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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 23, 2009

A couple of lost things regarding the AIG “bonuses”

by @ 23:20. Tags:
Filed under Business, Politics - National.

(H/T – Tom Maguire at JustOneMinute via Dad29)

The Washington Post did some actual journalism the other day, and took a look at AIG’s Financial Products subsidiary. Allow me to highlight a couple of key paragraphs from the story, written by Brady Dennis:

The handful of souls who championed the firm’s now-infamous credit-default swaps are, by nearly every account, long since departed. Those left behind to clean up the mess, the majority of whom never lost a dime for AIG, now feel they have been sold out by their Congress and their president….

They say what is missing from this week’s hysteria is perspective. The very handsome retention payments they received over the past week were set in motion early last year when the firm’s former president, Joe Cassano, was on his way out the door. Financial Products was already running into trouble on its risky credit bets, and the year ahead looked grim. People were weighing offers from other firms, and AIG executives feared that too many departures could lead to disaster.

So AIG stepped in with an offer to employees of Financial Products. Work through all of 2008, and you’d get a lump payment in March 2009. Stick around through 2009, and you’ll get paid through 2010. Almost all other forms of compensation — bonuses, deferred payments and the like — have vanished….

In actuality, (chief operating officer Gerry Pasciucco) said, nearly all the troublesome sectors of the business — namely, the risky credit derivatives written on mortgage-backed securities — are now out of the equation, as are the people who worked on them. That leaves a small number of employees to untangle the remaining trades in four main areas: commodities, interest rates, currency and equities — most of which were fully hedged and have caused little problem. The effort also requires a sizable number of “back office” staff, such as systems, computing, accounting, human resources and legal teams.

Of course, you won’t hear those little tidbits from the thundering herd bound and determined to use this for their own political and socioeconomic ends. For those that can comprehend what the WaPo said, you can leave now and report to the JustOneMinute thread. For those that need a shorter and far-more-vulgar explanation, please flip to page 2.

Iowahawk – Obama’s Teleprompter speaks

by @ 16:41. Filed under Politics - National.

If you’re not following Iowahawk at all his various places (this time at Big Hollywood), you’re missing a lot. This time, The Teleprompter lets loose with some new demands…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hSnEMV58F8[/youtube]

Go, watch.

Revisions/extensions (11:24 pm 3/23/2009) – Fixed the embed.

Not exactly satisfactory

by @ 14:21. Tags:
Filed under Politics - National.

Over the weekend, I asked Rep. Paul Ryan’s office for an expansion on his reasons to vote for the 90% TARP tax. This statement sent to me this morning isn’t exactly what I was hoping for:

Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan voted in favor of H.R. 1586, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 328 to 93. His statement follows:

“I share the outrage of those I serve. At a time when job losses are mounting and difficult days lie ahead for our nation’s economy, the last thing Congress should do is waste taxpayer dollars. The same individuals who drove AIG into the ground should not be rewarded with bonuses on the backs of taxpayers. Efforts to stabilize the financial system to get credit flowing again and protect jobs must not be diverted to subsidize failure. If the Janesville and Kenosha auto workers were forced to take pay and benefit cuts as a condition for TARP funding, then surely the AIG executives who helped create this crisis should not receive taxpayer financed bonuses.

This bill was rushed through the U.S. House of Representatives in order to cover up the fact that the stimulus legislation, which passed earlier this year, specifically made these bonuses possible. The truth is these bonuses would have been avoided if Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and the White House had not removed the provision blocking them. The American people have a right to know how these taxpayer-financed bonuses occurred in the first place. I voted in favor of this bill because I believe these taxpayer-financed bonuses should never have been allowed.

The critical issue of the bill’s constitutionality, however, must be fully explored. I have received contradictory opinions from legal experts on this matter, and Congress should have allowed more time to deliberate and settle this important issue. Unfortunately, this bill was rushed to the floor in the same manner that the stimulus legislation was considered which created this mess in the first place.”

Where do I begin? Let’s start at the top. While the GM and Chrysler were required to renegotiate their union contracts, those talks have not yet yielded a final agreement. I will note that one of the few concessions the UAW gave Ford, which is expected to be the general framework for the new agreements with GM and Chrysler, was the suspension of bonuses.

