No Runny Eggs

The AP has a story out this morning which shows that Jeremiah Wright (I refuse to call him “Reverend” anymore) has publicly recognized that he’s seen the underside of the Obama motor coach.  According to the article, after a request to lobby the White house for funds for Africa, Wright wrote:

“No one in the Obama administration will respond to me, listen to me, talk to me or read anything that I write to them. I am ‘toxic’ in terms of the Obama administration,”

Apparently Jeremiah is not quite as delusional as I thought he was.  While I’m sure he still doesn’t understand that it was his own idiotic and racist statements that landed him under the bus, he certainly recognizes the tread marks on his chest.

Jeremiah however, isn’t really what caught my interest in the AP story.  The story goes on to tell about Muhammad Ali’s former manager, Arthur Morrison, and how, while in prison, he is apparently trying to aid children in Haiti via a charity.  Read this:

Prischak (an associate of Morrison’s) told Wright in a Feb. 11 letter that he was seeking the clergyman’s help in reaching out to the U.S. Treasury Department. He said that Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein, had entrusted 87 million British pounds in 1990 to Morrison and Ali to buy pharmaceuticals, milk and food for the children of Iraq.

Uday Hussein of the famed “mustard gas on Kurds” Husseins has left money for a charity to buy “pharmaceuticals” for Iraq’s children?  I wonder if this fund is managed by Mr. Clemen Okon in Nigeria?

There’s obviously a punchline, if not two or three, in here somewhere.  I’m just too slow to figure out what it is!

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

For many years, cougars have been but a ghostly rumor in Wisconsin, showing up now and then in mysterious sightings but quickly melting again into the dusk of the forest and the realm of imagination.

Now, however, cougars are back, and state Department of Natural Resources workers must develop a plan for how to deal with a powerful animal that hasn’t lived in Wisconsin since about 1910.

The state Department of Natural Resources has confirmed three wild cougars in Wisconsin over the past two years through sightings and genetic testing, said Adrian Wydeven, a DNR wildlife biologist, and the agency has received many more unconfirmed cougar sighting reports. Though it is unclear whether the cats were resident animals or passing through, state wildlife workers need to know how to deal with them and how to prevent clashes between cougars and people as the animals move into the state.

Too bad “24” has been cancelled – we could’ve brought the show to Wisconsin for a reunion between Kim “Cougar Bait” Bauer and a cougar.

Repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome is a satirical definition for insanity.  Unfortunately, it is also the definition for many government endeavors…but I repeat myself.

A contributing factor to the economic freefall that we’ve experienced the past two years, is that mortgage companies and mortgage originators, were being leveraged by the Federal government to provide home loans to people who weren’t able to repay them.  Under the guise of a “chicken in every pot” and a “house for every family,” banks were rated on how well they served the low income communities in terms of providing mortgages.  If the banks didn’t rate well, i.e. didn’t make the loans that wouldn’t get paid back, the government could retaliate by keeping them from other programs or denying a merger request.   The result was that many of these loans were those that were part of the real estate collapse which triggered our downturn.

Today’s  USAtoday is reporting that the Treasury Department is now using the FDIC’s former bag of tricks.

The Treasury Department plans to rate mortgage companies on how they treat customers as part of the Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure relief effort. The report, which will measure how each company handles borrowers, is expected by July, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said.

Oh, boy, here we go again!  It doesn’t matter whether the decisions are made on solid history and financial grounds, the only measurement will be “how they handle borrowers.”  In other words, if you don’t extend the loan, regardless of the financial situation or capacity of the borrower, you’re toast!

If you thought we were past the housing mess, we’re not!  All we’re doing is queuing it up for another bag of crap at another future date!

Tonight is the big night that Hot Air moves onto Salem’s servers. Since they don’t feel like leaving any comment behind, they’ll be locking things down momentarily.

After that’s done, and the rather-massive database is saved, they’ll copy everything over to the new database and begin the process of having all the Domain Name Servers update. That means that you might see everything on the new server tonight, or you might not. That depends on your ISP.

