define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); No Runny Eggs

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.

May 19, 2008

German special forces let another one get away

by @ 17:46. Filed under War on Terror.

(H/T – Zip)

Der Spiegel reports that the German KSK special forces assigned to capture a rather bloodthirsty Taliban commander simply let him walk away. The KSK and the Afghan troops they were working with conducted a brilliant surveillance, right down to the color of his turban. However, when it came time to take him down, they were spotted a couple hundred yards from their target. Because the KSK is under orders to not use lethal force unless fired upon, all the commander had to do was run, which he did.

The larger policy of not firing unless fired upon is causing some serious friction between the Germans and the remainder of the NATO force in Afghanistan. Quoting an unnamed British officer, “The Krauts are allowing the most dangerous people to get away and are in the process increasing the danger for the Afghans and for all foreign forces here.”

No wonder why most of the Taliban “resurgence” has happened in German-controlled areas. I wonder what the Germans would have done had the Soviets decided to charge through the Fulda Gap.

The Morning Scramble – 5/19/2008

by @ 11:29. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

It is still morning, isn’t it?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpf9bP6xdaI[/youtube]
No fancy attempts at putting like items together today; too many and too little time…

  • Attention Wisconsin conservatives. Wisconsin Institute for Leadership is now open for business.
  • Jim Lynch has a baseline for bedrock conservative values. Looks good to me; good enough to use to try to drive him to 10,000 visitors this week.
  • Ed Morrissey does the math on the entitlement liabilities. How many times more do America’s families owe in government debt than they do in personal debt? How does more than 4 sound?
  • Fred Thompson (yes, that Fred Thompson) analyzes why activist judges are activist judges. He put too much thought into it; it’s because they’re lieberals.
  • Second dose of Ed; he delivers a history lesson on why the Soviet Union collapsed to Barack Hussein Obama.
  • Fausta goes a bit further back in her history lesson to BHO.
  • Triple shot of Ed (which makes it a good day); he finds BHO trying to keep his and his wife’s stump speeches out of the political discussion. After all, it’s easier to snow-job the sheeple when they can’t be told how much of an idiot you are.
  • CDR Salamander has today’s edition of Italian conservative hotties. I’m too lazy to dig out the link to the quote from the incoming PM, Silvio Berlusconi about how conservative women are hotter than liberal ones.
  • Vivian Lee bemoans the decline and fall of Presidential politics, SNL edition.
  • Mike forecasts a return to the late 1970s if BHO gets elected. Sweaters and short-shorts (depending on the season) not optional.
  • Jon Ham finds 31,000 examples of (lack-of-)consensus on Gorebal Warming. Still want to call us “Flat Earthers”, Herr Goracle?
  • Charles Johnson found an enemy of BHO’s; Fox News. That’s funny; they’re a semi-ally of mine.
  • Curt delivers a history lesson to Tom Harkin. Say, wasn’t he a Rat Presidential candidate back in the day?
  • Lawhawk notes the disembodied version of M-m-m-m-max bin Laden has effectively declared Iraq lost…for his side. Tell me again why the DhimmiRATs want to give up.
  • Aaron just got a 14-month-old bill for the birth of his son.
  • Just A Grunt has the latest example of why bipartisanship is a bunch of Bravo Sierra. After all, the ‘Rats demand 110% compliance.
  • Second dip for Fausta; she laughs at Hugo “Mini-Castro” Chavez’s call for a Latin America oil-for-food program. It worked sooooo well last time. Say, if Chavez were serious, he would divert those “windfall oil profits” he’s using to help prop up FARC.
  • Lance Burri says the UN is going to investigate racism in, wait for it…wait for it…the United States. Guess the various bands of Islamokazis, the Myamar government, the Serbs, the Tamil Tigers, the ChiComs, and a whole host of other groups are all done with their murderous hating </sarcasm>. Bonus coverage; Ann Althouse titled her post “Deep Doudou”.
  • DrewM counts the ways the remake of “Red Dawn” will suck.
  • Rick Moran breaks out the whine for BHO.
  • Tom McMahon delivers the 4-Block SmackDown to the California Supreme Court.
  • J. Gravelle invites Mike Rowe to do Wisconsin’s dirtiest job; be governor. He couldn’t be any worse than Craps.
  • Uncle Jimbo says, “Don’t be a Dou’Che.” Good advice from a wise man.
  • American Pundit answers why we can’t trust BHO.
  • Bill Quick has a new game – How many times will the New York Times link McCain and Bush in a headline every week?
  • JihadGene riffs with one of my pics from the RPW convention this weekend. Message to the Left; that van’s more road-worthy than your average Feingold/Kerry/Gore-festooned Volvo.
  • Quad damage from Ed; he answers what the “bitter Rust Belt states” have in common; oppressive taxation and massive unions.
  • Gaius has the barely-good landing of the day. That student pilot’s got some mad skillz, even though he has absolutely, positively no situational awareness.
  • Doc notes the Gorebal Warming crowd is going after fat people. I knew it would come to this.

