Day 2 was pretty much the same as Day 1. One less loss, but I’m down to 13 of my Sweet 16 and 7 of my Elite 8.
I guess I know what song will be on Monday’s Morning Scramble.
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 22, 2008
March 21, 2008
Friday Night Videos – Peeps vs. Firecrackers
(H/T – Ed Driscoll)
I know The Hammer doesn’t read this blog, so if she finds out what James Lileks has done to a few peeps, it won’t be from me. If, however, you don’t mind explosives, go ahead to Page 2 for some Egg-approved male snow-crazy explosive fun.
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Jesus took my punishment
Matthew 27:45-54 (NIV):
At the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” — which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God.”
Thank you, Savior.
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Bloated government
(H/T – Clint)
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development has a sortable list of various “top 25” employers. One can specify either private enterprise, government, or both, various industry groups, and even narrow a search down to either a county or municipality level. While Clint took a look at the larger picture, I’ll go local. With the caveat that some of the information does not appear to be accurate as to locale, I’ll roll through some selected highlights (or should that be “lowlights”):
– In Milwaukee County, no Oak Creek entity, on its own, is among the top 25 employers among both public and private employers.
– Again in Milwaukee County, among school districts, the Oak Creek-Frankin School District only trails Milwaukee Public Schools, West Allis-West Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, and is larger than any municipal government other than the city of Milwaukee.
– Among Milwaukee County municipalities, the city of Oak Creek trails only the cities of Milwaukee, West Allis and Wauwatosa. That’s right; there are more city of Oak Creek employees than city of Franklin employees or city of Greenfield employees despite a smaller population.
– In the city of Oak Creek itself, the school district trails only Midwest Airlines, Bechtel Construction (which should drop to nothing when the power plant is done), UPS and Delphi (which, the last I heard, is on the chopping block). I do have to note that the DWD numbers for Oak Creek-based employees of We Energies appears to be off.
– Meanwhile, the city also trails PPG, Reinhart/County Market, and the Postal Service. I do have to note that, if all three Pick ‘N Save locations were combined (the Ryan Rd. one is owned by Ultra Foods, the other two by Mega Foods), Pick ‘N Save should jump ahead of the city.
Is it any wonder why taxes are out of control?
Theft of a graphic? (Update – LIKELY)
Jim Lynch did a recreation of one of Geno’s “Speak English” signs yesterday. Indeed, he noted that it was a reproduction as he could not find a clear picture of the sign in question.
Imagine his surprise when, while surfing through Yahoo’s news, he found a story from Agence France-Presse that contained a very familiar graphic (I do have screen prints of both pages at his request). I don’t have the equipment to compare what AFP is claiming is their own to Jim’s graphic (especially the large version) so I don’t have the “Presstitute Follies” tag on it, but they are eerily-similar. Indeed, if it were a photo, why would it be cropped so closely?
Revisions/extensions (12:58 pm 3/21/2008) – Jim sends along a site, specifically WFMZ-TV 69News, that has an actual photo of the sign. Though it is not a high-quality picture, neither Jim’s graphic nor the one APF claims is a picture taken by them is the sign; “America” is capitalized on the sign, and is not on the graphic.
Hence, I’ve moved this into the “Presstitute Follies” category. Guess AFP’s too lazy to send an actual photographer to Philly for an actual picture and would prefer to rip off bloggers. Bad decision.
Snow bowl
The view out of my living room window a few minutes ago…
(click for the full-size pic)
A couple of things to note:
– The snow’s already a good 5 inches deep
– The water tower, about a quarter-mile away, is all-but-invisible
And here I am without a working snowblower. Figures.
The definitive commentary on Wright and Obama
I defer to James T. Harris. He too brings up his grandmother, but the takeaway is in the last two paragraphs:
When I asked my grandma about how she felt about the interracial marriage, she looked up at me with a perplexed expression; “What’s the matter with you?” she asked. I reminded her of what she had told me a few years back. Her response was: “James, people change. That was a long time ago." She was in her late 80’s.
Now that’s the audacity of hope.
Go, read.
