define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); No Runny Eggs » steveegg

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.

December 7, 2009

Debt-a-palooza, 2010 edition (part 1)

by @ 10:59. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/T – Darleen Click)

Reuters reported on Friday that the monthly federal deficits of $176.4 billion in October (official) and $115 billion in November (CBO estimate) mean that the start of the 2010 federal fiscal year is even worse than the record-deficit-shattering 2009 fiscal year. As Darleen pointed out, that is an annualized deficit of $1.752 trillion.

That is mostly before the effects of items like expanding the homebuyer tax credit to existing homeowners (because the first-time-only version wasn’t loaded with enough fraud, I suppose) or PlaceboCare, or cap-and-tax, or…..

NPR v Liasson/Fox News/Williams

by @ 10:34. Filed under Presstitute Follies.

(H/T – Howie)

Politico has the news that top executives at National Public (read – taxpayer-funded) Radio told Mara Liasson to reconsider her appearances on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” and Fox broadcast network’s “Fox News Sunday”, all-but-ordering her to watch the network for 30 days to try and convince her to end her appearances on the “more-partisan” network. She did, and to her credit, told them to pound sand.

Poltiico also has this pot-and-kettle moment:

One source close to NPR executives said their discomfort with the Fox appearances by NPR personnel has been long-standing and has intensified over time.

“This has been a building thing. There has been a concern in the upper regions of NPR that Fox uses Mara and Juan as cover” to defuse arguments that the TV network is populated with right-wing voices, said the source, who asked not to be named.

One complaint from NPR executives is that this very perception that Liasson and (Juan) Williams serve as ideological counterweights reinforces feelings among some members of the public that NPR tilts to the left. “NPR has its own issues in trying to convince people that, ‘Look, we’re down the middle,’” the source said. “This is a public and institutional problem that has nothing to do with Mara. Obviously, you can’t give Mara a hard time for what’s coming out of her mouth. … She’s very careful. She isn’t trashing anybody.”

NPR hugs the left gutter of Karl Marx Street.

A date that still lives in infamy – 68 years later

by @ 10:00. Filed under History, International relations, War.

I originally posted this in 2007. Let’s re-run that, and add to it.

Hat-tip for the video – Jawa Howie. Now, watch and remember (or learn if you’re a recent product of public school education):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnOtWm5OrM[/youtube]

Of course, the lessons are rapidly being forgotten, as Ed Morrissey points out:

It took hundreds of thousands of American lives to defeat both Japan and Nazi Germany in the war that followed — a war that had already enslaved China years before on one side of the US, and half of Europe on the other side. We thought we had learned a lesson on December 7, 1941 ,which was that we had to be prepared to fight a war in order to keep from getting surprised like that again. Of course, we shouldn’t have been surprised at all by Japan’s attack in the first place. They didn’t suddenly become warlike and aggressive on December 6th, 1941, as the Chinese, Manchurians, and Koreans could attest. They had been attempting conquest (and succeeding) for several years in the Pacific Rim. We just preferred to keep our eyes closed in order to keep from doing anything about it. When we attempted to cut off oil to Japan, we discovered that negotiations and sanctions don’t keep war-drunk, expansionist powers from increasing their expansionism.

The lesson from that war is that appeasement and complacency doesn’t keep one from having to fight a war. It usually forces one to fight from an extreme disadvantage. That’s a lesson we have not remembered in dealing with expansionist powers in our own time, even after a second shock like 9/11 after years of complacency in dealing with al-Qaeda. We’re falling back to treating radical Islamist terrorism like a Law and Order episode, and allowing one of the main drivers of radical Islamist terror, Iran, to arm itself with nuclear weapons with no consequences whatsoever.

To that, I’ll add that Red China, which has rather open designs on both Taiwan and the entirety of the South China Sea, is still arming itself to the teeth while holding a rapidly-growing lot of US government debt. What do you suppose will happen if the federal government decides to default on some of that debt held by Red China?

November 26, 2009

More blessing counting

by @ 11:54. Tags:
Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Shoebox already listed what he is thankful for, but I do need to add my own list since the cook in my family (my older sister) is spending the day with her husband’s family (don’t worry; my overstuffing commences Sunday):

  • The Triune God – God the Father who created everything and who is the source of all blessings; God the Son, Jesus Christ, who did what I could not, atone for my sins so I could have a relationship with God; and God the Holy Spirit, who created faith in me.
  • My family, who I wouldn’t trade for any other family.
  • My friends (yes, I do have some), there through thick and thin.
  • Shoebox and the guest-bloggers, who have carried this place
  • Our readers, without whom this would be an echo chamber (chamber, chamber, chamber, just kidding).

