The local fish wrapper, The Star and Sickle in Minneapolis is reporting that scores of songbirds were killed in the northern 2/3 of Minnesota over the past few weeks.

They apparently starved to death.

No this wasn’t due to the use of pesticides. It wasn’t due to excessive feral cats. No, the cause was an extended winter that climaxed 10 days ago with 15″ of snow. Bugs did not survive so neither did the birds.

Oh, if only we had kept our incandescent light bulbs and built a few less wind turbines and belched that final snow off our driveways with nasty fossil fuel burning snowblowers, we may have kept the winter to more normal temperatures and even now, we would be hearing the lyrical songs.

Al, Al Gore, have you no compassion for these helpless songbirds? At what temperature will you be satisfied?

I chronicled here,  Barack Obama’s confusion over whether and how much he will raise the Capital Gains tax.   I also noted that the Rasmussen Report survey showed a majority of Americans thought it would be harmful if the tax rate was raised.

Rasmussen has done some follow up work.

In a new survey, 58% of those surveyed identified Barack Obama as the Presidential candidate who wants to increase the capital gains tax.

That kind of name recognition is not going to help Obama.

Political Office In Alec Baldwin’s Future?
Now That He’s 50, Actor Tells 60 Minutes Political Office Is Looking More Appealing

Let’s see, another empty headed, egomanical liberal with anger management issues.

Baldwin could make Franken look nearly mainstream.

House Democrats are working to pass a “Housing rescue package.” The main provisions of the bill are similar to those that have been reported for the past few months including:

• Giving the Federal Housing Administration $300 billion in new lending authority and the ability to relax its standards to rewrite existing loans.
• Permanently increase the size of loans the FHA, Freddie MAC and Fannie MAE  can insure to $729,750 in high cost areas.
• An assortment of “money dumps” to local and state governments that ostensibly help them with low income, first time home buyers and blighted neighborhoods.

I won’t carry on about why this bill is bad policy except to refrain the words “bail out” and remind  Nancy Pelosi  that a majority Americans do not want this legislation.   President Bush has said he will veto the bill.

No, I won’t carry on about BAIL OUT but there was one provision in the bill that I found particularly appalling coming from the Democrats (sorry for the redundancy):

To ensure that lenders participate and support the bill the Democrats have added a provision that creates a safe harbor from investor lawsuits for mortgage holders who modify loans to borrowers who are in default or about to default.

So the Dems want to grant immunity for legal issues to the companies that comply with the desires of Congress.   Hey, wait a minute.   That sounds a lot like granting of immunity for the telephone companies that comply with FISA!   Isn’t that immunity issue the major sticking point with reenacting FISA?

Are Pelosi and company telling us that they believe it is more important to bail out people who made poor individual  choices than to allow intelligence practices that have been essential in providing national security?

John McCain originally said that he opposed any housing bailout.   I know he is strongly supportive of FISA.   The  blatant hypocrisy over corporate immunity would be a great opportunity for  McCain to draw a bright line of separation so voters can see which party will actually do something about national security and  which is  just pandering.

It’s funny how some people are so easily offended.

Putting aside Mr. Kings errant understanding of the constitutional right to free speech, perhaps Mr. King was genuinely concerned about those who have had or were contemplating an abortion when he added: “Do not put this in front of all of us!”

Do you think Mr. King was as concerned for families who had lost loved ones in Iraq when Cindy Sheehan had her infamous campout in Crawford Texas?

I’ve documented Franken’s problems with obeying tax laws his accountant here and here.
Some folks have been skeptical that these issues would impact Franken’s bid for Senate. I however believe that while we from Minnesota are politically confused, our compasses point pretty much north regarding ethics and integrity. It appears my knowledge of Minnesotans is proving out.

In a new poll, SurveyUSA  is showing that Franken’s tax issues are having a negative impact on his campaign. 59% of those surveyed say that Franken’s tax problems make them less likely to vote for him. Perhaps worse, 51% say he should step out of the race.

Obviously things can change but Franken is one of those guys who is difficult to find anything likable about. With 59% saying they are less likely to vote for Franken,  I’m hoping it won’t  be too long before he is referred to as “Former Senate candidate, Al Franken.”

OK, this isn’t Bordello of Blood but still, this is pretty funny.
From the website:
Barackula is a short political horror rock musical about young Barack Obama having to stave off a secret society of vampires at Harvard when he was inducted into presidency at the Harvard Law Review in 1990.

