There is a very important runoff election today for the Senate seat currently held by Saxby Chambliss. I wholeheartedly recommend that you vote for him.
That is all.
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 2, 2008
Franken leading? Not so fast.
If one takes a look at the DFL (that’s big-D Democratic for those of us outside the land of 10,000 lakes) Minnesota Secretary of State incomplete unofficial numbers for the Senate recount between Republican Norm Coleman and DFL’er Al Franken, one would assume that Franken took a 4,108-vote lead. Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, showing a few more votes recounted, has Coleman with a 340-vote lead.
Allow me to throw the bullshit flag at the DFL SecState before Harry Reid takes a gander at that and decides to seat his soulmate. The DFL SecState thoughtfully included the by-precinct recounts, which allows me to throw the bullshit flag. There are several counties missing mostly because they have yet to begin their recount process, and a few others are not yet 100% complete. How do I know this? The Strib included those missing returns in their tabulation. 3 of the 4 counties that have yet to begin their recounts, as well as a county that is inexplicably missing from the DFL SecState totals, were carried by Coleman rather heavily, and those are not part of the DFL SecState totals.
So, why did the DFL SecState issue this bullshit number? Simple; they’re setting up for a repeat of 1975, when the Democrats successfully stole a seat from the voters of New Hampshire. If that happens (and honestly, even if that doesn’t), I double-dog-dare the Republicans to filibuster every last item that can be filibustered in the Senate in the coming term.
Revisions/extensions (4:08 pm 12/2/2008) – A couple of items I forgot to mention initially. First, the SecState numbers show a net gain of 129 votes for Coleman. That, combined with the total pre-recount lead of 215 for Coleman, gave Coleman a semi-official 344-vote lead as of 8 pm last night. As noted above, it is mostly Coleman strongholds that have yet to count.
I’ll repeat what I said below – “A process that allows some counties to not even begin a recount process before most of the state finishes said process is not exactly conducive to fairness. I suppose the next question is how that happened.”
Second, the links to both the SecState and the Strib are dynamic. Indeed, the Strib has already updated, and Coleman’s lead according to the Strib is down to 305 as of 2:48 pm.
WordPress 2.7 RC1 – insta-thoughts
I decided to try the release candidate of WordPress 2.7 on a test blog.
The good:
– I like the new back-end.
– Pagination and threading is cool.
– The media uploader is (mostly-)working again after Adobe broke the Flash version. Specifically, the “no link” is respected, and it is possible to insert “original size” pics.
The bad:
– Had to do some modifying of the template to get it working right.
– I can’t figure out how to modify the intro to the comments.
– Filosofo Comments Preview doesn’t work with threaded comments (AJAX Comment Preview does, though I don’t want to go with that).
Revisions/extensions (11:56 am 12/5/2008) – I hadn’t reported on the compatibility of Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam with 2.7. While 3.1.1 is not entirely compatible (with “force registered users to enter the word” enabled, an admin can’t reply from the back end), the fresh 3.1.2 is.
December 1, 2008
Full-auto AR-15 plus chainsaw equals redneck heaven
(H/T – Ace)
It seems somebody is planning hard for Z-Day and married a cheap electric chainsaw to an AR-15. Since this wouldn’t be much of a post without the video of the chainsaw bayonet in action, let’s roll tape…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ljd_hUxCfI[/youtube]
It’s also available in a shotgun model.
Housekeeping, start of winter edition
I know, I’ve been a bad blogger lately because I haven’t put up a lot of posts. That hasn’t stopped me from doing some behind-the-scenes stuff to this place.
First, and foremost, please welcome Big G to the party. Shoebox recruited him in, and those of you who have seen his comments know why.
Along the lines of guest-bloggers, I’ve changed the template slightly. Instead of taking you to whatever link the author set up, it will take you to that author’s archives here. That link is still over on the co-blogger/guest blogger widget on the sidebar (which has been updated, along with the Authors page for both Big G and silent E).
Next, I’ve re-upped with BlueHost for another 3 years. That’s right; this place is not going off into the ether just because the Dems swept things or because the hosting package was up for renewal.