There were points at which the government “could” have required AIG to not pay bonuses. Rep. Ryan pointed out one of them. Another point was to make it a part of TARP back in October. A third was when the Federal Reserve first started bailing out AIG. I would still consider that odious, just as I consider the bailout of GM and Chrysler odious, with any demand from the Fed Reserve just a bit less so. It would, however, have had the advantage, at least in September and depending on how it was written, at the other points, of being something that AIG voluntarily entered. That is something that can be said for GM and Chrysler; they took their federal money knowing they had to get concessions out of the UAW.

Instead, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rammed home the bonuses when he was head of the New York Federal Reserve bank, the originator of the first of the infusions of cash into AIG. Instead, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) inserted protection of the bonuses into the last of the infusions of cash into AIG.

Yes, it is a punitive tax. It does not apply just to future bonuses, but those paid out on January 1, 2009. As James Taranto pointed out, in high-tax locales, the cumulative tax rate would be over 100%. It is so bad that even the Obama administration has misgivings about using this particular vehicle.

I can’t put it better than Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH): “People are disgusted and outraged, as they should be. But let’s not overreact in a way that basically has the Congress grabbing its pitchforks, and charging up the hill, and abusing what is a core authority of a government, which is the authority to tax its people.”

Regarding the bill’s constitutionality, or lack thereof, it is rather easy to apply the “duck” test. If it looks like an ex post facto bill of attainder, waddles like an ex post facto bill of attainder, and quacks like an ex post facto bill of attainder, I expect the courts will call it an ex post facto bill of attainder.

March 22, 2009

Quad damage Sunday

by @ 22:39. Filed under NRE Polls, Sports.

I’ll start with the bad news on the bracket first. I went 4-4 on today’s games, losing my 1-8 upset special as Oklahoma State couldn’t quite get the job done against Pitt (which made my still-open 1st-round semi-scientific wild-assed guess 67% wrong). I also can’t show in the AoSHQ tourney (down to a potential best of 5th with 153 points) thanks to the Cowboy choke. Further, both Wisconsin and Marquette (who I had going out in the 1st) bowed out today. Finally, statistical analysis proved no better than SSWAG, as I am not missing 9 of the Sweet 16, 4 of the Elite 8, or 2 of the Final Four.

Now, the good. That was my only miss among the 11 games that didn’t die in the first round, and I had OSU not going past the Sweet 16. I’m still just missing the quarter of my Elite and Final brackets I was at the end of the day Friday (damn the Midwest and South brackets).

A bit of housekeeping – the which #1 is out first poll is still open because we still have all four #1s still in it. Do choose wisely as seconds do count. Don’t take the early tentative schedule courtesy Yahoo Sports as the final word (though the days are solid):
– West – UConn and Purdue (5-seed) Thursday at 6:07 pm (first regional semifinal)
– East – Pitt and Xavier (4-seed) Thursday at 6:27 pm (first regional semifinal)
– Midwest – Louisville and Arizona (12-seed) Friday at 6:07 pm (first regional semifinal)
– South – UNC and Gonzaga (4-seed) Friday at approximately 8:57 pm (second regional semifinal)

I did not and will not reset the poll, so if you already voted (especially for UNC, like me), you’re stuck. However, unlike the first two rounds, I will suspend the poll while games involving #1s are being played.

Which #1 will be the first out of the 2009 Big Dance (seconds do count)?

Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed

  • Pittsburgh (30%, 3 Vote(s))
  • North Carolina (30%, 3 Vote(s))
  • Connecticut (30%, 3 Vote(s))
  • Louisville (10%, 1 Vote(s))

Total Voters: 10

Loading ... Loading ...

March 21, 2009

No Damage Saturday

by @ 21:41. Filed under Sports.

Good news – out of the 6 games I had an interest in today, my teams won all 6. Yes, Gonzaga, Duke and Purdue (yes, I did take a couple of Big Ten teams to be Sweet) were too close, but as the title says, I had no further damage.

Now, the bad news – because North Carolina and Villanova both won, I can do no better than 3rd in the AoSHQ bracket. At least I have more teams locked into the Sweet 16 than locked out.

Bracketology life support

by @ 2:06. Filed under Sports.

