No Runny Eggs

I could write a diatribe about referring to this day as “the 4th” rather than Independence Day. But, for most of our readers, simply putting that sentence in will make the point.

Rather, I’d like to give you the attached video.

A couple of years back the Shoe family hopped in the box mobile and went to Branson, MO. If you’ve never been to Branson, the best way to describe the atmosphere is that you will go nowhere where God and Country are not celebrated. If you’re not happy with either, a trip to Branson would not be advisable.

While in Branson we saw a Red Skelton impersonator. I’m old enough to remember Red on TV. He’s another one of those folks who’s great skill was taken from us entirely too early. The impersonator did a pretty good job…looked a fair amount like Red and definitely had his mannerisms and voice inflections to a T. Near the close, the impersonator did Red’s famous explanation of the Pledge of Allegiance. I’m not a highly sentimental individual but for some reason, I was sad to the point of crying for most of that presentation. I suspect it had to do with my deep love for our Country and my concern for what is happening to it.

Anyway, I want to provide the opportunity for you to see this, if you haven’t. Watch it, learn it, live it!

Happy Independence Day!

(H/T – Mary)

This story of a man who was wearing the aforementioned items when he was confronted by the homeowner up in Appleton is just too rich. I wonder what part of the brilliant plan of hiding out from the FBI, who he claims was after him for giving secrets to terrorists, was the part that gave him away; the breaking-in, the whistling, the hat, the coat, or the barbecue sauce. Predictably, his defense attorney wants him loose on the streets of Appleton.

Jon Ham asked whether it was a tomato- or vinegar-based sauce. What, no mustard-based? Lemur King has a killer mustard sauce that goes great on pulled pork.

And yet another Democrat leader, this one from Durham County, NC,  arrested for alleged improprieties…not that that’s unusual anymore.   Another thing that is no longer unusual for the Democrats is someone at a mic ready to throw you under the bus.   Watch as a Democrat Senator from NC does that do the alleged wrong doer.

As I wrote a couple of weeks back,when Al Franken tried to apologize for his sexist writings by saying he wasn’t the Al Franken he had know for 57 years, I’m convinced the Dems have issued an election manual that gives the “that’s not the person I’ve known,” as a key talking point. How else to explain it’s use in multiple states and multiple levels of elections.

As much as I hate to give advice to the competition, I think they’ve hit on something. As the Dems continue to respond to the hard core left and ignore the demand from the American Public to Drill here, Drill now, pay less, they should use their talking point direction as a campaign slogan. I’ve even prepared a bumper sticker for them:

Yep, tonight was just the prelude. Due to various issues, I was the only one to make it to eastern Michigan today, and to the abode of one Lemur King and family. LM and family are the prototypical family, great husband and wife, two wonderful young children, and one incredibly-friendly cat (which I’m surprisingly not allergic to). The food lineup changed just a bit from the Indonesian fried rice LM had planned, to a Korean dish called Jae Jaeng Myun. I wholeheartedly approve, but then again, I like spicy.

The trip in for me was horrid. The “fun” began right at the Wisconsin-Illinois border with the reconstruction and expansion of the Tri-State (note to the DOT; Illinois is not making it 8 lanes north of Rosecrans). The Edens was horrid close to the Junction (with the Kennedy). The Skyway, as always, sucked at the toll booth.

Then the real fun began once I rejoined I-94 in Indiana. The Indiana DOT and its contractors chose today to do the actual repaving of the inside lanes, so the left lane was narrowed for a bunch of miles. That helped create a rather long stretch of stop-and-go. Michigan had its share of construction as well, along with a lot of state police. The good news is they’ll basically let you do 10 over, and outside the construction zones, the speed limit’s 70.

I’m pretty much toast since it’s 10:38 here. Tomorrow’s BBQ day.

JSOnline’s DayWatch reports the potentially-good news. The water levels on the Rock and Crawfish Rivers are dropping, and the DOT will be able to examine the closed westbound bridges for damage. If there is none, the crossovers built to get westbound traffic onto one of the eastbound lanes and avoid the very-lengthy detour on Hwy. 83, I-43 and I-39/90 will be shut down and traffic will get to use both lanes each way.