The Scramble is getting out of control. It is out of control and I’ll be lucky to live through it.

May 17, 2008

McCain’s message for the delegates

by @ 13:58. Filed under RPW Convention.

Sorry I don’t have video, but the county signs are in the way.

Click for audio

Live-blogging the floor action

by @ 13:37. Filed under RPW Convention.

Since this portion promises to be quick-hitting, I’ll fire up the CoverItLive….

Off to lunch

by @ 13:02. Filed under RPW Convention.

Because I burned much of the last hour catching up on the speakers to the convention-goers, I have but a half-hour before things start back up. Good thing there’s an Arby’s on the same property.

Mike Duncan speaks to the floor

by @ 12:55. Filed under RPW Convention.

Duncan speaks

Click for audio

Jim Sensenbrenner speaks to the floor

by @ 12:53. Filed under RPW Convention.

Sensenbrenner speaks

Click for audio

Of note, Rep. Sensenbrenner hit Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch rather hard on the budget repair bill.

Paul Ryan speaks to the floor

by @ 12:49. Filed under RPW Convention.

This is actually the second speech from the convention chair; I missed the first. Greg Bump didn’t.

Ryan speaks

Click for audio

J.B. Van Hollen speaks to the floor

by @ 12:45. Filed under RPW Convention.

Time to burn the lunch hour catching up; once we got toward the end, I could not offload the audio fast enough…

Van Hollen speaks

Click for the audio

Scott Walker speaks to the floor

by @ 10:55. Filed under RPW Convention.

Walker speaks

Click for audio

New name for Doyle

by @ 10:44. Filed under RPW Convention.

Because of all the potholes in Wisconsin and his continued raids on the transportation fund meant to fix those potholes, National Committeewoman Mary Buestrin is now calling the governor Pothole Doyle.

I like it.

Reince Priebus speaks to the floor

by @ 10:35. Filed under RPW Convention.

Priebus speaks to floor

Click for the audio

Revisions/extensions (8:52 pm 5/20/2008) – I apologize to those expecting video here. I did not know how long speeches would last, or whether I’d be able to offload the speeches from my camera in time in between speeches, so I simply took a couple pictures while my digital voice recorder caught the audio.

Gard speaks to the county chairs

by @ 10:30. Filed under RPW Convention.

From last night…

Gard speaks

Click here for audio

Back in town

by @ 10:01. Filed under RPW Convention.

I’m a bit late because I had to head back to the bunker overnight, but I’m back in town. Owen had me covered though. Troy Fullerton is also in the room.

I missed out on the row with the power strip, so I’ll have to be brief with my updates. A brief word on the suites last night, Scott Walker’s Milwaukee-themed suite was the best-decorated, while Paul Ryan’s/John Gard’s suite won for best food (stuffed mushrooms and tasty meatballs).

The promised Gard speech will be up shortly.

This Should Be Interesting to Watch

by @ 7:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

On Thursday, the California Supreme Court ruled that  domestic partnerships  were not an acceptable alternative to marriage and that California would need to allow gay marriages.   The decision overturned a previous voter approved ban on gay marriage.  

Groups opposed to gay marriage indicated that they had enough votes to put the issue of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the November ballot.

In a poll done immediately following the announcement, SurveyUSA found some interesting perspectives amongst California Voters.

When asked the question:  

The California Supreme Court has struck down the ban on gay marriage in California. Do you agree? Or disagree with the court’s ruling?

the response was nearly evenly split between those who agreed with the decision and those who disagreed.

However, when asked:  

Do you support? Or do you oppose amending the state constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman?

a majority, 52% said that they supported the amendment. 36% said they opposed the amendment and 12% were still unsure.

What I found particularly interesting was the response split on age. Looking at a split of over or under 50 years old, those supporting, opposing and unsure, nearly mirrored the overall population. Another split that took 18-34 year olds found that even this age group’s response looked similar to the overall population. In fact, the only split that looked different, and slightly so with an error margin of 4.5%, were those 65+ where 62% approved of the amendment, 25% opposed and 13% were undecided.

