No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

June 14, 2011

The obligatory post-debate analysis

by @ 8:49. Filed under 2012 Presidential Contest.

In general, the Gang of 7 survived the CNN sandbagging in good order. Do note that the use of “sandbag” is more of a reflection of a wet, limp bag of sand than a flying bag of sand, but not for the lack of trying on moderator John King’s part.

Of course, some did so better than others, so let’s do a hung-over review in alphabetical order:

  • Michele Bachmann – The consensus winner, not in small part by being the only newsmaker of the bunch and announcing her candidacy at the beginning of the debate. She delivered, and not the Biden gaffetastic crazy some of my friends in the center-right coalition believe she is limited to.
  • Herman Cain – If I were grading, it would be an Incomplete, though not for a lack of substance. King seemed to treat him as a “token” after he was introduced first. He was markedly improved from the first debate, but he still has a way to go to be a top-tier debater. Bonus points for not whining about the silent treatment from King early.
  • Debate format – This was a mixed bag. I liked that the jumping-off questions from the public were, for the most part, appropriate for a GOP debate, even ones from those who from the intro would seem to be prejudiced against the GOP. Then, the “pros” took over, and the debate at times took on a feel of a DNC inquisition.
  • Newt Gingrich – The good – he seemed prepared despite losing his entire campaign staff last week. The bad – he seems to think that if the thundering herd wants to stampede right off the cliff, the herd shouldn’t be discouraged from doing so.
  • John King – He proved that CNN should never get another GOP debate again.
  • Ron Paul – It took a bit longer for the batshit crazy to kick in than usual on any given question, and indeed on a couple answers, it didn’t kick in at all. Unfortunately, it’s never far from the surface and too often erupting like Mt. Vesuvius.
  • Tim Pawlenty – I believe 4 letters describe his demurring from the Sunday charge of ObamneyCare – W-I-M-P. Memo to the Anybody-But-Romney crowd; if you’re going to get the first GOP candidate since Dwight Eisenhower that wasn’t Next-In-Line™, you’re going to have to start tearing Romney down when he’s present.
  • Mitt Romney – If you doubted that he was Next-In-Line™, doubt no more. He’s running as though he already secured the nomination (and so far, there’s nothing that would disabuse him of that assumption), and didn’t make any major missteps.
  • Rick Santorum – The only wave of the night he created was when he unabashedly backed Paul Ryan’s budget. Other than that, I don’t know how he got promoted to the A-list.

June Drinking Right – 12-hour warning

by @ 7:00. Tags:
Filed under Miscellaneous.

This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated because you need a reason to drink.

The June edition of Drinking Right will be held tonight. As always, the fun is at Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee, and it begins at 7 pm. Come on down, have a few of your favorite beverage and some free pizza with the cream of the right side of the Milwaukee-area branch of the Cheddarsphere.

You have 12 hours to clear out your calendars, dump the tickets to Wrigley Field, and make sure you’re there for the warm-up to RightOnline. Don’t forget, we’ve got some deals for you, including packages that include transportation and hotel.

This concludes this activation of the Emergency Blogging System.

June 13, 2011

CNN New Hampshire GOP Presidential debate drunkblog

by @ 17:06. Filed under 2012 Presidential Contest.

In a bit under 2 hours, CNN will have the second GOP Presidential debate. Partly because the 2008 cycle’s debates is how I managed to snag Shoebox as a co-blogger, and partly because I need the practice for tomorrow’s Drinking Right (as always, at Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee, starting at 7 pm) and RightOnline later in the week, I’ll fire up a drunkblog. As always, I’ll be using CoverItLive to handle the liveblogging duties, which means you won’t need to refresh this page to keep up. The standard drunkblog rules apply, which means I paraphrase a lot and salty language may will be used.

Legislative Fiscal Bureau – Budget projected to have a structural surplus

by @ 16:26. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – JSOnline’s All Politics blog)

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has run the numbers on the current version of the FY2012-2013 budget, as put together by the Joint Finance Committee, and they are projecting something that has not been achieved in at least the last 16 years – a projected structural surplus in the succeeding budget. Of course, this assumes that, outside of already-mandated changes in both state and federal law, the situation that exists in FY2013 carries over to FY2014 and FY2015.

As a convenience, I’ve reproduced and somewhat expanded the bottom-line table, comparing the structural deficit (termed “General Fund Amounts Necessary for a Balanced Budget” in Table 6:

Structural deficit (surplus) in the succeeding biennium (millions)
1st year 2nd year Total
FY2014-FY2015 (JFC FY2012-FY2013 budget) ($145) ($161) ($306)
FY2014-FY2015 (Governor FY2012-FY2013 budget) $4 $27 $31
FY2012-FY2013 (adopted FY2010-FY2011 budget) $1,232 $1,279 $2,511
FY2010-FY2011 (adopted FY2008-FY2009 budget) $800 $882 $1,682
FY2008-FY2009 (adopted FY2006-FY2007 budget) $653 $846 $1,499
FY2006-FY2007 (adopted FY2004-FY2005 budget) $701 $845 $1,546
FY2004-FY2005 (adopted FY2002-FY2003 budget) $1,340 $1,527 $2,867
FY2002-FY2003 (adopted FY2000-FY2001 budget) $693 $1,026 $1,719
FY2000-FY2001 (adopted FY1998-FY1999 budget) $589 $914 $1,503
FY1998-FY1999 (adopted FY1996-FY1997 budget) $624 $908 $1,532

New FBI surveillance rules half-good, half-troubling

by @ 12:48. Filed under Law and order.

Fox News reports the FBI plans on issuing new rules designed to allow it to expand its surveillance and catch “lone wolfs”.

The good part is that it will allow its agents to administer lie-detector tests to and search the trash of potential informants. Assuming the potential informant knows beforehand and accepts it, it is the functional equivalent of the FBI hiring the person.

The troubling part is that agents won’t need to so much as open up a low-level assessment to look up people on various databases. J. Edgar Hoover never had it so oppressive.

Revisions/extensions (1:32 pm 6/13/2011) – Over at Ace of Spades HQ, rdbrewer has a far better explanation of why the troubling part is troubling (hint; the Founding Fathers launched the American Revolution in part because of shit just like this), along with a wife-of-a-friend story of what a less-than-honest bureaucrat does with this kind of power.