If you still are not seeing anything new there tomorrow afternoon…

1. Clear your browser’s cache
2. Flush your computer’s DNS records (I can’t speak for MacOS/Linux/earlier versions of Windows, but later versions of Windows, open up a command-prompt window type ipconfig /flushdns, hit enter, and then close the command-prompt).
3. Tell your ISP to update their DNS servers.

And all her 911 denier friends….you know that oil rig that exploded and has now sunk in the gulf…..mostly steel!  Worse yet, mostly steel, surrounded by water! 

Imagine that!

Isn’t this called network television?

Wireless TV venture to use free airwaves

I am an avid golfer and fan of the PGA Tour.  I am one of the rare fans who was not enraptured by Tiger Woods even before the scandal that revealed itself shortly after Thanksgiving last year.  I have always felt Tiger was given too much attention when he was not on the leader board.  He has always struck me as someone who was invested in himself to the point of neurosis.

Over the last five months we have gotten to know the unscripted Tiger, and it isn’t pretty. But I must tell you, his behavior during and after last weekend’s Masters disturbed me almost as much as everything he did leading up to that supposedly triumphant return to professional golf.

In Tiger’s pre-tournament press conference, he said some things that really impressed me. He talked about a new respect for the game and a renewed appreciation for what he has been given.  He said this newfound attitude would result in less profanity and more congeniality.  It took him less than two days to backtrack on everything.

It is clear to me Tiger didn’t mean anything he said.  His supposed contrition is all a public relations gimmic.  Anyone who is sincere can change at least for a little while.  Heck, even a New Years resolution is usually carried out for a couple weeks!  The moment things didn’t go Tiger’s way, he was slamming clubs to the ground, and using profane language.  When things don’t go his way, he feels it is his right to poison his surroundings: even what is arguably the most hallowed ground in all of professional sport.

His post-tournament interview was a clinic in arrogance and narcissism.  Here is a man who was living a lie in front of his fans for years.  He has blown his family apart, and cost many people perhaps millions of dollars.  In spite of all that, he was given a tremendous welcome back by fans.  Instead of thanking God for the incredible blessings that have been bestowed upon him, all he could do was complain about a fourth place finish, and try to justify his temper tantrums.

Barring an injury, it is virtually certain that Tiger will rewrite the record books and be regarded as the greatest golfer of all time.  We now know that his character did not grow with his golf swing. I would have thought the crisis in his life would have brought about some significant changes. Obviously I was wrong.

Sorry about the lack of posts – when I’ve had the steam, I had failing connectivity hardware. Meanwhile, Shoebox and his family have been doing their annual trek to donate to the Florida Mouse. Oh well, onward, onward, ever onward, and there’s some road-trip material for the next 8 days:

• Today, until 8 pm – Local non-partisan elections. While I don’t have any real recommendations for the Oak Creek-Franklin School Board (all 4 candidates for the two seats leave a lot to be desired), since I live in the district, I wholeheartedly endorse James Wenzler for the 2nd Aldermanic District. He realizes that Oak Creek cannot afford to get into a game of one-upsmanship with the surrounding communities on City Hall and the library.
• Tonight, 7 pm – Sean Hackbarth’s glorious return to Wisconsin, Mo’s Irish Pub (10842 W. Bluemound Rd., Wauwatosa). That’s right, Sean’s back from DC for a few days, and he’s thirsty.
• Tomorrow, 9:30 am – The Tea Party Express, State Fair Park north parking lot. We might get wet, but if you have never had the opportunity to hear Herman Cain speak, you MUST make it. The bus actually will be in Madison (Park Bank, 2310 Crossroads Dr.) tonight at 6, and there will be stops tomorrow at 2 pm in Green Bay (Leicht Memorial Park, 206 Dousman St.) and 7:30 pm in Eau Claire (former Menards store, 3230 E. Hamilton Ave.).
• Next Tuesday, 7 pm – Drinking Right, Papa’s Social Club (7718 W. Burleigh St., Milwaukee). While Sean won’t be here, it will be the second Tuesday. I cannot confirm that Rep. Jim Ott will be able to make it, but he has an open invite.
• April 15, 11:30 am – 2nd Annual Tax-Day Taxpayer Tea Party, state Capitol. Last year, we had over 8,000 in Madison. Let’s break that record since they didn’t hear us the last time. There will be buses headed into Madison from across the state (cost – $24.99).
• April 15, 6 pm – 2nd Annual Appleton Tea Party, Fox Banquets (111 E. Kimball St., Appleton). Last year, somewhere around 3,000 came out at dinner-time to voice the Fox Valley’s opposition to ever-increasing taxes and government intrusion. It’s time to do it again.

