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.
John Hawkins has done his annual survey of those considered most despised on the right. Unlike Keith Olbermann, John asked right wingers for their opinions.
My list to John, unranked was this:
Colin Powell
Joe Scarborough
Olympia Snowe
Susan Collins
Lamar Alexander
Michael Smerconish
Christopher Buckley
Arne Carlson
Scott McClellan
Chuck Hagel
You can see the entire list here.
Obama at Risk of Being on D-List of Presidents
Personally, I think he’ll have to ace his final to get a “D”…
If all goes well, I should be at Veterans Park for the Milwaukee Tea Party by 1 pm. The fun starts at 3, but I recommend getting there early.
This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated because it is a short week. The Septermber Drinking Right will begin promptly at 1900 hours (7 pm) at Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee.
This is not a drill or a test. You are instructed to be there. Being square is not an option.
This concludes this activation of the Emergency Blogging System.
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman and gift to bloggers world wide, now says that those of us opposing President Obama are involved in nothing more noble than a food fight:
“It’s a sad state of affairs that many in this country politically would rather start an ‘Animal House’ food fight rather than inspire kids to stay in school, to work hard, to engage parents to stay involved and to ensure that the millions of teachers that are making great sacrifices continue to be the best in the world,” Gibbs told reporters on Monday.
Really? Holding our elected leaders to accountability is a food fight?
This is a food fight:
First we were “wee weeing”, now are creating a “food fight.” I suppose next we’ll be accused of calling people names!
Well, to that I have this to say:
Let’s all fight to save America!
(H/T – Stephen Green)
The Hill reports that the AFL-CIO has extracted their price of making the Democratic Party a partially-owned subsidiary of them and is calling for a 0.1% tax on all stock transactions. That’s right; buy a stock, pay a tax. Sell a stock, even at a loss, pay a tax.
The stated reason, according to AFL-CIO policy director Thea Lee – “It would have two benefits, raise a lot of revenue and discourage speculative financial activity.” News flash #1 for Ms. Lee – it was “speculative financial activity” that got the various AFL-CIO pension funds to where they are. News flash #2 for Ms. Lee – that churn produced by “speculative financial activity” creates a lot of cash that is spent at the production end of the economic circle.
Stephen notes that we pay some of the highest taxes on winning stock plays on the planet. For those that held the sold stock less than a year, that profit is taxed at up to 35% (and soon to be 39.6% somewhere over 40%). Tax the losing plays as well, and almost nobody will want to invest in the stock market. Fewer people in the market equals lower stock prices, which equals lower pensions and less money available for expansion.
Beck has been running show after show shining light on the roaches that President Obama has brought to the White house with him. As a result of this activity and a statement that Beck made on another Fox show saying that President Obama “was a racist,” an ultra left group has attempted to organize a boycott of advertisers of Beck’s show.
As a counter, there have been numerous sites that have published information about advertisers who have left Beck’s show. The idea was to counter boycott the advertisers that had removed their advertising from Beck.
I wrote to several of the advertisers telling them of my disappointment with their bowing to an obvious minority that did not believe in free speech. I suggested that they may want to reconsider their ad buys as there were clearly more folks watching the show than those involved in any boycott.
I got responses from all of the companies. Nearly all of them were the generic “thank you for your letter.” From there, most of the letters said that they hadn’t pulled any advertising from Beck’s show. I know there’s been some confusion about who has or hasn’t actually pulled anything from Beck’s show so it’s hard to say who’s telling the truth and who’s not.
I got one response however, that I thought was pretty novel. Here is the response I got from Progressive Insurance:
Dear Mr. Shoebox:
Recent media reports have created the incorrect impression that Progressive pulled advertising in response to specific comments made on The Glenn Beck Show, but that is not the case. The fact is that we did not intentionally place any of our advertising on the show, so when we learned that our ad had aired, we corrected the error.
Our goal is to reach a broad range of drivers to make them aware of our products and services. We value feedback on our advertising strategy, but because auto insurance is a very competitive business, we don’t discuss everything that goes into our ad placement decisions. We’d like to thank you for taking the time to express your opinion.
(emphasis mine)
So Progressive, let me see if I got this right. You didn’t specifically ask to have your ad run on Beck. But, when you made your purchase of a “run of network” which gives Fox the ability to decide when to run your ads and which gives you a cheaper price per ad while still getting the higher priced shows i.e. Beck’s, you were perfectly happy allowing Fox to put your ad on Beck’s show. However, once you found out about the controversy you immediately said “don’t run our ad on Beck!”