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Programming note
The regularily-scheduled bracket coverage will be found at TheWisconsinSportsBar today. That is all on the Moldy Mozzarella front.
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The Morning Scramble – 3/21/2008
I guess I should celebrate going better than .500 yesterday considering my 2008 record, but since I know that’s the high point of my tournament this year, I feel the need for some more blues.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1y4RsNFKjs[/youtube]
– Speaking of songs, James Wigderson breaks out into song.
– Lawhawk discovers who is behind the scandals in New York and New Jersey’s governor’s offices.
– I bet that Elliot Spitzer is wishing he hung onto power right about now; Brian notes that his replacement is suspected of billing his campaign for some of the costs of his affair. Next in line for the governorship is a Pubbie (or at least what passes for one in New York).
– Plebian goes back into the memory vault to pull yet another wrong prediction or two from the Gorebal “Warming” crowd back from the memory hole.
– Jo Egelhoff put together a list of programs the state could cut to get rid of the deficit. I’ll bet you didn’t know that the state of Wisconsin subsidizes ethanol at the rate of 20 cents per gallon (which is on top of the federal 51-cent-per-gallon subsidy).
– Justin Higgins notes the ‘Rats believe a yearly salary of $31,850 makes one “rich”.
– Doubleplusundead is shocked, SHOCKED the ‘Rats selectively enforce election laws they routinely break.
– Stan bemoans the fact that President Bush will still be going to Red China for the 1936 Muni…er, 2008 Beijing Olympics.
– Curt asks Obama, “Was the Iraq front for oil or not?”
– Stable Hand finds a pastor not afraid of the big bad Obama wolf.
– John Hawkins answers a heap of questions.
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March 20, 2008
Round 1, day 1
This will be bumped as necessary, so there may or may not be newer posts below. I’m getting this started at 1:50 pm 3/20/2008.
1:50 pm – So far, not too much damage. Kansas simply crushed Portland State; not unexpected so no real commentary there.
Xavier came back to beat a very game Georgia; that final doesn’t reflect just how in control the Bulldogs were most of the game.
Unfortunately, there was some damage. Michigan State survived an ice-cold Neitzel to knock off Temple to take out one of my 12-5 upset specials. At least I wasn’t stupid enough to have Temple surviving the weekend.
6:12 pm – Unlike previous years, I didn’t wait until Day 2 to have my bracket become number 2. I lost my Cinderella (badly), and none of my other upset specials (Kentucky, Baylor) survived. At least Pittsburgh didn’t disappoint.
8:38 pm – About the only good thing is I don’t have to extend the Suicide Watch to North Carolina and the patriarch Ham (it’s already been issued for MK). There’s also the fact I’ve yet to lose an Elite Eight team, though I’m already missing a Sweet 16. That was very close to an 0-3 early-evening performance, as Belmont gave Duke all they could handle, the Aggies gig BYU, and K-State gives us the first actual upset of the tourney.
11:13 pm – Who said it was a down year for the Big Ten, and why did I listen to them? The Badgers and Purdue make the Big Ten 3-0 in the tourney so far, and I missed two of those. The Boilermakers were the last game I missed tonight, as UCLA almost tripled up on poor Mississippi Valley State, my first 7-10 split came in with West Virginia, and the Golden Domers take out last year’s Cindy.
10-6 on Day 1, one of my Sweet 16 teams toastified. Not my usual Day One performance, but considering my 2008 performance to date, not too bad.
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Let’s bounce the mozzarella
Selected highlights (soon to be lowlights) of the Bouncing Mozzarella bracket:
– You heard it here first; Wisconsin 63, Memphis 62 in the championship.
– Sorry, Hams (Georgia) and Care Bears (Marquette), for the first-round exits.
– The yearly 7-10 splits: Butler (#7), Davidson (#10), St. Mary’s (#10), West Virginia (#10)
– The first #1 gone; Kansas missing the Sweet 16 to the benefit of this year’s weak Cinderella, Kent State.
– Sorry, Bruce Pearl. We still love ya in the land of cheese and beer, but the road to a Bucky championship goes right through you in the national semi-final.