First, an aside:

For both of you who have been kind enough to have read my previously regular blather, I owe you an explanation. 

I have not lost interest in the topics of the day or blogging.  I couldn’t be more passionate about either.  No, the reason you haven’t seen much from me lately is that I’ve taken a new role in KY (go Wildcats!) and have been commuting between there and my family back in Minnesota.  With a new role that is all consuming and a family who would like to be all consuming, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and pen much.  I hope that in the future I can rebalance work and life and get the time to get back to my avocation.  OK, on to the meat….

Being involved in a loved one’s death can be an emotionally and physically trying experience.  Oh, I’m not referring to the occassional parental notion to eat their young, I’m referring to the actual physical death of a loved one’s earthly body.  While I haven’t experienced the death of a member of my immediate family despite several close calls, I have watched the impact as Mrs. Shoe has lost both her oldest brother and her father.

In the case of Mrs. Shoe’s oldest brother, he had a long, debilitating battle with mesothelioma.  I saw as this large, robust specimen of a man was reduced to something approaching a 98 pound weakling size as the cancer took its toll.  I also watched as his family, including Mrs. Shoe, dealt with the inevitable while hoping and praying for the miraculous.  I don’t remember exactly the time frame but, I believe it was about three years that the family dealt with the continuous deterioration and in many cases, the hopelessness of the disease, before he passed.

In the other case, of Mrs. Shoe’s father, while he too had a debilitating disease, emphysema, no one really considered the likelihood of his death much until we got the call.  Mrs. Shoe’s dad had contracted pneumonia while on vacation.  While in the hospital, his doctor put him on a ventilator to allow his lungs to heal.  Unfortunately, what was intended to heal, ultimately led to his death.  It turned out that Dad’s lungs, once relieved of the daily effort of providing for the body, never wanted to work on their own again.  After a few days, dad slipped into a coma and the family was left with the decision of waiting, hoping, praying or “pulling the plug.”

Of the two experiences, I’m hard pressed to determine which is preferable.  On the one hand, a long drawn out illness allows the family to adjust.  On the other hand, the adjustment is continual and you go through some real emotional roller coasters as you get a bit of hope only to be dashed by a new, negative prognosis.

When looking at an “end of life decision,” the good is you only have to make the decision once.  The bad is that you have to make the decision at all.

At this point you may ask, “Why the morose litany Shoebox?”

It is now clear that no matter how the Democrats ultimately vote on Placebocare they are watching the death of the Barack Obama Presidency and likely, the Democrat party as we know it.  All the polls are showing a solid majority of Americans against Placebocare.  Moreover, the anti Placebocare is not just a passing fancy.  The folks who are against it are against it vehemently.  When you look at the state by state and district by district polling, there is no way that the Democrats will maintain the House and it is becoming more likely that they could lose the Senate.

If the Democrats pass Placebocare they may placate their base.  By doing so they may be able to give Obama a “victory” which might allow him to at least appear like he is in charge until November or more appropriately, January of next year. 

If the Democrats don’t pass the Placebocare, President Obama immediately becomes a lame duck President.  The Senators up for election and the entire Democrat caucus of the House will immediately go into self preservation mode.  The result will be that no legislation proposed by Obama, other than supporting a proclamation for Mother’s Day, will get any support from either House and President Obama will be politically neutered.

In the final analysis, for President Obama and the Democrat party the end will be the same, they will die politically.  The only question in my mind is whether the Democrats will pass Placebocare and watch Obama and the party waste away to a 98 pound weakling before succumbing or whether the Democrats will have the courage to “pull the plug” and save us all the interim agony?

This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated just because it felt like self-activating.

