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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.

February 8, 2009

Obama moves the Census under direct White House control

by @ 10:29. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/Ts – Jon Ham and Moe Lane)

Color me shocked, SHOCKED that the Obama White House would strip control of the Census Bureau the Commerce Department, set to be run by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH). The Census Bureau, as everybody should be aware, is responsible for conducting the census, which forms the basis of every representative district.

Allow me to take just one aspect of that; the by-state apportionment of Representatives in the House of Representatives. That is, by law, set at 435, which means if one state gains a sufficient number of residents (legal and otherwise) to gain a seat, another state must lose one. For this exercise, I’ll run with the July 2008 Census Bureau estimates of population, take the 8-year rate of growth between July 2000 and July 2008 and extend that until 2010. The formula for determining the number of Representatives, once the population of the states is known, is pretty simple; divide a state’s population by the total population of the 50 states (excluding the District of Columbia, which does not have representation), and multiply by 435, rounding as necessary to get a total of 435.

Here’s where things get a bit interesting. Just like 2000, rounding at .5000 would yield only 433 Representatives. Therefore Since there are no states that would otherwise have no representation, the 2 states closest to but not over the magic .5000 also get bumped up, like California and Utah did in 2000. Currently, the projected states are (in descending order):
Rhode Island (currently 2 Representatives, both Democrats) – 1.477614508 projected Representatives
South Carolina (currently 6 Representatives, 4-2 Republican edge in the delegation) – 6.470898967 projected Representatives

Just missing the cut would be Oregon (currently 5 Representatives, 4-1 Democratic edge in the delegation, 5.463832819 projected Representatives). Given the estimate I used, Oregon would miss by roughly 5,026 residents.

South Carolina has a Republican Legislature and a Republican governor, and they last voted for a Democrat Presidential candidate in 1976. Oregon and Rhode Island both have a Democratic Legislature and a Democratic governor, and they both last voted for a Republican Presidential candidate in 1984. Which is more likely to magically “find” a net few-thousand-resident difference between South Carolina and Oregon, while not “finding” that net few-thousand-resident difference between Rhode Island and Oregon, so Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama get an ill-gotten buffer; a Census Bureau reporting to Commerce Secretary(-designate for the moment) Judd Gregg or White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel?

Revisions/extensions (10:44 am 2/8/2009) – Clarified that no state could have zero Representatives. The closest to that would be Wyoming, with a projected 0.763284928 Representatives.

February 6, 2009

2nd Annual Defending the American Dream – Wisconsin Summit

by @ 9:06. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

I do hope you reserved Saturday, March 7 on your calendar. Americans for Prosperity is holding the 2nd Annual Defending the American Dream – Wisconsin Summit at the Midwest Airlines Center. Yes, there is a bit of a cost involved at $36 for general admission and $19 for students, but the lineup of both guests and topics are well worth it.

Guests include Rep. Paul Ryan, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, Wall Street Journal reporter Steve Moore, authors Herman Cain and Fred Kelly Grant, Judge (and candiate for Supreme Court Justice) Randy Koschnick, candidate for State Superintendent Rose Fernandez, and WIBA/WISN radio star Vicki McKenna.

Topics include the death tax, climate “change”, property rights, the upcoming state budget, and choice in education.

Do register for this great event as soon as possible.

Eggs on the road – next few weeks

by @ 8:56. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Most of this is assuming me being in better shape than I’m in (very sore throat, rather tired), but here’s what’s happening around town that I’m shooting for:

– Saturday 2/6, 2:30 pm-3:30 pm – Rose Fernandez listening session, Mayfair Mall, Community Room 150, 2500 N. Mayfair Rd. in Wauwatosa. Rose is a candidate for state superintendent, and the one I’m supporting.

– Tuesday 2/10, 7 pm-??? – Drinking Right, Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W. Burleigh St. in Milwaukee. If it’s the second Tuesday of the month, and the first one isn’t Election Night, it’s all about being drinking.

