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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 posts by steveegg.

March 24, 2007

Nobody wins the “Which #1 falls first” poll…

by @ 20:37. Filed under NRE Polls, Sports.

…because nobody took Kansas. They fell to UCLA, which is helping turn the Bouncing Mozzarella into a zombie bracket.

At least I got one prediction right, but I was too damn stupid to stick with it.

Presidential Pool part 3 – a (too-)early look at the general

by @ 20:27. Filed under Politics - National.

In part 1, I predicted that Fred Thompson will take the Republican nomination. In part 2, I predicted that Hillary Clinton will take the Democratic nomination. Now, I really go out on a limb to finish answering Dad29’s question.

First things first, it’s not going to matter much at all to the Democrats who their VP running mate is. They’ll have the gender gap maximized by Clinton, nothing the Pubbies do will reduce the racial gap, and there are no moderates left in the party of the donkey. On the Pubbie side, it’s another story. They will not be able to resist the pressure to put a moderate-to-liberal at the bottom end of the ticket, and who the Dems put at the bottom half of their ticket will influence which moderate-to-liberal goes there. If it’s Barak Obama, they will try like hell to get Colin Powell there. If not, or if Powell refuses, it will be Rudy Giuliani, as John McCain cannot abide being second fiddle, and in the end he is not as liberal as Giuliani.

By choosing Giuliani (or Powell), the Pubbies will also avoid having McCain run an insurgency independent campaign, which would hand the Presidency to Clinton. They would have taken away the only constituency that would have possibly stuck with McCain, the country-club Pubbies.

If you thought the 2000 and 2004 campaigns were nasty, you haven’t seen anything yet. The charges and countercharges will come hourly, and there will be no media outlet, be it “old” or “new”, “mainstream” or “alternative”, that will even pretend to be impartial. Now, where did I put that coin?

Presidential Pool part 2 – the Dems

by @ 20:05. Filed under Politics - National.

In part 1 of the series inspired by Dad29’s call for bets, I explored the Republican half of the Presidential pool. Here I take a look at the other half.

At this point, there are only two real contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. While both are highly liberal, like the rest of the Dem field, they have at least attempted to follow the Bill Clinton/Jimmy Carter/John Kennedy model of triangulation. The Democrats surely have to realize that the last 3 times they successfully took the White House from Republicans, going back over 47 (to be 48 by the time the election rolls around) years, they ran a candidate that could at the least fake some sort of conservatism.

The remainder of the Democratic field simply cannot pull that off. The thing that could work against both Clinton and Obama, however, is the Dems do not tend to settle things early. One could make the case that John Edwards could get the sympathy vote, but there is going to be too much time between now and Iowa.

Yeah, there’s some buzz about Al Gore, but I discount him because of the “loser” rule. Nobody saw hide or hair out of either Jimmy Carter or Walter Mondale after they lost their runs. John Kerry recognized this and bailed early. Also working against Gore is, like the also-rans, he cannot possibly fake being a conservative.

So, the battle is going to be between Hillary and Obama. Obama’s the blanker slate, so he didn’t have to practice as much triangulation as Clinton. However, Clinton is extremely ruthless. Give the nod to Clinton.

Part 3, a very- (or is it too-?) early look at the general election, up next.

Presidential Pool part 1 – the Pubbies

by @ 19:34. Filed under Politics - National.

I still haven’t quite figured out who I’m backing in the Republican primary for President, but since Dad29 decided to call me out, I better start. First, let’s take a look at the announced front-runners:

Rudy Giuliani –
Why is he a front-runner? It’s easy to say that it’s all how he led New York City after 9/11, but that’s actually an outgrowth of his law-and order background. He did clean up the uncleanable city long before 2001. Also, he has been tacking towards the right, claiming he’ll appoint constructionists to the court.

Why he won’t get the nomination? Outside of law and order and taxes (though I don’t recall whether his conservatism on that is genuine or freshly-found), he is extremely liberal. He is pro-abortion, pro-activist government, and staunchly anti-gun. Also, his personal life is a shambles, and that still sinks Republicans, even RINOs and RepublicRATs.

John McCain –
Why is he a front-runner? Because the media says so. I honestly can’t think of another reason.

Why he won’t get the nomination? Where do I begin? McCain-Feingold? Pro-illegal alien? Pro-taxes? A continuing shunning of the heart and soul of the Republican Party?

Mitt Romney –
Why is he a front-runner? Because he’s the Republican version of Bill Clinton, and because of the liberal tendencies of both Giuliani and McCain, he’s been able to position himself as the big-name “conservative”.