June 9, 2011

Initial unemployment claims continue to disappoint

by @ 8:08. Filed under Economy Held Hostage.

Reviewing the initial unemployment claims, this time at 427,000 for last week, is becoming something of a checklist:

  • Higher than expected – Check (Bloomberg’s economists predicted 419,000, Reuters’ economists predicted 415,000)
  • Unexpectedly higher than expected – Check (both Reuters and Bloomberg put it in the headline and the lede)
  • Prior week’s number revised upward – Check (Tom Blumer notes the prior week’s increase from 422,000 to 426,000 is the 14th week in a row this has happened)

Can you say, “Double-Dip DEMpression”?

June 8, 2011

Recalls against all 3 targeted Dem Senators certified

by @ 18:52. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

After a marathon session that lasted, including numerous breaks, nearly 9 hours, the Government Accountability Board certified a sufficient number of signatures against all three Democrat Senators against whom recall petitions were submitted for filing, setting up recall elections for all three, or at least primaries if more than one Democrat, one Republican, or one Constitution Party candidate files to run, on July 19, one week later than the same for the 6 targeted Republican state Senators. By and large, the Board rejected Democrat attempts to toss signatures gathered by several out-of-state circulators based on what they termed “fraud”, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that, in addition to the individual challenges recommended by GAB staff, a grand total of about 230 signatures collected by one of the circulators in question would not count.

The final number of certified signatures against the three Democrat Senators, per WisPolitics, are 15,540 signatures for the recall of Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), 19,255 for the recall of Jim Holperin (D-Conover) and 17,138 for the recall of Bob Wirch (D-Pleasant Prairie). Each is more than the number required, which was 13,852 for Hansen, 15,960 for Holperin, and 13,537 for Wirch.

It is unknown whether the Democrats will follow the six targeted Republicans into court in an attempt to stop the recall, but they do have until next week Thursday to do so. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that Republican Senators Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), Shelia Harsdorf (R-River Falls) and Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) filed suits yesterday to do just that, joining Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse), Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) and Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), who filed last week. As of yesterday, no date had been set in any of hte 6 Republican cases.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Wisconsin is lining up “protest ‘Democrat'” candidates to run in all 6 districts where Republicans are targeted in order to stretch the recall election itself to August 9, 4 weeks after the July 12 election date set for the 6 Republicans. This has the Democrats, who in Wisconsin had one of their operatives run as a “Republican” in a failed attempt to squeeze newly-independent Assemblyman Bob Ziegelbauer out of office last year, and nationally have with varying degrees of success encouraged third-party runs in attempts to seize Republican-held seats, crying “foul”. A minor point of order for those of you not in Wisconsin – the parties do not control any aspect of the primary process. They can neither get a candidate placed on the ballot automatically (outside of a recall situation where the incumbent is automatically on the ballot) nor prohibit a candidate from running for or holding office as a “member” of their party.

Revisions/extensions (7:14 pm 6/8/2011) – Speaking of Hopper, one of the main reasons he’s in particular trouble in a district that should be a safe Republican one is that he left his wife for a live-in girlfriend, but forgot to finalize the divorce before the recall circulators showed up at his soon-to-be-ex’s door. I agree with James Wigderson that the RPW needs to cut its ties with him, but they should do it in a primary just in case he forgets to declare himself a non-candidate. If memory serves, that 10-day deadline, along with the 4-week filing deadline for ballot access in the election, is fast approaching.

R&E part 2 (7:18 am 6/9/2011) – The MacIver News Service has a lengthier report of the hearing, including a tidbit on the telemarketing firm hired by the Dems to establish their “fraud” case that I had not known. Several Brown County residents had filed suit after the firm had called them multiple times, with the suit dismissed only after the calls had stopped.

That also leads me to another flashback – the same firm usurped the good name of a Green Bay medical facility in its first several hundred calls.

June 6, 2011

Righteous Indignation

by @ 19:59. Filed under Politics - National.

After ten days of denying, claiming “hacker”, not knowing anything with “certitude,” and suspecting everyone but himself, Anthony Weiner admitted to sending inappropriate and suggestive photos of himself to women via Twitter.

As is usually the case with issues of moral turpitude, the story is less about the acts and more about the denials and the cover up of the acts.  Had Weiner done a mea culpa when first caught, the Democrat friendly media would have scuttled the story with one of the responses popularized by Clinton i.e. “it’s a personal matter,” “It’s between he and his wife” or most probably, “it’s just about sex, why are you so uptight about sex?”  Instead, Weiner denied in every way possible.

Worse than the personal embarassment that Weiner has caused for his family, his week long denial has cost him all of his personal integrity. 

Compare the defense and indignation that Weiner mustered in this video:

With the alleged remorse in this video:

Anthony Weiner emphatically stated that he was not resigning today. It’s hard to take his apology as genuine as a result. Weiner may yet have a second thought about that now that Nancy Pelosi has called for an ethics review into his actions.

It’s sad and ironic that Weiner chose the anniversary of D Day as the day he came clean.  We are fortunate as a country, to have had men and women who could rise above their personal, self absorbed egos to do something for their country at personal costs to themselves.  It’s sad that we seem to have very few with that character trait in today’s legislative leadership.

If Weiner doesn’t ultimately “want to spend more time with his family,” there will be no doubt that the top video above will get a lot of airtime by Weiner’s next election opponent. It’s possible that even with this ad Weiner could be reelected in his NY district. After all, in the words of P.T. Barnum: “There’s a sucker born every minute,” and there’s no doubt that NY Democrats have been birthing them for an awful long time.

Oh, and because this issue is now likely put to bed and I won’t get a chance to do it again…Weiner, weiner, weiner, weiner!

RightOnline – June 17-18 – Be there!

by @ 19:12. Tags:
Filed under Conservatism, Politics - National.

Revisions/extensions (7:12 pm 6/6/2011) – Bumped to the top with some more registration options specific to Wisconsin. This was originally posted 5/18 at 3:57 pm.

For the fourth year in a row, Americans for Prosperity will be holding its RightOnline Conference at the same time and city as NetRoots Nation, the big lefty online gathering. This time, we’ll be at the Hilton Minneapolis in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 17 and June 18.