– There will be 5 opportunities to chant, “Beat (UC)LA!”
– The highest seed to drop in the first round: Vanderbilt.
There’s still time to try to beat me. The Bar and The Morons still have room in their brackets, and they close at tipoff at 11:20 (probably a few minutes early).
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The folly of Kelo v City of New London
(H/T – Jon Ham)
Remember the Kelo decision almost 2 years ago, giving the city of New London, Connecticut and developer Corcoran Jennison carte blanche to force out a bunch of homeowners for the sole purpose of gentrifying the Fort Trumbill area? It looks like that gentrification won’t happen anytime soon, even in a reduced role:
Faced with a tight lending climate, the Corcoran Jennison company has asked the Federal Housing Authority to back an $11.5 million loan to fund the long-delayed construction of housing on the Fort Trumbull peninsula.
Corcoran Jennison applied for the mortgage insurance last Friday, said Kristine Foye, spokeswoman for the New England Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The request was filed three months before a crucial May 29 deadline for the Boston-based developer to secure financing and sign a construction contract for an 80-unit complex of rental apartments and townhouses.
City officials and residents have closely watched the progress of the project, which would be the first new construction since eminent domain cleared portions of the peninsula for redevelopment.
Newsbusters notes the New London Day (the source of the blockquote) couldn’t bring itself to remember Sue Kelo. Between the legal bills and the extended time the land has sat vacant, I wonder if that apartment complex will ever replace the tax money that Kelo and her fellow former residents were paying.
I know it’s not quite the same, but I have a question for the folks at Milwaukee City Hall; how’s that Park East footprint looking? Do we have any construction going on that land?
The Morning Scramble/Open Thread Thursday – 3/20/2008
I really need to thank Mary Katharine Ham for putting music in her linkage posts. Mea culpa maxima for not tipping my hat yesterday.
It’s spring, so it’s flood season (at least if you’re not in Wisconsin, where we’re getting more snow starting tonight). That means it’s time for some blues while you pop through the abbreviated linkage here and hopefully provide some things I miss on a regular basis in the comments.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLw7nozO_U[/youtube]
– I’ll be on this one in more detail in a bit, but Jon Ham points out why the Kelo decision was so bad.
– Eric doesn’t care about CAIR.
– Todd Lohenry talks change.
– The Emperor has the Smackdown of the Day™.
– Jim Lynch reports there is some sanity left in Philadelphia. Hey AB, next time you and the Big Pilot decide to do a $100 lunch at Geno’s, let me know.
– Rusty says the latest M-m-m-m-m-max bin Laden audiotape is more evidence Osama is dead. Since M-m-m-m-max bitched about the Mohammed cartoons, it’s time to put them back up…
There’s a lot more out there, but it’s time to do some bracketology. That mozzarella doesn’t bounce by itself, you know.
March 19, 2008
The Morning Scramble – 3/19/2008
Once again, I stress that this is not yet a regular feature, but methinks we need some music to get me…er, you in the mood. Maestro,….
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sam5omG0v0[/youtube]
Whilest you’re listening to one of the best metal songs of all time, go ahead and start reading.
– Michelle Malkin points to a full rise out of Chris Matthew’s Leg.
– Tom McMahon works his Photoshop magic once again on the Obama/Wright fiasco.
– John Hawkins nails what Barack Obama really is.
– Flashy has some more questions for Obama.
– One of those was also asked by Jim Geraghty.
– I guess the NYT should have listened to Tom; Allahpundit has the sordid details of their faceplant into the tank.
– PJ-Comix has been invited to the 2008 Media Research Center Gala Awards.
– Lawhawk cheers the pending release of much of Hillary Clinton’s daily schedule from her time as first lady/co-President.
– Kevin Fischer says, “Teach your children well about taxes.”
– Mary Lazich points out half the country, including Wisconsin, have corporate income taxes that make doing business in the US the most-taxing in the industrialized world.