Last, but not least, with the official end of the Soldiers’ Angels Project Valour-IT fundraising competition, I’ve put Day by Day back front and center. I thank those of you who donated to Project Valour-IT during the competition, and especially Team Army, which I do believe won. If you missed it, don’t fret; FbL and company will still take your donation for any and all of the various projects they do.
November 27, 2008
Senate Dems prepared to use one part of the Constitution to invalidate another
(H/T – Dad29)
Scott at Power Line reports that the Al Franken campaign, with the blessing of Senate Democratic (and Majority) leader Harry Reid, is contemplating taking their case to count absentee ballots rejected on Election Day thwart a legal election victory by Norm Coleman to the Senate. Their “justification” is that Article I Section 5 of the Constitution gives the power to judge the elections and returns of Senate candidates exclusively to the Senate:
Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members,….
Never mind that the decision by the Minnesota Canvassing Board to reject those ballots in accordance with Minnesota law is wholly consistent with the 17th Amendment:
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years…. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
This wouldn’t be the first time the ‘Rats have denied the winner of a Senatorial election his seat in order to expand a majority. John Fund recalls that, in 1975, despite already having 60 seats plus another member who caucused with them, they refused to seat New Hampshire Republican Louis Wyman, who beat Democrat John Durkin by 2 votes. The seat sat vacant until August, with 6 failed attempts to break a filibuster to vote in the Democrat. The two candidates agreed on a special election, former Senator Norris Colton returned in a caretaker role while the campaign went on, and Durkin won the rematch.
The annual Egg Turkey Execution Proclamation – 2008 edition
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. I do believe that this should answer the question that I asked late last week; Texacution for the turkey instead of a pardon.
November 23, 2008
Blog n Grog – November edition
The word from Alexander is that it’s over at Nice Ash (327 W. Main in Waukesha, which is not hard to find now that they took out the gazebo and all the one-way streets) Tuesday the 25th at 7 pm. As we say, if you can find it on a map, you’re invited.
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Jack is back
Yes, it’s a 2-hour movie that isn’t quite following a timeline (as if “24” ever really followed the rules of the time-space continuum), but Jack Bauer is back after an extended absence forced by last year’s writers’ strike. Personally, the way Season 6 turned out, they could’ve filmed without any of the writers and still not done a worse job.
In any case, I’ll be watching “24: Redemption” with the gang over at Blogs.4Bauer. Be there so I don’t have to do the Bauer Towel Trick on you, dammit.
Don’t forget the B4B Kill Counter (simplified). The hot rumor is that it will be spinning wildly.
November 21, 2008
New NRE poll – What is wrong (if anything) with this video?
(H/T – Michael Goldfarb)
MSNBC ran the following video of Alaska Governor (and former Republican Vice Presidential nominee) Sarah Palin’s pardoning of a turkey and subsequent post-pardon press conference…
I ask you, the gentle and not-so-gentle readers of this hole in the wall, what, if anything was wrong with it?
What is wrong (if anything) with this video?
Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed
- Nothing. (59%, 19 Vote(s))
- Sarah Palin should've issued an execution order instead of a pardon. (28%, 9 Vote(s))
- Sarah Palin and the press should have found another place to shoot the post-pardon interview. (9%, 3 Vote(s))
- The turkey farm should have waited until the cameras were off to start the turkey slaughter. (3%, 1 Vote(s))
Total Voters: 32
Loading ...This poll will close just before Thanksgiving Day begins, and I’ll give you my answer then. Those of you who know me may or may not be able to guess it.
I’ve got $5.4 billion. Do I hear a $6 billion shortfall?
(H/T – Kevin Fischer)
Just a few days after Gov. Jim Doyle estimated the structural deficit for the next biennial budget at $5 billion, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Doyle was 8% low on that estimate, and it is now $5.4 billion that needs to be shoveled into the next budget. There’s a few new numbers in the Journal Sentinel story that should bug one’s eyes out:
– Aid for public schools is now $5.1 billion per year, and given the unrestrained increases in school spending, the state would need to pump in an additional $480 million on top of the $10.2 billion it would spend to keep the 66% state funded promise. Personally, I believe it would need to be much higher given the average 5%-6% increase in spending (and 9%-15% increase in tax levy) for the coming school year.
