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 25th, 2009

Roll change – BBA retirement edition

by @ 23:52. Filed under The Blog.

The Badger Blog Alliance has been retired. There’s no word yet where my blogfather will end up, though I hold out hope for Spotted Horse 3.

Yet another loss to Michigan

by @ 23:48. Tags:
Filed under Business, Politics - Wisconsin.

The Janesville Gazette reports that General Government Motors will be retooling its Orion, Michigan plant, which currently builds the Chevrolet Malibu and was slated to close later this year, to build its next-generation Chevrolet subcompact. The Orion plant beat out the already-shuttered Janesville plant, which built the Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban (and GMC sisters), as well as the soon-to-be-closed Spring Hill, Tennesse plant, which makes the Chevrolet Traverse after being retooled away from the Saturn compact line.

Since there was no way that Government Motors would spare jobs in a Republican-leaning state, the race was really between Wisconsin and Michigan. When the business climate in Wisconsin is so bad that even a government-run operation won’t locate here, one has to wonder why we’re about to make it even worse.

Revisions/extensions (9:22 am 6/26/2009) – The Detroit News reports (H/T – FoxPolitics) that Orion offered GM a 100% tax break on new equipment and machinery for 25 years (up from a 50% tax break on same in an earlier offer) as well as a 50% tax break if it expanded the plant. Somehow, I doubt that it isn’t better than Jim Doyle’s offer (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

R&E part 2 (9:33 am 6/26/2009) – The folks who run the NewsHub Twitter stream just let me know they’re still working on trying to find out what Wisconsin’s offer was.

A couple things to keep in mind; the Janesville plant is already a shell – GM auctioned off pretty much everything that could be unbolted, including items that would have been useful in building subcompacts. While the cost of stripping out the unnecessary tooling has already been borne, the fact that they will be starting with nothing more than a shell of a building has to also be taken into account.

Speaking of the shell of the building, the Janesville plant is the oldest facility recently used by GM, opening in 1919. The Orion Assembly facility opened at the end of 1983. The ages of the facilities also comes into play, especially since energy costs are about to go through the roof nationwide.

Leah Vukmir to challenge Jim Sullivan

by @ 23:30. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

I was neglectful in getting this onto the blog, but I had live coverage of this morning’s announcement on the Twitter stream. Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) will be challenging Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) in the 2010 election. Since there was too much traffic in front of Gilles Frozen Custard to use the digital voice recorder, I’ll repost the press release:

Vukmir Announces Candidacy for 5th Senate District

District deserves a Senator focused on creating jobs and rebuilding our economy

(Wauwatosa,WI)…Citing a need for a Senator who better reflects the priorities of the people of the 5th Senate District, State Representative Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) today announced her candidacy for the State Senate.

“Wisconsin has lost 130,000 jobs in the last year. We need a Senator who cares about getting people back to work instead of figuring out how to squeeze more tax revenue from our families and employers,” Vukmir said. “This campaign isn’t about me. It’s about the people of the 5th Senate District getting the representation they deserve.”

Standing before a crowd of supporters gathered at Gilles Frozen Custard in Wauwatosa, Vukmir touted her record of supporting private sector job creation, tax relief, education reform, and health care reform.

“The 400 Harley Davidson workers laid off in April needed a senator who understands that higher taxes kill jobs,” Vukmir said. “When the economy soured, some politicians in Madison were concerned only with how to raise enough tax revenue to fund their spending addiction. My priority has been, and will always be, creating jobs and providing core services in the most efficient way possible.”

A Registered Nurse and Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Leah Vukmir was first elected to the State Assembly in 2002 and has been reelected three times. In 2008, she received 62% of the vote. In the current session, Vukmir is the Ranking Member on the Assembly Committee on Health and Health Care Reform. She is recognized by her colleagues as a leading advocate for taxpayers. Vukmir holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Marquette University and a Master of Science in Nursing from UW-Madison. The 5th Senate District is comprised of portions of the cities of Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, West Allis and Brookfield and the villages of West Milwaukee and Elm Grove.

I did ask Rep. Vukmir on possible replacements for her in the Assembly, and she said there were several good candidates.

I wholeheartely endorse Vukmir for the 5th State Senate District.

Open Thread Thursday – 6/25/2009

by @ 9:18. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

If it’s Thursday, it’s Open Thread Thursday. It’s been a while since we’ve done metal madness…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MII3ns2KTBc[/youtube]

I’ve got some traveling to do today, so I’ll throw in a few links to start you off (no, this is not the return of The Morning Scramble):

I’ve given you the best kind of start, 1,400 megatons worth of links. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go be the press over at Gilles; Rep. Leah Vukmir’s making a special announcement there in less than 44 minutes.

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