– Wednesday 2/11, 6:30 pm-9 pm – Oak Creek Mayoral Candidate forum, Oak Creek Community Center, 8580 S. Howell Ave. in Oak Creek. Come meet all three candidates running for Oak Creek Mayor, incumbent Dick Bolender, Alderman Mark Verhalen and Alderwoman Dimity Grabowski, and learn about the issues in the race. Side note; I do have a short questionnarie out to all three candidates and hope to have responses from all of them prior to this event.

– Tuesday 2/24, 7 pm-??? – Blog ‘n Grog, Sprizzos, 363 W. Main St. in Waukesha. It’s not as hard to find your way around downtown Waukesha as it used to be, so come on out and grog.

– Saturday 3/7, 8:30 am-6 pm – Defending the American Dream – Wisconsin, Midwest Airlines Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Ave. in Milwaukee. My friends at AFP are once again bringing some good guests and great conservative topics together.

In addition, I’m still working on getting to CPAC. I cannot promise that one though.

Post Office bails on Oak Creek for now

by @ 8:25. Filed under Politics - Oak Creek.

The Business Journal of Milwaukee has a rather distressing story for those of us in Oak Creek. The U.S. Postal Service has decided to delay building its planned $80 million mail processing and distribution center on the old Van Beck property at College and Pennsylvania at least a year because of their current financial condition.

Buried in that story is a real stinker of an item, especially for those that opposed the facility. The USPS bought the property from Cobalt Partners, the developer-of-record, last month for $8.1 million, after Cobalt spent $4.6 million assembling the property from the estate of the Van Becks, two other individuals, and the city. That’s right; it’s now exempt from taxes.

I sent an e-mail to Mayor Dick Bolender this morning asking for clarification on another item of interest; whether this change in ownership affects a previous agreement from Cobalt Partners to pay for part of the reconstruction of College and Pennsylvania that is scheduled to begin this year. When and if I hear back from the mayor, I’ll update this post with the answer.

February 5, 2009

AFP presents NoStimulus.com

by @ 20:31. Filed under Politics - National.

I’m way late to this party, but since the Senate will continue work on their version tomorrow, and it will be going to a conference committee, it’s not “never”. My friends at Americans for Prosperity set up a site opposing the Generational Theft Act of 2009 called No Stimulus! As part of this effort, they’re gathering signatures on a petition in opposition to the expansion of government. They’re at 53,288, but they could still use your help.

The Snuggie Stimulus

by @ 13:01. Tags:
Filed under Politics - National.

Mary Katharine Ham has done it again…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzkSFnh7lbQ[/youtube]

The Morning Scramble/Open Thread Thursday – 2/5/2009

by @ 11:21. Filed under Open Thread Thursday, The Morning Scramble.