Since the national media will be there to cover both events, we can’t let them give a false impression that all the energy is on the left side of the ‘net. It’s a short drive from just about anywhere in Wisconsin. Come on out and join people like Michelle Malkin, Rep. Michele Bachmann, S.E. Cupp, Erick Erickson, John Fund, Guy Benson, Mary Katharine Ham, Ed Morrissey, and a host of others.

There will also be workshops and panels hosted by experts in their respective fields. The areas of focus will include Online Activism 101, Advanced Online Activism, Tools and Resources, Investigative Reporting/Citizen Journalism, Public Policy Issues, and Grassroots Activism.

Since I’ll be there live-blogging for the third consecutive year, AFP decided to give you the readers of this blog a 25% discount. Just use the promo code fightback when you register, and you will get a 25% discount on the ticket. The promo is good up until June 17, though I can’t guarantee how long the 2-for-1 registration deal (which also is eligible for the discount) will last.

Revisions/extensions (cont.) – While the 2-for-1 deal and the blog-reader discount are still good as of today, the early-registration price of $99 (discounted to $74.25) is gone. That’s been jacked up to a regular price of $119, or a discounted price of $89.25 (or $89.24 for 2 due to rounding). If you can bring a second person up, that makes the registration cost $44.62 per person. Where else do you get 2 days of activism along with two confirmed (Tim Pawlenty, Herman Cain) and one likely (Michele Bachmann) Presidential candidates?

However, AFP-WI has a nice deal for you – big discounts on the double-occupancy and quad-occupancy bus trips, departing early Friday from Kenosha (4 am), Racine (4:30 am), Milwaukee (5:30 am), Waukesha (6:15 am), Green Bay (5:30 am) and Wausau (7:30 am), complete with a Friday-night stay in Minneapolis in either a double-occupancy or a quad-occupancy room. For the double-occupancy rate of $79 per person, enter DoubleBus as the promo code on the bus package registration page, and for the quad-occupancy rate of $49 per person, enter QuadBus as the promo code on the bus package registration page.

Moody’s latest to reassess Treasury security risk

by @ 18:02. Filed under Economy Held Hostage, Politics - National.

Less than 2 months after Standard and Poor’s cut its federal government credit outlook to negative, Moody’s announced on Thursday that it expects to place its federal government credit rating under review as there still is no agreement on whether to live within the government’s revenue limits or to raise the debt ceiling. To wit, this is the set of implications from Moody’s:

1) The likelihood that Moody’s will place the US government’s rating on review for downgrade due to the risk of a short-lived default has increased. Since the risk of continuing stalemate has grown, if progress in negotiations is not evident by the middle of July, such a rating action is likely. The Secretary of the Treasury has indicated that the government will have to drastically reduce expenditure sometime around August 2 if the debt limit is not raised; the initiation of a rating review would precede this date.

2) If a debt-ceiling-related default were to occur, Moody’s would likely downgrade the rating shortly thereafter. The extent of and length of time before a downgrade would depend on how factors surrounding the default affect the government’s fundamental creditworthiness, including (a) the speed at which the default were cured, (b) an assessment of the effect of the default on long-term Treasury borrowing costs, and (c) measures put in place to prevent a recurrence. However, a rating in the Aa range would be the most likely outcome. Any loss to bondholders would likely be minimal or non-existent, as Moody’s anticipates that a default would be cured quickly.

3) If default is avoided, the Aaa rating would likely be affirmed after any review. Whether the outlook on the rating would be stable or negative would depend upon whether the outcome of the negotiations included meaningful progress toward substantial and credible long-term deficit reduction. Such reduction would imply stabilization within a few years and ultimately a decline in the government’s debt ratios, including the ratio of debt to GDP.

Allow me to translate the last item. If the only thing that is done is a short-term solution, either a “clean” debt-ceiling increase or a massive spending cut that doesn’t affect interest (or a combination thereof), Moody’s is going to join S&P in having a negative outlook on debt.

I’ll borrow a couple of the slides my Congressman, Paul Ryan, included in his series of April listening sessions to illustrate why a short-term solution, regardless of what it is, won’t work. The first shows the trajectory of publicly-held debt from 1940 to 2080 (click for the full-size graphic):

Do note how soon the publicly-held debt crosses the 100% of GDP threshhold (sometime between 2020 and 2030). I could also point out where it ends up, but one thing Ryan pointed out in the listening sessions is that the CBO cannot project what the economy does after 2037 because the computers crash when trying to model that.

The second one focuses on the projected yearly spending on just the “Big Three” of the entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, versus projected federal revenues, again as a percentage of GDP (click for the full-sized graphic):

I really wish Ryan had included interest on the debt in the chart because it would better illustrate just how much entitlements and debt crush the life out of the rest of the federal budget. Indeed, in a floor speech on Thursday, Ryan pointed out that by the end of this decade, 20% of the total tax revenue would be dedicated to interest. That brings the entitlement plus interest share of the tax revenue to somewhere around 85%.

The unsustainable trend is undeniable. Once revenues stabilize at the historic 18% (give or take a couple tenths of a point) of GDP, just the entitlements will rapidly approach 100% of the revenues, hitting somewhere around 90% by the aforementioned 2037 GDP model crash date, and crossing 100% around 2050.

The bond ratings agencies are making it crystal clear that simply saying the government can borrow more isn’t going to cut it. Similarly, as much as many people don’t want to hear it, thinking we can avoid default just by cutting spending isn’t going to cut it. Indeed, given the current tax collection rate (due to the collapsed economy, not to the Bush tax cuts; though that’s an argument for another post), Congress could zero out all discretionary spending, and we’d still run a deficit and thus increase the debt.

Revisions/extensions (6:15 pm 6/6/2011) – James Pethokoukis, who just returned from China, says the Chinese want a long-term fix.

Another item in James’ piece is that some of the “smart money” seems to think the Treasury will prioritize debt service and Social Security checks. Without specific instructions from Congress, I wouldn’t put my money on that.

“I heard you missed us. We’re back!” backhand smashes

by @ 13:21. Filed under Miscellaneous.