– Compensation for state employees totaled $2.1 billion last year. Madison, we have an overage of employees, even if Doyle refuses to acknowledge it. Say, whatever happened to the 10,000-job cut that Doyle promised back in 2002?
– Despite the collapsed economy, the state wants to spend $62.3 billion over the next 2 years, $2.8 billion more than was budgeted over the past 2 years. For those paying attention to the percentages, that’s a 4.7% increase in spending. For those paying attention to the shortfall, that increase is over half the “shortfall”. Did any of you non-union/non-government workers get a 4.7% increase in pay over the last 2 years?
– There is a $346 million hole in this budget, caused entirely by an over-estimation of tax revenues. The state will be collecting $509 million less in taxes than it did last year.
– For those considering tax increases (like Doyle and the Dems), they won’t begin to cover this hole. That hospital tax Doyle and the hospitals are keen on sticking to us would bring in only $400 million over 2 years. The oil tax Doyle wants would bring in maybe $393 million in that same time. Even a 10% increase in the individual income tax would bring in only $1.4 billion over 2 years.
I personally like the last part of Rep. Pedro Colon’s (D-Milwaukee) comments – “I think, at some point, whether it’s this Legislature or the next one, we’re going to have to start talking about how we increase revenue"‚."‚."‚."‚or the state is going to have to get used to really severe cuts.”
Break out the chainsaws.
November 20, 2008
So much for centrist Obama and centrist ‘Rats
Item #1 – Jim Geraghty reminds us that Eric Holder, Barack Obama’s choice as Attorney General, wanted to use 9/11 to crack down on gun shows. I’ll point out that those focusing on Holder’s role in the pardon of Marc Rich are barking up the wrong tree; look at Holder’s record, which also includes hyper-targeted enforcement of civil rights laws against the right.
Item #2 – Jim Hoft reports Henry Waxman was successful in ousting John Dingell from the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. What is significant about that is Dingell is a supporter of the auto industry, while Waxman is a Gorebal “Warming” acolyte and thus is opposed to the auto industry. As Jim said, “Say good-bye to new oil and nuclear energy development.”
Item #3 – Marc Sheppard caught Obama prostrating himself at the altar of the Goracle, repeating and expounding on the essential lies of the religion of Gorebal “Warming”. No wonder he said that his policies would bankrupt the coal industry and cause electric rates to skyrocket.
November 19, 2008
Drill Here, Drill Now Tuesdays – Special Wednesday edition – 11/19/2008
This was started by Jessi Olson of Wake Up America back when most of the country was off-limits to oil exploration. I’ve sort of fallen off the wagon once the off-shore ban expired, and really fell off after the election.
Price of regular unleaded in south-suburban Milwaukee – $1.899
There is actually some hopeful news today, which is why I brought this thing in from the dustbin. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the Interior Department has finalized the rules for opening up the Mountain West’s oil shale reserves. Royalties will start at 5%, then increase by 1 point a year after the 5th year of commercial exploitation to the standard 12.5%. Also, 49% of those royalties will be shared with the state in which a particular mine is.
Naturally, the no-drill crowd is all up in arms, but at least they have to actively reverse course now to get oil back up their dream of $140+/bbl and gas to their $4-$10/gallon dream.
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November 18, 2008
How Obama got elected – video and poll
(H/T – Ed Morrissey)
John Ziegler went out and interviewed a dozen Obama voters right after they voted to find out what they learned from the media coverage of the election season.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8[/youtube]
For those of you who don’t want to sift through the video (though I recommend it), here’s the short version: The voters, by and large, had no clue who controlled Congress, or who Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Bill Ayers are. While they knew that Sarah Palin had a pregnant teenage daughter and had a $150,000 party-paid wardrobe makeover, and that John McCain didn’t know how many houses he and his wife owned, they were also clueless on who claimed to have campaigned in 57 states (Barack Obama), who won their first election by getting their opponents kicked off the ballot (again Obama), who said that Obama would be tested in his first 6 months by an international crisis (Obama’s running mate Joe Biden), who had to quit a previous campaign because (s)he was caught plagiarizing a speech (Biden again), who said his (or her) policies would bankrupt the coal industry and cause electric rates to skyrocket (Obama).