I’m still down with a cold, but I need to throw something up here…

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

  • Tom McMahon explains why Wisconsin governor Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) hasn’t been offered a Cabinet post.
  • Elizabeth Crum wonders whether there are 10 good people to fill 15 Cabinet positions. Maybe a dose of fire and brimstone will warm DC up.
  • Nate Beeler channels Lt. Frank Drebin, Police Squad. “There is (BOOM!) nothing to see here. (BAM!) Please (WHOOSH!) disperse (KABLAM!).”
  • Elliot found the presstitutes are still doing their halo thing.
  • Bill Quick caught one of their number taking it a leap too far (literally).
  • Confederate Yankee reports The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted (Or Photographed)™ wants its pound of flesh from the guy who Che-ified Barack Hussein Obama. I’ll bet they’re just mad that they didn’t think to do that themselves.
  • Dicentra caught High Priest Algore Goracle trying to recreate the Octoberists and Young Pioneers. I wonder how long before stukach becomes part of the American lexicon.
  • Jim Hoft caught the Obama administration kowtowing to OPEC by shutting down the spigots in Utah. Don’t forget, Obama was only dismayed that $4.50/gallon gas came so suddenly.
  • Ed Morrissey caught probably the last Kennedy to hold office threatening the future of edible pork. He can have my honey-baked ham sandwich if he can pry it from my cold, dead fingers (first, he’d have to figure out a way to make those fingers cold and dead).
  • On to the inedible pork – Michelle Malkin reports the next in line for the teat are auto parts suppliers to the tune of $20.5 billion.
  • Kristina Rasmussen runs the numbers on the pork-filled Generational Theft Act of 2009, and proves that we’re well above the 1% pork level. What’s left unsaid is it’s somewhere north of 50% liberal wish list.
  • Kevin Binversie finds some “blue-dog-on-red-diaper” violence going on in the House. That’s right; the Blue Dogs want the “regular” process of moving legislation restored. Maybe if they hadn’t caucused with SanFranNan,….
  • Yankee Sailor asks whether the economy is our #1 security problem.
  • Charles Johnson found former Vice President Dick Cheney worried that we will suffer a WMD terrorist attack in the next 4-8 years. Put money on it.
  • Lawhawk finds the UN shocked, SHOCKED that Hamas would be stealing its humanitarian supplies.
  • JihadGene penned a love song from SanFranNan to Krazy Kim.
  • Is NOTHING sacred in Hollywood?, Part I – Ace bleeds over the pending reboot of “Predator”. I believe Blain Cooper has the perfect description of the rewriters.
  • Is NOTHING sacred in Hollywood?, Part II – Ace reports the Three Stooges are going to be remade. Hey Moe, hey Larry. There’s going to be phoneys at the mike.

Yes, it is Open Thread Thursday, so in the spirit of all the bailouts, how about bailing a sick blogger out.

February 1, 2009

The Tommy Thompson Memorial Pickoff Pool to not pay off?

by @ 9:23. Filed under Politics - National.

(H/T – Ed Morrissey)

Remember that item from Friday that had President Barack Obama (D) taking Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) as his Commerce Secretary so that the Democrats would get to 59-of-99 seats in the Senate? The Hill is quoting named and unnamed Republicans close to Gregg that he wouldn’t do it if the Democratic governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, appointed a Democrat to replace him.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) won’t accept a position as President Obama’s secretary of Commerce unless he is guaranteed his Senate seat remains in GOP hands, said two Republicans who know Gregg well….

"Gregg would never allow his seat to go to a Democrat, the only way he would allow it is if he died," said a Republican close to Gregg. "He would consider it to be a breach of trust to people who elected it."

For those of you wondering why I call it the Tommy Thompson Memorial Pickoff Pool, former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson (R) made a sport of cherry-picking a Democratic state Senator for a plum state job and replacing that person with a Republican when the Democratically-controlled Senate would block the budget process. Of course, the Senate Republican “Leader” at the time, Mike Ellis (Neenah) would always find a way to have his caucus lose a seat in the next election to return control right back to the Dems.

The funny thing is, the Dems don’t even need to get to 60; there will always be enough RINOs (with or without Gregg and the still-“fighting” Norm Coleman from Minnesota) siding with them to stop any filibuster from the remainder of the caucus.

Your official Championship Game That Cannot Be Named™ betting sheet

by @ 8:33. Filed under Sports.

This is the last serious betting opportunity of the NFL season. Let’s ignore the disastrous first part of the season and the non-existant second half/playoffs (necessitated by a vig crunch), and gamble on the Su…er, Championship Game That Cannot Be Named™. Unless specified, all of these come from Bodog as of 8:15 am; bets and odds may vary based on when and with whom you plunk down your marker:

Final – Pittsburgh -7 points and -210 to win, under 47 total (the under is the 5-star pick of the day)
First half – Arizona +4 points, under 24 total
1st quarter – Pittsburgh -.5, under 10 total
2nd quarter – Arizona +.5, under 13.5 total
3rd quarter – Pittsburgh -.5, under 10 total
4th quarter – Pittsburgh -.5, under 13 total
Will Arizona score in every quarter – No (-325)
Will Pittsburgh score in every quarter – No (-180)
Will there be a score in the last 3:30 of the game? – No (+125)
What will be the final margin? – Pittsburgh by 7-12 points (4/1)
Who will throw more interceptions? – Kurt Warner (-160)
Will Troy Polamalu have an interception? – Yes (+140)
(Not from Bodog, but courtesy Arthur Balinovsky on Facebook) – What will the White House thermostat be set at for the party? – Under 76 degrees (of course, every fireplace will be going full-tilt)
Does former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich have any professional interest on today’s action? – No (but only because he was also kicked out of his office pool)

All information provided is for entertainment purposes only. NRE and its agents assume no responsibility for any money lost, tax liabilities incurred, court appearances ordered, jail time sentenced, broken bones inflicted, killings suffered, or any other action taken as a result of using this to gamble.

January 30, 2009

I believe Erick said send balls, not Neuticles

by @ 19:46. Filed under Politics - National.

I am a bit late to the RedState/DontGo Movement Send A Pair Project. The first target is Senate “Republican leader” Mitch McConnell, specifically his Louisville office (601 W. Broadway Room 630, Louisville, KY 40202). RedState recommends playground balls, but after I read the item I’m about to post on, I’m going to send some serious 2″ gumballs (once they arrive at the bunker, that is) because somebody must’ve slipped some Neuticles into the first shipment.

Jeff Emanuel points to a piece that ran on Politico yesterday that says that quotes McConnell as saying the Republicans need to become even more liberal than they have over the last 8 years. Let me put it this way; when there were GOP governors on both coasts, when Ronald Reagan won every state except Minnesota, the GOP was the party of both economic and social conservatism. Over the last 18 years, ever since George H.W. Bush busted his lips and raised taxes, the Republican Party has abandoned first economic conservatism and then social conservatism. The Democrats never really abandoned their liberalism, at least once they reached office.

Most. Ethical. Cabinet. Evah. (NOT) (cont.)

by @ 19:12. Filed under Politics - National.

Jake Tapper of ABC reports that Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle (last seen in public life as the Democratic Senate leader) waited until he was being vetted for the HHS post before he paid $101,943 plus interest in taxes owed for using a chauffeur and car between 2005 and 2007. For those keeping score at home, that’s roughly three times what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner belatedly paid in taxes.

I can already hear the excuses – Daschle, as Senate Democratic leader, was provided with a chauffeur and car paid for by you and me.

I’ve lost count of how many of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet and Cabinet-level advisers have had ethical lapses. Of course, since the Senate “Republican” leadership is in desperate need of a pair of balls (more on that in a moment), I’ll say that at least 12 Senators with “R”s behind their name will vote for Daschle’s confirmation.

How big is the Generational Theft Act of 2009?

by @ 16:57. Tags:
Filed under Politics - National.

Flip Pidot puts the answer in a handy graphic (which you’re going to have to go see yourself). In inflation-adjusted dollars, the “infrastructure/energy” portion of the Generational Theft Act of 2009 (arguably the “stimulative” part of the act) ranks below the Louisiana Purchase, the Moon Race, the first 4 years of the New Deal, and the Iraq War (the other governmental spending on the chart), while each of the remaining 3 components; “wealth redistribution”, “states/human capital” (i.e. government spending money on itself), and interest on the borrowing, each outstrip everything except the New Deal and the Iraq War.

Bonus item – Using the same numbers from Bianco Research (via The Big Picture) that Flip used, the total $1.2 trillion cost of the Generational Theft Act is greater than any “single-event” outlay other than World War II in inflation-adjusted terms.

Revisions/extensions (7:17 pm 1/30/2009) – Link to Flip’s post fixed, but I won’t guarantee success in getting through. All I can say is, “Try, try again.”

HopenChange, 4-Blocked

by @ 10:27. Filed under Politics - National.

Tom McMahon does it again…

As usual, all comments and credits need to be directed to Tom.