Each generation is concerned that the one following them doesn’t share their values and will somehow dismantle what was held dear. At least on this issue, it looks like the generations are pretty well aligned. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out in California.

May 16, 2008

Wrapping up day 1

by @ 21:26. Filed under RPW Convention.

I’ll have the John Gard speech audio up tomorrow; it takes too long to pull the audio off the recorder, and the hospitality suites (followed by a long drive home; I have a couple things to take care of back at the bunker) are calling.

Tim Pawlenty speaks to the county chairs

by @ 20:49. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Pawlenty speaks
Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty speaks to the county chairs

Click here for audio

Reince Priebus speaks to the county chairs

by @ 20:46. Filed under RPW Convention.

Priebus speaks
RPW chair Reince Priebus speaks to the county chairs 5/16/2008

Click here for audio

Pics are up at my Flickr account

by @ 20:44. Filed under RPW Convention.

Click the pic of the van to head to the collection. I’ll be updating it between today and tomorrow, so do keep on checking back.

Van side

Bloggers in the house (sort of)

by @ 18:30. Filed under RPW Convention.

The only bloggers actually blogging (besides me) are the WisPolitics team of Andy Szal, Greg Bump and JR Ross. Still, the blogosphere is pretty well represented in the delegates:

– Jo Egelhoff of Fox Politics, who’s running for the 57th Assembly seat.
– Kathy Carpenter of Stepping Right Up.
– Brandon Henak of GOP3.

I’m terrible with names and faces, and I doubt I’ve seen everybody.

Reps. Vos and Kramer on the budget repair bill

by @ 17:09. Filed under RPW Convention.

I know Gov. Doyle signed it already with some veto messages, but I figured I may as well grab both sides of the Republican divide on the budget repair bill. Rep. Robin Vos voted for it, while Rep. Bill Kramer voted against.

– Interview with Rep. Vos

– Interview with Rep. Kramer

Any pros care to give me pointers? :-)

Various early errata

by @ 16:52. Filed under RPW Convention.

– WisPolitics is here, and they saw fit to link to me. Robin Vos thought he saw Owen pull up while we had lunch.
– The tables for all the side groups are starting to fill up. Of course, Americans for Prosperity is here. The College Republicans are right next to them. There’s a table selling “Thank President Bush” items.
– The first interviews were with Reps. Robin Vos and Bill Kramer on the budget repair bill. Audio should be up once I finish uploading and converting it to mp3.

Is Barack Obama More Afraid of U.S. Than Its Enemies?

by @ 15:16. Filed under Politics - National.

Just read the article here.

The only thing I would add is, “the castrated White House cat has more balls than you.”

Hello from Stevens Point and the RPW convention

by @ 13:35. Filed under RPW Convention.

The good and bad so far…

Good – Despite a significant deputy/trooper presence, I made it in just over 2 hours.
Bad – I didn’t get in until after 1.
Good – The media credentials were ready, and the wireless is working.
Bad – The media room isn’t ready yet.
Good – We’ll have official availability of both Tim Pawlenty and Mike Duncan.

Since I’m drawing off the battery right now, that’s about it. Time to wander the halls and see who’s around.

Here We Go Again!

by @ 11:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Fannie Mae relaxing loan down payment requirements

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fannie Mae, the nation’s largest source of home financing, said on Friday it is lowering the amount of down payments required on mortgages it purchases, even in areas where home prices are falling.

Starting on June 1, the new requirements of 3 percent or 5 percent, which replace rules set in December, will apply nationally to loans on single-family primary residences, it said.

But wait, it gets better….

Fannie Mae also said it will continue to allow loans with Community Seconds, one of various assistance programs, for up to 105 percent combined loan-to-value ratio.

With Community Seconds, a borrower has a second-lien mortgage to help cover down payment and closing costs, with funding usually provided by a state or local housing agency, employer or a nonprofit organization.

“We recognize that down payment assistance programs remain a viable tool for borrowers who can afford a mortgage long-term, but might need a little help getting started,” Sullivan said.

Are you flippin’ kidding me? The only piece they’re missing is giving loans to folks who can’t afford to pay them! Oh wait…

On May 6, when Fannie Mae reported first-quarter results, it announced other initiatives, including a plan to provide up to $10 billion to help Housing Finance Authorities (HFA) serve first-time homebuyers “of modest means.” In some cases, Fannie Mae said, it will buy HFA mortgages that have greater than 97 percent loan-to-value ratios.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

It’s time to start buying gold and burying it in the back yard.

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