That’s right, kids. You lost an hour this morning. If you still haven’t moved your clocks ahead an hour (and most-likely, if you have a WordPress-based blog, you haven’t), move them ahead one hour.

If you have a WordPress blog (whether it is on WordPress.com, a WordPress stand-alone, or WordPress MU – this includes Blogivists and Conservablogs), and you aren’t using UTC, you need to change it to Daylight Saving Time (Central UTC -5, Mountain UTC -6, Eastern UTC -4, Pacific UTC -7, and check your clock for other locales). To do so, go into your wp-admin panel, select “Settings”, and under the “General Settings” page that pops up, select the right time zone. Don’t forget to hit “save” when you’re done.

This concludes this activation of the Emergency Blogging System.

I really should’ve been on the road an hour ago; I would’ve avoided unleashing my inner Rottweiler. However, what’s done is done.

In any case, I’m all over the place this weekend:

– Tonight and tomorrow – Defending the American Dream Summit, Chula Vista Resort and Wisconsin Dells Center, Wisconsin Dells.

– Sunday, 1 pm – Taxpayers’ Rally with Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch, Rosebud Cinema (6823 W. North Ave.), Wauwatosa.

I think it’s safe to say that what Vice President Joe Biden calls a three-letter word, J-O-B-S, is the number one issue in the gubernatorial campaign. In fact, it is the only issue that Milwaukee mayor, and presumptive Democratic nominee, Tom Barrett wants to talk about, at least if one goes to his campaign website.

The first salvo in the current numbers war came from Milwaukee County Executive, and candidate for the Republican nomination, Scott Walker, who wants to create the conditions to allow the private sector to create a minimum of 250,000 jobs by the end of his first term. That would roughly duplicate the feat achieved in former Governor Tommy Thompson’s first term.

The second salvo came from Barrett, who wants to, in his first three years, merely replace the 180,000 jobs lost since the “start” of the recession at the end of 2007, by spending somewhere north of $900 million up-front in taxes, both state and federal. At the same time, he scoffed at Walker’s notion that it is possible to do that and add an additional 70,000 jobs in a fourth year, much less without spending something in the neighborhood of $1 billion in taxes.

Salvo three came in from former Congressman, and Republican candidate for governor, Mark Neumann, who while refusing to play the numbers game, also says that it is the private sector that actually creates jobs.

I know, I know – it’s not Thursday. I’m just plain wiped out, and I need to get some steam back in time for Drinking Right, I’m going to have to open the floodgates.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of drinking songs…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayF1T_CdGro[/youtube]

Have at it.

This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated to provide official news, instructions and information.

The March 2010 Drinking Right will commence in 24 hours over at the usual place (Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W. Burleigh in Milwaukee). You are hereby instructed to be there. Failure is not an option.

Now, repeat after the EBS – “I will be at Drinking Right Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 7 pm.”

This has been the Emergency Blogging System.

Nancy Pelosi wants the Placebocare bill passed.  She wants it passed so badly that she has lost any ability to think rationally about anything other than passing the bill.  As an example of Nancy’s irrationality, listen to this quote from CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday:

“They’ve had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard.” “Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes. Republicans have left their imprint.”

Bipartisan huh?  You mean like the amendments to prevent Placebocare from paying for abortions that were shot down?  That bipartisan?

Or maybe Pelosi means the amendments to add tort reform that were shot down.  Maybe that’s the bipartisan she refers to?

Oh wait, I know.  I’ll bet Nancy is referring to the bipartisan nature in the way Congress agreed to have the Placebocare plans impact themselves just like any other American.  Maybe that’s Nancy’s view of the bipartisan impact there has been on the bill?

If Pelosi’s definition of “bipartisanship” is the one that should be used rather than Websters, we’ll need to rewrite a few sections of history.

From now on, it will be understood that Germany’s invasion of Poland during WWII was actually a bipartisan effort. From now on it will be understood that West Germany influenced the erection of the Berlin wall enough to make it a bipartisan effort. Of course, it will forever more go with out saying that the US and its allies were wrong for using military force in Kuwait as the Iraqi occupation was bipartisan.