This has “train wreck” written all over it

by @ 9:40. Filed under Obama worship.

DakRoland, a regular Ed Morrissey Show chatizen, passed this one onto me. For an initial cost of $69.95 (plus shipping and handling), CollectiblesToday.com will send you the first 3 cars in the BOHO (Barack Obama HO-scale) railroad set, along with a short track and a power pack.

I’m waiting for the inevitable YouTube video of the train derailing.

Update by Shoebox:   Here’s video of the 2 BOHO trains, Hope and Change, trying to use the economic track laid by the BOHO stimulus bill

Who had Gregg in the Tommy Thompson Memorial Pickoff Pool?

by @ 9:24. Filed under Politics - National.

Revisions/extensions (4:22 pm 1/30/2009) – Corrected the state in the party ID from Rhode Island to New Hampshire (thanks to JB in the comments).

David Fredosso picked up on an item that first ran in Roll Call that President Barack Obama wants to tap Sen. Judd Gregg (“R”-NH) as Commerce Secretary. New Hampshire is one of the states that states the governor gets to appoint a temporary replacement, specifically until the next general election (in 2010). At last check, the governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, is a Democrat, and there is nothing that says that Lynch has to appoint another “Republican”.

I guess the ‘Rats believe there is a difference between a potential 59-of-100 and a potential 60-of-100 after all, especially since the House Republicans showed some backbone the other day in opposing the Generational Theft Act of 2009.

January 29, 2009

Little did they know…

by @ 13:22. Filed under Business.

Ed Driscoll dug up a 1981 report of the first move of a bunch of newspapers setting up shop on CompuServe. While that is a bit before my time (I was thoroughly contented with the Atari 2600), the list of papers reads like a who’s who of the current failures. Yes, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune is there, along with The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.

I don’t know what is more quaint; the rotary phone with handset modem, the TV hookup for the computer, the all-caps display, the “We’re probably not going to lose a lot (of money)” quote, or the 2 hours to download an ASCII version of the paper.

For your viewing pleasure, I present the KRON-TV report:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WCTn4FljUQ[/youtube]

Open blog

by @ 9:49. Filed under Miscellaneous.

I’m pretty well burned out. I’ll be back when I’m a bit less toasty.

January 28, 2009

Slight tweaking of the theme

by @ 14:36. Filed under The Blog.

Mike Little released another update to the Journalized theme, so I rolled the changes in. Also, in preparation for a possible “headlines” section, which would involve moving both sidebars to one side, I’ve slightly changed how the Day by Day cartoon appears so it would be centered in the “main” column rather than the page as a whole.

I think things work.

Revisions/extensions (3:27 pm 1/28/2009) – At the suggestion of Shoebox, I resized the iframe that Day by Day sits in so that, except for the Sunday cartoons, the scroll bars are gone.

R&E part 2 (3:29 pm 1/28/2009) – Needs some more fine-tuning at the 1024×768 resolution. Also need to crank out a 800×600-compliant version (and install a theme-switcher).

R&E part 3 (4:07 pm 1/28/2009) – There’s no pleasing Firefox; it brings out the scrollbars with a larger iframe set than IE. I am not going to have a lot of whitespace so that Firefox can have no scrollbars 6 days a week.

One more from the official graphic artist of the Cheddarsphere…

by @ 11:57. Tags:
Filed under Economy.

Tom McMahon came up with Moneyoply 2009.

As per usual when I borrow his stuff, the comments are off here.

January 27, 2009

The Morning Scramble – 1/27/2009

by @ 10:24. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

It’s been a while, so let’s rock on…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pp8iyOlpSM[/youtube]

John Hawkins asked on Twitter this morning how he can “better find outstanding posts from small, lightly read, conservative/libertarian bloggers to link”. I can’t say I’m a very good source, but I do what I can.