DOT spokesman Dennis Shook (my Waukesha readers can tell you stories about him) had a, shall we say, interesting quote on the crossover: “Even though they are going slow, people are happy they are able to travel westbound at all. Five or 10 miles an hour on the crossover is better than getting detoured all the way down to Beloit.” It is a matter of perspective and timing. If one avoids the Hwy. 83 portion of the old detour, I’d rather be doing 70 or so down 43 and 90 than doing 5-10 mph on the 5-mile crossover and the couple miles leading up to the crossover. That said, if I don’t have to be there during the crunch times, I’d rather have that crossover.

This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated because Blog ‘N Grog over at Neighbor’s Bistro and Pub (260 W Main St in Waukesha – Google Map for those who need help to find their way in) will begin at 7 pm tonight.

Don’t be afraid of Downtown Waukesha; it’s actually easy to get around.

Sancho, the man behind the Blog ‘N Grogs (there’s one tonight), put up a new blog, A little off Main. Hence, it got added to the ever-bloated roll.

According to this article,Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) is only 23 signatures away from getting a vote that would likely codify that any attempt by the FCC to reinstitute the “fairness doctrine” would only come as a result of a Congress action.

There are 9 Republicans and many Democrats that have yet to sign the discharge petition.   The list of unsigned Congresscritters is here.

If your Congresscritter is on the list, hit them up and get them to sign on to the discharge petition.   Why would any Congresscritter be afraid of the American people, voting with their ears, deciding what should be on their radio stations?

I saw this first yesterday and just couldn’t bring myself to post on it.   Today I see it picked up by nearly every Wire service and many blogs so…..I guess I have to ask.

The Smoking Gun  reports on a 52 year old woman suing Victoria’s Secret because some bling off her thong let lose and hit her in the eye.

Some thoughts and observations:

• I looked all over the internet to find a picture of this lady; I couldn’t find one.   Does that make you as suspicious as me that safe loading limits may have been exceeded?
• I don’t get the whole underwear line thing.   Whether I’m wearing boxers or briefs, the lines are what the lines are.   I don’t see them and if you do, well, you’re looking in the wrong place.
• As part of my public service, if you’re prone to wearing thongs don’t.   Dr. Manny says they are bad for you.

My final thought, actually a question…How do you get your head in a position to get hit by flying bling from your underwear while you’re putting your underwear on?   The only answer I can come up with is that the name used in the lawsuit is an alias. The defendant is actually a Democrat Congress person  who was hit in the eye with the bling as she was trying to put her head up her ass to avoid hearing the public’s clamoring for increased domestic drilling.

At least that’s my theory.

Road Trip Season continues unabated by the high cost of gas…

– Thursday, June 19 – Discussion on health care with Steve Moore, Gerald Frye and Leah Vukmir presented by AFP, Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Manitowoc, 11:30 am
– Tuesday, June 24 – Blog ‘N Grog, Neighbor’s Social Club, 260 W Main St, Waukesha, 7 pm
– Friday, June 27 – Tuesday, July 1 – Meeting of the Morons, eastern Michigan (click the link for some more info and to RSVP).

On May 6th I wrote that higher requirements for ethanol use would likely drive food prices higher throughout the year:

On March 31st, the USDA released its crop estimates for the year. Included was an estimate that acres planted with corn were going to drop 8% from the 2007. Even with the reduction in acreage the overall crop yield should be about the same as 2007 which was 13.1 billion bushels.

So we’ve got lots of corn, that’s good news.

Here’s the bad news.

in 2007, approximately 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol was produced. The 2007 Energy Security Act requires that 9.0 billion gallons of ethanol be produced in 2008. 2.8 gallons of ethanol come from each bushel of corn. That means that nearly 1 billion additional bushels of corn will be required just for ethanol production this year.

What do you think will happen to food prices when overall corn production is flat but corn demand for ethanol increases by nearly 50%? They sure as heck aren’t going down!

In a recent Rasmussen poll, 54% of Americans finally understand that burning food is hurting their pocketbook.

Maybe we aren’t a nation of sheeple afterall.

I’m sure you’ve all heard that there’s been a bit of extra moisture in the upper Midwest. Iowa, Wisconsin and Southern Minnesota have been hit hard with excess rain. Flooding of major cities or tourist destination in these areas have made the headlines of the MSM stories. While some attention has been paid to “flooded fields,” I haven’t seen anything report quantifying or talking about the impact of those soggy sowings.

The first sign that there are problems came in this update from the USDA. They have reduced their 2008 corn crop estimateby 400M bushels. That however, may be the good news in their report. Also contained in their latest update is that 2.5M acres are still unplanted, 1.3M of those are underwater in Iowa. The likelihood of successful plantings in these areas are greatly diminished and it is expected that in the next USDA update as substantial portion of those acres will be removed from the “expected to be planted” column.