It won’t be morning by the time I’m done rolling through the more-stuffed-than-a-turduckhen feed reader, but it’s time for a return of the Scramble so I can thank those friends.  No, I don’t have a song for today; instead, I bring you Tom McMahon’s bracket to introduce a reverse-order Scramble Special:

November 25, 2009

The annual Egg Turkey Execution Proclamation – 2009 edition

by @ 12:49. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Whereas the turkey is the offical bird of Thanksgiving, and

Whereas turkey is a delicious meat, and

Whereas turkey breast contains more protein and less fat and sodium than chicken breast,

Now therefore I hereby decree that a nameless, pictureless turkey be given a thorough plucking and a complete basting, and warmed to a sufficient temperature for human consumption, and further decree that turkey be thoroughly enjoyed until all of the meat be eaten.

-steveegg

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. May you be thoroughly stuffed with family.

November 24, 2009

Obama’s polling continues to crater

by @ 17:10. Filed under Politics - National.

A couple days after Gallup’s 3-day tracking poll of adults showed a dip of President Obama’s job approval index below 50% (H/T – Ed Morrissey), Rasmussen Reports’ 3-day tracking poll of likely voters has Obama further under water than he’s ever been:

  • The Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index hit a new low of -15, with 42% strongly disapproving of Obama’s job performance (a new high) and 27% strongly approving of same (just off the all-time low of 26% set 10/22 and tied 11/18).
  • Overall, the split was 54% disapproval (also a new high) and 45% approval (a new low).
  • Among independents, the Presidential Approval Index was -35 (51% strong disapproval, 16% strong approval).

Byron York took a look at the Gallup weekly internals, and found that Obama had majority approval from only the under-30 crowd, the lower-class (those making under $24,000 per year), and minorities. As Ed said, “It’s basically a portrait of the hard Left, which is exactly what his agenda represents, and the only political core he’s got.”

Constructing an off-ramp to defeat

by @ 16:33. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

(H/T – DrewM)

So President Obama has supposedly decided on sending 34,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, far short of either the “low-risk” 80,000 or “medium-risk” 40,000 commanding General Stanley McChrystal had requested. Moreover, the term “off-ramp” has entered the lexicon, with triggers for a full retreat-and-defeat starting to kick in June 2010. Do make sure you head over to Ace of Spades HQ for an explanation of how 34,000 was the final number, a special offer from K-Tel Productions, and assorted “off-ramp” references.

In related Afghan news, with a hat-tip to Uncle Jimbo,there appears to be an Anbar-style awakening against the Taliban. As Uncle Jimbo said, we need to make sure that the Taliban doesn’t roll them up in the pushback, like the Taliban did to the Pakistani tribes that rose up against them.

November 20, 2009

PlaceboCare pic of the day

by @ 12:19. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

As Tom McMahon asks in today’s 4-Block, “How sick is this?”

November 19, 2009

Delays have consequences, DOT edition

by @ 19:02. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Transportation.

A few years ago, Governor Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) and Milwaukee Mayor Tom “Milk Carton” Barrett conspired to delay the rebuilding of the Zoo Interchange, which links I-94, the northwest terminus of I-894, and US-45, in order to focus on rebuilding and widening the stretch of I-94 between the Mitchell Interchange (just north of the airport, which links I-94/US-41, the southeast terminus of I-894, and I-43) and the Wisconsin-Illinois state line. Indeed, with the effective elimination of funding for engineering work in the FY2010-2011 budget, the delayed target start date of 2014 was considered ambitious.

In August, the Department of Transportation placed weight limits on three of the bridges in the interchange due to deterioration:

– The northbound US-45 bridge over eastbound I-94 – 30 tons (3/4ths of the 40-ton national legal limit)
– The bridge connecting southbound US-45 and eastbound I-94 over westbound I-94 and US-45 – 35 tons
– The bridge connecting northbound I-894/US-45 to westbound I-94 over eastbound I-94 and southbound I-894/US-45 – 40 tons (which precludes use by any trucks with overweight permits)

Now, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that the DOT has issued a call for bids for the emergency replacement of those three bridges because follow-up inspections revealed that the three structures wouldn’t last until even 2012 as the supports are cracked and corroded. The estimated cost is somewhere between $12 million and $22 million, depending on how the replacements are done, with anticipated completion by Memorial Day weekend 2010.