Well, we’re through the first round, and it’s time to review the damage so far. First, let’s take the shredded predictions:

The Marquette Care Bear…er, Golden Chickens will be able to beat the rush out of Boise tomorrow. Oops; they somehow survived Utah State. Unfortunately, because they’re the nightcap, the Wisconsin Bagders can’t say the same. Actually, the Badgers managed to come back to force OT and ultimately win.
– Once again, no #16 seed will win. Louisville did have a 1st-half scare, and East Tennessee State almost closed the deal on Pitt. However, the #16s are now a perfect 0-100 in the actual tourney (not counting the play-in game between #64 and #65).
– This year’s Cindy is Butler, with Mississippi State being the lowest-seeded 1st-round winner. Picked the wrong Horizon team; Cleveland State was the lowest-seed 1st-round winner.
– Call me crazy, but I see three Big Ten teams making it out of the first round. Off by 1.
– For those of you participating in the third annual “Which #1 will be knocked out first” poll, I am not calling for a repeat of last year’s all-#1 Final Four. In fact, Pitt and UNC will not make the Sweet 16. Yet to be determined.

Only the safest of predictions came in, and then only because Pitt finally got the choke out of their throats. So, what did that do to the bracket?

– 11 first-round losses
– 5 games completely meaningless to me this weekend
– A quarter of my Elite Eight dead and buried
– My Southern regional champ packed up and back in class

I could look on the bright side and point out my national championship game is intact. However, I tend to say, “I positively hate this fucking place,” when asked for a positive attitude check. Instead, I’ll apply some statistical analysis:

Current-round loss rate – 11/32
Next-round loss rate – 5/16
3rd-round-out loss rate – 1/4 (call it a bit higher)
4th-round-out loss rate – 1/4 (call it a bit lower)

Projected number of missing Sweet 16 teams after 2nd round = 5 + (11 * 11/32) = 9 missing Sweet 16 teams
Projected number of missing Elite 8 teams after 2nd round = 2 + (6 * 5/16) = 4 missing Elite 8 teams
Projected number of missing Final 4 teams after 2nd round = 1 + (3 * 1/4) = 2 missing Final 4 teams
Estimated probability of missing at least one of the National Championship Game teams after the 2nd round = 50%

I could extrapolate further, but it’s too depressing.

March 20, 2009

Apology to Paul Ryan

by @ 20:56. Tags:
Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

In case you missed it, I pretty much called my Congressman, Paul Ryan, out for his vote on the 90% TARP tax. I had the fortune of running into him tonight at the Racine County Lincoln Day dinner, and he explained the plan behind it. The short version: because the House Republicans realized they couldn’t stop it in the House, they let the Dems win this round. There still is the (theoretical) stoppage in the Senate, partly because there is a different plan in the Senate, and partly because there is the (theoretical) chance of actually filibustering it.

It is also a message to companies that might otherwise want to jump on or stay on the Bailout Train – don’t trust Congress.

Since I didn’t have a chance to mention it at the dinner, I apologize to Rep. Ryan for the blasting.

I’ve got 91.45%. Do I hear 103.5%?

by @ 16:08. Tags:
Filed under Politics - National, Taxes.

James Taranto ran the numbers on the 90% tax on bonuses at companies that took TARP money, and found that it isn’t exactly 90%. While that 90% rate replaces the federal income and federal alternate income tax rates, it does not replace the Medicare FICA tax of 1.45% on employee pay, which thanks to the Clinton administration applies to all income and is not capped. It also does not replace any state or local income taxes. James used New York City as an example – New York State taxes income at 6.85% and New York City taxes income at 3.648 percent. Let’s do some math:

  90.000% – Bill of Attainder/Ex Post Facto federal punishment tax
+  1.450% – Medicare FICA tax (paid by the employee)
+  6.850% – New York State income tax
+  3.648% – New York City income tax
————————————————————————–
101.948% – total tax paid by the employee
+  1.450% – Medicare FICA tax (paid by the employer)
————————————————————————–
103.498% – Grand total tax paid by both the employee and employer

Thanks a lot, Paul Ryan. Thanks a lot, Nancy Pelosi. Thanks a lot, Charlie Rangel (BTW, has Rangel paid all of his back taxes yet?).