If you have 10 minutes…take a look!

The real life parallels are amazing:
Barack leading blood suckers!
Barack negotiating with the undead!

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.

PETA pushes for tribute to honor cows killed at stockyards

An animal rights group wants a memorial to slaughtered cows erected at the site of South St. Paul’s stockyards.

In a Monday letter to Greg Miller, president of the company that is developing 27 acres of land vacated by Central Livestock last month, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urges that he “recognize this site’s historical significance and honor the millions of cows auctioned off for slaughter.”

This is one place where I’m happy to jump in with the Darwinians…we evolved further therefore we get to make the rules, we win.  

The following charts so the price activity for the three largest US grain products.

In the face of these commodities having increases of at least 60% in the last year, Congress is looking to dramatically increase farm subsidies.

Congress is debating a farm subsidy bill  that would be $300 billion dollars over the next 5 years.   For those of you keeping score, that amounts to $2,678 for every American family.   In Barack Obama’s world, this amounts to nothing as it’s only $45 per month per family (He thinks $30 savings each month from the elimination of the gas tax is “nothing”).

While the Democrats and sympathetic Repulicans cry that these subsidies are for “the family farm,”  Citizens Against Government Waste did the legwork for the 2007 farm bill and not only dispelled that myth but give other  the reasons why a continuation of farm subsidies is wrong for America. Here are a few of their findings:

• The largest 10 percent of grain farmers, with an average net worth of $2.4 million, receive 50 percent of all grain subsidies.
• First, 60 percent of farmers don’t even produce crops that are eligible for subsidies. More than 90 percent of farmers either receive no subsidies or receive less than $2,000 annually.
• 80% of farms GROSS $50,000 or less making it unlikely that they are farming as sole source of income.

• 60 percent of sugar program benefits go to the wealthiest one percent of sugar farmers.

If at a time when many agricultural products are at record prices we need to not only continue but increase subsidies, is there ever a time when we don’t need them?  

It’s time for Republicans to show some backbone and tell Americans why this is bad for the country, bad policy and that they won’t vote for it.  

Here’s a video of Stephen King, who I used to think had a pretty good brain, slandering our military personnel:

Sounds very familiar to another “Elite” John Kerry who in 2006 said that if you don’t get a good education “you get stuck in Iraq.”

From now on, those of us that can read can buy books from author’s whose name isn’t Stephen King.

Despite a whole heap of reminders, I almost forgot that today is an election. NBC is running a contest for America’s Favorite Mom, and today is the vote for the finalist from the Military Mom bracket.

I wholeheartedly endorse Patti Patton-Bader, the head angel of Soldiers’ Angels.

Did I mention that NBC is letting you stuff the ballot box up to 10 times, or that voting ends at 8 pm? So, what are you still doing here? GO VOTE PATTI PATTON-BADER FOR AMERICA’S FAVORITE MILITARY MOM.

Cue them here as usual, but in case you haven’t noticed, Barack Obama has gone back to the fainting routine. Sister Toldjah, in part one of her taking two for the team, caught it. Do also read the full recap of the Obama rally, and head back there tomorrow for the recap of the Clinton rally.

If I had more energy, I’d really deliver the snark at the Journal Sentinel for making their whine fest over food-service cuts in jails the lead item in Friday’s paper. Once again, the Fifth Column at Fourth and State prove their lack of touch with reality.

“There’s no difference between Hillary and Obama!”
“McCain’s no conservative, he’s Democrat Lite!”
“Bush sold himself as a Conservative but has turned out to be just another RINO”

In the most thorough review of the topic that I’ve seen, Keith Poole and associates at the University of California, San Diego have compiled a review of all member of Congress, House and Senate, and analyzed who’s who in the political zoo.

In this first graph we see the confirmation and correction, to several of our “Truths.”

1. Hillary and Barack are “Change you can Xerox.” Contrary to what Hillary’s campaign is trying to tell people, this study shows that Hillary’s record is to the left of the Democratic party and is imperceptibly different from Obama.
2. McCain is clearly from the left side of the Republican Party. As I posted in my first post on this site, McCain touts his lifetime Conservative voting record. However, if you look over the past few years, and especially the most recent, McCain’s voting record has moved to the left. The study has a great animated graph that shows how McCain’s voting record began squarely in the middle of Republicans but over time has become an outsider of the Republican members.
3. Contrary to the feeling of many Conservatives, Bush lines up to the right. The question that this raises for me is “To the right of what?”

