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 March, 2011

March 9, 2011

Coming soon – AEGIS weather radar?

by @ 23:55. Filed under Weather.

(H/T – Dad29)

Anthony Watts of Watts Up With That? is on the scene at the 2010 test of the National Severe Storms Laboratory’s Phased Array Radar. The current testbed is an adaptation of 1/4th of a Navy AN/SPY-1A phased-array radar, giving 90 degrees of coverage (as it has only one of the four arrays). It holds the promise of both increased warning times on severe storms because of increased speed of updates versus the current mechanically-steered WSR-88D weather radar and a dual mission of replacing the current generation of air traffic control radars.

The biggest impediment to implementation is going to be cost. The reported cost for the most-produced current version of the SPY-1 radar (the D model fitted to Arleigh Burke destroyers and a several different foreign navy ship classes) is somewhere around $11 million per copy, compared to an eventual per-unit cost of $2.5 million for the current WSR-88D weather-only radar. I don’t think too many TV stations are going to be buying their own copies.

Another tipping point – government handouts equal 35% of wages and salaries, 18% of total personal income

by @ 22:17. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/T – Eric Odom)

CNBC reported yesterday that in January, personal transfer payments from government (including Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, veterans’ benefits, family assistance) equaled 35% (actually 35.2%) of the wages and salaries collected, a record figure.

Since the CNBC story did a horrible job of actually explaining things, I’ll draw your attention to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ Personal Income and Its Disposition table, and especially line 17. Yes, I did take the liberty of including every year available in a manner that allows you to download it as a comma-delimited file (suitable for display in any modern spreadsheet).

I do need to make a clarification of CNBC’s characterization of things – that 35.2% of wages/salaries the governmental personal transfer payments does not mean those handouts made up 35.2% of those wages and salaries; those are two separate items. Rather, the $2.26 billion that flowed out of government from the “haves” to the “wants” is 35.2% of the $6.41 billion in wages and salaries.

The handouts are, however, a part of the total personal income. Last year set a new record in the percentage of income that flowed out of government from the “haves” to the “wants”, at a full 18.0% of the $12.54 billion of total personal income in the country.

How outrageous is that latter amount? When records began to be kept in 1929, government transfers from the “haves” to the “wants” made up only 0.9% of personal income. The Great Depression caused that number to increase to 2.9% by 1931, and despite Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, it remained in that range until World War II caused a reduction. In 1946, when veterans’ benefits spiked following World War II, that went to a temporary high of 5.7%. The last year of Lyndon Johnson’s Presidency, with his “War on Poverty” and Medicare in full swing, that number was 7.5%. That ratio reached 10% (specifically 10.5%) in 1974, and spiked at 12.5% in 1983 before dropping back to a low of 11.2% in 1989. Even as late as 2008, government handouts made up less than 15% of personal income (with a high of 14.9% in 2008). In 2009, it jumped to 17.2%.

Budget endgame – Dems checkmated

by @ 20:52. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

After weeks of being held hostage and lied to by the Fleebag Fourteen Senate Democrats, and ultimately told that the only way the Dems would be coming back was if they were allowed to unconditionally win, the Brothers Fitzgerald had enough and figured out a way to do the budget repair bill without the 20-Senator requirement for a bill that is fiscal in nature. After passing the substitute amendment through a conference committee (which, for those of you out of state, means that it cannot be altered in any way), the Senate Republicans passed it through their chamber, which is still lacking the 14 Democrats, on a party-line 18-1 vote, with Dale Schultz (WEAC-No Talk Radio Here) being the lone dissenter. The bill will now reportedly go to the Assembly tomorrow, with the Assembly starting up at 11 am.