Before I go, there’s another tidbit in that piece. While companies would be able to avoid this if they got out of TARP, the regulators are trying to keep them in. Gee, I wonder why.

Election-rigging in Kentucky

by @ 12:08. Filed under Politics, Vote Fraud.

(H/T – Sister Toldjah)

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that 8 people in Clay County, Kentucky, including a then-sitting (and now-senior) circuit judge, the superintendent of schools in Clay County, the county clerk (one of 4 members of the county Board of Elections, along with the sheriff, and representatives from the Republican and Democratic Parties), the Democratic appointed member of said Board of Elections, and the Democratic and Republican election judges in Manchester, Kentucky for the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, were indicted yesterday for buying and corrupting elections between 2002 and 2006.

The indictment is a rather interesting read. A quick summary:

– The judge, Russell Cletus Maricle, and the superintendent, Douglas C. Adams, styled themselves as the political bosses of Clay County, causing the appointment of corrupt people to the elections board and “recruiting” local candidates to run on a “slate” that would be guaranteed to win election.
– The Democratic member of the election board, Charles Wayne Jones, appointed elections officers who would do the bidding of himself, Maricle and Adams, including buying votes and changing votes that voters thought were properly cast but were actually not (more on that last item in a bit).
– The clerk, Freddy W. Thompson, used his position, to which he was elected in 2002 (the start of this conspiracy) to instruct corrupt election officers on how to change votes. He also supplied money used to buy votes and also is charged with lying to a federal grand jury.
– William E. Stivers, the Democratic election judge in Manchester in 2002 and 2004, handled the marking of voters whose votes were bought, and also participated in extortion schemes.
– Paul E. Bishop, the Republican election judge in Manchester in 2002 and 2004, also handled the marking of voters whose votes were bought, and also hosted “fundraisers” for the vote-buying scheme.
– William B. Morris and Debra L. Morris, who own a sanitation business that has contracts with Manchester and Clay County, provided money for the vote-buying scheme.
– In addition, Maricle and Stivers are charged with instructing one of the two Manchester election judges in 2006, identified as “W.W.” in the indictment, as participating in the vote-switching scheme to lie to a grand jury. The other person, identified by the Herald-Leader as Charles “Dobber” Weaver, previously pled guilty to vote-switching charges.

While the vote-buying scheme was part of all three election cycles, the introduction of touch-screen voting machines in 2006 introduced a new, more-insidious method for this cabal to exploit. Summarizing Count 9, for which Maricle, Jones, Thompson and Stiver have been indicted:

– Thompson and Jones appointed Weaver and “W.W.” as the Republican and Democratic election judges in the Manchester precinct, and instructed them to “…tell voters that when they had pushed a button labeled ‘Vote’ that their votes had been cast, when, in fact, that function merely provided a review screen of the voter’s selections in each race, and that the further step of pushing the ‘Cast Ballot’ button was required.”
– When the misled voters left the voting booth with a ballot they thought they properly completed but hadn’t, one of those two would enter the booth, change the vote to the “slate” decided by Maricle, and then complete the casting of the ballot.

According to the Kentucky State Board of Elections, Clay County currently uses exclusively the ES&S iVotronic. While the current version does not use the verbiage mentioned in the indictment (it’s “review” to review and “vote” to finish casting the ballot), and I cannot confirm that the iVotronic was used in 2006, it otherwise does match up with the method described in the indictment. Further, the iVotronic does not produce a paper record, much less one that is actually handled by the voter, although there is now option for a “paper-under-glass” audit feature (again, I do not know whether this version is in use in Clay County).

Which is worse?

by @ 9:21. Filed under Politics - National.

Voting for a retroactive grab of 90% of contractually-obligated pay, or not admitting that it was done out of the hatred of the primacy of contract law? Somebody had better ask Paul Ryan and Tom Petri that.

Bracket of Despair

by @ 6:56. Filed under Sports.

I don’t know why I do these things. The first game saw me lose one of my Final Four teams, and a second Final Four team almost choked themselves right out of the tourney. I also lost a second Sweet 16 team on my way to a 10-6 start.

The really bad news – the first day is usually my “best”. I am ready to declare the Bouncing Mozzarella rejected.