– The NRSC isn’t the only Senatorial entity dealing with retirements; the odds of the Pubbies retaking the state Senate just dropped with the announcement of Carol Roessler’s retirement (via JSOnline’s AllPolitics). Of course, it could also be a golden opportunity to replace a RINO with a conservative.
– Gateway Pundit reminds us the gulags in Cuba are not at Club Gitmo.
– USCitizen has links to the transcripts of the Heller oral arguments. Stan has a link to the audio.
– Bill Quick uses the Heller case to highlight why I’m a conservative, not a card-carrying Republican (though because I paid my $29 for the Milwaukee County Lincoln Day dinner, I’m in the party).
– Pete wants to be a Knight at White Castle without going to the far side of the Root River Divide (side note; I miss Ed Zeppelin).
– From the Religion of Pieces file, Wolking’s World finds 84% of Palestinians support the deadly attack on a Jerusalem seminary earlier this month.
– Continuing with the Pieces theme, Weasel Zippers found out that our friends the Saudis (® James Taranto) once again refuse to recognize religions other than Islam.
– The Winter That Won’t Die™ will be dumping some more snow on us Friday, or so says the National Weather Service now (the link will update with the latest forecast).
– Charlie Sykes says, “Ahhhh, the power of Wisconsin cheese.”
– CDR Salamander exposes the boondoggle that is the VH-71, which is slated to be Marine One when/if it enters service. Maybe it’s just me, but the combo behind the VH-71 sounds just a wee bit like the one behind the KC-45.
– Swint answers Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe’s question, “Who is better than Zimbabwe?”
– Uncle Jimbo is touring the country on the Heroes Tour, and he has a damn good interview with Mark Finelli.
– Jo Egelhoff asks what brand of police station Appleton is getting for its over-budget money.
– Mary wants the fidelity-challenged governors to “speak now or forever hold their peace”.
– Youssef Ibrahim says it’s time to push the Saudis on oil prices.
Blogging will be a bit light on my end. Between a trip to Madison and final (or is that first?) prep for the first fantasy baseball draft, I won’t be around a computer much the rest of the day.
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March 18, 2008
Mandatory YouTubage
(H/T – Cuffy via doubleplusundead)
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t exactly hear a specific repudiation of the post-9/11 sermon from Rev. Wright…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9HUdF9OZa8[/youtube]
…by Barack Hussein Obama today.
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Is the NRE Spring Hill campaign about to backfire?
Cross-posting from the TownHall version
That’s pretty much what Shoebox is saying in stating we are going to see a Clinton/Obama ticket on the Dem end. I’m not yet quite sold on that inevitability, either as a ticket or as the next occupants of the Oval Office and the Naval Observatory. At this point, all that ticket is guaranteed to do is prevent the collapse of the Democratic Party that the various campaigns to keep Clinton alive, from MKH’s efforts to Rush Limbaugh’s quite-successful Operation Chaos to my own Spring Hill campaign, was designed to bring about.
It definitely is (I am not ready to say “was”) a high-risk/high-reward effort. I can’t speak for anybody else, but my hope is that things would get so caustic, the Nightmare Ticket would not happen and a major core constituency would take November off. Unlike Shoebox, I believe things are that caustic, though like him, I doubt that we will see John Edwards or Bill Richardson on the ticket for much the same reason he believes that ticket is inevitable. Even at that, most of those on that short list have the same “racialism” problem, only that would be in the open.
If the Nightmare Ticket does happen, I am counting on so many panders to the left being made that it would be rather difficult for them to return to the center. Fortunately, Obama made that job a bit harder with today’s speech. I’ll also state that neither we nor the middle were Obama’s target audience. Ed Morrissey believes it was the superdelegates. I humbly disagree; they’re looking for electability in the general election, and on that front, this speech sure seems sorely lacking. Rather, I believe it was to reunite the various colors of the radical wing of the Dems behind him, the general election be damned.
That speech, and the reaction to it, also plays into something Shoebox put up yesterday on Obama losing Generation Y. Because The Hammer is a Gen Y’er, I’ll point in the general direction of her take on that speech. The $192,000,000 (or whatever is going to be spent on the general election) question is whether the Gen Y’ers and the middle are simply going to be turned off to Obama or turned off to politics entirely. If it simply is to Obama, the election will be John McCain’s for the taking regardless of his missteps with conservatives and regardless of whether the Dems heal themselves between now and November.