Why he won’t get the nomination? Because he’s the Republican version of Bill Clinton, the primary voters and caucusers know that Romney is anything but conservative.

Then there’s the announced dark-horses, including Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter and (just because I’m in Wisconsin) Tommy Thompson. Tancredo is a one-note pony who thinks that hitting $1 million is a big deal (H/T – Sean Hackbarth). Hunter, who has a few more ideas, has the same limitation as Tancredo (being a “mere” Congressman) and less cash. Tommy is the Midwest version of Romney with a “charm” that doesn’t work on the far sides of the mountain ranges. The fact that I can’t recall the other dark-horses off the top of my head tells you their chances (namely, none).

That leads us to a pair of unannounced candidates. First in the docket, Newt Gingrich. He was the architect behind the Contract with America, the last lasting major conservative achievement in Washington. There are, however, three problems: first, the personal problems that led him to leave Congress would doom his candidacy. Second, up until recently, he had been tacking leftward. Third, by saying he wouldn’t decide until fall whether to run, he would be entering the race too late. Republicans tend to stick with early front-runners; indeed, George W. Bush all-but-sewed up the nomination in 1999 (knocking out everybody of note except McCain).

Second, there’s Fred Thompson. He’s very articulate and for the most part is conservative. There is a giant problem; he voted for McCain-Feingold while he was still in the Senate. I could’ve swore the First Amendment was quite clear on that issue, even if the Supreme Court on first consideration couldn’t see it.

Now, to answer the money question, which is actually easier since I don’t quite have a horse in this race yet. Fred jumps in and starts emptying the pool. First out is Tommy, followed closely by Hunter (Tancredo will stay in just to be Don Quixote). Hopefully Gingrich decides that discretion is the better part of ego and stays on the sideline, because he could very well play king-maker. If he stays out, the battle will be Fred versus McCain/Giuliani. The schedule does not favor McCain, despite his recent conversion on ethanol. However, he’ll draw enough of the country-clubbers away from Giuliani to give Thompson an insurmountable lead.

However, if Gingrich does jump in, it’s a nasty 2 1/2 (with Quixot…er, Tancredo being the half) versus 2 battle. Prior to 2000, I would have said with confidence that it would have been either Thompson or Gingrich winning (more likely Thompson). However, the Republican Party has become too much of a big tent to say with confidence that a conservative would come out on top. Partly because I’m an optimist, I’ll say that Thompson takes the nomination.

Up next, the Dems half of the pool, followed by a very-early look at the general election.

March 23, 2007

Warm up those pipes

by @ 19:00. Filed under Politics - National.

DUmmie FUnnies proudly presents three excellently-written parodies of the House by Charles Henrickson and doug from upland.

Don’t look for me to record my vocalizations of these, but feel free to sing along anyway.

The Craps tax bite just gets larger

by @ 18:33. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

JSOnline’s DayWatch is reporting that the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau has estimated that, instead of an average $75 property tax hike due to the Craps Tax Anti-Freeze Ver. 2.0, it’s going to be a $94 one. For those that deal in percentages, that’s now 3.4% instead of 2.7%.

Methinks they’re still understating it. Don’t forget to “thank” Jim “Craps” Doyle, Mary “Panzy” Panzer, and Dale Schultz, the three individuals most responsible for the death of any hope of tax relief.

James Harris says it so much better than I can

by @ 18:23. Filed under Law and order, Politics - Wisconsin.

Go, read his take on the crisis that is Milwaukee, then if you’re in any position to do anything about solving that crisis, whether you’re a politico or “merely” a citizen, DO IT!

Health news, the Republican edition

by @ 18:17. Filed under Compassionate Lieberals, Politics - National.

(H/T – Michelle)

The AP is reporting that White House spokesman Tony Snow, who had colon cancer two years ago, is going back under the knife Monday to remove a non-cancerous growth in the lower abdomen. The choice quote is (as usual) at the end – “The biggest problem you have sometimes with cancer is flat-out fear. When you see an Elizabeth Edwards saying, `I’m going to embrace life and I’m going to move forward,’ that is a wonderful thing.” Couldn’t say it better, or likely as well in the same circumstances, myself.

May the surgeons remove that growth quickly and cleanly, and may you be back to work ASAP, Tony.

One more thing; damn the putzes at HuffPo (no, I won’t link there from here, but I’ll point you to Macsmind and Hot Air, who post the “love” from those moonbats).