March 19, 2009

Ahmadinejad and Ortega, sitting in a tree

by @ 12:55. Filed under International relations.

There has been a lot of focus on Iran’s growing ties with Venezuela, specifically their dictator-for-soon-to-be-life Hugo Chavez. What has been left unexplored is a budding relationship between Iran and Nicaragua. Todd Bensman has been exploring that relationship, and he sees more than a few parallels between that and an earlier Iranian effort in Argentina that culminated in a Hezbollah twin bombing.

Fausta had Bensman on her podcast today. I highly recommend listening.

I wish I could explain why the Nicaraguan connection is going mostly unexplored. Their dicta…er, President, Daniel Ortega (yes, THAT Daniel Ortega, Communist), does have a decades-long hatred of the US.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for ballers

by @ 10:39. Filed under NRE Polls, Sports.

That’s right, the NCAA Mens’ Basketball Tournament is upon us. I’m already 0-1, incorrectly taking Alabama State over Morehead State. As a Moron, I should know better. Oh well, here’s the rest of my Bouncing Mozzarella bracketology. Selected lowhighlights:

– The Marquette Care Bear…er, Golden Chickens will be able to beat the rush out of Boise tomorrow. Unfortunately, because they’re the nightcap, the Wisconsin Bagders can’t say the same.
– Once again, no #16 seed will win.
– This year’s Cindy is Butler, with Mississippi State being the lowest-seeded 1st-round winner.
– Call me crazy, but I see three Big Ten teams making it out of the first round.
– For those of you participating in the third annual “Which #1 will be knocked out first” poll, I am not calling for a repeat of last year’s all-#1 Final Four. In fact, Pitt and UNC will not make the Sweet 16.

That brings me to the Third Annual Which #1 Will Drop First poll. As always, seconds do count, so pick carefully.

Which #1 will be the first out of the 2009 Big Dance (seconds do count)?

Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed

  • Pittsburgh (30%, 3 Vote(s))
  • North Carolina (30%, 3 Vote(s))
  • Connecticut (30%, 3 Vote(s))
  • Louisville (10%, 1 Vote(s))

Total Voters: 10

Loading ... Loading ...

March 17, 2009

Very-quick thoughts on the AIG bonus kerfuffle

by @ 7:58. Tags:
Filed under Business, Politics - National.

The title should give you a clue as to my thoughts on the calls for the feds to seize the $165 million in bonuses that certain AIG executives are due. Unless there’s a better reason than political expediency, those bonuses need to be paid out to preserve the sanctity of the contract, which is an underpinning of capitalism.

Now, what those executives do with the bonus is another matter. Mitt Romney made the point that they could voluntarily forego the bonuses by relating a similar situation he worked out at Bain & Co. Fausta Wertz, as part of a poll attached to a longer piece, suggested splitting the bonuses with the workers.

Of course, we shouldn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board unleashed a rather devastating broadside. Oh, where do I begin? There’s the $20 billion from the feds through AIG to European banks (somewhere north of an order of magnitude bigger than the bonuses, and no known legal obligation to pay off the Europeans), the regulatory EPIC FAIL that led to AIG’s collapse, the role Elliot “Client #9” Spitzer played, and CEO Ed Liddy’s desperate attempt to remain firmly attached to the government teat.

Revisions/extensions (8:01 am 3/17/2009) – Ed Morrissey makes the same point a lot more coherently. He includes another kicker – the Obama administration could have let AIG lapse into bankruptcy, which would have voided the contracts that specified the payouts.

March 15, 2009

Tax Day Tea Party times two

by @ 22:35. Tags:
Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

I believe I already told you about the Madison Tax Day Tea Party that Vicki McKenna and Americans for Prosperity are throwing on the steps of the Capitol in Madison starting at 11 am. I do have an operational update on that – AFP will be running buses from across the state, including Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Manitowoc, Sheboygan, Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha, Minocqua, Wausau, Stevens Point, Eau Claire, LaCrosse, Platteville, Johnson Creek, and Beloit. Do sign up if you’re going to be taking the bus.

For those that can’t get out of work (and especially for those in northeast Wisconsin), I have good news. There is also an afternoon Tea Party in Appleton, over at Fox Banquets, 111 E. Kimball in Appleton. That kicks off at 5:30.