Interesting. Progressive claims they didn’t “cancel” advertising with Beck, they merely “corrected a mistake.”
I always thought it was just the political “progressives” who were unable to deal with truth and facts. Apparently, truth is hard to come by even if your name is Progressive!
Leslie Carbone, who served as director of Family Tax Policy at the Family Research Council and as a speechwriter for Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, has just published “Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform”. If you’ve read her blog, you already know she is a very knowledgeable and talented writer.
Now, go and buy the book. My copy should be arriving in a few days, so if there’s light-to-nonexistent blogging and Tweeting, you’ll know what I’m reading.
So you think greater government regulation will help bring down pricing in health care? If what we are about to experience with the repercussions of their decision to force “change” in the credit card industry is any indication, you may want to think again.
Newsmax has this articledocumenting the changes that credit card companies are now putting into place in anticipation of new government regulation which began yesterday. While reading through these changes, remember that the new regulations on credit cards were ostensibly implemented to make the various credit card agreements more transparent and easier to understand and to impose restrictions so that credit card companies are less able to uniquely address high risk accounts.
Amongst the changes being implemented:
Citi, for example, is in the process of informing some cardholders that it will institute an annual fee, about $30, on certain accounts.
That will help those who can’t pay….fewer of them will be able to get/afford a card at all!
And American Express Co. recently sent out notice it will eliminate over-the-limit fees on its consumer credit cards in October. They were dropped in response to a provision in that law that, starting in February, requires card companies to offer a way for customers to agree to pay each time a transaction triggers such a fee.
That’s good news for the over charger, until you see this:
the interest rate on her card will jump to 10.24 percent from 6.99 percent. If she makes any late payments, the rate will shoot up to 27.24 percent.
Citi and American Express aren’t alone:
American Express and Citi are not unique. A survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts of nearly 400 credit cards offered by the 12 largest issuers in the country found that rates have gone up on average 2 percent since December.
Yeah, consumers may find it easier to read their contracts but credit card companies aren’t going to give up the margins they’ve enjoyed. By removing the ability for credit card companies to selectively deal with higher risk accounts the new government regulations have created market conditions that have the credit card companies increasing costs to all consumers.
Kevin runs through the winners and losers in the wake of Doyle’s announcement that he is not running for a third term. He proves he is an honest broker by including himself as one of the big losers in the “Those Who Though Doyle Was Running” category. Yes, I do have to put myself there too – I said the moment that he line-item-vetoed the Milwaukee Transit Taxing Authority out of the DemoBudget, he was running.
Looking back at it, that was his last, desperate gasp at trying to save his 2010 chances. Doyle absolutely, positively needed Milwaukee County by a big margin, just like every other Democrat.
I’m back and sifting through a lot of stuff I missed this past week before I’m off to Pittsburgh. Short version of the canoe trip:
– Decent weather; not too hot until yesterday, not a lot of rain
– Very slow walleye fishing (just enough for a couple dinners)
– Incredible smallmouth fishing; 6 of them 19″ or over, several more at least 18, and a heap of fat ones.
Semi-regular comms will resume Monday.
During this past week, the grass roots fervor against health care reform has stepped up. It’s no longer possible for a Congressperson or Senator to have a townhall meeting without this issue being at the forefront. If the particular legislature attempts to support the health care reform in any way, they are challenged directly. In some cases, the idiocy of their defense has been met with derisive and dismissive laughter.
This week, President Obama became very concerned that you’re not getting the straight scoop on health care reform. He’s so concerned that he sent Linda Douglass out to tell you that just because the President said something at one time, it doesn’t mean he’d stand by it today.
Because it’s not about him but about you, President Obama is asking you to help him identify and ferret out misinformation about his health care reform. To that end, the White House has established an email address for you to send information; name, address, social security number, the normal stuff, about any website or email that has “fishy” information about health care reform. The email address for reporting your friends and neighbors is Flag@whitehouse.gov. Of course, the information is being gathered only so that President Obama can get you correctly educated.
When I heard about the “flag” email address, I immediately thought it was spelled “Flagg.”
Of all the various characters that came and went during the run of MASH, one that I really enjoyed was a character known as Colonel Flagg.
Colonel Flagg was an Army intelligence officer. Overzealous and egotistical are just a couple of words that describe Colonel Flagg. Each time that Colonel Flagg showed up he was on some mission that was required to preserve “The American way of life.”
Flagg’s investigations were typically focused on some conspiratorial endeavor. Typically, the conspiracy existed only in Flagg’s mind. Flagg’s episodes often ended with Hawkeye or Trapper turning Flagg’s conspiracy theory against him, often sending him out of the camp as a likely target of some other intelligence officer’s investigation.