Complicating matters are the closure requirements:

– No closures affecting more than one bridge at any time
– Except for a single weekend full closure per bridge, all shoulder or single-lane closures must be between 11 pm and 5 am

Given the other bridges in and just south of the interchange are of the same age, I have to wonder whether they’ll last until they’re replaced sometime after 2014.

Roll bloat – more logic

by @ 16:03. Filed under The Blog.

We’re somewhere near 400 blogs on that bloated roll to your right (and over 400 feeds in my overstuffed feed reader), but there’s always room for more quality places as we find them. One of those is Soapbox Jill’s Liberty’s Logic.

November 18, 2009

It’s time for the 2009 Weblog Awards nominations

by @ 10:49. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Actually, it’s almost too late since they close Friday, but I thought I would bring it to your attention. The nominations are now open for the 2009 Weblog Awards, so go forth and nominate your favorite blogs (and if I catch you nominating this place, I’m going to disown you).

Melt the phones – Milwaukee County edition

by @ 7:41. Filed under Politics - Milwaukee County, Taxes.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker issued on Monday 35 line-item vetoes that, taken together, more-than-fully reverse the County Board’s decisions to raise the property tax levy 3.8% and make county government even less efficient. The Board will be meeting at 1:30 pm today at the County Courthouse (901 N. 9th St. Room 201) to consider overriding those vetoes.

Since it takes a 2/3rds vote to override a particular veto, and the budget as a whole was passed on a mere 10-9 vote, there is hope that we will get a zero-levy-increase budget. However, unless your Supervisor hears from you at 278-4222, they will likely regress to the mean. If you don’t know who your Supervisor is, head here for a map of the districts.

My Supervisor, Paul Cesarz, already knows I expect him to uphold all 35 vetoes. Does your Supervisor know? The sentence of the day is, “Be polite, but be equally firm in your request that the vetoes be upheld.”

November 17, 2009

It’s over 9,00…er, 1,000,00…er, $12,000,000,000,000

by @ 21:15. Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

That’s right; at the end of the business day on November 16, 2009, the national debt topped $12 trillion for the first time in history. Things only get worse when one looks at the growing rate of the debt:

  • Over his first 300 days (209 business days at the Treasury), Obama presided over a $1,404,422,137,377.00 increase in the national debt. That’s right; 11.67 cents of every dollar of debt is on him.
  • Speaking of that $1.4 trillion increase in debt on Obama’s watch, that is a 13.22% increase over that 300 days, or 14.38% on an annual basis.
  • On a year-to-year basis, the 163 biggest increases of the debt in absolute dollars since January 1993-January 1994, and 144 biggest increases of the debt in percentage terms, had 2009 ending dates, including a high of $2.167 trillion (22.76%) between 9/16/2008 and 9/15/2009, with Obama responsible for $1.207 trillion of that.
  • On a quarterly basis, the 1st ($427 billion, 3.99% increase), 2nd ($418 billion, 3.76% increase) and 3rd ($365 billion, 3.16% increase) quarters of 2009 were the 3rd, 4th, and 5th-largest increases in absolute size, and 3rd, 4th and 7th-largest increases in percentage terms, of the debt since 1993. They trailed, in order, the 4th quarter of 2008 and the 3rd quarter of 2008, with 2nd quarter of 2003 and the 4th quarter of 2003 having the 5th and 6th-largest percentage increases. Do remember that, while Obama was not in the Senate for No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D, he was there to vote for TARP.
  • On an absolute basis, six months (February, March, April, June, July and August) had increases in the debt that were in the top 10 since 1993.
  • Perhaps the scariest bit of news – the debt is almost certainly higher than total personal income. The Bureau of Economic Analysis pegged personal income at $11.956 trillion in the third quarter of this year and declining, while the debt stood at $11.910 trillion on 9/30/2009. While the debt is still barely under the $14.302 trillion the GDP was estimated to be in the third quarter, it is also catching that.

No wonder why Obama is bowing, groveling, and otherwise licking the boots of any foreign leader perceived to have money.

Revisions/extensions (9:35 pm 11/17/209) – For more reading, head on over to Hot Air, where Allahpundit caught a whiff of the ultimate expiration date/red lips moment trial balloon of repealing every last Bush tax cut which, with all the other non-PlaceboCare tax hikes, would represent a $3 trillion/10 years tax hike (assuming, of course, that the money doesn’t just vanish). I wonder if the White House is paying attention to my last point of confiscating every last dime every last American makes in a year not eliminating the debt.