Side note for MN and WI readers, Wellstone and Feingold were nearly identical and (dramatic pause for the launch of a surprise statement) they are WAAAAAY to the left of the spectrum.

(more…)

John McCain opened his mouth and inserted his foot, sideways, trying to tie his favorite cause, wasteful spending, to the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis.   On Wednesday, McCain said:

“The bridge in Minneapolis didn’t collapse because there wasn’t enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects.”

He tried to clarify that statement on Thursday by saying:

“No, I said it would have received a higher priority, which it deserved.”

Somebody wake McCain up and tell him that the bridge was scheduled to be replaced in 2020, not because there was a lack of funding but because that was believed to be the useful life of the bridge.   While surveys of the bridge identified “deficiencies,” the bridge was never identified as unable to carry its designed traffic load.   The current evidence is suggesting that the bridge collapsed due to a design flaw that  had gusset plates undersized by a factor of half.

I agree with McCain’s desire to shrink government and end wasteful spending.   However, just because you have a hammer, not every problem is a nail.  

As I said, stupidity is party agnostic.   Regarding his opposition to the federal gas tax holiday, Barack Obama said:

“Remember that bridge in Minneapolis?   We’re already short on money in terms of investing.”

Same response to Barack with this addition…Barack, since when have you been concerned about spending money?   You seem to have money for anything you can possibly imagine.   The last look at the ol’ “Spend-o-meter” is that you’ve committed to spending an additional $850B. You don’t think you could find a mere $350M to send our way?

Attention. Attention bloggers. Attention Wisconsin bloggers. With the successful launch of the Blog n Grog, there are now two opportunities to drink with your favorite bloggers (and most of the time, me) each month:

– Drinking Right – The second Tuesday of each month (this month, it’s the 13th), 7 pm, Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee
– Blog n Grog – The last Tuesday of each month (this month, it’s the 27th), 7 pm, Neighbors Social Club, 260 W Main in Waukesha

Because I’ll be out of town the country the last week of May, I’ll unfortunately miss the Blog n Grog. Don’t let that stop you from attending one or both of these events, though.

A coal based electric plant was approved yesterday  for Marshalltown IA.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that in order to satisfy their rabid global warming sycophants, the board required the power company to also increase their wind generation power 250% by the plant’s opening, use 10% biomass within 7 years of opening and pay for any costs that may be added through implementation of nonsense cap and trade regulations.

I’m guessing each of the commission members drove to the meeting. I’ll bet each of them paid close to $3.50/gallon for their gas when they last filled. I’ll be each of them have complained in the last couple of weeks about the increase in gas prices. Even with all of that knowledge, one of the commission mental midgets was thinking:

Darrell Hanson of Manchester, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said he favored setting aside the plant proposal for three or four years to see what carbon limits Congress passes and to analyze other market forces. "The safest and most reasonable course would be to delay for three or four years.

Yup, let’s wait.   Gee, that’s working so well for gas prices.   Gee, if we could magically say it was OK to start drilling or refining additional oil today, it would be 3-8 years before that effort would have any impact on gas availability.   Yeah, let’s not make a decision today.   It’s too hard and there are people sitting in the room who might not like me.

Chickenshit!

It’s people like this Commissioner who bitch about “Big oil’s profits” but won’t do a thing to change the equation.   They sit and hide, afraid of the Sierra club and militant “ecological” groups whose real purpose is to make sure that man curls up in a fetal position in some corner of the globe and leaves the animals to rule creation.

If the increase in energy prices of the last year don’t wake people up to the fact that we need to increase capacity and that the cost of dawdling is nearly crippling, I don’t know what will.   I do know it’s time for some folks to “grow a pair” because anything short of “ABSOLUTELY NOT” is going to be met by wails from the “ecological” groups.   Even with the ridiculous additional requirements put on this project the “ecology” groups weren’t satisfied:

Carrie La Seur, a lawyer for Plains Justice, which opposes the plant, said it is "most likely" the group will eventually sue to block construction of the plant. First, the group will join the Sierra Club, the Iowa Environmental Council and the Iowa Consumer Advocate’s office in fighting an air permit with the state and opposing the plant during before the utilities board this fall.