I should’ve done this last night

by @ 17:41. Filed under Sports, The Blog.

To keep youse suckers from overloading the poll on which #1 seed falls first based on the score of the game, that poll will close in about 20 minutes, and if Floriduh and North Carolina both survive, I’ll reopen it in the morning. Of course, nobody was confident enough to load the poll up against OverratedSU when they were down 20.

A couple of hints – Florida tips against Butler at 6:10 in the first game, while North Carolina tips against USC at about 9 in the last. Also, OverratedSU goes first tomorrow, when (hopefully) the Worst Station in the Nation™ finally no longer stretches its SuckyDef feed to cover for the fact that they’re too damn cheap to put its weak-sister station on its own digital frequency.

Latest evidence that Milwaukee is “not in a crisis”

by @ 11:38. Filed under Law and order, Politics - Wisconsin.

From today’s JSOnline’s DayWatch –

  • A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed about about 1:50 a.m. this morning in a yard in the 2100 block of N. 38th St. – I could’ve swore that today was a school day at MPS.
  • A 23-year-old man was ejected from a car and died about 2:40 this morning after a crash he apparently initiated on S. Layton Blvd., police said. According to police reports, the man started attacking the 23-year-old woman who was driving the car southbound. – Two words, and only two words can describe this one; “Just damn”.
  • An 18-year-old student at Pulaski High School was arrested after a gun was found in his locker Thursday, Milwaukee police said today The gun was not loaded, said police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz. She said the boy dropped the gun from his pocket during a class Thursday…. – Not only is MPS failing to teach kids to any sort of standard, they can’t even teach basic stay-out-of-jail skills. The FIRST place the cops are going to start looking for a gun after you drop it in a classroom (where you shouldn’t be armed in the first place) is your locker.

Nope, this is not a crisis, at least according to Mayor Tom “Milk Carton” Barrett. If it weren’t so tragic, I might laugh at that proposition, because it definitely IS a crisis.

Speaking of DayWatch, is anybody else having issues with the HTML in their RSS feed (I won’t mention that they don’t provide hotlinks to individual posts)? Sometimes, the closing “>” will show up as “>” (the HTML code for that all-important symbol), sometimes it will properly trigger the display of the enclosed HTML, and those changes on that same post throughout the day will trigger the “update” feature in SharpReader. Also, any links that do show up will not open properly.

Something that made me go, “Hmmmm…..”

by @ 11:20. Filed under The Blog.

It certainly is “nice” to know that somebody at 4th and State is checking up on me. However, you guys over there kitty-corner to the BC might want to have IT double-check that IP address. At least I hope the copy editors are better than IT at spelling, because the last time I checked, that last word should be spelled “Sentinel”, not “Sentinal”.

Speaking of videos…

by @ 10:01. Filed under The Blog.

…the latest edition of the Friday Freefly from Uncle Jimbo is worth a view. If the commentary on the video isn’t good enough to get both Uncle Jimbo’s own haunt, In the Crosshairs and his group haunt, BLACKFIVE on the roll, the location does it; a Madistan-area bar, with Bacardi prominently featured.

HamNation – Better Living Through Lefty Activism

by @ 9:37. Filed under Compassionate Lieberals, Global "Warming".

The latest episode of HamNation takes on the lieberal-created problems of carbon offsets, lighting, and “domesticated” animals like Knut the lethally-adorable polar bear. If you’re not watching this weekly, you should be.

Now, go watch and be edified.

Note; unlike PETA’s actions, no animals were harmed in the production of the video.

March 22, 2007

Dog day afternoon

by @ 22:28. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Spent the afternoon and part of the evening mirroring a rapidly-failing hard drive (twice it had popped up the “Unmountable Boot Volume” error, and that means absolutely, positively no access until CHKDSK run off a recovery disk gives an all-clear) onto a replacement (provided by Dell under warranty) at my younger sister’s and future brother-in-law’s. It SHOULD have been about a hour job, but because Dell never did provide a drive-mirroring product and Norton Save and Restore does not quite like bad sectors (one time crashing the computer so badly that it took CHKDSK the better part of an hour to put the old drive back together, and that was without a surface scan), I ended up working through to dinner. It still was better less time-consuming than the alternative, which would have been to do a clean install of everything (and it took 2 tries to get the right OS out of Dell; the first time they sent XP Home SP2 instead of XP Media Edition 2005). The only positive things I can say about Dell this time around are they’ve made their cases tool-free, not only to get into but for hard drives as well; and they sent out a Western Digital 80 GB SATA drive to replace the POS Hitachi 80 GB SATA that couldn’t even last a year.