Also, stop on in CBS News’ Mark Knoller’s place, as it was his Tweet that launched my lenghty math exercise. I do have a math lesson for Mark – Bush’s $4.899 trillion increase in the debt was over 8 years, which makes that an 8.03% annual increase. Even the second term increase of $3.014 trillion represents only a 8.70% annual increase, far less than Obama’s 14.38% annualized rate. It is, however true, that Bush’s last-year increase of $1.438 trillion, which was a 15.65% annual increase, does top Obama’s current annualized rate (just wait for PlaceboCare to hit for that score to change).

November 16, 2009

Catching up, the November edition

by @ 14:57. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National, Politics - Wisconsin, War on Terror.

I’ve been out of steam for a while, but I think I have some now. Let’s see what I missed:

  • Tom “Milk Carton” Barrett decided to be the “savior” of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and announced that he would be the de facto nominee for governor on Sunday. The timing was not a mistake; ever since Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) figured out all the money from the tribes, the unions and the lawyers, as well as 100% control over the state-level electoral process, couldn’t save his hide, the Dems have been looking for a Missiah on the level of Barack Hussein Obama II.

    Related to that, the RPW and the Walker campaign immediately seized upon Barrett’s love of tax hikes (he voted for the then-largest state tax hike in history, the still-largest federal tax hike in history, and raised taxes, created and raised mandatory fees, and imposed a then-36% increase in the wheel tax that has proven so unpopular, Beloit dropped a lower version of it) and called him Tommy the Taxer. If there’s one thing outstate Wisconsinites hate more than Milwaukee-area conservatives, it is Milwaukee tax-hiking liberals.

  • Lou Dobbs got a $8 million parting gift from CNN as they strive to be “objective” be a clone of PMSDNC (H/T – Ace).
  • The Wall Street Journal editorial board has a two-fer on PlaceboCare today – they eviscerate the Baucus version of the Death Panel (hint; if you think the upfront cuts in Medicare Advantage are the only cuts that program will sustain, you’re sorely mistaken), and then they take on a proposed radical expansion of the Medicare tax into a “progressive” as well as a general income tax to replace the proposed tax on “lavish” health benefits.
  • A week after stinking up Raymond James Stadium to give the last winless team a win, the Packers crushed the Cowpokes. Which Packers team is the real one?
  • Speaking of Obama, he and Attorney General Eric Holder decided New York was the perfect place to drag KSM and buds for a civilian trial. What could possibly go wrong from a security standpoint (other than things that preclude the DC or Northern Virginia district court handle it, like truck bombs)?

    Continuing the “what could possibly go wrong” theme, why not put them in the military commissions the Cole bombing group is going into? Last I checked, the Pentagon is a military installation. Could it be that they want KSM to walk on a technicality, or could it be that they want Al Qaeda to learn all of our methods of stuffing them the last 8 years?

  • Speaking of Club Gitmo, the latest place President Present wants to stick the detainees is in the state where he earned the nickname “Present”, specifically in a facility not exactly designed for this kind of work. Again, what could possibly go wrong with putting a bunch of Islamokazis in a generic maximum-security about 3 hours from Milwaukee and Chicago, and spitting distance from the Mississippi River and one of the lock-and-dam combos on same?

November 12, 2009

Open Thread Thursday – the frozen edition

by @ 17:46. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

Sorry about the lack of posts. Other than Drinking Right, I’ve just been out of it all week, and Shoebox is decimating the pheasant population of South Dakota. Oh well; I may as well put up a song that was heavy in the TalkMess rotation back when Kevin Matthews was on the Loop in Chicago…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEMc9FLfgLw[/youtube]

There’s a few things in the hopper, like Wisconsin’s finances in the bottom 10, what Republic airways gav, they first took away, the fiscal year-end Social Security review (and a prediction that the 12-month cash deficits start in April 2010).

November 11, 2009

Thank you, vets

by @ 10:37. Filed under History, Military.

I believe I said it before, but it bears saying again – Without your service and the service of those who served before you, I wouldn’t be here doing this in the greatest country in the history of mankind.

November 9, 2009

Monday Hot Read – Spiegel Online’s “The Guard Who Opened the Berlin Wall”

by @ 12:07. Filed under History.

