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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fSEjlLQcRY[/youtube]
The state Legislature, then controlled by Doyle’s fellow Democrats, then proceeded to head into a special December session for just the second time in the previous 40 years to ratify those 17 contracts. Other than a vacationing Republican Senator, which reduced their minority numbers to 14, and a missing Democrat Assemblyman, which reduced their majority number, everybody showed up on short notice, even though it was widely anticipated that the contracts would be approved. The Democrats even sprung a convict from Huber jail to provide the margin-of-victory in the Assembly on 16 of the contracts. Fortunately, because the ex-Senate Democrat leader had a moment of clarity, all of the ratification votes failed in the Senate.
Contrast the behavior of the Republicans two months ago to that of the Democrats now. All of the Senate Democrats ran out of state so the “Never Again!” vote coudln’t happen as scheduled yesterday. Let’s roll video of the Rockford Tea Party hounding absent Dems Jim Holperin and Bob Jauch out of Rockford (video courtesy Jim Hoft, identities courtesy Kevin Binversie) to start the Scramble portion of the post:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxKk3DSW6Sk[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cufj2d8Co5A[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7x28_5QphQ[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyjpzvtkz70[/youtube]
It’s noon, so it’s time to wrap this up.
]]>Because we can afford to bailout a collective of welfare states that generally despise us and everything for which we stand. A collective of welfare states which was told for quite some time that it couldn’t afford to support everyone from cradle to grave. Because we can afford that. Or something.
This link is brought to you by the EU – Ours is not to reason why; ours is to borrow and die.
There’s a whole out more out there, but if I continued, it would be The Afternoon Scramble.
]]>In any case, she put together a GOP Women Rock Scramble for both me and you, the loyal reader (as with Dean’s Guest-Scramble earlier in the week, comments from me will be in italics)…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQHZ7nvBSLY[/youtube]
“…it is not a good way to start a woman-on-woman race by playing into negative stereotypes about female culture.”
…. “If a man had made the comment, it would have been viewed as sexist. When a woman says it, it would be viewed as catty.”
Senator Boxer saw an opening, and took it. “Let her talk about hair; we’re talking about jobs,” said Rose Kapolczynski, her campaign manager..
When will politicians learn to not speak into a microphone that might be open? As someone who makes hay out of that situation, I hope never.
Assuming these Republican women triumph in November, don’t expect the media to fawn over them the way they did in 1992 with the Democrats. Besides overcoming the natural liberal bias we see throughout much of the national press, it would also require the media to give Palin and Bachmann some credit, which will happen when global cooling hits Hell.
Yeah, well… Because they don’t have the “correct” views, Ed is, as usual, right. I do, however, have a frozen sign of Hell, Michigan in the archives on the off-chance they do so.
Now go and thank Jo for putting together this morning’s Scramble.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koBWtYVRf-0[/youtube]
If you want to guest-host a Scramble, go ahead and send me some links. I will, of course, vet the list (as much for blogs to add as anything else), and toss some of my own commentary in. I won’t promise music though (I don’t know if I’ll do music if I bring back my own edition).
Now, go thank Dean for the (temporary for at least now) return of The Scramble.
]]>Oh well, since I’m starting to run out of steam to do my own posts, I might try to bring it back. That’s where this little poll comes in.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. ]]>It won’t be morning by the time I’m done rolling through the more-stuffed-than-a-turduckhen feed reader, but it’s time for a return of the Scramble so I can thank those friends. No, I don’t have a song for today; instead, I bring you Tom McMahon’s bracket to introduce a reverse-order Scramble Special:
Now that the 24-hour period of “mandatory niceness” is officially over (hell, it barely begun before Nancy Pelosi declared a unilateral end by demanding that ObamaCare the Chappaquiddick Memorial Death Panels Bill be passed in his name), we need music. Maestro…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5H4YaYn8Qk[/youtube]
Since I’m going to be lumped in by the “arbiters of ‘absolute moral authority'” with those who I quite franky agree even if I remain silent, I have got to salute those who remember Kennedy for the hyper-partisan, (wo)manslaughtering drunk, Communist sypathizer he was:

The outro music comes courtesy Headless Blogger, who should enter his Dead Kennedy joke in Basil’s post.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWO4JxM3nDc[/youtube]
Once again, there is a reason why I don’t do Scrambles anymore – this took longer than it took Pelosi to bust up the 24-hour rule.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLBpLz5ELPI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QGjhP5fcEs[/youtube]
I almost forgot how long these things take.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZiDME3bajU[/youtube]
What’s better than an epic multi-part Scramble?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVS3WNt7yRU[/youtube]

Part two will be up shortly. I hope you left room for dessert.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSCUTSGxuqY[/youtube]
I’ve been busy meeting people well beyond my pay grade/getting the pulse of conservatism/drinking my way through DC the last couple days (sometimes more than one thing at once), so I owe you something. A Scramble through the best of the last couple days in the overbloated (and soon to be growing again) feed reader seemed appropriate.