JR Ross at WisPolitics did a quick comparison between the version that previously came out of the Joint Finance Committee, which was stalled by the Fleebag Fourteen, and the version that came out of the conference committee:

These items were removed from the JFC version:
-changes to the earned income tax credit
-a $79 million reduction in the lapses required from the DOA secretary
-$165 million in debt restructuring
-increasing funding for MA programs to close funding gap through end of fiscal year
-the sale of state power plants (emphasis added)
-increasing funding for Corrections to close gap through end of fiscal year
-reallocation of group health and pharmacy benefit reserves
-audit of dependent eligibility under benefit programs

For those wondering about the potential 1,500-state-worker layoffs slated for April if nothing were done, do not quote me, but judging by the differing gross closing balances ($65,115,300 in the JFC version, $158,853,200 in the conference version, both including a $65,000,000 required statutory balance), it looks like they won’t be necessary.

The Democrats appear to be pinning their last hopes on the short notice provided for the conference committee. However, the provision in state law that generally requires a 24-hour notice also allows for that notice to be as short as 2 hours if there is “good cause such notice is impossible or impractical”. That has never been adjudicated, but in Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald’s statement, he said that the Legislative Reference Bureau, which includes non-partisan lawyers hired for the speicific purpose of helping legislators draft bills, effectively signed off on the bill.

Revisions/extensions (10:40 pm 3/9/2011) – Via WisPolitics’ Budget Blog, here is what Senate Chief Clerk Rob Marchant had to say about the short notice provided for the conference committee meeting:

There was some discussion today about the notice provided for the legislature’s conference committee. In special session, under Senate Rule 93, no advance notice is required other than posting on the legislative bulletin board. Despite this rule, it was decided to provide a 2 hour notice by posting on the bulletin board. My staff, as a courtesy, emailed a copy of the notice to all legisaltive (sic) offices at 4:10, which gave the impression that the notice may have been slightly less than 2 hours. Either way, the notice appears to have satisfied the requirements of the rules and statutes.

I thought you might find this information to be useful.

Thanks.

Rob

Revisions/extensions (7:08 am 3/11/2011) – I probably should have caught this when WisPolitics did and before Kevin Binversie started sending people here, but the LFB changed their summary on Thursday morning to note that the potential sale of the state power plants and a change in the Earned Income Tax Credit, not discussed in the Wednesday summary, were part of the bill, and that a “Study of Potential Modifications of the Wisconsin Retirement System and State Employee Health Insurance Options”, which was discussed by the LFB, was not part of the bill. Importantly, LFB director Bob Lang noted that the bill language itself remained the same throughout the process, which means that what the conference committee, the Senate, and the Assembly voted on was, to the letter and punctuation, the same.

March 7, 2011

Egg’s business at Walmart, Culver’s and Menards to pick up

by @ 13:31. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Jim Hoft received some information on a Wausau branch of WEAC-led boycott of businesses that refuse to kowtow to them, and indeed in some cases, actively supported Scott Walker. Included are both the list of businesses displayed in the teachers’ lounge at a Wausau high school and copies of two different form letters to be delivered to non-complying businesses. This is after the local TV station (WSAW-TV, Channel 7) refused to run with the story after being fed it first.

Bonus item – The Wausau Tea Party got their hands on the “Wisconsin-as-a-fist” signs being doled out by the thugs from both the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and the Rock Netroots.

Now I’m off to gas up at Kwik-Trip, grab lunch at Culver’s, and get a dinner of Johnsonville brats and Sargento cheese from Walmart.

March 6, 2011

Recommended Reading (03/06/11)

by @ 21:55. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend:

State Budget Battles Herald the Return of the Grown-ups

“Even now that sober-minded voters have put a set of brakes on Obama’s little socialist dune buggy, our adolescent in chief has quickly abandoned his Clinton mask for the more tantalizing delights of spending other people’s money.

Enter Governor Scott Walker and his fellow adults.

No, 2012 will look nothing like 2008.

At this point, I could not care less which Republican runs against our adolescent president.  As long as that person is a grown-up with a grown-up’s perspective on the presidency and has demonstrable experience to that effect, he or she will get my vote.

So, here’s my help-wanted ad for the next president of the United States of America.”