The German website Spiegel Online had one of their reporters interview former East German border guard Lieutenant-Colonel Harald Jäger as part of their extensive coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Jäger, who was in charge of the East Berlin checkpoint at Bornholmer Strasse, was the first guard to let East Germans cross over to West Berlin on November 9, 1989. As a teaser, I’ll give you a single question-answer exchange between Cordt Schnibben and Jäger that illustrates just how different the 9th was from the average day at the Berlin Wall:

SPIEGEL: The border guards used to refer to anyone trying to cross the border without the right documents as ‘wild boar.’

Jäger: Yes that’s right, we would use that term for people who would turn up at night, often drunk, at our checkpoint and wanted to get across. But it was different that night. These were people who wanted to get across because they were referring to a statement by a member of the Politburo. I didn’t regard them as wild boar.

November 5, 2009

Open Thread Thursday – instrumental edition

by @ 7:39. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

It’s Thursday, and after that long post yesterday, I’m out of steam. Let’s have an instrumental to warm up…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7WDAjG0r8A[/youtube]

You know the drill; feed me links.

November 4, 2009

Milwaukee Mile on its last cylinder

by @ 21:05. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Sports.

In case you haven’t noticed, I am a race fan. That is why it saddens me to have to tell you that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported that Milwaukee Mile promoter-to-be Historic Mile LLC has pulled out after failing to get enough financing to pay NASCAR for the 2009 races put on by previous promoter Wisconsin Motorsports, an amount previously reported to be $1.8 million.

However, the news isn’t quite completely hopeless. Despite that collapse, Dave Kallman reports that NASCAR has not yet pulled the scheduled 2010 dates, the same weekend as the Sprint Cup race in Sonoma, California, partly because nobody else wants those dates, and partly because there’s still hope that a group headed by former promoter Frank Giuffre and including enough money to make that payment will get the rights to the track.

A bit of history of recent promoters and the State Fair Park board is in order, with a lot of help on the numbers from the various reports on State Fair operations between 2002 and 2009 from the Legislative Audit Bureau and drawing on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for recent events:

