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 October 26th, 2009

Project Valour-IT – 2009 edition

by @ 23:04. Tags:
Filed under Miscellaneous.

If it’s the last week of October, it is time once again for Soldiers’ Angels to run the annual Project Valour-IT fundraiser to raise money for technology that reconnects wounded warriors and supports their recovery. This year, they’re running it until November 11, Veterans Day.

As I have in years past, while I will not be joining a single team, I will be donating to all of them, as well as featuring the 4-way competition between the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines at the top of the blog (unless you’re viewing this on the mobile version). That means the Day by Day cartoon is moved to the right sidebar for the duration of the fundraiser.

Just because I can’t join a team, that doesn’t mean you can’t:

Now, go and donate in the name of one team or all. After all, all the money, no matter in which team’s name you donate, goes to the same worthy cause. They take all major credit cards, PayPal, electronic check, and even checks sent via the United States Postal Service.

Team Walker to have a money bomb on 11/2/2009

by @ 21:12. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

The Scott Walker campaign announced today that they are going to mark the 1-year-to-go mark next Monday with a day-long money push:

Wauwatosa – The campaign of Scott Walker, Republican candidate for governor and Milwaukee County executive, today announced the launch of the 11.02.09 Rally to Victory Effort – a day-long fundraising drive. The effort will be held on November 2, 2009, exactly one year from Election Day, and will be led by a statewide, grassroots fundraising push to engage supporters across Wisconsin. The 11.02.09 Rally to Victory Effort will use the internet and numerous social media outlets to gather pledges to donate on 11.02.09 as a show of grassroots strength, organization, and momentum.

“The people of our state are ready to take back our government and ready to believe in Wisconsin again,” said campaign manager Keith Gilkes. “Our 11.02.09 Rally to Victory fundraising effort will show the support for Scott Walker’s commonsense message of limited government, personal freedom, and economic growth.”

Since Scott Walker’s announcement of candidacy in April, the campaign has garnered tremendous grassroots support. Walker has the endorsement of over 75 percent of elected Republicans in the State Legislature and received over 93% of the straw poll vote at the 2009 Republican Party of Wisconsin State Convention. Ten recent training sessions across the state saw over 800 attendees.

In the last fundraising period Scott Walker raised an impressive $1.1 million. Of that number, $236,000 came from online contributions. 75% of Scott Walker’s $1.1 million in contribution were for $50 or less, and half of all contributions came from new donors

The curious case of the whacking of Babs Lawton

by @ 19:11. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Revisions/extensions (11:11 am 10/27/2009) – WTAQ-AM has pulled all references to the report from Jerry Bader on a possible extramarital affair by Barbara Lawton from its website. Accordingly, I have removed the direct link to that audio from this post.

R&E part 2 (11:46 am 10/27/2009) – WIBA-AM asked Barbara Lawton about that rumor, and Lawton called it an “outrageous lie”.

And yes, it is curious that the only announced Democratic candidate for governor, Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton, suddenly dropped out of the race today for “very personal reasons”.

Initial speculation centered on a Dan Bice column that ran in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel saying that the Obama administration much prefered Milwaukee mayor and former Democratic Congressman Tom Barrett be the nominee. Bice pointed out that while Barrett was an early and fervent supporter of Obama in the 2008 Democratic Presidential primary season, Lawton was a fervent supporter of Hillary Clinton (left unmentioned was the fact that she was co-chair of both Clinton’s Wisconsin and Midwest efforts). Patrick McIlheran notes that would simply be the latest in the series of Chicago Way moves from the ObamiNation.

Bice also pointed out that none of the Barrett backers were willing to be named as the source of this whacking. If Barrett truly has the ObamiNation Stamp of Approval, wouldn’t that trump the 8-year war the Madison Dems have successfully waged against their Milwaukee counterparts?

Don’t assume that the whacking of Babs simply clears the way for Barrett. Kyle Maichle tossed another name in the ring from left field – Commerce Secretary Dick Leinenkugel. Other than a late-but-successful effort to get Mercury Marine to consolidate in Wisconsin (with attendant tax hikes), what exactly has Leinenkugel done as Commerce Secretary, other than not be from Milwaukee? Admittedly, that has counted for everything in the DPW the last 8 years, but simply being from anywhere but Milwaukee is not going to be enough in this election cycle, especially when one is so easily tied to the failed economic policies of Governor Jim Doyle.

Meanwhile, this afternoon, WTAQ’s Jerry Bader unleashed a bombshell of what those “very personal reasons” could be (H/T – Kevin Binversie). Bill Clinton notwithstanding, getting caught playing outside the sandbox is definitely frowned upon by the voters. Note; see the revision/extension above, as the link to WTAQ’s audio has been removed, and Lawton has flatly denied this.