The payoff dinner was good (at least for a bachelor), and the FBIL and I split 4 games of 4-handed cribbage against my sister and dad (who was there to work on a sink that got damaged due to frozen pipes), but 6 hours in a house with 2 friendly (1 crazy and 1 lapdog rottweiler/shepard mix) dogs finally got to my allergies. Disk Defrag, which began at the start of cribbage, was still running when I left.

Edwards’ announcement part two – Elizabeth has bone cancer, John still in the race

by @ 11:27. Filed under Politics - National.

Sounds like they caught it early enough to keep it treatable, but the bad news is that it’s not curable. May God rest His healing hand on her and drive the cancer back into submission.

Revisions/extensions (11:30 am 3/22/2007) – It took the media a couple questions to get to the political ramifications. John will continue his campaign.

Edwards’ announcement

by @ 9:48. Filed under Politics - National.

The blogosphere has been in an uproar since a late-night surprise announcement of a pending press conference to be held by John and Elizabeth Edwards at 11 am Central to discuss the better half’s health. Elizabeth had been diagnosed with breast cancer shortly before the 2004 election (where John fell short of becoming VP), with the cancer in remission as of the last time they made that news public. This presser comes after the latest test and follow-up visit, with speculation that the results led John to cut short a campaign swing through Iowa, but not a fund-raiser back in North Carolina.

Here’s hoping that good news is no news, and if there is news, that God rests His healing hand on Elizabeth.

<cynic=on>Of course, this could be cover for John to depart the 2008 Presidential race in such a way to salvage his 2012 hopes. There is an ongoing investigation into whether a major Edwards donor, Paul Minor, illegally reimbursed members of his family who gave money to Edwards’ campaign (hmmm, sounds a lot like what Dennis Troha stands accused of doing). That would not be the first time that an Edwards supporter, and Edwards’ campaign itself, has been nailed for this (thanks for the archive, Overlawyered.com).<cynic=off>

Revisions/extensions (11:07 am 3/22/2007) – The widespread speculation is that there has been a recurrance of Elizabeth’s cancer, and that John will be suspending his campaign. Not good. I’ll have more in the next post once they do make an announcement.

Further revisions/extensions (11:14 am 3/22/2007) – Fox News’ Carl Cameron is reporting that the Edwards campaign staffers don’t know exactly what this is about, but they’re denying the campaign suspension. Methinks they’re reaching because they don’t want to have to find other jobs for the next year.

A few fringe actors, or what the left really is?

by @ 7:43. Filed under Compassionate Lieberals, Politics - National, War on Terror.

Bryan has compiled a list, complete with links, of a heap of “fringe actors” acting out over at Hot Air.

Attorney-gate; a right, yet naiive, take

by @ 7:24. Filed under Politics - National.

Former Assistant US Attorney Jeff Wagner eloquently explains why Attorney-gate is a whole lot about nothing. However, it’s not about the attorneys, or even about Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. It’s all about finding a way to snooker 16 RINO Senators into doing what not a single ‘Rat would do in 1999.

Indeed, this is much like the one-vote-short-of-success play Congress pulled in 1867-1868. Andrew Johnson, who took over when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, wanted to get rid of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Congress, which loved Stanton, passed what proved to be an unconstitutional law requiring Senate approval for any firings of anybody whose appointment was confirmed by the Senate (sound familiar, class?). Johnson damned the torpedoes and fired Stanton; Congress followed with impeachment and a trial.

What else was “found” on Busalacchi’s Palm Pilot

by @ 6:49. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

If you believe that an unaltered copy of DOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi’s calendar from 2003 and 2004 was found on his Palm Pilot after it was erased from state servers, not only do I have a bridge to sell you, but I have a list of other things found on there:

  • The location of Noah’s Ark (the real one, not the water park in the Dells)
  • A recording of Jimmy Hoffa’s burial
  • The 800 FBI files the Clintons took
  • Former Senate “Republican Leader” Dale Schultz’s cajones
  • Busalacchi’s real NCAA bracket, which had a rematch of Marquette and Wisconsin (after Marquette beats UW-Parkside)
  • The identity of this year’s mole on “24”
  • The mission profile for Wing Attack Plan “R”

March 21, 2007

Scum of the earth updates

by @ 16:02. Filed under Compassionate Lieberals, War on Terror.

I haven’t hopped in on the story of a bunch of thugs recreating Kristallnacht on the Army recruiting center near the UWM campus, but there’s a couple of updates that need to have a wider audience.