  • In 1992, CART car owner Carl Haas took over race promotions at the Mile from Frank and Dominic Giuffre, who had been bought out by the board. In exchange for exclusive promotion rights (with one guaranteed major race required, CART’s June race usually held the weekend after the Indy 500, and an effort to secure a second), access to the board’s bonding authority, and most of the revenues generated by the track, Haas Racing Inc. would pay a guaranteed rent of $300,000 and service any track-improvement debt financed through said bonding authority. By 2001, that debt service had become over $375,000 per year.
  • In 1995, Haas Racing had secured that second major race, with NASCAR coming back with the Busch Series after a 2-year run in the 1980s and the then-new Craftsman Truck Series.
  • After Haas Racing lost $1 million in both 2000 and 2001, due in large part to the failing condition of CART in its losing war against the Indy Racing League, they and the board agreed to finally replace the crumbling 1930s WPA-built grandstand and somewhat-newer bleachers to the tune of $20 million, with the bleachers replaced in time for the 2002 racing season and the grandstand replaced in time for the 2003 racing season to help alleviate that. Of note, while Haas Racing lost $1 million in 2001, the State Fair made $395,000 off that agreement.
  • An estimate done by a private company in 2000, specifically the same one that did an analysis of the effects of building what became the very-troubled Expo Center (that story is for another post), claimed that, after a 1st-year loss of about $200,000, the new grandstand and the additional dates and revenues it would allow would let Haas make a profit of between $360,000 and $720,000.
  • As part of that construction, the board and Haas Racing restructured their deal in 2002 to eliminate the minimum guaranteed rental, change the debt-service requirement to be in effect only if Haas turned a profit, create a hard 50% profit-sharing agreement, give the board veto rights over Haas Racing’s track operating budget, and give the board several new termination rights.
  • In November 2002, Jim Doyle (D) won the gubernatorial election over Scott McCallum (R), who took over the governor’s office in 2001 when Tommy Thompson left to become HHS Secretary. That began to shift the makeup of the board as two members of the cabinet (the secretary of tourism and the secretary of agriculture, trade and consumer protection) are automatically members, and the 7 other members not tied to the Legislature (each house has a majority and a minority member) are appointed by the governor to 5-year terms.
  • In May 2003, citing a loss to the Fair Park of $341,743 due entirely to $376,000 in debt-service payments Haas Racing did not make as they did not make a profit in 2002 (thanks also in part to the bleacher-only nature of the track in 2002 as the new grandstand was not complete), the board bought out the contract for $250,000 two days before the CART racing weekend and took over operations. That grandstand had been greatly scaled back to reduce its cost, which also had the effect of reducing its money-generating potential.
  • Despite getting IRL to come to the Mile in 2004, the board lost $693,600 on track operations in 2003 (including the $250,000 buyout of Haas Racing), $3.6 million in 2004, and $2.9 million in 2005. Debt service increased to $1.8-$1.9 million in the latter two years as the full effect of the new grandstand and other track improvements mandated by the various series took effect. Of note, the 2004 LRB report made the claim that the 2000 study was grossly optimistic, but failed to note that the scope of the grandstand rebuild was cut.
  • The board attempted to get an unnamed promoter to assume operation of the track beginning in late 2004, with requirements that the promoter pay off the entire remaining debt service through the license fee, secure a letter of credit to ensure that 2 years’ of payment would be made, and pay for all maintenance and future improvements to the track outside the board’s bonding authority, but that initial attempt fell through in April 2005.
  • Doyle was the grand marshal for the NASCAR Busch Series race in June 2005, and he was roundly booed (I remember because I was at that race).
  • In August 2005, with Doyle appointees, cabinet members and the Democrats now in the majority, Milwaukee Mile Holdings LLC, a brand-new entity with no prior experience at track promotion, was announced as the new promoter, and they took over in 2006, with an average license fee of $1.8 million. The board did give MMH parking revenues for the 134 days per year it had control over the track (something not originally envisioned, and something that Haas Racing did not enjoy), secured the first year of the $3.6 million line of credit for MMH (with a requirement that MMH renew it annually), and knocked $1.5 million off the 2006 fee. MMH also acquired a 4-year right to buy a park-surrounded property owned by a gas company and give it to the board after remediation in exchange for board-owned property between the track (still owned by the board) and Greenfield Ave to the south.
  • With ChampCar (nee CART) departing the Mile after the 2006 season, MMH was once again reduced to two major series weekends, with the IRL assuming the CART/ChampCar weekend-after-Indy date in 2007.
  • In April 2007, MMH assigned its right to buy that gas tank farm to the board (which then bought the land from the gas company) and agreed to pay the board for that transaction if it decided to acquire the land south of the track (never acquired), while the board agreed to defer $722,000 of the $1.8 million payment from June 2007 to December 2007 and agreed that the license agreement could be reopened after the 2007 racing season.
  • In December 2007, MMH filed notice of claim against the board seeking $6.4 million and a release from the license agreement claiming, among other things, a loss of a track sponsor due to the board’s actions and a misreprentation of revenues in the 2005 negotiations.
  • In February 2008, MMH and the board agreed on modifications, including a reduction and further deferral of that $722,000 down to $400,000, a reduction in the license fee to $1 million (with a sliding-scale deferral of those payments to 2017-2023), a reduction in the number of days MMH had control of the track to 75, and a change in the land swap from ownership to ground-lease rights on a smaller parcel. It also required MMH to secure a fresh letter of credit that included all the defered payments by March 2008.
  • MMH failed to do so by either March 2008 or its original annual renewal date of August 31, 2008. They claimed to have sustained $5.1 million in losses since 2006, and wanted to get rid of the license fee entirely before providing an updated letter of credit. The 2009 LAB memo on State Fair operations is unclear whether one was produced for 2009.
  • MMH ultimately provided a 2-year notice of termination in December 2008, stating at that time it could not pay the IRL or NASCAR fees, and giving the board permission to get another promoter. The board and the Department of Justice responded in February 2009 by terminating the license agreement due to a lack of a letter of credit, deemed by the DOJ as an act of default. The 2009 LAB report indicates that the DOJ plans on suing MMH for $2.7 million in damages.
  • MMH then-President of Operations Charles Napier formed Wisconsin Motorsports LLC to assume racing operations, which then entered into a 10-year agreement with the board – $180,000 in license fees plus 10% of gross monthly revenue (less only directly-related sales costs and NASCAR/IRL sanctioning fees). That revenue-sharing was to be capped at $300,000 in 2009, $350,000 in 2010, $400,000 in 2011, and $450,000 in 2012.
  • Meanwhile, three things severely hampered Wisconsin Motorsports’ ability to make a go of it in 2009, even if they had money and not just a couple people who worked for MMH:
    • The economy continued to crater.
    • Wisconsin Motorsports decided to honor $1 million in tickets sold by MMH even though MMH did not turn over the money. Related to that, MMH owed vendors between $500,000 and $800,000 as of May 2009.
    • NASCAR implemented a ban on unsanctioned testing at all tracks where it runs a race at any level. In previous years, since the Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup Series did not have a race at the Mile, Cup teams could test here, usually in preparation for the races at New Hampshire.
  • Unfortunately, Wisconsin Motorsports did not have the money. They owe IRL about $200,000 in unpaid sanctioning fees, and despite NASCAR taking all the vendor money directly during their weekend here, they owe NASCAR $1.8 million in unpaid sanctioning fees.
  • In July 2009, Wisconsin Motorsports went under, and cancelled the Wisconsin All-Star Weekend scheduled for the end of August. Limited minor events, such as an SCCA event, did go on, while the board searched for a new promoter. The board declared that it would not be responsible for the overdue sanctioning fees.
  • In August 2009, Historic Mile LLC, comprised of Tony Machi, Jim Beaudoin, and Wisconsin Motorsports GM/COO Steve Jones (who left the group later in the month), was announced as the intended promoter for 2010. That was dependent on them getting committments from IRL (which had already released its 2010 schedule without the Mile on it) and NASCAR. They were chosen over several other groups, including one featuring the Giuffre brothers and reportedly including long-time CART/IRL team owner and owner of the Menard’s home improvement store chain John Menard (later confirmed to be part of the group).
  • In mid-September 2009, NASCAR announced that the Mile would have both Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series dates on the same weekend as the Sprint Cup race in Sonoma, just as in recent years.
  • Despite a disagreement between Historic Mile and the Giuffres on whether the Giuffres would provide Historic Mile a loan, as well as a lack of disclosure from Historic Mile who beyond Machi and Beaudoin was involved in that venture, the board and Historic Mile signed a 10-year agreemnent-in-principle at the end of September 2009. At the time, Machi claimed that Historic Mile made NASCAR “happy” (since disproven).
  • Simultaneously, while Dominic Giuffre said he was no longer interested in running the Mile, Frank said he was, and listed his other partners as Menard, fellow track promoter John Kaishian, and the Deckers that put on Eagle River’s World Championship Snowmobile Derby.