For those of you who think that a dozen people in Los Angeles aren’t exactly representative of the ObamiNation, Ziegler commissioned a poll from Zogby International of 512 Obama voters nationwide asking those same 12 questions. The results of that poll are mind-blowing.
A majority didn’t know that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Worse, while the correct answer was a plurality, a large minority thought that it was the Republicans. No wonder why the Dems increased their majorities despite having historically-low approval ratings.
Also, while the 3 questions regarding Republican “gaffes” all had over 80% of the respondents answering correctly, most of the Democratic “gaffes” had a plurality “not sure” consensus. Indeed, other than the “redistribute the wealth” (the only Dem “gaffe” that had a 80+% correct answer) and a bare-majority-correct “tested by an international crisis” questions (I discount the plurality-correct “start the political career at the home of former Weather Underground members” question because I suspect most of them thought about Perry Sampson and Jeff Masters instead of Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn), no more than 28.2% of the respondents could deliver the right answer.
I would link to today’s Ed Morrissey Show because John was the first-half guest, but there is currently an issue with Ustream’s recording that’s causing things to pass over John’s appearance. John pointed out that we on the right have a serious uphill battle in getting through to the masses. Take a listen to the end of that video, where John asked his dozen volunteers where they get their news – Bill Maher figured into that. Bill Fragging Maher, who has a second-rate comedy show.
I guess we can count “Saturday Night Live” as a “news” source for the ObamiNation as well – an overwhelming majority in both the video and the poll misattributed the Tina Fey “I can see Russia from my house” humor quote to Sarah Palin, when Palin actually said that one could see Russia “from land here in Alaska”.
November 14, 2008
Random economic thoughts
Yes, I’ve been silent all week. I still don’t have any one thing quite post-worthy, but let’s run through some thoughts:
– CNBC had a banner earlier today asking whether the International Monetary Fund could “save the world”. My memory may not be what it used to be, but when the IMF tried to save Mexico, South America, and Asia, they had to be bailed out by (you guessed it) the US. There just isn’t any money out there anymore.
– Speaking of no money out there anymore, I find it interesting that gold, the haven of last resort in fiancial troubles, is down 15% from late summer. If that is not a sign of money simply evaporating from the global market, I don’t know what is.
– As bad as you think things are here, they’re worse in Europe. The Euro and British Pound are both down over 20% against the dollar. By contrast, the Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan are up slightly against the dollar, with most of the rest of Asia down. Once again, I attribute that to money simply disappearing from the global market.
– There is but one reason why GM/Ford/Chrysler are at the head of the bailout line – the UAW. I can’t remember which Dem Congressman admitted the only reason they want to bail out the “Big” Three is so that the fat union contracts stick around. Left unspoken is that the UAW donates millions upon millions of dollars to those same Dems, and Barack Obama proved that money talks.
– If the Dems are successful in killing the 401(k) program by making it ordinary taxable income, I honestly don’t know where the bottom for the equity markets is. There is not nearly enough ability between the pension funds and 403(b)s (which I imagine will still receive favorable tax treatment as they’re union and government creations), and money-market IRAs (which, even if they didn’t suffer the 401’s fate, are far more limited in money) to prop up the market.
– If you think the government has that cash, guess again. I just heard on CNBC that an auction of 30-year T-bonds yesterday went very poorly. Even with the market crash, the equity markets still have far more value than either the entire federal budget or the national debt (something north of $20 trillion versus roughly $3 trillion and $11 trillion respectively). Again, where’s the money?