Let’s say, conservatively, that only the Iowa acres are left unplanted. 1.3M acres at 148.9 bushels per average acre (which is very conservative as the yields in most of Iowa tend to be higher than the national average) means that nearly 200 million  additional bushels will be taken out of the 2008 forecast.

So let’s recap:

• The original forecast said 2008 total corn production would be the same as 2007
• Due to increased mandates, we will use at least 1 billion more bushels for ethanol production
• The latest crop estimates say we are now producing 400 million bushels of corn fewer in 2008
• The next estimate is likely to say the 2008 production will shrink another 200 million bushels of corn.
• The full impact of flooding on the corn crop will not be known for a few more months.

A total of  600 million bushels of corn short from last year’s production with another 1 billion going to ethanol.   That means a total of  1.6 billion fewer bushels of corn that will available for food.

I didn’t major in Economics, only managed a minor, but what I did learn suggests that shrinking supplies and increasing demands don’t generally work towards the reduction of prices.  

I wonder which countries Barack will tell first that that due to our requirements to burn food for fuel, they won’t be able to eat at all?

Update: I’m beginning to feel like Carnac. Here’s an article from London Reuters talking about this exact issue.

Tim Russert passed away after suffering a heart attack while recording voiceovers for “Meet the Press” at NBC’s Washington bureau. My prayers go out to his family.

Michelle Malkin has a far better tribute than I could come up with.

This article claims that Roger Clemens and other MLB players take Viagra to enhance their, ah, “game performance!”

No, really, the BALCO folks claim it’s better than other “nutritional” supplements players can take.

So I’ve got a couple of questions (pardon my Al Franken impression):

• I know it’s strengthens wood but how does it work with Aluminum?
• Would you need to wear a special cup during the game?
• What would happen if the team had provocative cheerleaders?   Would the game get called?

The mind reels!

I’m sure you need a break from the water. Fortunately, we bloggers of souteast Wisconsin have one – Drinking Right. As usual, it will start at 7 pm over at Papa’s Social Club (7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee).

BE THERE!

Sorry I’m late with this one, but I’ve been out of it the last few hours. Direct from the Oak Creek Emergency Operations Center:

The state of emergency declared by Mayor Bolender, Saturday, June 7th remains in effect in response to flooding that has occurred, or has the potential to occur in the City of Oak Creek.

As of Tuesday, June 10th at 9:00 a.m. the following major roads remain closed due to flooding:

East Forest Hill Avenue from 1400 block East to 2000 block East
South Pennsylvania Ave. from Oakwood Road north to STH 100
East Elm Road from 2000 block to 3000 block
South 13th Street at Racine County line
East County Line Road from 1600 East to Chicago Road
South Howell Avenue at Racine County Line
South 27th Street at Racine County Line

Road closure information will be updated at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, June 11th.

It is not safe to drive through these areas, as well as any road that may have standing water. It is strongly advised that people, especially children should avoid creeks, flooded areas, ditches and areas of standing water, as they represent potentially dangerous situations.

Please contact the City of Oak Creek Emergency Operations non-emergency line at (414) 766-6600 if you:

• are in need of evacuation assistance, or are unable to access or exit your property
• are in need of shelter
• are experiencing, or have experienced flooding damage
• have other, non-emergency questions

Oak Creek businesses are also encouraged to call this number if they have experienced flood related problems.

The City of Oak Creek Streets Department will be having a special midweek curb-side pick-up today and Wednesday for flood damaged items. Please contact (414) 570-6582 to request this service.

Flood clean up kits are available for pick up at Oak Creek Fire Station No. 1 (240 East Puetz Road) and at Fire Station No. 3 (7000 South 6th Street).

For more information please contact Doug Seymour, Public Information Officer for the City of Oak Creek, at (414) 768-6526 or dseymour@oakcreekwi.org

News Release By Authority Of:

Doug Seymour,
Public Information Officer
on behalf of Dick Bolender

Of particular note, there will be a special curbside pickup of flood-damaged items. Do contact the city at 570-6582 if you need to have flood-damaged items picked up. Also, since it is summer, the city recycling yard at 720 W. Puetz Rd. is open until 8 pm tonight and every Tuesday through September (it normally closes at 3 pm).