October 30, 2009

Paul Ryan drops off a copy of H.R. 3962 at the Franklin Public Library

by @ 14:33. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

I attended Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI, and my Congressman) townhall meeting at the Franklin Public Library, where he dropped off a copy of the 1,990-page present House version of PlaceboCare. If you have the 36 minutes to watch the entire townhall, the 4-part video is below (and yes, it is recommended). If you don’t read the Cliff’s Notes version while you watch the short version from Ryan’s office:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN8O8-R45aw[/youtube]

  • Ryan would have brought more copies, but with the bill being over a foot tall, he couldn’t carry more than one on the plane. Fortunately, he did put it up on his House website.
  • H.R. 3962 would represent the largest tax increase in the history of the country, with a surtax of 5.4% on those making over $500,000 per year ($1,000,000 for couples) hitting most small businesses as well, a 2.5% medical device tax, a new payroll tax and the removal of the tax-exempt status of Health Savings Accounts.
  • Abortions would be paid for under the public option, and the bill would also establish an accounting gimmick to justify subsidizing private plans that cover abortion.
  • In order to make it appear to be deficit-“neutral”, it removed a $245 billion provision that would reverse a planned reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates, with plans to pass that as a stand-alone bill (or more-likely, attached to something else).
  • The $170 billion in Medicare Advantage cuts will, according to Medicare’s actuaries, cause 64% of those on Medicare Advantage off that program and raise the rates paid by those remaining in it.
  • Speaking of rate increases, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Milwaukee estimates that the bill will increase the insurance rates of those in their twenties by 199% (that’s essentially tripling it), those in their 40s by 122%, and those in their 50s by double-digits.
  • Instead of attempting to fix the joint state-federal Medicaid, which is currently bankrupting a lot of states, it increases its size by 50%.
  • The malpractice tort “reform” will be limited to states that do not cap damages, thus making it anything but reform (Ryan called it a “fig leaf”).
  • While the House Republicans will be offering a “consolidated” substitute amendment next week, it is unknown whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as part of hers, President Barack Obama’s and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan to use one-party rule to ram this through, will even allow it to see the floor.
  • On the House side, the current plan is to get this to the floor on Thursday, with a vote on Saturday. On the Senate side, a cloture vote is expected sometime in the third week of November, but ultimately it won’t be necessary as the groundwork has been laid to pass this through “reconciliation”, which requires a simple majority instead of 60 votes to invoke cloture.
  • Even though the current tally of the correspondence at the Ryan office is 9-1 against, he urged people to once again call Senators Kohl and Feingold to keep the pressure up, especially because it is not inevitable.
  • He explained why this was his first opportunity to come back to the district after the August recess – Pelosi is trying to keep everybody in Washington so they don’t hear from their constituents.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ww5jwQkip0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGznTy69Bhk[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghgSq3K4law[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m7Fxnk_AM0[/youtube]

Revisions/extensions (5:02 pm 10/30/2009) – Just received word that the new bill has a new bill number. It is now H.R. 3962.