– Speaking of deficit, Jim Doyle just admitted that there’s a $5 billion hole in the state budget for the next biennial period. That is an 8.4% typhooning of total state spending over that two years and nearly-150% increase in the structural deficit from the estimates at the time (if memory serves). If filled the way the Dems usually fill (if they were honest about filling it), it would also represent an 18% 2-year tax increase. Of course, they want to lop on a tax doubling for their version of CubaCare (which would more-likely require a tripling or perhaps a quadrupling).
– Back to fat union contracts; 80% of spending by the city of Oak Creek is on (mostly-)union-negotiated compensation. After all, where else but government, which never really cuts back in absolute terms, can one get 50% of one’s salary in benefits? So far, tax levy increases have been “limited” to the anti-freeze provisions, but that is only because of massive fund transfers and a fresh infusion of cash from We Energies (via the state). Guess what? Those funds are empty, and that We Energies payment is as high as it’s going to get.
November 13, 2008
Project Valour-IT fundraiser – 2008 edition
I’m a bit late to the party, but once again, Soldiers’ Angels is having a fundraiser for their Project Valour-IT through Thanksgiving Day. Project Valour-IT provides laptops and other technology to support servicemen and servicewomen who are recovering from hand and other severe injuries.
As usual, there are teams aligned along the five branches (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, which has been split off from the Navy this year) to spur the competitive juices. Do rest assured that no matter which team you donate to, the money is going into the same pot, and that it is all going to buy that technology. For those of you who itemize, Soldiers’ Angels is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, so you can itemize the donations. Like last year, I simply can’t pick a single team, so instead, I’m going with all of them.
There also is a slight change in the look of the blog. During the fundraiser, I have moved “Day By Day” to the right sidebar so I can run the charts at the top of the page.
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Theme change
Mike Little, the author of this theme (Journalized), has released a WordPress 2.7-compliant version. Not only are widgets officially supported now (I had been using a self-hacked version), but tags, gravatars (which I will not be enabling) and threaded and paginated comments (which is coming with 2.7) are as well. Things should look only slightly different because I’m still using the Blue theme (I had been toying around with switching to Winter).
Naturally, I’ve done a wee bit of hacking. I had to put my randomized roll of bloat back in (the stock links widget is alphabetical with no way to change it), and make the search function stand out a bit more (the stock search widget is fugly, with no title).
Thanks, Mike. Glad to see you’re still alive.
November 12, 2008
Just been burnt extra-crispy
I just haven’t had the steam to blog the last couple days. Oh well; it happens.
November 8, 2008
The difference between “the” and “my”
Ed Morrissey and I had a rather heated discussion over the difference between “the President” and “my President” yesterday on his Ustream radio show (his comments were on-air, mine were in the chat room). While it may be nuance to Ed, it certainly is not to me. “The” affords the office-holder the respect that the office demands, regardless of the views of said office-holder. “My”, outside of use in sarcasm, denotes a certain level of acceptance of the office-holder’s views. As Barack Obama and I share almost no common views, and I don’t wish to be sarcastic all the time, I cannot in good conscience call him anything other than “the President”.
I do need to expand on a few items. I do wish Obama success in defending this country against whatever forces seek the overthrow of a part of government. I do also wish for the economy to not tank. I do not, however, wish Obama political success; indeed, so far as his policies are opposite my views, I wish him nothing but political failure. As John Hawkins said, “I’m not interested in bipartisanship. I want to defeat liberalism, not cooperate with it. I want to throw sand in the gears at every opportunity and if Obama wants to work with us, he’s going to move to the right.”
Another explanation, better than what I can offer, can be found at Blue Collar Muse. Says the Muse, “I say, Obama will be the President; but he will never be my President. Obama wants what he is unwilling to give. To get the job, Obama divided us. Now on the job, he yearns for unity’s strength. But leopards don’t change their spots. As he ran, so will he govern. I will not be a party to that.” (emphasis in the original)
All I have to do to justify my stance is look at what the Democrats did when President Bush offered his hand in “bipartisanship” during and following the 2000 election. Outside of a couple of weeks in September, 2001, and Bush calling the Rats’ 3 1/2-year-old bluff on Iraq, they have been nothing but obstructionists. Still, Bush and the Republicans insisted on “bipartisanship”. What did that get them? Tell me; what did that get them? It got them a one-way ticket to Minorityville, and the way out isn’t “cooperation”, but “victory”.