If I had to describe the fishing on Ontario’s Eagle Lake last week in one word, it would be “workman-like”. The weather wasn’t exactly cooperative, and neither were the larger fish. Still, the crew limited out on walleye as always, northern for the first time (not that we usually spend any time going after them), and we got a few “bonus” fish (perch and whitefish).

Let’s see; what did I miss the last week?

  • JoAnne Kloppenburg actually admitted reality and conceeded on the last day of decision. All but 28 of you were wrong in my little poll on the left side of the page (don’t worry; I was wrong as well – I thought she would go for Grand Theft Courts.
  • The ‘Rats were successful in upsetting the one-day Mega Recall, with all 6 elections targeting Senate Republicans happening on 7/12 (or at least primaries on that day), and the 3 potential ones targeting Democrats potentially happening on 7/19, but the Republicans are taking a page out of the DPW playbook and recruiting faux Rats in at least 2 districts where Pubbies are up for recall to extend the clock.

    A fair bit of explanation is required. The faux party candidate gambit was opened by the DPW last year when they tried to squeeze Rep., Bob Ziegelbauer (I-Manitowoc) out of the Legislature after bumrushing him out of their party. The reason why it would extend the clock is, if more than 1 person runs for the Democrat, Republican or Constitution Party nomination (the 3 parties who are eligible to have a state-run primary through 2014), the 7/12 election would be a primary election instead a general election, with the general happening on 8/9.

  • The Supreme Court is holding oral arguments on whether to take jurisdiction of the budget-repair/bargaining-limiting bill today. As WTMJ’s Jeff Wagner (a former assistant US attorney) noted, one could go broke very quickly by predicting what will happen, but since I don’t have a lot of money anyway, I’ll go with them taking the case and staying Dane County circuit judge Lawgiver-In-Black Maryann Sumi’s various rulings.
  • The ChiComs were serious about dumping their Treasury securities, or at least their short-term securities. After bankrolling TARP and Porkulus via short-term T-bill purchases, they pulled that part of their holdings to 2004 levels as of March.

    I will note that, also as of March 2011, their total Treasury security holdings was still over $1.14 trillion, a significant increase over $895 billion in March 2010. However, that is down from the October high of $1.18 trillion.

  • When CBS notes that people are staying unemployed longer than they did during the Great Depression, the economy can’t exactly be termed in recovery. I will, however, look the other way if you say it’s in wreckcovery, though Shoebox would say that it’s still being held hostage.
  • If only the Brewers could beat the Reds, they probably woudl be in first. Still, comfortably above .500, leading the wild-card portion of the race, and nipping on the heels of the Cards for the division is pretty cool.
  • Speaking of bailouts, according to the CBO, Fannie and Freddie’s bailout is costing twice as much as the White House says, or $317 billion.
  • Neptunus Lex takes a look at one v one maneuvering versus multi-ship proficiency. Do follow the further link to look at the restrictions being put on the F-16 Block 52 aircraft the Pakistan Air Force is getting.

June 3, 2011

The Lowest Common Denominator

by @ 7:12. Filed under Miscellaneous.

As Barack Obama prepared to take his oath of office in early 2009, there was a fairly active debate amongst the political elite and bobbleheaded idiot box pundits.  The debate was over what type of President Barack Obama would be.  Would Obama be a lean left President who would continue the country along its leftward walk or, would he feel the gravity of his office and become a centrist once in office.  Ironically, no where in the discussion was the option of “leaping off the most leftward edge” opined on.

Since his arrival in office, it has been clear that Obama is not content in continuing the steady leftward walk or in becoming a centrist.  Every time Obama has had a opportunity to put his stamp on the Presidency and this country, he has chosen an option that is as far left as he could jam or manipulate through.  With the auto industry, banking, energy or foreign relations Obama has implemented policy and programs that are nothing but a run to the left, dare I say, Socialist ideal. 

Socialist?  Yes, I said Socialist!  Can you find any policy or program that Obama has offered or implemented that didn’t have the government taking a bigger role and control of the matter discussed?  Can you find a policy or program that Obama has offered or implemented that wasn’t about giving “workers” or “the poor” an elevated status in society simply because they were a “worker” or part of “the poor?”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against helping the poor.  I am against policies and programs that enshrine “the poor” as perpetually “the poor.”  Obama, on the other hand, not only assumes that “the poor” will always be “the poor,” he holds them out as that which should be aspired to.   

Yesterday, during arguments over the constitutionality of Placebocare, Obama’s solicitor general defended the government’s position with a new and unique argument: If you don’t like the individual mandate, then become poor!

So it’s a penalty on earning a certain amount of income and self insuring. It’s not just on self insuring on its own. So I guess one could say, just as the restaurant owner could depart the market in Heart of Atlanta Motel, someone doesn’t need to earn that much income.

Now, the solicitor general qucikly attempted to cover his tracks by suggesting that this was “a fanciful” option….Yeah, right.

If Obama had his way, Cap and Trade would be the law and we would be seeing dramatic rises in electric costs. Obama has had his way in the oil industry and we can see the impact of that on gas prices. Obama has had his way with the federal budget and monetary policy and we can see the impact of that on our economy, the value of the dollar, overall inflation.

Example after example of Obama’s policy result in higher costs or lower buying power for all Americans. Obama’s solicitor general may think making people poor or poorer is a fanciful option but I’ll bet most Americans don’t see it as fanciful. As a result of just 2 1/2 years of Obama, being poorer is a reality for most American families.