R&E part 2 (5:28 pm 10/30/2009) – The preliminary CBO first-decade scoring is in. Between the “meeting” with Obama resulting in some “technical” changes, the removal of planned fixes to the reduction in Medicare reimbursements (removing $245 billion in costs), a further reduction in those reimbursement rates (which, along wth other cuts in Medicare amount to $426 billion), and taxes/fees/penalties equalling $739 billion, they were able to squeeze out a debt “reduction” of $104 billion out of a bill spending $1,055 billion (that would be $1.055 trillion for those who missed the comma) in new outlays.

October 29, 2009

Open Thread Thursday – Extra blues edition

by @ 7:39. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

This thread is open…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etv4eXWndOU[/youtube]

Have at it.

White House v. AP on Porkulus

by @ 7:35. Filed under Politics - National, Press.

(H/T – JammieWearingFool)

Let’s walk through the timeline of the latest war on the media by the Obama White House, this time involving the Associated Press (that’s right, the AP):

  • At 12:02 am Eastern, the AP issued an “Impact” story stating that the White House overstated the effect of Porkulus by at least 16%, as in a partial review of 9,000 federal contracts they found that at least 5,000 of the 30,000 jobs “saved or created” were neither “saved” nor “created”. In some instances, they found that the same “saved or created” job was counted at least ten times; in others, there was no job at all.
  • At 12:15 am Eastern (via Fox News), the White House hit back saying that the AP cherry-picked the data, and that the larger set of data (100,000 contracts provided by state governments and various non-profits) to be released Friday will be correct.
  • The AP is not backing down, as they included the following in a 6:35 am Eastern story – “The reporting problem could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls.”

That, folks, is the reason why ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN stood up for Fox when the Obama administration tried to freeze it out of the pool. They know that they could be next.

October 28, 2009

Must-see PJTV – Trifecta takes on PlaceboCare

by @ 12:35. Filed under Health Care Reform.

The only bad thing about PJTV is they don’t allow people to embed videos. Do not, however, let that discourage you from viewing today’s Trifecta with Bill Whittle, Stephen Green and Scott Ott skewering PlaceboCare. They take on the Soviet-style lines for a government-issued flu shot, government workers handling needles, probes and speculums, HarryCare (or is it hari-kiri?), chain-gang health care, and the rebranding of the public consumer competitive America is AWESOME!!!1!1!!eleventy!!1! Government Takeover “option”.

October 27, 2009

New NRE poll – What is the proper response to Favre’s purple return to Lambeau?

by @ 18:39. Filed under NRE Polls, Sports.

Wendy has the perfect set-up to get me away from politics for a while, though it may not be exactly safe with the readership on the far side of the Mississippi/St. Croix…

What is the proper way to greet Favre in his return to Lambeau?

Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed

  • Lusty booing. (30%, 13 Vote(s))
  • Silence. (20%, 9 Vote(s))
  • Wild cheering. (20%, 9 Vote(s))
  • Polite applause. (18%, 8 Vote(s))
  • What is this "football" you're talking about? (7%, 3 Vote(s))
  • Mild booing. (5%, 2 Vote(s))

Total Voters: 44

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Apology to the Lawton family and note to my readers

by @ 12:27. Filed under Presstitute Follies, The Blog.

Last night, I linked to an audio report from WTAQ-AM’s Jerry Bader which offered a guess on what caused Barbara Lawton to abandon her gubernatorial run that ultimately turned out to be wrong. I apologize to Lawton and her family for running with that, as I believed that Bader had run down a sufficient number of sources.

I forgot one of the cardinal rules of journalism; if your mother tells you the sun is shining at noon, go outside to check. I do have to thank WIBA-AM for doing what I should have at least attempted to do, and ask whether there was any “there” there.

When I discovered that WTAQ initially pulled the story earlier this morning, before either the retraction from Bader or the WIBA/Lawton interview had come out, I attempted to find out why the story had been pulled, and when I did not get a response, I decided to delink to the audio and note that it had been pulled. I further attempted to find out and notify those who got the story from me to let them know that the story had been pulled.

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