Pleading for Violence

“Twitter, the social network that allows people to express themselves with 140 characters or less, is a wonderful invention.  It’s a gigantic virtual bulletin board covered with Post-Its, a food fight conducted entirely with fortune cookies.

What Twitter does not provide is ‘context.’  If you can’t pack all of the context surrounding an idea into 140 characters or less, it’s probably best to leave that idea simmering in the back of your head.”

Time for wandering senators to return to Mad City

“The Wandering Democratic state senators from Wisconsin should go home. Not that I don’t appreciate them spending their ‘cheesy’ money in Rockford and other cities in northern Illinois. But their road show is losing box office appeal.”

Should Unions Have the Power to Tax?

“Only about 7% of the private workforce is unionized today, but their ability to ‘tax’ union members through union dues and make political contributions gives them top priority in the White House today. Public sector unions represent about a third of public sector workers.

Here, we are held hostage by threats to not pick up our garbage or teach our children. Politicians, not facing a bottom line performance measure like GM or the steel companies but worried about re-election, give in to demands to keep voters from being unhappy. But, over time, this has produced a generally over-paid and over-benefited public sector workforce (compared to market wages).”

What we need is a Packer game to unite us again

“Might I suggest the rest of the state take a page out of my playbook when things get tense and veins start to bulge as the inevitable comes up for discussion. When it looks as though f-bombs are about to be dropped and fists may be set to fly, bring up the Green and Gold as a deflection”

Public broadcasting should go private

“If these outfits can afford to pay lavish salaries to their heads, they don’t need taxpayer help.”

Have to respect BYU’s decision

“Most people can’t relate to the school’s lengthy honor code — which doesn’t allow for the consumption of coffee or alcohol, forbids swearing and also prohibits premarital sex. But n an era in which big-time college athletics has run amok, BYU has maintained its core values and refused to sell out.”

Cigars don’t kill people…

“I ordered drinks for my lovely Italian wife and myself and fired up my first cigar for that evening, a Rocky Patel Edge. While I was enjoying the Edge and its full-bodied, spicy aroma and super long finish afforded by its five-year-old blend in a Corojo wrapper, a lesbian sitting at the table next to us started fake coughing at my smoke and flailing her arms like Nell did when she tried to explain the trees.

How did I know it was a lesbian protesting my cigar, you ask? Well, the Justin Bieber haircut and the softball jersey was a hand tip. Plus, she was making out with another chick. Nothing gets past me.”

March 1, 2011

Tuesday Hot Read – Rick Moran’s “The Consequences of Being Too Civilized”

by @ 0:01. Filed under International relations.

Rick Moran lays out why we as Westerners sometimes need to meet abject barbarism with overwhelming barbaric force. Just a taste to get you to read the whole thing:

It is our refusal to adopt the tactics and ruthlessness of evil in order to destroy it that makes us look weak and helpless in the face of such monumentally uncivilized behavior.

When confronted with evil — the real thing, not the exaggerated, partisan, politically motivated sort of “evil” that right and left believe emanates from their opponents — civilized man freezes like a deer in headlights and fails spectacularly in doing the things necessary to stop it.

It took truly barbaric tactics — including fire bombing German cities and leveling a great many French villages and towns — to defeat Adolf Hitler. Prior to the war, western governments realized in a vague way the threat posed by Hitler’s evil, but refused to lift a finger to stop him until it was far too late.

It took a barbaric weapon to defeat the evil Japanese militarists who literally raped their way across Asia in an orgy of slaughter. Prior to Pearl Harbor, the very cultured and decent Franklin Roosevelt refused to heed the admonitions of his own Japanese ambassador, Joseph Grew, about the threat posed to the world by the unholy alliance of the Imperial Army and corporate war mongers. It took one of the most decent men ever to serve as president – Harry Truman – to order the use of the most indecent weapon ever devised by man and end the militarist’s mad ambitions. We debate the morality of using that weapon and the tactics in Europe to this day.

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