I should explain a bit more about Milwaukee County. The finances had been a mess for years, but there was a tipping point. At the end of 2000, the county board (most of whom are, sadly, still there) passed a mind-blowing expansion of the pension system that gave unbelievable backdrops and pension increases to, mostly, themselves and the senior members of the kleptocracy. This massive unfunded and essentially-irrevocable liability sat unnoticed for a year until Bruce Murphy, then working for Milwaukee magazine, exploded it. That lead to a tea party based mostly in the southern part of Milwaukee County (that’s where I live), that ultimately saw then-county executive Tom Ament and 6 of the 25 supervisors either recalled outright or resign in the face of recalls.
Walker became county executive in the wake of that, and has been proposing zero-tax-increase budgets since, even as the unionized employees and those that couldn’t be shamed into giving up the enhancements to the pension fund took their money and ran. While he hasn’t always been successful in getting those zero-tax-increase budgets past the board, the rate of tax increases in Milwaukee County has been radically reduced.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO_QntXc-c4[/youtube]
e could almost wonder whether the Government do not reconcile themselves to the economic misfortunes of our country, to which their mismanagement has so notably contributed, because these misfortunes give the pretext of establishing even more controls and an even larger bureaucracy. They make mistakes which make things worse. As things get worse they claim more power to set them right. Thus they move ever nearer to the scheme of the All-powerful State, in which the individual is a helpless serf or pawn.
I hope that I can get out of DC today. I don’t feel like sleeping at the airport.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zgtxoAsFV8[/youtube]
I need a drink. Unfortunately, it’s still over 2 hours until Drinking Right.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubZjbmA1Id0[/youtube]
Part 2 will be up after I’m done with some tech support.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxvJmHsyQ_g[/youtube]
Yes, it is Open Thread Thursday, so in the spirit of all the bailouts, how about bailing a sick blogger out.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pp8iyOlpSM[/youtube]
John Hawkins asked on Twitter this morning how he can “better find outstanding posts from small, lightly read, conservative/libertarian bloggers to link”. I can’t say I’m a very good source, but I do what I can.
As long as I’m in the promotion business, I humbly suggest reading the blogs that are linked on John Hawkins’ Conservative Grapevine. He may not have the music, but he has an even larger list of blogs he reads than I do, and unlike this place, he has readers who visit by the megabyte.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR9hk_Nflfo[/youtube]
This is a Faux News Alert. Barack Obama woke up. This has been a Faux News Alert.
This just in…Barack Obama took a dump. Film at 11.
Breaking hard, Bar…ENOUGH of the Obamination broken news; you can get that on ABCCNNNBCCBSPMSNBCNYTWaPoYourLocalPaintCatcher (which must be bucking hard for an ObamiNation BailOut). Back to your regularily-scheduled Scramble, already in progress.
It IS Open Thread Thursday, so pipe up.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysXMAOgEIq4[/youtube]
There’s more out there, but I need to be blotto by 11.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx8HwFpxv54[/youtube]
If it’s Monday, and it’s between the Divisional Round and Memorial Day, it must be a “24” Monday. Unfortunately, I won’t be part of the Blogs.4Bauer liveblog tonight (prior committments, dammit), but don’t let that stop you from being part of it.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDTQ1aLlJ9c[/youtube]
Well, it is Open Thread Thursday, so take over already.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEL6_SuQCu8[/youtube]
It’s time for the Alan Shepard’s prayer since I’m getting a Campaign Spot spike – “Please, Lord, don’t let me screw up.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y90UPLLo6nY[/youtube]
What, you were expecting the Stooges? Okay.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwirWWnzJKM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhiTsLr29XA[/youtube]
A couple of housekeeping items that I’m a part of:
– If it’s Monday, the gang at Blogs.4Bauer is live-blogging.
– The January edition of Drinking Right is tomorrow, same place as always (Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee), same time as always (7 pm).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRbPWcLode0[/youtube]
Let’s see if some snow can stop the last road team before Jack comes back.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mD6YvuBIVA[/youtube]
We’ve got the 7th season of Jack starting tonight at 7 pm (Central; consult your local listings for other time zones) on Fox (Channel 6/6.1 in Milwaukee, 506 on the Milwaukee-area Time Warner Cable HD box, consult your local listings for the channel in your area). I’ll be helping live-blog over at Blogs4Bauer.
The second heaping will be up shortly.
]]>[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V184OzzaH-M[/youtube]
I WAS going to try to keep it under a baker’s dozen today, but there’s just too much goodness out there. I know I left more than a few bits out, so feed me.
]]>