May 28, 2011

Pre-vacation quick smashes

by @ 10:59. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Sorry about taking the unplanned break this week – i had to prep for the first fishing trip of the year. There’s a “few” items that need commenting upon:

  • David Prosser won the recount by 7,004 votes, a drop of 312 votes from the pre-recount 7,316-vote margin. JoAnne Kloppenburg is now on the clock for what is widely expected to turn into Grand Theft Courts, and we’ll know one way or the other on Tuesday.
  • Fiat needed some serious federal refinancing in order to get to a near-majority position in UAW Motors. They tried and failed to get $3.5 billion on the private market, so they reduced their planned Energy Department loan to $3.5 billion and used that to pay off the higher-interest-rate loan from the Treasury Department. I will note that they did put in $2.4 billion of their own money to finish paying off the Treasury part of the loan, and that it apears the entire $1.7 billion owed to the Canadians was out of Fiat’s pockets entirely.
  • The day after the Department of Justice suggested Maryann Sumi recuse herself from the collective bargaining case because she filed a prejudicial brief on the DOJ/Department of Administration petition to the Supreme Court, she decided to prove that suggestion justified. It’s not surprising she did that, because compliance with the state Constitution is voluntary in the Kingdom of Dane, but the most nitpicky of nitpicks apply with devastatingly-harsh force to the enemies of the Kingdom.
  • It looks like the Rats will have their Rolling Recalls after all. They managed to throw up enough smoke to delay consideration of the three targeting their kind, and something tells me even if the GAB asks for a further extension of the deadline to call for elections, the Dane County judge that gave them the first extension and opened the possibility of the first 8 happening on the same day won’t do that again.
  • DOOM! Part 1 – Initial unemployment claims went up unexpectedly again. Just as “unexpected”, the prior week’s numbers were revised upwards the 11th week in a row.
  • DOOM! Part 2 – The Senate Rats once again believe no budget is necessary. After all, the continuing resolutions are continuing the $1.5 trillion deficits, and DOOM!sday is expected to be August 2 (coincidentally, I’ll be out of town that day as well).
  • At least the Legislature is moving right along. The FY2012-2013 budget is taking shape, voter ID is about to become law (on June 9 unless another Lawgiver-In-Black decides to have a hissy fit), and multiple versions of concealed carry are percolating up and out of committee. Life is good in Wisconsin.
  • On the Presidential horserace front, Tim Pawlenty (I wish it were T’Pau) is in, Mitch Daniels is out, and Rick Perry is waffling on whether to get in or not. Meanwhile, the conservative glitterati are acting like children on a road trip continuing to ask Paul Ryan if he’s in yet.
  • The Brewers went from pretender to contender with the just-busted 6-game winning streak. Now watch them go back to pretender before I get back.

Have a good weekend everybody. Do take some time on Monday to remember those who gave all so we can live in the greatest country in the history of mankind.

May 20, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Court Recount – DONE!

by @ 18:31. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Waukesha County has filed its certified recount numbers with the Government Accountability Board, while Iowa County snuck in a revised set of certified numbers a bit before that point. With all 3,602 reporting units recounted, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting Justice David Prosser has beaten challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg by 7,006 votes, 310 votes less than the pre-recount 7,316-vote margin. The Associated Press (via WLUK-TV) has the totals as Proser 752,697, Kloppenburg 745,691. Final numbers from the GAB are not yet available, however; therefore, I don’t have an updated spreadsheet just yet.

The Journal Sentinel further reports that, since the GAB expects to certify the results on Monday, Kloppenburg will have until May 31 to file a judicial appeal, which will be heard by a reserve (retired or defeated for re-election) judge of Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson’s choosing. Kloppenburg’s campaign says that decision will come after they review the evidence, while Prosser’s campaign issued a statement that said it was not warranted. Quoting from the statement, “As an attorney, Ms. Kloppenburg would know she has a ‘right’ to go to court, and as an attorney she should recognize it’s not the right thing do.”

The reason Iowa County revised their canvass was they were informed by the GAB that 4 ballots, all for Kloppenburg, were “improperly rejected” by the board for not having proper signatures. According to the GAB, ballots lacking proper signatures can only be rejected if either there were more ballots than voters or the issue was uncovered in absentee reconciliation. Since neither happened, Kloppenburg was awarded those 4 votes.

Revisions/extensions (9:25 pm 5/20/2011) – The GAB has released the certified Waukesha County numbers. However, I have not updated my spreadsheet after reviewing both the daily tracking spreadsheet and the various county-certified spreadsheets. In a few other counties, there are still some unexplained differences between the daily tracking spreadsheet, the county-certified spreadsheets, and the minutes from the recount, where only two of three were the same. Notably, not all of the differences were between the daily tracking spreadsheet and the minutes.

In sum, the differences don’t change Prosser’s margin of victory much. If one uses the numbers from the county-certified spreadsheets found on the county-by-county certified numbers/minutes page, Prosser’s margin of victory changes to 7,004. If one adjusts the numbers from the county-by-county certified numbers page for the instances where the canvass and minutes (where available) do not agree by substituting the numbers from the minutes (and the daily tracking spreadsheet) for the numbers on the certified spreadsheets, Proser’s margin of victory changes to 7,005.

It’s too late for me to update the spreadsheet tonight to reflect any of this. I should have it up tomorrow.

R&E part 2 (6:48 am 5/21/2011) – Typo corrected; thanks to DINORightMarie for the catch.

May 19, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Court Recount – Day 21 (and all-but-done)

by @ 12:28. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Presstitute Follies.

As I type, Waukesha County is working on the process of certifying its results after finishing the physical recount about 2 pm yesterday. With unofficial numbers from all of Waukesha County except the city of Muskego, most of the city of Waukesha, and most of the village of Summit (the last was reported to the Government Accountability Board but was still under review as of this morning) available from the GAB as of this morning, and certified numbers from the other 71 counties, 3,545 of Wisconsin’s 3,602 reporting units have been reported and at minimum reviewed by the Government Accountability Board, representing 1,477,284 of an original 1,498,880 votes. On a net basis, Justice David Prosser gained 368 votes over his pre-recount total in those 3,545 reporting units, challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg gained a net 678 votes over the pre-recount total, and an additional 162 “scattering” were recorded over the pre-recount total. That means Prosser lost 310 votes of his pre-recount 7,316-vote lead, and has an unofficial 7,006-vote lead.

Waukesha County is expected to finish the process of certification either today or tomorrow. Indeed, just before the board of canvassers broke for lunch, they completed the final canvass of Muskego. Once the certified results are transmitted to the GAB (note; if they’re transmitted electronically, they’ll be on the GAB county-by-county certified results/minutes page in short order), the 5-business-day window of opportunity to file a judicial appeal of the recount begins. If Kloppenburg, as the sole losing candidate, does not, do so, it will be Humpbot Time as Prosser is declared the official winner.

Since my last update on Monday, Kloppenburg penned an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel where she denied having made up her mind on whether to challenge the inevitable recount defeat in court, then proceeded to spend the remainder of the op-ed outlining why many, including both myself and the majority of the Journal Sentinel editorial board, believe she has already made up her mind to do so.