November 7, 2008
Maybe I spoke too soon on a lack of a filibuster-proof Senate
It seems the Democrats got to 57 seats (with Bernard Sanders and Joe Lieberman caucusing with them, at least), and things are too close to call in Alaska, Minnesota, and Georgia.
At last count, Republican Saxby Chambliss was under the 50%+1 requirement to avoid a December 2nd runoff against his Democratic challenger, Jim Martin. There are, however, 42 precincts yet to report, and if each precinct reports like the remainder of the remainder of the county it’s a part of reported, Chambliss should reach the majority he needs to avoid that runoff. Still, I can’t guarantee that will happen, and we may have to work to save Chambliss.
There will be an automatic recount in Minnesota between Republican Norm Coleman and his Democratic challenger, Al Franken. Unofficially, with all precincts reporting, Coleman was ahead by 221 votes. There were 2,340 unspecified write-ins, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State, so that may well flip the other way upon a recount.
Finally, there’s Alaska. The first item is that Republican Ted Stevens is leading his Democratic challenger, Mark Begich, by 3,257 votes. However, there are 62,953 early and absentee ballots yet to be counted, and another 18,271 ballots that are in question.
Even if Stevens wins, there is the question of whether he will be seated, and if seated, whether he will be expelled because of his conviction on corruption charges. I do not know what the threshhold is for the Senate to deny seating a member, but I do know the only way to remove a member once seated is by 2/3rds voting to expel that member. If he is either not seated in or expelled from the 111th Congress, there will be a special election within 60 and 90 days of that date (“thank” you Frank and Lisa Murkowski), and I doubt the Republicans would be able to hold onto that seat.
Of course, if the Dems can’t get to 60 by ousting him and getting a Dem in his place (or they’re already at 60 without Lieberman), I fully anticipate them seating him and using procedural rules to keep him on the rolls until 2010 in order to use him as a weapon against the GOP. They’ll likely get away with it; after all, they parlayed the credit crisis they caused into the clean sweep.
There is a further complication; there are a number of Republican Senators who serve in states with a Democratic governor with the power to fill vacancies in the Senate until at least the 2010 elections, including several who serve in states that haven’t otherwise voted for a Republican lately. Notably, and gratefully, this does not include John McCain; Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is required by law to appoint another Republican to fill his seat should he leave. In Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson made a career out of giving state Senate Democrats plum jobs outside of the Senate in order to create a Republican majority out of thin air; I can’t put it past Barack Obama to do the same to create a filibuster-proof Democratic majority (or to do so without the troublesome presence of Lieberman in the caucus), and there are a couple of Senators who I don’t believe would feel particularly bound to prevent that filibuster-proof Dem majority.
Just completely out of steam
I’ve got a couple of thoughts bouncing around, but I just can’t get them anywhere near polished enough to post any of them. Let’s see if running the rough outline past Shoebox and the 5 readers I have can help any:
– Where does the rightosphere go from here? It’s not that the leftroots have any more say with the populace than we do, it’s that they’re far more willing to get their hands and money dirty in the machinery of politics especially at the local level, and that the party they have chosen to pretty much take over (the Democratic Party) is far more receptive to them than the party that is somewhat-more ameniable to our way of thinking is to us (the Republican Party).
– Should we Whig the Republican Party? The Libertarians and Constitutionalists have tried this, but together they can’t get 5% in a given election. At the same time, the Republicans have explicitly given conservatives the middle finger to the eye the last 3 years (some could argue the last 12, and I can’t entirely disagree), and the voters have chosen to go with experience in the socialism scheme both parties have fully-embraced. Now would seem to be the perfect time because we’re likely stuck with FDR’s 5th and 6th terms, but I don’t think a new 2nd party would be ready to exploit the 2010 mid-terms.
November 6, 2008
The Morning Scramble/Open Thread Thursday – 11/6/2008
I’m still too blue to do anything but morose posts. Since I’m don’t like to do those, let’s open things up.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCqEstr5H3o[/youtube]
- Michelle Malkin set up a petition site to thank Sarah Palin.