The Democrat’s health care reform efforts have been thrown so far off message and so taken aback by the notion that their subjects are not acquiescing to they omnipotence of Democrat leadership, they’ve resorted to name calling against those who dare to challenge them. “Nazis,” “Astroturf,” “Brooks Brothers” are just some of the phrases being used in attempt to create the notion of a conspiracy of rightwingers as the source for the dissent on health care reform.
Like Colonel Flagg, the only conspiracy that the Democrats have to fight is the one created in their own minds. Like Col. Flagg, facts showing that there is no conspiracy are no stumbling block for the Democrats. As Hawkeye and Trapper often did, I propose we turn the Democrat’s imagined conspiracy against them.
President Obama is looking for “fishy” information being dispelled about health care reform. Might I suggest that each of us send an email to Flag with a link to the House bill being proposed. I can’t think of anything more fishy than that smelly, rotting, pile of garbage. To make it easy, here’s the link to the bill: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/text.
Oh, an just in case you’re worried that the White House may be compiling some sort of an enemies list with the “flag” information, I don’t think you have to worry about it. President Obama ascribes to the same practice as Colonel Flagg when he said,
We’ve got files on people who haven’t even been born.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two American journalists were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after being accused of illegal entry and engaging in “hostile acts” by the government of North Korea.
After a brief personal visit and plea by former President Bill Clinton, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned the women from their 12-year prison sentences.
Following their pardons, the two women were reported to have left North Korea accompanying former President Clinton on his private flight to Los Angeles.
Based on the events of the past 48 hours we now know that North Korea tortured these women with some form of mind incapacitating drugs or techniques.
How else would you explain two women volunteering to be confined for over 20 hours in an inescapable metal tube with Bill Clinton?
I wanted to finish Michelle Malkin’s latest book, Culture of Corruption, before I went off canoeing. Instead, various things intruded, and I made it to Ray LaHood, Earmark Man. Still, I highly recommend you heading over to Amazon or your favorite local bookstore, and ordering it while I’m on vacation.
She chronicles many of the players in the most-corrupt beginning of an administration in recent memory, starting with describing Obama Nominee Withdrawal Syndrome, going through the Bitter Half, blasting through Plugs, skewering the members of the Cabinet that didn’t withdraw, dances through the czars (or more properly, the commissars), runs down the Mad Money Men, hunts the union label, pops some ObamACORN, and closes with some fresher Clinton stuff.
Some random quotes to whet your appetite:
- (Following a list of those “Achievatrons” who withdrew their nominations after problems) – And those were just some of the bodies thrown under the bus before the 100-day mark. Heckuvajob, Obama vetters!
- You never get a second chance to make a first post-inaugural impression. Less than three weeks into his first 100 days, Barack Obama left indelible marks on his nascent presidency: the marks of incompetence and hubris.
- (A subtitle in the chapter on “The other Michelle”) – Earmarks and Edifice Complex
- (A ditty to the tune of something from Sesame Street at the end of that chapter) – Oh, these are cronies in Michelle and Barry’s neighborhood.
They’re the people that they met (and did business with, and socialized with, and traded favors with) each day,…. (note; we need to get The Ventilators back together)- Like the Naked Emperor of Hope and Change in the Oval Office, the Court Jester of Reform in the vice president’s office has no clothes.
There will be a test when I finally get back in normal comms (just kidding, I think). I could cheat and speed-read in the couple hours I’ll be conscious between the canoe trip and RightOnline, but I definitely will be taking it with me to Pittsburgh.
This time in Maryland as Senator Ben Cardin holds a town hall. And this time it’s an African American questioning the wisdom of big government. It ain’t going well for the Borg Collective!
Astronauts deal with flooded toilet in orbit
The bathroom lines at the already crowded space shuttle and space station complex got a lot longer Sunday because of a flooded toilet.
One of two commodes aboard the international space station broke down, right in the middle of complicated robotic work being conducted by the two crews.
Update: All sphincters can relax now!
In case you haven’t noticed the subtle messages in the Day By Day cartoons lately (or you’re visiting the mobile version of this place), Chris Muir is holding the 2009/2010 Support DBD Event. There’s 5 levels this time around instead of 4, and a Sam In Red figurine that’s a $67 option for the bottom 4:
– The Jan Level ($1-19) gets you pdfs of 3 ‘Gang of 4’ Posters and jpgs of 3 Propaganda Posters.