The Associated Press, in their Wednesday wrap (copy courtesy the Appleton Post-Crescent), decided to focus on the raw recounted numbers, without any perspective on either what the pre-recount numbers were in the same reporting units or what the change of margin has been, to repeat its Election Night “mistake” of giving Kloppenburg and her entourage false hope. For those who were tracking their numbers in the days following the election, they waited for several days after the failure to report the results of the city of Brookfield became common knowledge to correct their erroneous numbers.

May 16, 2011

Monday Hot Read – Reince Priebus’ “Tell the White House We’re Running on Empty”

by @ 13:32. Filed under Politics - National.

RNC chair Reince Priebus posted the following over at RedState today (emphasis in the original):

The summer of 2010 was supposed to be the Summer of Recovery. That’s what President Obama told us. It wasn’t and now nearly a year later, unemployment remains unacceptably high. With gas prices at nearly $4.00 a gallon and on the rise, the forecast for the summer of 2011 isn’t looking much better.

America is $14 trillion in debt. We’re running trillion dollar deficits which President Obama says are necessary to dig us out of the recession. The problem is Hope Isn’t Hiring and the unemployment rate recently ticked back up to 9.0%.

Today, the number of unemployed Americans stands at nearly 14 million. Finding a job in the Obama Economy is tough enough as it is, but with gas at nearly $4.00 a gallon, even getting to the interview has become a challenge.

That’s how these record-high gas prices really hurt – putting yet another burden on already overburdened Americans struggling to make ends meet. With fuel and grocery costs on the rise combined with dropping home values, Americans are now caught between a rock and a hard place – unable to afford the gasoline they need in order to drive to work, a job fair, interviews, or even just the grocery store to buy food.

A recent NBC poll had the President’s approval on the economy plummeting to 37% – the lowest of his Presidency. It’s easy to see why. In addition to restricting access to our own domestic energy resources, Democrats want to increase taxes on producers, which will only result in consumers paying more at the pump.

Together let’s send this President a message. It’s easy; just take a picture of the pump the next time you fill up. Then, upload those pictures to your favorite social media site. If it’s Facebook tag Barack Obama in the picture. If it’s Twitter mention @BarackObama in your tweet and include the hashtag #Obamanomics.

Enough is enough. Let’s hold Democrats accountable so we can get America working again.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Recount – Day 18

by @ 12:58. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

While the city of Waukesha has been fully recounted as of Friday night per Sarah Millard of Waukesha Patch, reconciling the poll books to the ballots occurred too late for the results to be reflected in today’s update from the Government Accountability Board. With 3,500 reporting units with at least reviewed results as of noon Monday, representing 1,445,559 votes, Justice David Prosser has an unofficial statewide 6,994-vote lead over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, a drop of 322 votes from his pre-recount 7,316-vote lead. There are two reporting units in the Village of Sussex with reported results that are currently under review (more on the main reason certain reporting units have been under review in a bit), and 49 reporting units in the city of Waukesha (out of 61) that do not have reported results.

Once the Waukesha and Sussex results are added, there will (or more properly, did remain as of the close of business Saturday; the canvassing board took Sunday off) approximately 36,600 votes left to count in 51 reporting units (really 50; the one city of Milwaukee reporting unit in Waukesha County is the ADM Cocoa plant with 0 residents).

The big news is the GAB put out a rather strong statement regarding whether holes in the ballot bag or missing security tag information is by itself a valid reason to toss the ballots contained therein:

Questions about the authenticity of ballots have arisen during the recount process due to holes in some ballot bags, gaps in their closure or issues with security tags. A hole in a ballot bag or a missing security tag is not enough evidence alone to discard the ballots inside. The ability to put a hand into a ballot bag is not by itself evidence of fraud.

The statement goes on to describe an internal review process the GAB instituted after the first-day issues with the reliability of the numbers reported on that day designed to catch, among other things, a post-election stuffing of the ballot bags (emphasis added):

G.A.B. staff has created an internal review process to check each ward’s recount totals against the original canvass totals to look for variances of plus or minus 10 votes. Any ward in which 10 more or 10 fewer votes are reported is flagged by staff for follow-up with the county clerk for an explanation of the reason. So far, we have found no significant, unexplained variances of vote totals. Staff will continue to review Waukesha County’s results as they come in each day until the recount is complete.

The last thing it does is address the certification of the election. Under normal circumstances, the GAB staff does its own canvass of the results. However, since this election is being recounted, the GAB relies on the certifications of the 72 counties, and once the deadline for a judicial appeal passes (or once judicial appeal is fully adjudicated), it certifies the winner.

Porkulus destroyed/forestalled a net 599,000 jobs

by @ 12:10. Filed under Economy Held Hostage.

(H/T – Greg Mankiw via PowerLine and Speaker John Boehner)

Ohio State released a report on the effects of Porkulus by a pair of economists, Timothy Conley and Bill Dupor, on job creation and destruction. They estimated that, through September 2010, while roughly 450,000 state and local government jobs were “saved/created” by Porkulus, roughly 1,000,000 private-sector jobs were “destroyed/forestalled” by it:

Our benchmark results suggest that the ARRA created/saved approximately 450 thousand state and local government jobs and destroyed/forestalled roughly one million private sector jobs. State and local government jobs were saved because ARRA funds were largely used to offset state revenue shortfalls and Medicaid increases rather than boost private sector employment. The majority of destroyed/forestalled jobs were in growth industries including health, education, professional and business services. This suggests the possibility that, in absence of the ARRA, many government workers (on average relatively well-educated) would have found private-sector employment had their jobs not been saved.

They divided the jobs market into 4 broad categories: state/local government, “HELP” services (private health and education, leisure and hospitality and business and professional service), goods-producing employment and “non-HELP” services (the last includes federal employees). They also found that the majority of Porkulus aid given to states and local governments was “fungible”, defined as replacing other state/local revenues.

Under the “fungibility-imposed” scenario, state and local governments increased their payrolls by 443,000 relative to what would have been expected without Porkulus, and those entities in the “non-HELP” services raised their payrolls by 92,000 (unfortunately, there is no split between the federal government employment versus private-sector employment in this category), while the entities in the goods-producing sector decreased their payrolls by 362,000 and those in the “HELP” services sector decreased their payrolls by 772,000.