Representative John Kline spoke at the Republican convention I attended on Saturday.  To paraphrase Kline, he said that there was only one good thing coming out of Congress and that was that Pelosi was not going to be Speaker after this term.  That’s the kind of bipartisanship I can get behind!

If Placebocare passes via the reconcilliation path, it will need to originate in the House.  There is a lot of speculation as to whether Pelosi can whip the required number of votes to pass Placebocare out of the House.  While whether she does or not is yet to be seen, two things are certain, there will be no Republican votes passing it out of the House and there will be Democrat votes voting against it.  I doubt this is what she had in mind but Ms. Pelosi, the only thing bipartisan about the vote on Placebocare will be in those who oppose it.  I hope the bipartisan vote prevails!

And where was Steve Egg when all this went down?

My guess is he arranged a group outing to a Liza concert that skewed the vote.

For me it was never a close call.  From the first time I learned anything about then Senator Barack Obama, I was convinced that he was a left wing (as opposed to liberal) politician.  I read his book, “The Audacity of Hope.”  It is an Orwellian work, in which Obama touts his moderate credentials while providing a big spending, big government solution to every problem known to man.

Then the presidential campaign started.  We quickly learned about Obama’s participation in the Chicago Democratic machine, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers.  There is a good chance your mommy told you, “You will be judged by the company you keep.”  And you know what?  Looking at the company someone keeps is usually a pretty good indicator of who that person is.

We have recently learned that the President intends to push the stalled health care legislation through Congress using the “reconciliation” process, thereby avoiding the need to get 60 votes in the Senate. There is now only one reason to continue down this path: an undying commitment to government control of the largest single sector of the U.S. economy.

The people do not want this.  Every credible poll shows a 15% to 20% disapproval gap.  It is a budget buster.  There is no chance to get Republican support and claim bipartisanship.  Members of the President’s own party inside Congress don’t want this.  It seems almost every Democratic analyst that isn’t on the White House payroll thinks this is a bad idea.  Americans understand that the economy in general, and the unemployment rate in particular, is a much bigger priority.  And you can’t even argue that Obama is looking at the pure politics of the situation.  Forcing passage of the health care legislation will take a dreadful November outlook for Democrats and make it worse.

Forcing this through under these circumstances will once and for all demonstrate what many of us have known all along.  This president is hell bent on a statist system in America. How on earth did “the land of the free and the home of the brave” come to this? It is beyond disturbing.

Once upon a time there was Global Warming.  Al Gore and others made up a bunch of data and went on evangelical tours to convince people that “The End Is Near!”  Increased hurricanes, increased tornadoes, melting glaciers, rising ocean levels, extinction of polar bears, destruction of food crops were just some of the horrific results that we were supposed to experience if we didn’t act immediately to move our economy back to one that reflected something from the 18th Century.  We were told this was urgent!  We were told we only had ten years to change our ways or go beyond the point of no return.

We didn’t change.

Some time passed, actually most of the ten year urgent zone, and something odd was noticed.  Hurricanes and tornadoes didn’t increase, their occurrence rates stayed flat or even reduced.  Polar bears didn’t disappear, they actually increased in numbers.  Worse of all, temperatures were no longer increasing, they were flat or (HORRORS!) in some cases, even decreasing.  How could any of this be?  None of this was supposed to happen with “Global Warming!”

The warming zealots condescendingly chided us for asking “what happened to the warming,” and explained that “Global warming was only part of the equation.”  As they fully understood the complexities climatic interactions, they told us that “warming was only a part of the equation.  Actually,” they continued, “cooling can also be part of the equation.  While our concern was originally focused on warming, the real issue is “Climate Change” which includes any variation in climate that we can use to fool you into believing our desire to control your actions!”

And so, the term “Climate Change” was born not as a definition of reality but as a result of sleight of hand where just like a magician, they didn’t want you to pay attention to the real issue and the real action of the trick.

For months there has been concern about what would/will happen if China, the largest holder and buyer of US treasuries, decided they were full and didn’t want to obtain any more.  This past week, the US held another treasury auction.  We found out at that auction that indeed, China is now full.  Not only did China not buy many treasury offerings, they became and net seller of treasuries in December of ’09.