Looks like I’ll be one busy road-tripper.

Signs of the times

by @ 22:22. Tags:
Filed under Politics.

Courtesy Justin Higgins at the Columbus, Ohio Tea Party yesterday…

Another sign the second coming (of the Great Depression) is nigh

by @ 19:04. Filed under Economy.

Oil Patch Plug found a rather interesting (in the Chinese sense) report that aired on NBC’s Nightly News last week.

[youtube width=”425″ height=”264″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F94f_Ycsjs[/youtube]

The last time I remember hearing about tent cities popping up this thickly, it was the early 1930s.

March 13, 2009

Joe Biden – a bleeping valuable VP (only “valuable” doesn’t really mean “valuable”)

by @ 17:51. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/T – Jim Treacher’s Twitter stream)

Jake Tapper caught Vice President Joe Biden having a microphone “malfunction”. It seems somebody left a microphone pointed at Biden on when he unleashed what Tapper calls his ‘standard reply’ (reconstituted from the family-friendly ABC News site, so those with sensitive eyes may want to depart now) – “Gimme a fucking break”.

Two things:

– Yes, the fuck does really mean fuck.
– We now know why Biden was picked to be VP; he is at heart a Chicago pol.

China now “worried” about US Treasuries

by @ 7:51. Filed under Economy, International relations, Politics - National.

(H/T – Instapundit)

I believe that Dad29, Asian Badger, Shoebox, and I have been warning about this for a while. The AP reports that China’s Premier, Wen Jiabao, is getting a bit queasy about his country having half its $2 trillion in currency reserves be US government debt. Wen said this at a news conference after China’s annual legislative session – “We have made a huge amount of loans to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I’m a little bit worried…. I would like to call on the United States to honor its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets.”

The Obama administration is hoping to finance its massive increases in spending through continued sale of those instruments. There’s two problems. First, the publicly-held portion of the debt is expected to double to something north of $22 trillion in the next 10 years. Given the expected anemic growth in the economy, that would put the debt over 100% of the GDP. Second, Social Security is expected to start running in the red inside of 10 years, which means all that loan paper that makes up the Social Security “Trust Fund” will start to be called to make up for the shortfalls. Meanwhile, nothing’s being done about it.

That isn’t exactly a recipe for guaranteed payback of issued debt. It’s a sad day when Communists understand the debt market better than the Gorons in DC.

National Iowahawk Day

by @ 6:53. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Dan Collins has decreed today to be National Iowahawk Day. That’s right; we’re celebrating the best humor on the Web.

Some other people are able to at least try and match Iowahawk’s genius; I simply marvel at it. If I were healthier, I’d probably make my way to Meier’s Tavern in Glenview, IL at 8:30 tonight.

March 12, 2009

Any “headlines” section will be a while in coming

by @ 19:20. Filed under The Blog.

Some of the blogs I read, like Hot Air, Sister Toldjah, Melissa Clouthier and The World According to Nick, have set up a “headlines” section, where they post headline links to news stories and articles they find interesting, but don’t necessarily have the time to do a full-blown post. Since the lengthy Scrambles are just too much work, I have been mulling using a “headlines” section as a replacement.

I want to be able to have comments on those headlines, so using a third-party service like Nick does is pretty much out. For a couple of technical reasons, I don’t really want to put the headlines into the same database as the rest of the blog content, so I wanted to have it as its own blog like Hot Air. One of the neat tricks that Hot Air does is allow a single login for both the main blog and the headlines, and that’s where I started running into problems.

I attempted to tie the user tables of the nascient “headlines” blog to those of my test blog (which, while being on a subdirectory of this place, is on a different database), and I just couldn’t get that to work properly. I ended wiping out that blog and the tables it created in the test blog database. At the same time, I was trying out a different mobile theme plugin on the test blog. Between the two things I was trying to do, I somehow hosed that blog, with that mobile theme being forced in IE even after the “force theme” checkmark was unchecked (necessating a cookie/cache clearing), and then all the page/post links attempting to find its equivalent here. That got fixed through brute force (i.e. an elimination of that plugin and then a reinstall of the WP files).