First, even though the thugs have, so far, only picked up municipal tickets, Jessica McBride is reporting that Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm isn’t ruling out additional charges, even if the Milwaukee Police Department doesn’t recommend any. The catch is, MPD had not refered anything to his office as of this morning (Oh Nan, what’s the delay?), so the DA’s office is in a holding pattern.

Similarily, the feds are in a holding pattern, even though the damage threshhold for a federal felony charge is only $1,000 compared to the state’s $2,500 threshhold. There hasn’t been any word out of the US Attorney’s office, but typically the US Attorney will let the state handle things. I strongly suspect that, if Chisholm starts channeling E. Michael McCan’t, Steve Biskupic will invite the punks for a stay at Club Fed.

Second, I do have to give props to my state Senator, Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee). Charlie Sykes has an e-mail from him condemning the punks.

And the cover-up continues

by @ 15:28. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Good news – they’ve found Frankie Bag-O-Cash Busalacchi’s calendar for 2003 and 2004 on his Palm Pilot.

Bad news – Busalacchi had time to wipe any mention of Troha from it.

Exit question for those with Palm Pilots; is there enough memory on those things to keep contacts from 3 and 4 years ago? Something doesn’t smell right here.

Dammit, Chris – why did you pull that?

by @ 15:07. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Revisions/extensions (4:28 pm 3/21/2007) – Chris pulled the post, dammit. I simply struck throught the no-longer-relevant portions and pulled the link. It was truly classic DY.

Further revisions/extensions (6:41 pm 3/21/2007) – If only he didn’t have to out himself before taking his current gig,….

I proudly present to you the single best take on the revelation in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Department of Transportation “accidentally” erased Secretary Frank Busalacchi’s calendar, as well as his top deputy’s calendar and nobody else’s, for 2003 and 2004. If Chris Schneider is right, that’s why the archived-for-all-time (no ‘Rats here to save me) Bouncing Mozzarella got bounced.

Seriously, there is no way in hell that calendar could have accidentally disappeared. EVERY last GUI I’ve ever dealt with has asked for confirmation before deleting, while almost every backup program I’ve ever done does not. Even if the state were still using command-line technology, “DEL” isn’t exactly easily-confused with “COPY” or “BACKUP”.

Now, what is next? Since there is no longer a direct link to any activity that happened in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, I don’t know if US Attorney for Eastern Wisconsin Steve Biskupic can find a hook into this. Dane County DA Brian Blanchard, who has primary responsibility for prosecuting crimes committed in Madison, is nothing more than a partisan hack doing the bidding of the Madistan branch of the DPW (not-coincidentally, the branch that continues to occupy the governor’s mansion). AG JB Van Hollen saw nothing wrong with Team Craps in the 3+ years he was US Attorney for Western Wisconsin (responsible for, among other things, Madison) while Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) and Busalacchi were in the executive branch, and there’s nothing that suggests he sees anything wrong now. Van Hollen’s replacement in that office is so invisible I don’t even know who it is.

So, why did those two calendars and only those two calendars “accidentally” disappear? Could some of those entries contained evidence that Busalacchi illegally had the DOT provide indicted Doyle moneyman Dennis Troha with help settling tax bills with other states? If so, could those entries also contain evidence that Busalacchi was ordered to provide that help? Inquiring minds want to know, and not just mine.

March 20, 2007

Blogroll update (part 2)

by @ 16:56. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Since I don’t feel like shortchanging Jack Bauer, I’ve changed the link to Blogs4Bauer to a pic, and added Forums4Bauer. I’ve also added the host of Forums4Bauer, bRight & Early, just because I can.

If anybody else on the roll wants a pic, send it on down (I need it to be about 110 pixels wide; otherwise, I will reduce it to fit in the sidebar).

Yet another for the Cheddarsphere

by @ 11:20. Filed under The Blog.

Doc (or if you prefer, Nethicus) has been around a while. I just found out he’s a Cheddarhead, so please give a warm welcome to The Autopsy.

The Cheddarsphere’s Official Non Partisan, Good Government, Rainbows and Unicorns for Everyone, Watchdog!

by @ 11:10. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

If the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign can get away with shilling for the ‘Rats with no disclosure on its part whilst bitching about everybody else’s attempts to shill for their candidates of choice, it ought to be good enough for Dailytakes, The Cheddarsphere’s Official Non Partisan, Good Government, Rainbows and Unicorns for Everyone, Watchdog!.

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