If “fungibility” is not imposed, those numbers get worse. Under that scenario, only state and local governments increased their payrolls, by 473,000. Meanwhile, “Non-HELP” services payrolls dropped by 443,000, goods-producing payrolls dropped by 832,000, and “HELP” services payrolls dropped by 882,000.

This actually surprised the economists. Quoting from the conclusions portion:

Much work on the effects of the ARRA remains to be done. We found, surprisingly, either negligible or negative effects of the Act on total employment; thus, it is important to explore whether alternative empirical specifcations, besides the historical ‘Keynesian multiplier’ approach of Section 5 used by other researchers, are capable of finding a signicant positive jobs effect.

My money is against that.

May 13, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Court Recount – Days 16/17

by @ 14:22. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Things continue to move along at a respectable, if slow, clip in Waukesha County. As of Thursday night, 116 reporting units (just over 50%) and just over 60,000 ballots remained to be counted and reported in the last portion of the Supreme Court recount still ongoing. Justice David Prosser’s unofficial statewide lead over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg increased to 6,995 votes from the same point Tuesday. That is a net decline of 321 votes from the pre-recount 7,316-vote lead Prosser enjoyed.

Further good news on the speed of the recount came in a status conference held this morning by Dane County Judge Richard Niess. During it, Waukesha County Corporation Counsel Tom Farley said that the canvassers had made their way through nearly 80,000 of the 125,000 ballots cast in the election, and that the recount can be completed sometime between Friday, May 20 and Monday, May 23, several days before the Thursday, May 26 extension granted by Niess.

Once the recount is completed in Waukesha County, Kloppenburg will have 5 business days (not including Saturdays, Sundays or holidays) to decide whether she will go for the “Grand Theft Courts” strategy.

May 11, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Court Recount – Day 14 (and the first half of 15)

by @ 13:41. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Things started to move along in Waukesha County the past couple days, even though the tracking spreadsheet may not necessarily reflect that. After the canvassing board and their tabulators moved to a larger room in the Waukesha County Courthouse, they began to set a decent pace despite a continued barrage of challenges, making their way through roughly 8,000 ballots per day.

As for the results thus far, through the end of business yesterday, the Government Accountability Board reported late this morning results from 3,461 of the 3,602 reporting units (the 3,408 units in the other 71 counties as certified), along with another 4 reporting units (all in Waukesha County) still under review. David Prosser’s unofficial statewide lead stood at 6,984 votes, a reduction of 332 votes from his pre-recount 7,316-vote lead.

That included 44,848 votes recounted and reviewed, out of an original 125.070, in Waukesha County, plus another approximate 3,700 reported to the GAB but not yet reviewed, from 53 of 192 reporting units. That does not include the approximately 25% of the city of Waukesha’s nearly-16,000 votes that have been recounted thus far; as the city counted its absentee ballots in a central location, the canvassing board is waiting until the entire city is recounted to report the results. In Waukesha County, Prosser gained a net 25 votes on his pre-recount lead.

Kyle Maichle e-mailed me this report this morning from the Courthouse (editor’s note; it was sent before yet another ballot bag challenge from the Kloppenburg campaign, this time for a “small hole” in the town of Merton):

First, the City of Waukesha has been counted since yesterday. According to their City Clerk I spoke with, they are being counted in no particular order. As of this morning they have already counted 15 out of the 60-plus reporting units there.

There have been no ballot bag challenges documented since May 5th in the official minutes.

As of this morning, they are counting the Towns of Lisbon and Oconomowoc in addition to Waukesha-City. Yesterday, the Towns of Ottawa and Mukwonago were completed.

How they are running today’s recount is that one half of tables is for the City of Waukesha while the other set is for other municipalities.

Sadly, given that the challenges continue apace, and given the arrival of a multitude of Kloppenburg volunteers at the Waukesha County courthouse this afternoon, it does not appear that the Kloppenburg campaign will be taking the advice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board of not challenging the results of the recount in court.

May 10, 2011

May Drinking Right – TONIGHT

by @ 7:17. Tags:
Filed under Miscellaneous.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely need a few drinks. Fortunately, this happens to be the second Tuesday of the month, so it’s time for another round of Drinking Right. As always, we’re at Papa’s Social Club (7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee), and as always, the fun starts about 7 pm. Dickie brings over a few pizzas and garlic bread from Mama’s next door, so you can also have some food with your favorite beverage.

Be there, or be nowhere.

May 9, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Court Recount – Day 13

by @ 20:25. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Since everybody rested on Sunday, there isn’t an update for Day 12. Today was supposed to be the end of the recount, but due to the multitude of stalling tactics by the JoAnne Kloppenburg campaign in Waukesha County, the deadline for that county was extended to May 26. The other 71 counties completed their portions of the recount by today, and the Government Accountability Board completed certification of the returns from 70 of them. With those 70 counties (containing 3,353 of the 3,602 reporting units), the 55 reporting units in Sauk County (the one county complete but not yet certified) and the 47 reporting units in Waukesha County recounted as of Saturday night, 95.92% of the reporting units have completed their recount of 1,411,609 votes (about 94% of the votes). That, along with the pre-recount totals in the 147 reporting units in Waukesha County not yet recounted, puts David Prosser’s lead over Kloppenburg at 6,977 votes.

Dane County’s minutes of the recount provide a rather interesting read. There were several torn ballot bags in the city of Madison, several instances of ballot bag seal numbers missing from the inspectors’ reports, ballots from two reporting units in two different municipalities that were initially missing from the recount room (both stacks of which favored Prosser in what were communities that were overwhelmingly carried by Kloppenburg, and which did not affect the pre-recount net margins once added), and an instance where an absentee ballot not cast at the municipal clerk’s office lacked a witness signature yet was counted both at the polls on election day and by the recount canvass board. I don’t need to tell you that there were no objections from the Kloppenburg campaign over any of this.

There was, however, an objection from the “non-partisan” Kloppenburg campaign on another ballot. In Madison’s Ward 59, the canvassers ruled a ballot that had a write-in for “Democratic one above” as a “scattering”; the Kloppenburg campaign wanted it counted for her.