However, as that got fixed, Shoebox and I both lost access to the admin pages here. There was nothing that should’ve been affected on this blog, as the test blog is in its own directory and its own database. After failing to find a more-elegant fix, I had to reinstall the WP files here as well.

Oh well; life goes on.

Open Thread Thursday – 3/12/2009

by @ 7:09. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

I’m still well under the weather, so all I’ve got is some rare acoustic Jimi Hendrix…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-4NuPDpvgc[/youtube]

There’s enough out there, so please share with the class.

March 11, 2009

Senate Republican “leadership” – FAIL

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

Shoebox wrote back in the immediate wake of the November election that there was no difference between 57 Democrats in the Senate and 60. Something that John Hawkins tweeted today reminded me of that: “The GOP’s leadership in the Senate is utterly failing. They haven’t stopped ANYTHING yet and Lamar Alexander voted for the Omnibus bill.”

I have decided to run with that and see just how big a failure that has been. The Senate has taken 96 votes in this session of Congress. There were 14 votes on items supported by the Democratic leadership (majority leader Harry Reid, majority whip Dick Durbin, vice chair Chuck Schumer and secretary Patty Murray) that required a 3/5ths majority, and thus could theoretically been stopped by the Republicans. Depending on the day, they needed not only their entire caucus that was present, but also between 2 and 8 “Republicans”. Let’s review the record:

  • Floor vote #1 and floor vote #2 on the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which among other things proposed locking up 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 331 million barrels of recoverable oil in Wyoming) – John Barrasso (WY), Michael Bennett (CO), Thad Cochran (MS), Susan Collins (ME), Mike Crapo (ID), Michael Enzi (WY), Orrin Hatch (UT), Richard Lugar (IN), Lisa Murkowski (AK), James Risch (ID), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Roger Wicker (MS) joined all the present Dems (excepting the absent Joe Biden, Sherrod Brown and Ted Kennedy) on the vote to exceed the 59 votes necessary to proceed to that as the Senate’s top priority (vote #1), while Kit Bond (MO) and Lindsey Graham (SC) joined the aforementioned “Republicans” and all the present Dems (Biden, Brown, Kennedy, Kent Conrad and Debbie Stabenow weren’t present) to exceed the 59 votes necessary to invoke cloture (vote #2). While it did pass the Senate, it is languishing in the House.
  • Floor vote #4 and floor vote #14 (Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which allows the perpetually-aggrieved to wait until 6 months after they leave a job instead of waiting 6 months after “discrimination” to sue) – Lamar Alexander (TN), Bennett, Bond, Richard Burr (NC), Collins, Bob Corker (TN), Chuck Grassley (IA), Judd Gregg (NH), Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), Mel Martinez (FL), John McCain (AZ), Mitch McConnell (KY), Murkowski, Snowe, Arlen Specter (PA) and Wicker joined all the present Dems (Brown and Kennedy were absent) to exceed the 59 votes necessary to proceed (vote #4), while Collins, Hutchison, Murkowski, Snowe and Specter joined all the present Dems (Kennedy was absent) to exceed the 59 votes necessary to pass the bill (vote #14), which is now law.
  • Floor vote #33 (an attempt to waive the Budget Act with respect to an attempt by Murray to acquire some pork in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka Porkulus) – Bond and Specter joined all the present Dems (again, Kennedy was absent) except Mary Landrieu in a failed attempt to make that happen; they fell 2 votes short of the 60 votes necessary. Of note, this was the only victory against the Dem machine, but only because Kennedy was absent and Reid suffered a rare defection from his caucus.
  • Floor vote #35 (an attempt to waive the Budget Act with respect to a Barbara Mikulski/Sam Brownback amendment to Porkulus that allows the deduction of interest, state sales tax and state excise tax paid by certain taxpayers on the purchase of a car/light truck bought between November 13, 2008 and December 31, 2009) – Most of the Republicans joined most of the Democrats on this 60-vote-majority one; the amendment was subsequently agreed to by a voice vote. Of note, more Democrats than Republicans opposed it (17-9); that and the nature of the amendment means that I am not counting this against the Republicans. The interest portion was subsequently stripped out, but the taxes deductions survived.
  • Floor vote #55 (an attempt to waive the Budget Act with respect to an amendment to Porkulus to greatly expand the tax deductibility of plug-in electric vehicles) – Alexander, Bennett, Bond, Sam Brownback (KS), Burr, Saxby Chambliss (GA), Collins, Corker, Crapo, John Ensign (NV), Graham, Hatch, Johnny Isakson (GA), Lugar, Martinez, McCain, Murkowski, Risch, Pat Roberts (KS), Snowe, Specter, John Thune (SD) and George Voinovich (OH) joined all present Democrats (Kennedy absent) to exceed the 60 votes required to waive the Budget Act; the amendment was subsequently agreed to by a voice vote. It appears most of this was subsequently scaled back.
  • Floor vote #59 and floor vote #60 (an attempt to substitute the Collins/Nelson/Reid rewrite of Porkulus) – Collins, Snowe and Specter joined all the Dems (yes, they even brought in Kennedy this time) to exceed the 60 votes required to invoke cloture on (vote #59) and waive the rules for (vote #60) that particular version of Porkulus for the one already on the floor. The subsequent vote to pass was a simple majority, and that was modified in conference.
  • Floor vote #63 and floor vote #64 (final adoption of Porkulus) – Collins, Snowe and Specter joined all the Dems (Kennedy was back to being absent) to get to the 60 votes required to waive the rules (vote #63) and pass (vote #64) the final version of Porkulus. Had just one of the three not bolted, we wouldn’t have had Porkulus.
  • Floor vote #65 and floor vote #73 (the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2009) – Cochran, Collins, Hatch, Lugar, Murkowski, Snowe, Specter and Voinovich joined all the Dems present (Kennedy and Tom Harkin were absent) except Max Baucus and Robert Byrd to exceed the 60 votes required to proceed (vote #65), while Collins, Hatch, Lugar, Snowe, Specter and Voinovich joined all the Dems present (Kennedy was again not present) except Baucus and Byrd to exceed the 60 votes required to pass the bill (vote #73). The bill is currently stalled in the House.
  • Floor vote #96 (passage of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009) – Alexander, Bond, Cochran, Murkowski, Richard Shelby (AL), Snowe, Specter and Wicker joined all the Dems present (Kennedy absent again) except Evan Bayh, Russ Feingold and Claire McCaskill to exceed the 60 votes required to pass the pork-laden Omnibus bill signed in secret by Obama.

