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 July 20th, 2009

Senate Doctors

by @ 19:22. Filed under Health Care Reform.

No, this isn’t a new ABC prime time show!

The only two trained physicians in the Senate have been holding video conferences for the past few weeks.  Senator Coburn of Oklahoma and Senator Barrasso of Wyoming have been discussing the various “health care reform” proposals and answering questions sent in by people via email, youtube and other means.

You can see past episodes of the Senate Doctors here.

You can watch tomorrow’s edition live at 3 PM Central here:

Streaming live video by Ustream

President Obama is feeling the heat on this issue. Make sure and stay atop of the issue and the facts by watching the Senate Doctors!

Monday must-read – Ken Lamke’s “Walker vs. Neumann”

by @ 17:06. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Charlie Sykes)

In the current issue of WPRI’s Wisconsin Interest, Ken Lamke makes the case that a primary battle between Scott Walker and Mark Neumann would actually be good for the GOP’s chances of retaking the governor’s office in November 2010.

The prospect of a primary contest between Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and former Congressman Mark Neumann for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010 greatly enhances the GOP’s chances of defeating Gov. Jim Doyle next year.

At least the historical record of the past 45 years of Wisconsin elections leads to that conclusion.

Each of the six times that incumbent governors or U.S. senators were defeated since 1962 occurred when the nominee of the out party emerged from a contested primary rather than having the nomination handed to him by running unopposed in the primary.

Lamke goes on to point out that the major advantages of having a contested primary is that the participants get near-monopoly media coverage, and that they get to hit the incumbent without the incumbent getting to hit back. While the latter isn’t quite true, the return fire is necessarily split between the primary participants.

Of course, winning a contested primary does not always translate to success in the general election.

Sometimes these party leaders are not so much interested in having their party nominee knock off the incumbent as they are in having the specific candidate they support win the nomination.

They really don’t care if their party wins in November—that is, that the primary candidate whom they haven’t backed goes on to beat the incumbent. In fact, they sometimes strongly oppose that outcome, although they won’t say so. Almost by definition, they are not really “party” leaders as much as they are supporters of a particular candidate.

The state GOP leadership, as well as the vast majority of the county party leaderships, changed significantly since 2006, to the point where the 2009 convention was “All Walker All The Time”. However, I’m already starting to see a similar dynamic. The old guard, while officially in the minority among the leadership, is still quite infuencial outstate, while a lot of Walker supporters are already firing “I’ll never support you” broadsides at Neumann.

Who Forgot to Pack the Plunger?

by @ 16:28. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Astronauts deal with flooded toilet in orbit

The bathroom lines at the already crowded space shuttle and space station complex got a lot longer Sunday because of a flooded toilet.

One of two commodes aboard the international space station broke down, right in the middle of complicated robotic work being conducted by the two crews.

Update:  All sphincters can relax now!

The Natives are Getting Restless

by @ 16:24. Filed under Politics - National.

Falling personal approval ratings, falling support ratings for major initiatives, falling confidence for the party he leads all should give President Obama some pause when considering whether he is representing the interests of the American people.

The attached clip seems pretty representative not necessarily of the issue but of the passion and concern, that generating amongst many folks of all political persuasions, that I talk to.  While only one incident, this did occur in Delaware.  Last I looked Delaware wasn’t close to being a Red State.

If We Fail to Learn From History….

by @ 14:01. Filed under Health Care Reform.

Folks, here are a couple of the original “Harry and Louise” ads that ran showing the problems with the original “health care reform” proposed by the Clintons.  If you watch the ads, you’ll note that the issues haven’t changed.  What was common sense then still holds true today:

PSA from the cartoonist

by @ 7:17. Filed under Miscellaneous.

In case you haven’t noticed the subtle messages in the Day By Day cartoons lately (or you’re visiting the mobile version of this place), Chris Muir is holding the 2009/2010 Support DBD Event. There’s 5 levels this time around instead of 4, and a Sam In Red figurine that’s a $67 option for the bottom 4:

– The Jan Level ($1-19) gets you pdfs of 3 ‘Gang of 4’ Posters and jpgs of 3 Propaganda Posters.
– The Zed Level ($20) gets you that plus pdfs of 7 ‘SmallMatters’ trial strip (c1998) and
pdfs of 2 ‘PaintedWomen’ Posters.
– The Sam Level ($40) gets you that plus a third ‘PaintedWomen’ Poster.
– The Damon Level ($125) gets you all that plus a Signed Original Toon Script & Toon (for the first 365 only with the toon on heavy stock suitable for framing), 8 Signed Prints of ‘PaintedWomen’ Posters printed on heavy stock, signed, and ready for framing, and 4 Magnet Full-Color Cards of all 4 Characters.
– The new Su excelencia Don Manuel Luciano de la Portago y Verrillo Level (starting at $150) gets you everything except the toon script/toon combo, but adds a Sam in Black figurine.

If only I could do triple figures, I would’ve moved up from the Sam Level I did last year. Instead, I stayed at the Sam Level. If I can kick in to keep the best daily comic strip out there around another year, you can too!

Roll change – guest-blogger edition

by @ 6:39. Filed under The Blog.

Phineas decided that, with the shrinking amount of money being left for the non-public-sector economy, he couldn’t pay TypePad anymore for his blogging. That means Public Secrets has a new home – http://pubsecrets.wordpress.com/.

[No Runny Eggs is proudly powered by WordPress.]