  • Gary Larson explains how we have Sen. Stuart Smalley.
  • Dan Kenitz is shocked, SHOCKED that the race-card players would throw down against Michelle Obama.
  • John McKittrick takes Barack Obama’s freshly-minted ban on weapons in space to its ultimate conclusion. That’s right; no more Space Shuttle, no more satellites, no more astronauts.
  • Stephen Kruiser asks, “Were these people elected to run the United States federal government or the World Wildlife Federation?” It’s more like the World Wrestling Federation, complete with blind refs.
  • Kathy Carpenter offers Exhibits 123,942-123-948 for the thesis that Obama represents the fifth FDR term.
  • Patrick proves that the relationship between Old and New Media need not be 110% advesarial – between him, his co-bloggers and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel‘s Dan Bice (and a few mad taxpayers), a couple of Milwaukee County supervisors will be reimbursing the county for their Immaculation junket.
  • Kate wants a ride on Citigroup’s new plane as it soon will be the taxpayers’ plane. Did anybody mention that Citi’s fleet is French?
  • Trail-Mix asks the question that is on the few free-market types left , “When did Capitalism become the enemy?”, and then proceeds to answer it.
  • Dave Casper outlines the utter stupidity of “sustainability” using his employer.
  • Jib revises his economic outlook, and offers this bit of sage advice, (I)f you haven’t already, starting showing your superiors at work how important you are and how much more important you can be in a downsized company.”
  • Shoebox blasts the facade from the Generational Theft Act of 2009.
  • James Wigderson proves that Dr. Van Mobley, the Republican-establishment candidate for Wisconsin State Superintendent, has learned nothing from the experience of the Tommy Thompson 2/3rds-state-funding-of-schools-for-reduced-property-taxes failure.

As long as I’m in the promotion business, I humbly suggest reading the blogs that are linked on John Hawkins’ Conservative Grapevine. He may not have the music, but he has an even larger list of blogs he reads than I do, and unlike this place, he has readers who visit by the megabyte.

January 26, 2009

A fool and his money…

by @ 21:47. Filed under Obama worship.

Michelle Malkin found a couple of schlocky Obama-related items being hawked by an outfit called History Company.

The first is merely schlocky. It’s a reproduction of a sculpture Barack Obama picked up when he went to Kenya in 2006 called “Egg of Power”. I don’t suppose either the creator of that sculpture or Obama ever heard of hard-boiled eggs (or at least I hope Obama hasn’t heard of that).

The second, however, is truly disturbing – the Pocket Obama. About the only difference between that and Mao’s Little Red Book is the color of the cover – Obama’s “essential” quotes is blue. You’ll forgive me if I don’t obey the “unofficial requirement”.

January 22, 2009

Sanity on bailouts – Texas edition

by @ 18:24. Tags:
Filed under Politics, Politics - Wisconsin.

My friends at Texans for Fiscal Responsibility recently sat down with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to discuss the potential federal bailout of state and local governments. Of note, Texas is one of the few states that do not face a massive deficit, mainly because Perry and company told the various state agencies to cut discretionary spending when the first inklings of the economic downturn became apparent.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5EnV4beuo4[/youtube]

I doubt the majority in Madison and the localities here in Wisconsin are paying attention, but they should.

Roll bloat – from the sea edition

by @ 18:07. Filed under The Blog.

A good friend from my days of playing (and beta-testing) Harpoon suggested that I start reading Neptunus Lex. Lex is an ex-Navy pilot, a bit younger than the other ex-Navy pilot on my roll as he got to fly the F/A-18 (among other aircraft).

I wholeheartedly recommend adding Lex to your readers.

NFL to Marine Corps – thanks for the colors, but no game for you – UPDATE – In the stadium for the game

by @ 18:01. Filed under Military, Sports.