As stated above, I consider one of the votes (vote 35) a bipartisan measure. Another 3 votes were essentially purely procedural (votes 1, 4 and 65). That leaves 10 meaningful places the “Republicans” could have stopped the Dingy One. 9 times, they failed.

So, who were the big failures? Specter and Snowe lead the pack at 9, but I give the edge to Specter for his attempt to make the total failure rate 100%. Collins isn’t too far behind at 8. Bond and Murkowski each bolted 4 times. Hatch and Lugar departed 3 times apiece. Alexander, who is supposed to be one of the “leaders”, was among the multiple offenders. In all, 29 of the 41 members caved at least once on a critical vote, and only 9 didn’t cave at all.

March 10, 2009

100K visitors and other errata

by @ 18:13. Filed under The Blog.

I was hoping to get a few things done, like a “headlines” section and a slight redesign (necessary for said headlines section), in time for my 100,000th visitor (who came in just before noon), but I just haven’t been feeling too great. I do want to thank each of you who stumbled into this place the almost-2 years that I’ve been keeping stats, and the over-3 years total that I’ve been running it.

I’ve got a couple of ideas for posts floating around, but I need a clearer head to actually post on them. I haven’t decided quite what to think about CRG’s announcement of a Recall Doyle effort yet; I’ve heard some good arguments both for and against. I still don’t quite know what to make of Mark Verhalen’s write-in bid for Oak Creek mayor after he fell short in the primary. There’s also thousands of posts from hundreds of blogs in the overstuffed feed reader.

Oh well; I need something to eat, and then drink. See you at Papa’s.

Bill Buchanan – so that others may live…

by @ 13:16. Tags:
Filed under Miscellaneous.

Thanks to Fred for providing me the screen cap, and thanks to the gang at Blogs.4Bauer for giving me the keys to the place…

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