If indeed China is full of treasuries or worse, if China is net selling treasuries, the financing of President Obama’s massive deficits will become a big challenge.  If US debt is not absorbed in the open market and no change is made in the debt required due to the huge spending budgets, the solutions become ugly.  Dramatically higher interest rates and force inflation are just two of the prettier ways of dealing with the situation.  Other options are far less attractive.

One would think that the Obama administration would be paying attention to the change in China’s attitude.  One would think that if Obama were really serious about his newly announced appreciation for fiscal conservatism, he would be using this event as an indicator of our need for change.  He would point at it and say “we’re at the end of our borrowing limits, we need to change now!”

One would think.

When asked what if anything, the change in China’s treasury appetite meant, Top White House adviser Lawrence Summers said:

The truth is that these numbers fluctuate and that there’s a wide range of holders of Treasury debt.

Like “Global Warming” before it, President Obama’s concern for “budget deficits” appear to be transforming underthe  inconvenient and untimely facts that face it.  As “Global Warming” became “Climate Change”, a “debt crisis” is now just “portfolio diversity” according to Larry Summers.

Yeah, right.  Now, let me tell you the one about the three bears!

The most-famous caveman blogger to ever come out of Baraboo, Lance Burri, needs your help. The TrogloPundit is about to turn one, and he seems to be of the mind that he should be as popular as Robert Stacy McCain:

As many of you will have noticed, the past 355 days have not – repeat not – placed TrogloPundit in contention to join the fabled Million Hits in a Year club. That’s why I’m telling you about my anniversary a day short.

See, it’s not too late. All we need is…well…about six hundred and seventy-six thousand hits between now and 11:59 pm tomorrow. That’s it! Okay, a little more than that, I think. Make it six hundred and seventy-seven thousand hits, just to be safe. And that’ll make One Million Hits!

Go. Hit Trog again and again and again. Most of you haven’t seen him when he is REALLY desperate. I have. It’s not a pretty sight, completely unlike this shameless theft from Trog…

For at least the past two years, Democrats have been putting conservatives and Republicans down as a bunch of nobodies.  At a fund raiser in April, 2008, then candidate Obama, called us a bunch of bitter clingers.  In April, 2009 as the tea party protests were gaining momentum, Nancy Pelosi called us astroturf.

A recent Gallup poll had President Obama in a statistical dead heat with an unnamed Republican candidate.  The same poll showed that when a name was put in for the Republican candidate, the highest support was for Mitt Romney at 14%.  You might ask, “What does this mean?”  Well, what it means is that “nobody” is the favorite Republican candidate and, as of today, Nobody is in a dead heat against President Obama in the 2012 Presidential election.

I read the headline of the poll story today, thought about it for awhile and an idea hit me like broken clasp off of Dolly Parton’s bra…I’m a nobody!

Don’t mistake my comment.  I’m not lamenting or feeling sorry for myself.  Actually, I’m elated!  Based on all of the comments from Democrat leadership over the past couple of years I’m Nobody.  Gallup says that with a little effort, I could be the next president!

As I was contemplating whether it was conceivable to run for president (this is all rather sudden), Stephen Green aka Vodkapundit tweeted back:

Problem is, “Nobody” probably polls better against Obama than any of the likely GOP somebodies.

Upon hearing this, I first thought “Now I have trouble.”  But, after thinking about it a bit more it dawned me; I’m not a GOP somebody.  In fact, I’m a general Nobody and I’m also a GOP Nobody!

The way I see things there is no one who is a bigger general Nobody than me.  Even if there was, there is certainly no one who is a bigger GOP Nobody than me!  Based on Gallup, I can be President in 2012 with less effort than it takes me to write a post here a few days each week.

Therefore, after considering the “encouragement” from Vodkapundit, with no further ado, I, Shoebox, the biggest Nobody within the GOP, announce my candidacy for President of the United States! Please note that while Ralph Nader will also likely run as a nobody, he will not run as a GOP nobody!

While I would appreciate you telling other people about my candidacy, don’t bother, I’m Nobody so they won’t know me!

Here’s my first campaign poster.  What do you think?