In the words of Thomas Paine it’s time to “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” Doing nothing is no longer acceptable. Doing nothing or cowering in the corner sniveling about “Global Warming” will only ensure that we leave a country for our children that is unable to meet the demands of the future; and we’d be the first generation in America to do that. That’s not a history book footnote that I’m interested in being a part of.

I feel a bit like Alice’s white rabbit….sans mind altering substances. Late night of travel and I’ve got to work so I’ll leave you with this to “mull” over today:

Red Wing boy takes first place in Minn. mullet contest

Isn’t this codified as child abuse?

Read all the horrifying details (multi-generational abuse) here.

There’s an urban legend that states that if you put a frog in water and increase the temperature slowly, the frog will not notice the change in temperature and eventually be killed by the hot water.   This experiment has been tried by many aspiring “scientists” and I have no doubt that many frogs have found their final rest as result.   However, not every frog succumbs to the increasing heat, sometimes the frog jumps.

And so it happened today.   With pressure mounting over the ongoing antics of Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama felt he could no longer paddle around in the verbal repartee of “I wasn’t there when that was said” or “those were just sound bites and not representative of a 30 year career” and attempted to jump out of the Jeremiah Wright hot water.

I watched and listened to Obama’s press conference.   The water was so hot that he actually took questions from the press which he had been avoiding for weeks.   I found his  claims and statements  incredulous.  

Barack claimed that Wright had become a caricature yesterday at the National Press Club.   As a part of his comments Wright reiterated his belief that the US government could be responsible for causing and distributing aids.   Caricature?   “Ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities?”   I don’t think so.   If anything, Wrights display at the National Press Club removed the argument that his earlier quotes were caricatures.  

For a candidate who is telling us that the key difference for him is his judgement, he now wants us to believe that in 20 years he was not aware of the positions of Wright.   Positions that even we who had never heard Wright’s name prior to 4 months ago, are acutely aware of….really?   Either Barack believes us to be fools or the quality of his judgement is seriously in question.   If Barack is no longer able to differentiate himself on his judgement, what else would cause people to believe that he has the experience required to be President?

Just because a frog jumps it doesn’t mean that it will survive.   Sometimes the frog jumps but doesn’t clear the pot and ends up succumbing to the boiling water.   Sometimes the frog jumps, clears the pot but it succumbs to the damage done prior to the jump.   Yes, sometimes the frog jumps, clears the pot and lives to tell the tale, at least until thrown into another pot of water.  

I’m not sure yet which version of the post jump frog Barack will be.   I think it safe to say that if he survives, this will not be the last time Barack is swimming in hot water.

While I can’t say that I understand what dynamics are causing this, and Rasmussen still shows McCain leading either Democratic candidate, a recent poll indicates that Hillary Clinton is now leading John McCain in a national poll by 9%.

I think it’s time to call a cease fire on Operation Chaos for the following reasons:

1. With Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, his wife, it appears that Barack Obama has not only proven to be mortal but an unvetted mortal as well.   In fact, in a recent poll the “Obama concern factor” has dropped by 17% amongst Republicans.
2. Even in a general election it appears unlikely that Barack Obama will be able to move to the center.   He has staked out positions so far to the left on significant issues it would be hard to come back with any credibility.   With Hillary, well, credibility has never been an issue for the Clintons.   They find ways to sway with the polls and convince people that that’s what they meant all along.
3. Hillary moving ahead of McCain in this significant fashion would suggest that the rumored divide within the Democratic party where BO supporters won’t vote for Hillary and vice versa appears to be more rumor than fact.
4. While slipping a bit, Hillary still has a 5 point lead in a recent poll for Indiana.
5. While still down in recent polls, Clinton’s about to get the endorsement of North Carolina’s Governor.

It’s been a lot of fun watching the Democrats squirm and complain about Operation Chaos.   I think the Operation has done it’s job.   Even without the ongoing support of Operation Chaos valiant men and women Hillary is now assured of staying in the race to the convention or until forced out by a preemptive vote of the Super Delegates.   Speaking of which, There is growing concern within Democratic ranks about BO’s electability.   We don’t need to be reinforcing the notion of Hillary being more electable in the final primaries.

My hat is off to Rush and the operatives of Operation Chaos.   Please welcome the returning operatives with the respect and honor they deserve!

(Update:   As of 1:30 Central Time, Rush has called for an operational pause.   Stay tuned for further instructions.   This has been a public service of your local Operation Chaos outlet.)

