I’m still sifting through the long summary and the Q&A that Rep. Ryan’s office sent over, so I will be updating this post this afternoon. In the interim, you may as well enjoy them, as well as the short 2-page summary. I wish I could offer you the text, but the Library of Congress’ THOMAS system doesn’t have it up yet.
PCA Q&A
PCA long summary
PCA short summary
My immediate reaction is that this is a far sight better than what the Democrats have been cooking since 1993.
How good is Robert Stacy McCain? He takes a perceived personal slight and turns it into an expose into what went wrong for the GOP. The payoff:
Like the corporate manager who loses sight of his responsibility to the customers and to the stockholders, the Republican elite have lost sight of whose interests the party was intended to serve. What is really at issue here is, “Whose party is this?”
Is this a party that belongs to Republican voters? Or is it a party that belongs to the hired consultants and strategists, the think-tank wonks and lobbyists, the Kathleen Parkers and David Brookses? And of these two groups, which is more responsible for the GOP’s recent defeats — the elite or the grassroots? On Election Night, I wrote an American Spectator column with the title, “You Did Not Lose,” which I think accurately answers that question.
Republican voters are more powerful than the Republican elite; the latter are dependent on the former, and not vice versa. If the elite no longer serves the interests of the voters, a new elite can be easily created. Ambitious young Republican political operatives are a dime a dozen in Washington. It is only because the grassroots don’t know their own power that they have put up with the elite’s abuse as long as they have.
I could’ve swore I put Doctor Dave on the oversized roll of bloat on the right side before now, but somehow I didn’t. Don’t be like me and keep on forgetting to add Feed Your ADHD to your rolls and readers.
I’ve got Fox News on now, and in the pre-show, Major Garrett noted that additional standards will be based on specific types of cars (i.e. bigger cars won’t quite be required to get 39 mpg). Unspoken, but assumed, is that smaller cars would be required to get more than 39 mpg.
It’s been a while since I did a live-blog the old-fastioned way. I don’t feel like firing up the CiL for this. Do hit refresh for the latest, as things are expected to kick off a bit after 11:15 am Central. BTW, I’m taking bets on how late Obama and company will be. I’ve got 9:13 after the appointed time.
11:19 – The captive and greedy automotive execs and the Gorebal “Warming” crowd is waiting. Tick. Tock.
11:20 – That was not a slip of the tongue by Jon Scott – Government Motors indeed.
11:22:44 – Obama finally shows up. Time for intros.
11:23 – First one is a shout-out to Plastic Pelosi (she’s going nowhere, folks). EPA chair, a near-snub of Ahnold in the governor’s intros (Granholm first). Senators missing because they’re screwing those that pay credit card bills on time.
11:24 – First “industry” shout-out to the head of the UAW. The rest of the cabinet now. Since when is HUD part of the “Green Team”? Oh, and where’s LaHood, the RepubicRAT who’s in charge of implementing CAFE?
11:26 – Another shoutout to the UAW before a general one to the cowed and craven. We are setting a national screw-industry-and-motorists standard.
11:27 – Amazing what a little Chicago Way Muscle can do to titans of industry. Oil is Teh Eeeeevil (side note – why not drill here, drill now, drill everywhere, dumbass?)
11:28 – “We’ve known since the oil crises of the 1970s” (and your fellow ‘Rats have been blocking all of the domestic production solutions since then).
11:29 – This is a harbringer of change – “We will not longer accept that government is too small”. (Them’s fighting words)
11:30 – Because of the tyrrany of the bipartisan Party-In-Government, each seeking to implement its own policy, we’re taking the worst of all possible policies. Because we’re giving in to the envirowhackos, they’re dropping their lawsuits.
11:32 – At a time when the domestic auto industry is in painful flux, we’re going to give it the certainty that it’s getting shoved off the cliff and under my bus.
11:33 – You can’t save money if you don’t spend (er, hybrids still don’t make sense).
11:34 – We’ll save 1.8 billion barrels of oil, equivalent to taking 58 million cars off the road (money says they’ll try to take 58 million cars off the road anyway).
11:35 – Mo’ spending money. Plug-in hybrids get a shoutout, as does electrical transmission (er, what about electrical production?)
11:36 – We’re going to break in 8 years what took 80 to build. Call to the ‘Rat version of bipartisanship (bull-fucking-shit)
11:37 – A third specific shoutout to the UAW. They bought the office.
11:39 – We’re not quite out – a shout-out for the only domestic SUV to make the 30 mpg grade – the Ford Escape Hybrid.
11:40 – Major Garrett pointing out that Congress has no role. Translation – the Goron won, and he’s going to ram it straight up the backside. Oh, and whatever we do will be overwhelmed by Red Chinese and Indian pollution.
NOW we’re done.
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