(H/T – Neptunus Lex, who I really need to get on the bloated roll lest a mutual friend come up from Jacksonville to kick my ass)

David M over at The Thunder Run reports that, unlike previous recent years, the NFL will not let the military color guard (this year, the Marines) stay to watch the game after presenting the colors at The Championship Game That Cannot Be Named™. From an e-mail David received from a Marine Mom:

My youngest Marine called me this morning. In the course of the conversation he made mention of being part of the Color Guard for the ceremonies at the Super Bowl. He has been part of other Color Guards at other games and has been able to enjoy the entire game after presenting the Colors. HOWEVER, this will not be the case this time. The 12 man/women color guard will be presenting the Colors and then will be escorted out of the stadium and therefore not allowed to see the game. Steven and the 11 others are quite upset about this and have asked that I see if I could contact someone and have that changed.

David already went to the Tampa Bay Host Committee, who told him that all game-day decisions rest solely with the NFL, and that he should contact Mallory Steinberg (Mallory.Steinberg@NFL.com). As of now, David has not received a response.

I know I don’t have all that many readers, but I humbly ask that you kindly ask the NFL to reconsider their course of action.

Revisions/extensions (7:40 pm 1/23/2009) – David M has an answer from Greg Aiello of the NFL via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

The members of the Color Guard have always been our guests at a Super Bowl party in a compound on the stadium grounds where they watch the game on big-screen TVs and enjoy food and beverage. That is how we have done it every year.

That last sentence is rather important. The NFL has done it this way for quite a while. Moreover, Florio notes that Aiello states there has been no complaint from the Marine Corps Color Guard, but that the NFL would be talking with theiir military liason.

There’s a further update from Dad29 in the comments that says that the Color Guard will be in the stadium. The relevant portion of the comment (quoting the e-mail he got from the NFL):

Since we had not heard about this directly from the military, we contacted our military liaison for the color guard immediately to discuss the issue. After speaking with our military liaison for the color guard, we will host the members of the color guard (12 people) in the stadium.

The background is this:

The members of the color guard have always been our guests at a Super Bowl party in a compound on the stadium grounds where they watch the game on big-screen TVs and enjoy food and beverage. That is how we have done it every year. The military provides an intra-service color guard as part of our pre-game tribute to the military that also includes the military fly-over of the stadium. Then we arrange a place for the color guard to watch the game along with other pre-game and halftime show participants (more than 2,000 people).

Thank you, NFL.

How low can Abrahamson and UW go?

by @ 11:24. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

This press release from Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), ranking member on the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee, shows just how little respect Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and the UW-Madison Law School have for Wisconsin law (note; all emphasis is in the original):

January 22, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Rep. Steve Nass (608) 266-5715

Chief Justice’s Campaign Using Public Website to Obtain Campaign Staff Nass: UW-Law School Website Pushing "Internships" for Abrahamson Campaign.

State Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), Ranking Republican on the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee, is challenging Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson’s use of the UW-Madison Law School to obtain campaign workers by calling it an "internship." The Abrahamson campaign positions are being treated as "career opportunities" in the eyes of officials at the UW-Madison Law School. Use of public resources for campaign purposes is prohibited under Wisconsin law.

"It appears that the Chief Justice’s campaign is using her influence and office to solicit campaign workers through the UW-Madison Law School. The description of these internships is clearly unseemly, unethical and possibly illegal," Nass said.

The "internship" description makes clear that the individuals will be involved in fundraising, phone banking, canvassing and get out the vote operations. The internship notice was submitted by Jane Heymann, Assistant Dean for Career Services at the UW Law School. Nass noted that he will be communicating with Chancellor Biddy Martin and requesting that the use of public resources to promote these campaign positions be ceased immediately.

"This was clearly not a simple mistake on the part of the Abrahamson Campaign or the UW-Madison Law School. This is just another example of the liberals in Madison wanting laws and rules enforced on other people, but openly defying the same standards," Nass said….

Rep. Nass went on to include the wording of the posting. Since I have multimedia capabilities, I’ll do one better and include a screencap of the web page (which was still up as of 11:19 am):


Click for the full-sized picture.

I somehow doubt UW would have done the same for either Abrahamson’s opponent, Judge Randy Koschnick, or any of the sitting conservative members of the Supreme Court.

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