If, however, the trend of the middle to disappear from politics entirely continues, it will be a “base turnout” election. If there is the Nightmare Ticket or “Son of Nightmare” Ticket, the various portions of the Dem base will be united, the middle will be pretty much out of play, and it will be up to McCain to actually heal his rift with conservatives to come out on top. Unfortunately, for every step McCain takes to heal that rift, he takes one to reopen it.
I haven’t said it enough, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say I thank God I got him blogging. Very short story – he was a regular commenter over at Michelle Malkin’s place, and stumbled into a few of my debate liveblogs from my pingbacks to her liveblogs. Eventually, I recognized just how good he was and he eventually agreed to try blogging as a guest-blogger. I’ll say he took to it like a duck to water; he’s bailed me out of a couple of blogging funks I’ve been in, and he’s improved the discussion here a lot.
Congress calls for the end of DC’s gun ban
Matt Lewis, among others, noted that John McCain joined a rather extraordinary amicus brief on District of Columbia v. Heller. It is rather extraordinary for a couple of reasons. First, it is extraordinary in its conclusion:
In sum, historically Congress has interpreted the Second Amendment as recognizing the right of law-abiding individuals to keep and bear arms. This Court should give due deference to the repeated findings over different historical epochs by Congress, a co-equal branch of government, that the Amendment guarantees the personal right to possess firearms.
The District’s prohibitions on mere possession by law-abiding persons of handguns in the home and having usable firearms there are unreasonable per se. No purpose would be served by remanding this case for further fact finding or other proceedings. This Court should affirm the decision below, Parker v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir. 2007).
That in itself is a rather stunning and refreshing change from the official position of the executive branch, which in essence is that, while there is an individual Second Amendment right, all existing gun controls, including the DC gun ban, do not run afoul of that.
The second is who else joined this brief. At the top is Vice President Dick Cheney, who joined in his capacity as President of the Senate. I guess that blows the notion of him actually running the country out of the water. There are also a smattering of Democrats, some of whom I would never have guessed would say that an outright ban on handguns is unreasonable.
Specifically, those in the Wisconsin delegation that signed on are Senator Russ Feingold and Representatives Steve Kagen, Ron Kind, Tom Petri, Paul Ryan and Jim Sensenbrenner (the latter 3 I would expect as they are what remains of the Republican half of the delegation).
Hey Doyle. Hey Decker. You mopes listening?
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Obama speech – live thread
Even though I’m also on the Hot Air live thread, I may as well do one as well. I won’t guarantee the dignity lamp will remain lit; that depends on Barack Obama.
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The Morning Scramble – 3/18/2008
I don’t know if this is going to be a regular feature, but why not take some mandatory linkage out for a test spin? After all, what good is a feed reader with 150 or so blogs in it if I don’t share the love?
– James Wigderson hates yard signs with a passion.
– Why? Uncle Fred found a yard sign without the “paid for by” text.
– Weasel Zippers found some sanity in Jolly Old England as female Islamic doctors no longer can use their religion to hide behind their veils
– Kevin Fischer points out the inanity of Jim “Craps” Doyle’s (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) position that in order to fix potholes, we have to raid the transportation fund that is designated to, among other things, fix potholes.
– Tom McMahon shows off the best Pez dispenser evah (at least if you’re a guy).
– Ragnar Danneskjold, R.I.N.O. Hunter, finds out John McCain still doesn’t get it on illegal immigration.
– Jim Geraghty catches Hillary Clinton in a fish story.
– Mark McNally breaks out in song on the Obama/Wright mess.
– Mike points us to a great piece by Shelby Steele on the Obama/Wright mess.
– Continuing on the Obama theme, Bruce has a few questions.
– Erick at RedState has the phrase of the day – Demasochist Party.
– The American Pundit and Gabriel Malor both report on a 85-year-old story of melting Arctic ice. Yep, Gorebal Warming’s been around that long.