– The Zed Level ($20) gets you that plus pdfs of 7 ‘SmallMatters’ trial strip (c1998) and
pdfs of 2 ‘PaintedWomen’ Posters.
– The Sam Level ($40) gets you that plus a third ‘PaintedWomen’ Poster.
– The Damon Level ($125) gets you all that plus a Signed Original Toon Script & Toon (for the first 365 only with the toon on heavy stock suitable for framing), 8 Signed Prints of ‘PaintedWomen’ Posters printed on heavy stock, signed, and ready for framing, and 4 Magnet Full-Color Cards of all 4 Characters.
– The new Su excelencia Don Manuel Luciano de la Portago y Verrillo Level (starting at $150) gets you everything except the toon script/toon combo, but adds a Sam in Black figurine.
If only I could do triple figures, I would’ve moved up from the Sam Level I did last year. Instead, I stayed at the Sam Level. If I can kick in to keep the best daily comic strip out there around another year, you can too!
Senator Barbara Boxer attempted to use the traditional Democrat tactic of identity politics on Black Chamber of Commerce CEO, Harry Alford. Unfortunately for Babs, Harry hadn’t gotten the memo that said that all US Citizens of African heritage must think alike and that all US Citizens of African heritage must support all policies posited by the first President with African heritage. Fortunately, Mr. Alford called Babs on her racist remarks. Unfortunately, she’s either too dense
Enjoy!
This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated because Steve is over at Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W. Burleigh in Milwaukee, for the July Drinking Right. You are instructed to head there now.
This concludes this activation of the Emergency Blogging System.
I originally ran this on Independence Day, 2007. It’s time to dig out the Declaration of Independence again.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Only Iowahawk can come up with Recession Demolition Night. It involves the Chicago White Su…er, Sox, 90 C-17 Globemasters, and the $800 billlion in Porkulus money that has yet to be spent.
No word on whether they’re going to get Steve Dahl and Garry Meier back together for one night only.
For those of you who get your TV through antennas or satellite, WTMJ-DT went off the air about 12:20 am this morning, and is still off its normal digital channel (if memory serves, physical channel 27). For a short while, it also affected Time Warner subscribers and for a longer time, it affected Charter subscribers, but they managed to get a hard-wire solution.
In the meantime, Journal Broadcast and Weigel Broadcasting, which runs WDJT-DT/WMLW-CA/WBME-DT, has made arrangements to put a standard-definition signal on one of its WBME-DT subchannels, channel 49-2.
Related to that, WTMJ is the only private Milwaukee station that is able to run weather updates in HD. Hey WITI, WISN and WDJT – get off your duffs.
Revisions/extensions (8:38 pm 6/19/2009) – As capper points out in the comments, the on-air version of WTMJ-DT is back.
In a letter sent to leaders of the Senate, President Obama now claims that Inspector General of the Americorps, Gerald Walpin, was fired because he was:
so “confused” and “disoriented” that there was reason to question “his capacity to serve.”
If that is grounds for termination in the Obama administration can someone explain to me how Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid are allowed to stay in office?
Just wondering…..
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but President Obama and his administration have taken over the dictionary. Well, not exactly the whole dictionary, yet, but they have given new meaning to a number of words and phrases that haven’t had a change in their meaning from the advent of the English language until now. I haven’t been able compile the complete list of the New Obamaese Dictionary definitions but I have a few that you should be aware of.
Shovel Ready – Any project that rational taxpayers would vote a politician out of office for if they had voted to fund it during normal legislative processes.
Stimulus – A spending bill that contains “Shovel Ready” projects that is passed only with Democrat support
Uniquely Qualified – an individual who is either a tax cheat or has other ethical issues, such that they wouldn’t be hired for, and can only get a role through appointment to a Democrat Administration role. (see Czar)
Czar – an individual who is given absolute power over a portion of the economy for which they have absolutely no working knowledge. Czar’s are often “Uniquely Qualified.”
I don’t want to run – A phrase used immediately prior to a: blaming one’s predecessor, b: expressing surprise that the situation was much worse than you had thought and c: making a claim that the actions you have taken will be “temporary.” Typically, a Czar who is Uniquely Qualified is appointed to run the business that “I don’t want to run.”
As I have repeatedly said – A phrase used to point the listener to a specific one of the many positions the speaker has taken on a particular topic. It is not used to dismiss the positions not addressed during the use of this phrase, only to make you think the speaker has actually made a final decision, at least until they next use of the phrase: As I have repeatedly said…
I’m trying to keep a list of these. If you have others, send them along. Who knows, we may be able to give Webster a run for his money by the end of four years.
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