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 June 19th, 2009

Emergency roll bloat – very forgetful edition

by @ 20:30. Filed under The Blog.

Somehow, until Sam pointed it out, I didn’t realize that I didn’t have yoSAMite says on the bloated roll. Sorry about that, Sam; it’s fixed now.

The obligatory L’affair Flynn-McBride post

by @ 18:39. Filed under Law and order, Politics - Milwaukee, Presstitute Follies.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice broke the news that Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn and UW-Milwaukee journalism lecturer/freelance journalist Jessica McBride (both married, and not to each other) had an affair at roughly the same time McBride wrote a lengthy piece on Flynn in Milwaukee Magazine. There are a few different directions I can take this bout of stupidity from the two of them.

First, if other rumors are true, this is not the first time either one of them have had an extramarrital affair. That limits my sympathies to the children of McBride and her husband, and any minor children Flynn may have.

Second, while this is a serious ding in Flynn’s credibility, it is not quite fatal for him. For those on the left that want to bleat hypocrisy, there is a major difference between Flynn and former President Bill Clinton – unlike the serial denier, who lied about L’Affair Clinton-Lewinsky to a federal grand jury investigating him for sexual harrassment, Flynn got out in front of this and admitted it, as well as apologized, before the story hit print. In fact, the Journal Sentinel reports that both Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett and the Fire and Police Commission are standing behind Flynn.

The same cannot be said for McBride. She has in the past taught journalism ethics, so she knows that it is a serious breach of trust to be bedding one’s sources, whether it is before the stories are written or whether merely the spark is formed during the course of pursuing the stories with ignition shortly thereafter.

Revisions/extensions (2:07 pm 6/23/2009) – Thanks to James Wigderson, there’s a follow-up that includes Bice’s questionable tactics and writing, based on a revealing of the timeline.

WTMJ-DT down, not quite out

by @ 18:05. Filed under Miscellaneous.

For those of you who get your TV through antennas or satellite, WTMJ-DT went off the air about 12:20 am this morning, and is still off its normal digital channel (if memory serves, physical channel 27). For a short while, it also affected Time Warner subscribers and for a longer time, it affected Charter subscribers, but they managed to get a hard-wire solution.

In the meantime, Journal Broadcast and Weigel Broadcasting, which runs WDJT-DT/WMLW-CA/WBME-DT, has made arrangements to put a standard-definition signal on one of its WBME-DT subchannels, channel 49-2.

Related to that, WTMJ is the only private Milwaukee station that is able to run weather updates in HD. Hey WITI, WISN and WDJT – get off your duffs.

Revisions/extensions (8:38 pm 6/19/2009) – As capper points out in the comments, the on-air version of WTMJ-DT is back.

Sam’s the man

by @ 16:38. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

I’ve been so busy (or at least out of it) lately that I missed this announcement from Sam Hagedorn, the man behind YoSAMite Says and all-around good guy:

Today I filed my papers to become a candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly – 12th District. This is the seat currently held by Rep. Fred Kessler.

I’m running on who I am – a conservative.

I think the state government should lower taxes. How? Well first by looking for duplicate services and eliminating them. Those who receive money should be held to the highest standards and if they don’t meet those standards, they should stop getting the funds.

This budget and previous one’s have been put together behind closed doors. Our legislators need to be held accountable, especially when deciding on how to administer money. No budget should be voted on until the citizens of the state have a say in it. We need a daylight budget process.

I also believe that education is priority. The state should encourage the best in schools, no matter if it is a public, private, charter, choice, virtual school or home schooling. What matters is the education received.

In this economy and really at all times, job creation is important. Private industry provides the best avenue for job growth and entrepreneurship. The state should not stand in the way. Less government allows for more freedom to grow in all areas of life including the business climate.

I’ll have more on my website within a couple of weeks.

For those who don’t know the districts, the 12th covers most of the far northwest side of Milwaukee and the very-far northwest part of Wauwatosa.

Good luck, Sam. The bad news is that, other than Kathy Carpenter, the Cheddarsphere has not had any success in elections.

Pawlenty – Just Boring Enough to be President

by @ 5:49. Filed under Politics - Minnesota, Politics - National.

At least that’s what the author of this article believes. Somehow the author concludes that the US voters swing from one extreme of personal characteristics to the other: 

This has happened several times in the last 20 years. George H.W. Bush was seen as non-empathetic. Bill Clinton was full of empathy, and could capitalize on the contrast. Clinton came to be seen as lacking moral rectitude. George W. Bush seemed upright, and could again capitalize. Finally, the younger Bush came to be seen as overly certain. Obama took advantage by emphasizing his ability to see shades of gray.

If Obama utterly fails the author believes that the next President to be elected will be the opposite of Obama i.e. the blandest of bland:

In other words, when incumbent presidents lose their luster, those with qualities opposite theirs can stand to gain. If the public sours on Obama, his pizzazz and speechifying abilities could be rebranded as a negative – “all sizzle and no steak.” In that situation, the GOP might do well to have somebody who can’t make a political rally look like a Beatles concert. Boring could be pitched as competent, sensible, and able to get the job done.

The conclusion…TPaw:

Of course, it’s still very early. My point is simply that the contrast between Obama and Pawlenty might be a beneficial one for the GOP to offer if the public has soured on the incumbent. If it hasn’t – it really does not matter what the party does. Popular incumbents never lose.

And that’s where this author, along with many others lose all credibility.  Once again we have an author who believes that running as the anti Democrats is somehow an answer.  It’s not.  If we learned nothing from watching McCain’s debacle it is that running as Democrat lite or “I’m not him” or any other flavor that doesn’t run for something is a losing proposition.  On top of that, if Obama does crash and burn, running as anything other than having a positive, solution oriented candidate will be a complete failure. 

Maybe TPaw has a shot.  I’m from Minnesota and can say I’m not convinced.  He’s done a number of good things in restraining reckless Democrat spending.  However, he has far too many tendencies to flop around in the mushy middle i.e. ethanol, global warming and the like.  For TPaw to have a shot, including getting support from his home state, he’s going to need to shore up his conservative bona fides.  We’ve tried milquetoast and it’s failed.  Hopefully we’ll learn from our mistakes…then again, maybe not.

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