– Speaking of Gorebal Warming, Dean points out that bacteria pump out more carbon than we do.
– Warner Todd Huston at Stop the ACLU has some good news on the “Fairness” Doctrine, at least for the next 10 months.
– Alan Steinberg has the headline of the day – “Prices Going Up… Confidence in Government Going Down”.
– Silent E is bucking for a fill-in gig for WSJ’s Best of the Web with his exposing of the Dumb Headline of the Day.
– See-Dubya has some not-so-breaking news on the lack of conservatives in the LeftStreamMedia.
– There’s so many places to choose from for news on freshly-minted New York Governor David Paterson’s admission that he cheated on his wife (and that she cheated on him), but I’ll go with Slublog’s fingering of the water supply in Albany. Also, don’t miss the comments that flashy dug up.
– Speaking of New York, JammieWearingFool relays a report that the former governor was headed toward Swimmer territory in the alcohol department.
– Skinbad does the math on Elliot Spitzer and Paul McCartney, and finds that it pays to pay by the day.
– Rick Esenberg catches up on the flurry of ads in the Supreme Court race.
– Rick Moran asks whether capitalism and hence conservatism is dead.
– William Teach brings news that the UN doesn’t know what’s in its own “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
– Jib questions the wisdom of touting plans to be number two when by the time the structure in question is built, it will be no better than number four.
– You know sports doping is bad when Janet Evans catches a story on doping in German billiards.
– Since the idiots at Fox won’t have a new season of “24” until next January, the folks at Blogs4Bauer continue their strike replacement episodes with Episode 11.
Revisions/extensions (9:00 am 3/18/2008) – And one more I was going to add before the hamsters in the server briefly went on strike (let me put it this way; the dogs are happy now):
– Gateway Pundit is offering a special on Wright’s Greatest Hits.
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Roll bloat – more oppressor vs. oppressed
First, I have to give a shout-out to Free Whitewater. The proprietor, who goes by the nom de blog John Adams, has been rather controversial in local politics, so much so that the police chief of Whitewater, James Coan, with the blessing of City Manager Kevin Brunner, used city resources to try to unmask and silence Adams.
Needless to say, Messrs. Coan and Brunner, along with Whitewater Police Detective Tina Winger, have earned their departments not-exactly-honored spots on the Harrassers In Government portion of the roll for ignoring Article I, Section 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution.
March 17, 2008
Recommended reading – St. Paddy’s Day edition
It’s been a while since I brought out the linking stick and gave you a good idea of what is in my overbloated feed reader. Since doubleplusundead started his “links from around the moronosphere”, I may as well do something like that (a bit abbreviated because I have some green beer to drink and some cards to play):
– E.M. Zanotti notes that, a mere 5 years after he called for a ban on gambling on college sports, John McCain is running a NCAA tournament pool, complete with prizes.
– Related to that, both the morons and the bar have pools up. Time to bounce some mozzarella.
– Brian Fraley fills out his own bracket, and no it’s not basketball.
– Anwyn has the quote of the day on the Obama/Wright mess.
– Christian Schneider recalibrates the Obama-Meter.
– Jim Lynch questions the wisdom of using the La Raza card to defend against the Wright card.
– Speaking of moonbats, Daniel checked up on state Senator (and Milwaukee County executive candidate) Lena Taylor’s MySpace page and found a very telling pic.
– Sean Hackbarth finds all three surviving Presidential candidates’ positions on the economy wanting.
The NRE Spring Hill campaign bearing fruit
I’ve been strangely silent on the Barack Obama/Jeremiah Wright bomb; fortunately, Shoebox hasn’t been. All I really have to add is, if the fine conservatives in Texas and Ohio had not listened to Rush Limbaugh and joined what he calls Operation Chaos and what I call the NRE Spring Hill campaign, this would have continued to be buried by the media. It isn’t like Wright all of a sudden started going off the deep end a couple weeks ago.