- Kat-Mo compares the Pubbie debacle to a family BBQ. Yes, it is on Ace’s place, so there’s plenty of vulgarity.
- John Hawkins has some post-election thoughts that, had I been able to get beyond 50% formulation, I may well have put up.
- Shoebox asks what we all learned. My money is, at least on the GOP end, the same thing they learned after 2006 – NOTHING!
- Tom McMahon puts the year in review. Actually, there was some overlap; a couple of stations started with the Christmas music before Halloween.
- Rick Moran holds out hope that Barack Obama will resist the far-left radicals in Congress. Rick, I know you know Chicago politics like few others, but quite frankly, Obama IS one of them.
- Lao breaks out some classic “Planet of the Apes” as his response.
- Emperor Misha I reports Hamas and the Soviet Unio…er, Russia didn’t even wait until Obama was sworn in to issue their first tests.
- Lance Burri discovered James Madison called the last 2 elections 220 years ago.
- Dad29 notes that social conservatism still succeeds. That fact makes me sad that the Republican Party has pushed away the social conservatives (and indeed, still are), and that they responded by bringing in Christian Socialist Mike Huckabee.
- Josh Schroeder proves that when one plays in the middle of the road, one gets run over by both sides.
- Caleb offers some suggestions for surviving the Barackolypse. Do add to it, but do not click the Rickroll.
Well, at least it was morning when I started. I had to leave a few comments on a few blogs that may or may not necessarily be part of this. I’m also still running at about quarter-speed (dunno what part the post-election blues has in that versus an oncoming chest cold).
That’s it; the thread is yours.
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November 5, 2008
NRE poll – who will be the GOP nominee in 2012 (take 2)?
I know, it’s far too early to begin considering who will be the Republican standard-bearer in 2012 (or if there will be a GOP), but since I have no influence, I may as well kick things off. You’ll notice the poll has but 4 choices:
Who will be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2012? (take 2)
Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed
- Mitt Romney (55%, 108 Vote(s))
- Somebody else (please name the person in the thread) (25%, 50 Vote(s))
- Nobody as the GOP will cease to exist before November 2012 (12%, 23 Vote(s))
- Mike Huckabee (9%, 17 Vote(s))
Total Voters: 198
Loading ...I’ll quickly go through the 4 choices:
Mitt Romney – He is the conventional “next in line” the Republicans are so fond of choosing since 1956. While he was in the nomination race, he was the second-leading delegate getter. However, he wasn’t the last one to fall before this year’s “next in line” guy, John McCain
Mike Huckabee – He stakes his claim to be “next in line” by being the last one out of the primaries. However, until things narrowed to him and McCain, he was at best third.
The field – The rest of the Republican field, including Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Bobby Jindal, and anybody else one can think of, does not have any claim to be “next in line”. As the Republican party proved for the 14th consecutive time, if one is not the “next in line”, one will not be the nominee.
Nobody as the GOP disappears – For those who think this impossible, let’s ask the leaders of the Whigs and the Federalists. Oops; we can’t because those parties, which were once the Not-Democratic Party, no longer exist. Indeed, the Federalists disappeared without anything to replace them in the planning stages.
For those that are wondering how the first take went (which I had up pretty much continuously between March and August), here’s the results.
Who will be the 2012 Republican Presidential nominee?
Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed
- Nobody as the GOP will not be in existence in 2012 (26%, 66 Vote(s))
- John McCain (22%, 56 Vote(s))
- Mitt Romney (as the sitting VP/President) (22%, 56 Vote(s))
- Mitt Romney (not as the sitting VP/President) (11%, 29 Vote(s))
- Mike Huckabee (as the sitting VP/President) (8%, 19 Vote(s))
- Whoever else is the sitting VP/President (you can name the person in the thread) (5%, 13 Vote(s))
- Whoever else is not the sitting VP/President (you can name the person in the thread) (4%, 9 Vote(s))
- Mike Huckabee (not as the sitting VP/President) (2%, 5 Vote(s))
Total Voters: 253
Loading ...Very painful night
Welcome to the Wisconsin Socialist Collective of the United Socialist States of America. Yes, the people have spoken, and by a margin that, at least in Wisconsin, is beyond the margin of fraud, we’re about to head down the path of Eastern Europe circa 1985.