Revisions/extensions (3:23 pm 6/10/2008) – Fixed formatting.

On March 31st, at a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania, Barack Obama made the following statement:

When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the most important prevention is education, which should include "” which should include abstinence education and teaching the children "” teaching children, you know, that sex is not something casual. But it should also include "” it should also include other, you know, information about contraception because, look, I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information."

Amongst other things, this statement shows that contrary to Barack’s earlier contention,

No one is pro-abortion and I do not sanction infanticide

That he made at Benedictine University in October, 2004, he is not only pro-abortion but also believes that abortion is an acceptable means of birth control.

I’ll admit that having a Senator with the most liberal Senate voting record, supporting abortion and its use as a contraception may not be big news. But even the most liberal Senator must have limits?

In August 2002, President Bush signed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIP). The act confers the status of “human being” on any child who survives an abortion attempt. The implications of this is that it imposes a requirement on doctors to take necessary action to support the life of the child and not “perform an abortion” by simply “shelving” the child and allowing it to expire as a result of neglect.

Interestingly, the Born alive Infants Protection Act was was passed by unanimous voice consent of the US Senate. It was passed even though Barabara Boxer was unable to confirm or reconcile in her own mind that a baby; breathing, heart beating and separated from its mother was actually alive.

While his time in the Illinois Senate and particularly while he was Chairman of the Illinois Health & Human Services Committee, Barack Obama had an opportunity to pass a similar bill for Illinois. Obama had numerous reasons why he didn’t want to pass a BAIP bill for Illinois. Jill Stanek  does a fantastic job of deconstructing Barack’s objections to passing such a bill. As Jill points out in her article, all the objections that Obama had were removed by the wording of the Federal bill which the Illinois bill mirrored, except for one. When “Born Alive” was defined as having the child separated from the mother, Obama balked. He refused to amend the Illinois language to mirror the federal language because a: the bill would have surely passed and b: any definition of “life” in a bill that deals with an abortion issue is seen as being the start of a slippery slope that radical abortion rights advocates don’t want to go near.

Today I saw this article about a boy born in the UK, despite an attempt to abort him at eight weeks. While suffering from a kidney defect, the boy is expected to live a normal life.

So here’s what I’m trying to figure out…

There was an attempted and failed abortion attempt on this boys life.
In spite of the attempt, he survived to be born.
If he lived in Illinois, what would he be? Barack Obama doesn’t believe that he is a “human person” or even that classification as “member of the species homosapiens” is applicable. So what is he, alien?

Is the definition of new species the change that Obama is always talking about?

George Will is very funny….who knew?
It would have been very interesting to poll Colbert’s audience before and after the interview to see who agreed with George Will. I’ll bet it would have been less than 30% before and better than 70% after. We need to hire George Will to first teach McCain about conservative principles followed by teaching him to be able to deliver them in the way that George Will does.

Outstanding!

H/T Feddie

Hopefully it’s just the last Townhall version, but if it truly is the last, MKH is going out in style.

Hopefully the Washington Examiner lets her do a few.

(H/T – Rock, Paper Shotgun)

Jace Hall of Crackle has actually played a demo alpha version of the current iteration of Duke Nukem Forever (start at 4:10 of the video). DNF has been in production since 1997, and has won the Vaporware of the Year award from Wired Magazine every year it was eligible between 2000 and 2007 (it was given the “lifetime” award in 2003 and not eligible in 2004).

If 3D Realms isn’t jerking our chains again, stock up on the kick-ass because you’re probably all out of gum.

The Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity is hosting a pair of blogger training sessions next week:

You’re Invited to a Free Blogger Training School hosted by Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin Chapter.

Blogs have emerged as a powerful activism tool, and we need your help to combat the liberal agenda that threatens our very freedom and prosperity. Please join us to learn how you can use blogs to advocate for our shared belief in lower taxes and more limited government.

June 9th- Oshkosh School
5:30 pm Reception and Registration; 6:30 pm Seminar
Robbins Restaurant
1810 Omro Rd, Oshkosh, WI 54902
(920) 235-2840

June 11th- Madison School
5:30 pm Reception and Registration; 6:30 pm Seminar
The Lucy Burns Institute
301 South Bedford, Suite 6
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 255-0688

What you will do at the School:
-Learn about the Impact of Blogs
-Learn how to start your own Blog
-Learn how to be an effective Blogger
-Meet & Network with other like-minded Bloggers
-Enjoy free refreshments and sandwiches

RSVP today by emailing wirsvp&afphq.org or call 414-475-2975.