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March 16, 2008
New player in the VP sweepstakes – Bobby Jindal
(H/T – Michelle Malkin via Sean Hackbarth)
James P. Lucier makes a pretty good case for Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal being John McCain’s VP nominee over at The American Spectator. I will admit, he makes a very good case. However, it would be a very high-risk/high-reward combination for Jindal. If McCain wins, whoever his Vice President is would be “next in line”. I’ve pointed out a couple times that since 1956, the “next in line” has won the Republican nomination.
However, if McCain loses, whoever his Vice-Presidential nominee is will be doomed to never see the Oval Office. Over at Michelle’s place, I asked the question of who the last person (besides Walter Mondale, who was also Vice President) was that came back from being on the bottom half of a losing ticket to become a Presidential nominee on a major-party ticket. Rather than depend on somebody else to do the research, I decided to do it myself. Since 1804, when the election of Vice President was officially separated from that of President by the 12th Amendment, there have been 4 people who failed as a major-party VP nominee (Democrat-Republican, Federalist, Democrat, Whig, Republican) who came back to become a Presidential nominee:
– Rufus King (Federalist): Lost on bottom half of the Charles Pinckney/King ticket in 1804 and 1808, became the Federalist Presidential nominee in 1816, lost the election.
– Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic): Lost on the bottom half of James Cox/Roosevelt ticket in 1920, became the Democratic Presidential nominee in 1932, won the election and 3 more.
– Bob Dole (Republican): Lost on the bottom half of the Gerald Ford/Dole ticket in 1976, became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1996 (after Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush took their turns as “next in line” and after finishing second in the 1988 Republican nomination to secure his own “next in line” claim),
– Walter Mondale (Democratic): Lost on the bottom half of the Jimmy Carter/Mondale ticket in 1980 (was for re-election), became the Democratic Presidential nominee in 1984, lost the election.
Let’s see. Only 4 times in 204 years has a failed VP candidate become a Presidential candidate, and only once has that person become President on his own merit. I must note John Tyler did become President in 1841 after William Harrison died in office and after being one of the failed VP candidates of the Whig Party in 1836; however, he ultimately did not run for his own term as he was tossed out of the Whig Party and the Democrats didn’t want him.
I’d rather let Jindal season a bit in Louisiana and finally break the “next in line” chain in 2012.
Pork, it’s what’s for dinner in the Senate
Is it any real surprise that Friday saw efforts to limit pork go down in flames in both the state Senate (via Rep. Zipperer’s office) and the US Senate (H/T – Wolking’s World)?
The state inaction was on Zipperer’s common-sense Earmark Transparency Act, something so non-controversial in the Assembly that it passed on a voice vote. I guess resurrecting Healthy and Depopulated Wisconsin is more important than shining the light of day on pork.
The federal rejection of a “1-year moratorium” on pork is even more egregious because we have names to attach to the pork-lovers. I’m not exactly surprised Russ Feingold and John McCain voted for the moratorium; that’s their “blind squirrel finds a nut” moment. I am also not exactly surprised that a majority of both RepubicRATs and DhimmiRATs voted against it; after all, they’re Senators, and “Senator” is Latin for “giver of pork”. I am, however, surprised that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both rolled back into town to vote with Feingold, McCain, 22 other Republicans, 3 other Democrats, and Joe Lieberman.
March 13, 2008
Assembly passes earmark reform
With all the bad news, I guess I should report on some good news. The Assembly passed the Earmark Transparency Act (AB 739) late last night on a voice vote. If it makes it thorugh the Senate and past Jim Doyle’s veto pen, it would:
– Prohibit state agencies from requesting earmarks when making their budget requests to the Department of Administration.
– Require the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to prepare an “Earmark Transparency Report”, including cost, location, beneficiary and sponsoring representative/senator, to be released to the public at least 48 hours before any action on a budget bill is taken by the Joint Finance Committee, the Assembly or the Senate.
– Prohibit a conference committee from “airdropping” earmarks or other non-fiscal policy items into the budget that were not previously part of an approved version of the budget.
Do note that this passed through the Assembly on a voice vote. That usually doesn’t happen with a controversial bill, so the ball is squarely in the Senate’s court.
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