WTMJ-AM’s Charlie Sykes got a hold of the latest Kloppenburg fundraising letter, sent out on Sunday. It strongly suggests she will avail herself of a judicial appeal of the results despite cutting less than 0.03 percentage points off of Prosser’s pre-recount 0.48-percentage-point lead. She would have 5 business days from the end of the recount to do so, which means that if Waukesha County takes until May 26, she could do so anytime before the end of the day June 3.

Updates will come a bit more slowly now that Waukesha County is the only one still counting. The GAB will issue an update of their unofficial tracking spreadsheet once daily, and while I may not necessarily do a full post daily, I will try to both summarize things on Twitter and keep my tracking spreadsheet up to date.

May 7, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Court Recount – Days 10/11

by @ 20:27. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Sorry about missing the Friday evening update; I decided to start switching my tracking spreadsheet to the certified results by county for the 60 counties, representing 2,329 reporting units and 801,991 votes, that have had their portions of the recount canvassed and certified by the Government Accountability Board as of Friday night. Between those counties and another 638 reporting units that have had their results reviewed but not yet certified (a total of 2,967, or 82.37%, of reporting units), 1,172,096, or just over 78%, of votes, have been recounted as of 6 pm Friday night. Combining that with the pre-recount canvassed results from the remainder of the reporting units, David Prosser’s unofficial lead over JoAnne Kloppenburg stands at 7,054 as of Friday evening, a drop of 262 from the pre-recount total.

The main reason why it took me the entirety of Saturday to do that integration is because 55 of those 2,329 reporting units that have been certified have changes from the running-total spreadsheet that was released by the GAB Friday evening. The net changes from that unofficial spreadsheet are Prosser -5, Kloppenburg +5 (or a net lead change of -10), and scattering -21.

In addition to the 60 counties where the recount has been certified, another 8 of the 72 counties have turned in recount results for all of their reporting units as of Friday evening. That leaves Dane, Milwaukee, Racine and Waukesha Counties as the last 4 counties left to complete their recounts. The GAB expects that Dane, Milwaukee and Racine Counties will be done by Monday, and they will be in a Dane County courtroom Monday morning to seek a court extension of the deadline for Waukesha County.

Speaking of Waukesha County, they finally finished the recount of the city of Brookfield a bit after 6 pm Saturday. I don’t have the recounted totals, but the number of challenges raised by the campaigns, mostly the Kloppenburg campaign, climbed to over 400.

Barring news reports from one of the four counties that were not done as of Friday evening, I don’t anticipate doing another update until Monday. Indeed, the GAB has not updated anything Saturday, and does not anticipate doing so Sunday.

Revisions/extensions (9:19 pm 5/7/2011) – I’ll be closing that poll on the left side of your screen at 7 am Monday.

R&E part 2 (5:11 pm 5/8/2011) – The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Prosser added a net 2 votes to his lead in the city of Brookfield.

R&E part 3 (5:17 pm 5/8/2011) – WISC-TV reported that Dane County finished its portion of the recount late Saturday night, but they did not include what the changes versus the pre-recount canvass were.

R&E part 4 (6:35 pm 5/8/2011) – Charlie Sykes posted the ward-by-ward results from the city of Brookfield.

Hot Air commenter parke had this to say on the Green Room version of this post:

So, one way to look at this would be that an initial election result where, say one candidate won by 200 votes in this election, wouldn’t really amount to a hill of beans as far as being definitive. Thank you Joanne for establishing that point for us. It sure would make anyone who would claim complete victory by 200 votes look really foolish. And to think we wouldn’t have this insightful look if it weren’t for the efforts of Joanne.

Now isn’t that ironic.

May 6, 2011

Mostly-positive monthly jobs news – +244K jobs, +268K private-sector

by @ 8:05. Filed under Economy.

The “unexpected” jobs numbers releases continued today, this time in a mostly-positive direction. The seasonally-adjusted 244,000 jobs gained in April was the largest since last May, and the equally-seasonally-adjusted 268,000 private-sector jobs gained was the highest since February 2006. That, along with a drop in the long-term unemployed, should overshadow an increase in the unemployment rate to 9.0%.

Further, Tom Blumer noted that, along with upward-adjustments in the numbers reported for February and March, we finally have more non-temporary private-sector jobs than we did at the official end of the recession in June 2009.

However, not all is roses and rainbows; this only reflects numbers recorded through mid-month. The question is whether the positivity in the first half of the month will overcome the negativity in the latter part.

May 5, 2011

Wisconsin Supreme Court Recount – Day 9

by @ 22:49. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

There’s 4 days left in the statutory deadline, though the Government Accountability Board will file a request in a Dane County court on Monday for an extension on behalf of Dane and Waukesha Counties. Dane County has requested a one-day extension, and at least as of Thursday afternoon, Waukesha County had not given an estimated end date.

With 2,862 reporting units (79.46%) and 1,124,236 votes (just under 75%) recounted and reviewed as of 6 pm Thursday, David Prosser’s lead dropped by 220 votes from the pre-recount 7,316-vote lead to 7,096 votes. With a further 12 reporting units reporting results to the GAB but not having their numbers reviewed, 64 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties have now finished their portions of the recount.

Despite a continued hyper-challenge strategy employed by the Kloppenburg campaign, Waukesha County managed to finish recounting votes in 10 of the 24 wards in the city of Brookfield today (unfortunately, after the GAB released its 6 pm vote update), which brings that county’s completion total to just over 17% of the wards and close to 23% of the votes. The first of many challenges on the day began before the first bags of ballots were opened, as the overstuffed bags had begun to rip open from handling. The 6 plastic bags, from the first 3 wards and tied closed with a single red security tie, contained approximately 2,000 ballots. Lisa Sink at Brookfield Patch has an exhaustive multimediia report, including pictures of both the bags and several people dropping in to protect their votes, and video of the board of canvassers’ discussion and ultimate acceptance of the ballots.

A second early challenge, also dismissed by the canvassing board, involved the use of excess blank absentee ballots to compensate for the depletion of regular ballots on election day in Brookfield’s Ward 1. The funny thing is, up until today, I hadn’t heard, or at least I don’t remember hearing, of Brookfield running out of ballots, though I did hear of other, outstate locales running out.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

[No Runny Eggs is proudly powered by WordPress.]