Following up on my post below, here is the new McCain salute.

Feel free to copy the HTML for your use:

<img src=http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/6139/mccain08ip9.jpg alt=Help!!/>

I saw this story last week about a developer who wants to build an amusement park in Baghdad.   The understatement of the article was the opening paragraph:

Llewellyn Werner admits he is facing obstacles most amusement park developers never have to deal with – insurgent attacks and looting.

Ya think?

Disney’s parks typically make some adjustments so that the attractions reflect some of the local culture and aren’t 100% American. So I got to thinking….what kind of adjustments would be made to “Disneyland – Baghdad?”

• Mahdis of Sadr City– In the  Baghdad version of Pirates of the Caribbean we would see the Mahdi Army ransacking and running roughshod throughout scenes of Sadr City.   Rather than Johnny Depp making cameo appearances, we would see Muqtada al-Sadr peaking out from barrels and from behind burqas to see if it was safe for him to come out of hiding.
• The Closet of Presidents – well, they’ve only had one that’s actually been elected.   It seems like it will be quite awhile before they will need an entire hall!
• Small World – rather than scenes of happy children representing harmony of the countries of the world, this attraction will be dedicated to the countries and factions that the insurgents in Iraq represent.   Rather than hearing the refrain of “It’s a small world after all,” over and over, we would hear a refrain of “Death to all the infidels,” in  those same, nauseating children’s voices.  
• Buzz Lightyear – As you ride through this attraction you’ll help Buzz save Iraq by eliminating Iranian agents.   The ride will be kid friendly because as we’re assured regularly by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iranian agents in Iraq are as make believe as the evil agents of Zurg!

These are the attraction descriptions that have slipped out from the tightly guarded planning process.   If you hear of more, make sure to give us a heads up in the comments!

In a well publicized statement, John McCain has repudiated the North Carolina Republican Party over it’s ad that decries the endorsement of the two Democratic Governor candidates of Obama saying that Obama is too far left for North Carolina.   The commercial uses Obama’s link to Jeremiah Wright as evidence of Obama’s far left views.  

As a part of McCain’s statement he said North Carolina’s Republican Party was “out of touch with reality.”

Out of touch with reality?   Did I miss something?

In a poll done within days of the Jeremiah Wright revelations, the Pew Research Center found the following:

When asked whether they were personally offended by Jeremiah Wright’s comments, a majority of Independents (52%) and a significant majority of Republicans (75%) said they were personally offended.   Even Clinton supporters had a majority that were offended (59%).   The only group polled who didn’t have a majority that were personally offended by Wright’s remarks were people who were already decided, Obama supporters.

The person who seems to be “out of touch with reality” is John McCain!

Earth to John…….

The reality is that you are at best, accepted by the  conservative base and not truly supported by it.

The reality is that if the Democrats had a nomination process that made sense, they would have had a nominee in March and you would face double digit deficits in every poll taken.

The reality is the longer we keep the Democrats fighting (yes, while the primary focus is the Governor’s race, the ad surely helps reraise the concern about Obama) the better your chances get.

The reality is that rather than on your opponents, you use your harshest criticisms and comments on those you should be most aligned with.

The reality is I’m getting sick and tired of hearing from you.   In the past few weeks you’ve flip flopped on the mortgage bailout, reiterated your nonsense about going green and joined the populist “CEO = bad people” meme.

If John McCain wants to “stay above the fray” that’s fine.   In fact, I don’t even mind if he asks the North Carolina Republicans not to run the ad.   John McCain crosses the line when he berates  people who should be  his supporters in a way that he claims to be above doing with his Democratic contenders.

Al Gore’s consensus appears to be less cohesive these days.

The International Climate Science Coalition has issued a Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change.   The ICSC was the group that was banned from participating in the UN’s Bali climate change conference last December i.e., they’re the good guys.   Amongst other things, the declaration states:

That current plans to restrict anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a dangerous misallocation of intellectual capital and resources that should be dedicated to solving humanity’s real and serious problems.

That there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.

That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate.

That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation, and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples.

That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis.

The Manhattan declaration now has at least 500 signers, 150 of which are either climate science specialists or scientists in closely related fields. That compares to the IPCC report that had about 100 similar individuals.

If that’s Al Gore’s definition of “consensus,” Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be worrying about who the Democratic nominee will be.