I’ll likely be at both, but don’t let that stop you from going :-)

Dye Packet or bad chili….you decide!

Scott McClellan has been receiving a lot of attention from the MSM since his “tell all” book about his experiences as press secretary. Of McClellan and his book, former Senator Bob Dole recently said “there are miserable creatures” in every administration who are spurred on by greed. I would add to Dole’s comment, ….spurred on by ego or a disproportionate self importance.

During  the Civil War, another President, Abraham Lincoln had a McClellan to deal with.   George B. McClellan organized the Army of the Potomac. He’s described nearly universally, as having a tremendous ability to instill discipline, organize and drill and manage supply logistics better than any of his peers. Unfortunately, while McClellan was great at building an army he stunk at using one.

Time and again while McClellan commanded the Union Army, he either allowed Lee and the Confederate forces to escape or chose not to engage them based on a repetitive, incorrect belief that he was out numbered.

McClellan was so inept at commanding the Army that one time, after acquiring a copy of Lee’s battle plan he bragged that, “Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home,” Further, he sent a message to President Lincoln “I have the whole rebel force in front of me, but I am confident, and no time shall be lost. I think Lee has made a gross mistake, and that he will be severely punished for it. I have all the plans of the rebels, and will catch them in their own trap if my men are equal to the emergency. … Will send you trophies.” However, as previously, McClellan was unable to move his troops quickly enough to catch Lee. In fact, McClellan’s slow action led to the loss of the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry and further allowed a severely outnumbered Confederate Army to hold the Union off at the Battle of Antietam and eventually escape.

Like Scott McClellan, Gen. George B. didn’t seem to appreciate his position or have appropriate humility about it. In her book “Team of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin quotes Gen. McClellan as saying that he

received “letter after letter” begging him to assume the presidency or become a dictator. While he would eschew the presidency, he would “cheerfully take the Dictatorship & agree to lay down my life when the country is saved.”

George B. was known to make President Lincoln wait for up to an hour to see him. There were times where McClellan actually ignored the President’s presence altogether.

Like Scott, when Gen. George was released from his position due to an inability to perform, he decided to turn against the President he served. Where Scott decided to merely line his pockets via made up history, Gen. George wasn’t satisfied with money. Gen. George was the Democrat candidate for President in 1864 and ran against Lincoln’s reelection. Like Scott, Gen. George’s campaign was based upon a platform that railed against his former boss’s war policy claiming that Lincoln had passed up opportunities to broker a peace. Of course McClellan believed that because he had believed the South within their right to maintain slavery.

The reason I bring you this history lesson is confirm what Senator Dole said that “there are miserable creatures” in every administration. I think most of us understand that to be the nature of power and politics.

I wonder if we should change the lexicon of a turncoat being called a “Benedict Arnold” to simply referring to them as a “McClellan?”

I’m not a good enough writer to enter, but James Ballou (aka Mormon Doc in the Hot Air commentaries) is running a contest to win a copy of his forthcoming book, Soul Survivor. Don’t waste too much time, because he’s leaving the contest open only until June 20.

As the Twitter update says, Oly (the real fisherman of the bunch) and I limited out. We had to try some different presentations as every day was a bit different, but here’s a fish story until I get the pics on Monday:

Oly’s 41-inch muskie: For the first time in 13 years, we decided to rent a guide to show us some new spots on the lake Tuesday. We found one point on Osbourne where the slight wind was blowing in, and Jason said he had a 50-inch muskie. Oly throws his jig out there and WHAM, the muskie took it and ran. Since Jason was trying out a brand-new boat, nobody loaded the net. Now you’re probably thinking, buh-bye muskie. Guess again. That 4-lb test line he uses is very damn tough. Not only did it survive being in the muskie’s mouth and wrapped around, but it survived Jason’s first miss trying to grab it. We did get it in the boat, and there’s a couple good pics of it.

As for the weather, about the only thing missing was the 80-degrees that we had the first year up (in 1996; that week also saw snow up there). We had absolutely everything else – calm, sunny and warm; thunderboomers; snow; wicked wind (was a cast-iron bitch to dock the boat Thursday night; our usual boatman’s with the futsal team in Guatemala right now).

It’s good to be back in the land of cheese and beer (even though I brought back a 12-pack of Labatt Maximum Ice).