Finally, I know I saw this a couple weeks ago, but I can’t quite remember where. Doyle seems to be having second thoughts about not running. I note that he has not filed a notice of non-candidacy yet.

Club for Growth says Hoffman leads in NY-23, NRCC hardest hit

by @ 15:56. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/T – Ed Morrissey)

The Club for Growth released a new 300-person poll conducted by Basswood Research that gives Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman a 4.3-percentage-point lead over Democrat Bill Owens and a 11.6-point lead over RepubicRAT Dede Scozzafava in the special election to be held next Tuesday to fill the House seat vacated by long-serving Republican John McHugh, recently confirmed as the Secretary of the Army. Before I continue, I do have to note a couple of things:

  • New York politics is a unique animal; while the successful candidates (almost) always come from either the Republicans or the Democrats, their success depends on getting on the ballot lines of “minor” parties such as the Conservative Party and the ACORN-affiliated Working Families Party (which Scozzafava has used in the past).
  • Despite both Scozzafava’s voting record of being to the left of the majority of Democrats in the New York Assembly and her repeated electoral ties to ACORN, the county “Republican” party chiefs made her the “Republican” nominee behind closed doors.
  • As Ace points out, a 300-person sample isn’t exactly reliable. Worse, a cursory search of late-season Basswood Research polling data seems to indicate they consistently overstate the conservative candidate’s support by 4-5 percentage points.

With that stated, this has become a battle for the soul of the NotDemocrats. On one side, you have the the other half of the bipartisan Party-In-Government, represented by the RNC, the NRCC, and Newt Gingrich, endorsing the RepubicRAT for the sake of keeping the P-I-G intact. In fact, after spending over $500,000 for what is clearly going to be a third-place result, the NRCC will be reinforcing failure to the tune of $300,000 in the last 9 days of the election cycle.

On the other side, you have pretty much every right-of-center pundit, including former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, former Alaska governor/Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and now Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty endorsing Hoffman.

I guess the GOP has chosen to become the 21-Century Whig Party. All I can say is, “Help them get there by giving to Doug Hoffman.“

Next Up On the “Rights” Hit Parade…

by @ 5:08. Filed under Defending the American Dream, International relations, Lawgivers-In-Black, Politics - National.

Individual “Rights” come in two forms.  There are the rights that are spelled out in the Constitution.  A right to bear arms, a right to a fair trial and a right to free speech are just a few of the examples of these rights.  These rights, while guaranteed by the Constitution, are time and again “rights” that we have to fight to retain.  It seems hardly a month goes by where one or more of our Constitutionally guaranteed rights are assaulted in small and large ways by Congress, the Judiciary, any of a number of interest groups are not comfortable in a free society, or even, the President.

Along with the rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution, there are a whole separate set of “rights” that have been established, not by the Constitution, but by the government.  This set of “rights” are no where to be found in the Constitution.  This set of “rights” are not even “rights”, at least not if you believe a “right” that you have doesn’t require anyone else to give up something they have.  Included in this set of “rights” are; the “right” to an abortion, a “Right” to government provided financial support and a “right” to an equal educational opportunity for every child.

It’s ironic that we have to fight to get the set of rights provided by the Constitution remembered and yet any number of people and groups are happy to increase the number of the unmerited “rights”.

Right now, Congress is debating the addition of another unmerited “right”.  While there are numerous rationals for the desire to implement health care reform, the core essence of the Left’s argument is that health care is in fact a right.  Can you find it in the Constitution?  No.  However, the Left is undaunted in this argument and believes “it’s the right thing to do.”

If you think health care as a right is offensive, get ready for the next “right” that is now germinating within the thinking of the Left; a right to housing!

In this video, Raquel Rolnik, a UN “special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing” (think “Special Investigator”), is coming the the US to make a determination about New York and six other cities, affordable housing.

If you have any questions about my concerns regarding housing becoming a  focus of “rights”, let’s look at Ms. Rolnik’s own words:

“I am representing the right of adequate housing as a human right.”

In past times a US President would have taken insult in a UN inspector nosing around the US when the UN’s record is one of support for Socialists and Marxists.  This time, Rolnik is likely to receive the Medal of Honor from President Obama.

Following her town hall in New Orleans, Ms. Rolnik made the following comments:

“Well, the feeling is that we definitely need to have a discussion, open discussion and re-appraisal of housing policies. I think a lot has been done in this country. This country has a history of intervening in housing sector, of building public housing, or intervening in the homelessness sector on innovating programs like rent subsidizing and other schemes. But in a way I think that was stuck in some point now. And I think the way forward need to be discussed.”

Just what Obama needs, support from the UN to completely take over yet one more industry!

 

 

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