The Democrats have handily taken over the Assembly. Even without the still-close races in the 43rd (the Dem is leading by 304 votes with a precinct still to report), 47th (the 28-vote margin the Republican has will in all likelyhood be challenged), and the 67th (where ex-“Republican” Jeff Wood, whose future caucusing preferences are unknown, won by 175 votes), they have a 6-seat margin. Here comes the tripling of the sales tax the voters of Milwaukee County demanded. Here comes the socialization of health care the voters of Oak Creek and South Milwaukee demanded. The school referenda that are a mixed bag will be no more; those spending and tax increases, forced in large part to the suddenly-disappearing QEO, will simply fly through without the voters’ say.
The voters have also proven that Wisconsin is as reliably ‘Rat Red (I refuse to call the Dems’ color “blue”; just be thankful I don’t call it the Communist Red that it should be) as Illinois in a statewide election. I can’t argue with the numbers and history. Outside of Tommy Thompson, who had the incumbent factor working for him since 1990, and the fluke of J.B. Van Hollen in 2006, the Republicans have not won a meaningful statewide election since 1986 (no, state treasurer is not meaningful and besides, we now have a part-time Boston Store clerk Dem as state treasurer). Moreover, Barack Obama’s 376,000-vote margin was well beyond the 55,000 fraudulent vote estimate from John Fund.
On to the national scene – the Dems proved that popularity is extremely overrated. They were rewarded for being at the helm of the “least-popular” Congress ever with an absolute, no-Joe-Lieberman-needed majority in the Senate, and an increased majority in the House. When combined with two of the most-liberal of their number in the executive branch, that means every liberal pipe dream will be enacted, from the overturning of every previously-allowed limitation on abortion (which Obama promised will be the first thing he signs), to a forced increase in union rolls, to the elimination of the private retirement system. While the damage to the Supreme Court, at least in Obama’s first term, will likely be limited to granting the liberal seats a 30-year extension (barring something happening to either Justice Kennedy or the 4 conservatives), the lower courts will become far more liberal as the Dem-caused vacancy crisis is suddenly filled with Lawgivers-In-Black.
Still, the night’s biggest losers weren’t conservatives, Republicans, or even the people of this country. They were Jeff Wood and Joe Lieberman. First, I’ll take the case of Wood. He burned his bridges with the Republican Assembly caucus when he decided to bolt. Because the Democrats won’t need his vote to get anything they want done in the Assembly done, he’s a man without a caucus.
Similarily, Joe Lieberman is no longer necessary to keep the Dems in power in the US Senate. While, at the moment, the filibuster survives because the Dems didn’t get to 60 in their caucus, and won’t regardless of where Lieberman caucuses, I don’t expect the filibuster to survive the next Congress. The Democrats will be under enormous pressure to get their one-party socialism agenda done before 2011, partly because that is what the nutroots demand, and partly because without a quick-cementing of power, the pendulum will swing back and smack them upside the head.
I can’t be all negative, however. Paul Ryan handily won re-election, Michelle Bachmann in Minnesota hung on, Mark Honadel made a miraculous comeback to hang onto his seat (I thought it lost when he was down 10 points with 16 of 24 precincts reporting), Bill Kramer and Leah Vukmir will be back in the Assembly, and there is one last day of sunny Indian summer left in the land of cheese and beer. If we are going to truly repeat American history, which has twice rejected permanent one-Democratic Party rule, we have to build on those few successes.
November 4, 2008
Election Night Drunkblog
I’ll be starting at the Sam Adams forward observation post, and moving to Papa’s for Drinking Right somewhere around 7. Since the first polls close at 6, that’s when the fun starts.
I’ll be taking requests for races to follow (or at least try to follow between drinks).
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