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.

February 9, 2008

DAD-WI – Scott Walker

by @ 13:04. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Now up, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. He wants Ryan as VP.

He’s up for re-election in less than 2 months. The first 2 times he ran, the Dems in Madison put up people who ran as conservatives (note; it is a nonpartisan office), now they have an unabashed liberal.

Scott listing a laundry list of differences between him and Lena Taylor. He’s a tax-freezer (6 straight no-levy-increase budgets submitted, 0 tax-increase budgets signed), she’s a tax-hiker. He’s for school choice, she worked to try to kill it.

Before Walker became exec in 2002, the tax levy went up an average of 6% a year. Even with the Board wanting to raise taxes, it’s been 2% since his election.

We need help to keep him in office; go to his campaign site.

He’s relating a story from one of his budget hearings about a woman who attended, braved all the organized labor who want more, more, more, and laid the simple case for not raising her taxes as they had already gone up well past her wages.

DAD-WI – Paul Ryan

by @ 12:57. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Now up, Rep. Paul Ryan. The crowd wants him to run for higher office (I agree), he says first, kill earmarks.

The reason America is great is because we have freedom and liberty. They are, however, under assault.

Ryan has brought back the spirit of the late Sen. Bill Proxmire’s Golden Fleece award with the Budget Boondoggle award. The first winner is Sen. Ted Stevens, who replaced the “Bridge to Nowhere” with the “Ferry to Nowhere” (still serves 40 people).

If you can’t clean up spending like this, how are you going to tackle entitlements.

When Ryan’s kids are his age (about 30 years from now), if they want a federal government that is exactly like today’s, they’re going to face a level of taxation that is double that is today’s (40% of GDP versus 20% now). The bad news is no new bills need to be passed. The worse is all the Dems have to do is stalemate.

The Bush tax cuts were permanent when they left the House; the Senate’s filibustering made them sunset.

The Alternative Minimum Tax is a big scourge, and the Dems, including Clinton and Obama, want to replace it in kind with a tax that has a top rate of 45%.

It can’t be an American Century if the biggest bill you pay is to government. Other countries that have gone into the hole the Dems want to go into are actually reducing taxes to get out of it.

The way to fight the Dems’ plans is to join the fight. We are at risk of severing the American legacy if we don’t take this country back. Thank you, AFP, thank you crowd.

This is a generational time; these are transformational times.

DAD-WI – Tim Phillips part 2

by @ 12:48. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

We’re back from lunch, and Tim Phillips is back at the mic. First, he thanked Mark Block and the rest of AFP-Wisconsin for being very active.

Next up, the next two big issues we have to fight; universal health care and global “warming”. Both will crash the economy.

The winner of the Defending the Dream Award is…Rep. Paul Ryan (my Congresscritter). Even though he (still) looks too young to serve, he has become a leader.

DAD-WI – Lunch!

by @ 12:31. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

It is pretty much the same choices as in DC; naturally, I took the ham sandwich box (Fred wanted a Photoshop).

Owen showed up just in time for lunch, and I can finally get to the list of other luminaries from Brian:

– Sen. Glen Grothman
– Chris Kleismeth and Orv Seymer from CRG
– Rebecca Dallet, a candidate for Milwaukee Circuit judge
– Bill Gleisner, a candidate for District 2 Court of Appeals
– Georgia Maxwell, Scott Walker’s campaign manager (her son recited the Pledge)
– Mike Dean, conservative activist from Waukesha County

I almost (hell with almost, I did) forgot about Erik Telford, the AFP national blog man who got me the blogger credentials back in October.

DAD-WI – Dinesh D’Souza

by @ 12:12. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Now up – Dinesh D’Souza. He made the trek from CPAC here. A bit of humor since he’s the last speaker before lunch, quoting Henry XIII – “I won’t keep you very long.”

The Reagan Revolution has been played out, but the general ideas live on and need a new direction.

He started off by being part of Dartmouth’s conservative paper.

What made Reagan Reagan? He had a euclidian confidence that he was right. He wasn’t “open-minded” in a liberal-arts sense because he knew where he wanted to go.

He was also indifferent to the power of the punditry.

When he was asked to reverse his early monetary policy because his popularity was plunging, he said “Maybe it’s time for me to be shot again.”

I’m just going to have to let the tape to the talking on the Reagan stories. Once again, I can’t do Dinesh justice.

Reagan realized that one can’t change the world in 45 ways; the most one can hope for is to change it in 2 or 3 ways.

Ultimately, Reagan believed in the vitality of the American dream. Sometimes, we activists get tired by fighting battle after battle. The good news is, if we keep the core of the American dream in front of us, then ultimately we will not only endure but prevail.

DAD-WI – semi-break part 2

by @ 11:55. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Tom McMahon’s in the house and found our little corner. Dunno the other guy with the laptop off-hand (haven’t had any time to ask him). Just had a short video with classic Reagan quotes.

DAD-WI – Dan Schnur

by @ 11:53. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Now up, Dan Schnur, president of Command Focus. He’s back home after living the last 20 years not just for Leon’s, but because the Presidential election is that important, and Wisconsin will likely decide it (Fred recognizes him as a McCain 2000 guy).

He started off working for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush (“Bush Classic”).

Question – “Who to people trust?” They don’t trust the media, but they trust each other.

Over the next several months, the parties will spend hundreds of millions on television ads, and because of TiVo, they will be wasted. Those who watch the ads are those that are already committed.

Where do people get reliable information about the campaigns? From each other and “you”. The reason we have a second term for W is because a few people in Ohio used technology to help volunteers to focus directly on swing voters.

This year’s Ohio/Florida is the upper Midwest; Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin.

DAD-WI – David Clarke

by @ 11:46. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Now up, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. He is contrasting the Founding Fathers’ view on government with that of government today. For 4 consecutive budgets, he returned money from the sheriff’s budget to the county, unfortunately, the Board didn’t return it to the taxpayers (damn them).

He’s not anti-union, he’s anti-waste, anti-fraud and anti-abuse.

He’s calling for a state paycheck protection act, which would require unions to get permission from their members before spending money on political purposes.

He proposed privatizing the prisoner transport, which would have saved $1.5 million. When the appropriate committee shot it down 7-0, two of the members said that they would not do anything to eliminate union jobs.

DAD-WI – Margaret Farrow

by @ 11:41. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Now on the podium, former Lieutenant Governor Margaret Farrow, who is promoting Wisconsin Eye, which is actually a privately-funded vew of government (much like C-SPAN, but unlike CSPAN, it’s not government-controlled). In addition to the legislative sessions, they cover many committee hearings (they were at the FAN bill one I was at a few weeks back), and a bunch of speeches.

DAD-WI – Steve Lonegan

by @ 11:36. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Next up, AFP-NJ director Steve Lonegan.

Begins by quoting the Founding Fathers on rights. The elites of the day said the Great American Experiment wouldn’t work; well, it worked.

Then, 50-60 years ago, things started to change. We’ve gone to moving toward the welfare state, and a crushing of the American spirit.

He’s relating a very good and inspiring personal story. I can’t do it justice by excerpting (he’s talking too fast, it’s not the Jersey accent), so the tape will have it.

The vision that created this country didn’t come overnight. It came from Aristotle, and John Locke, and the battle after the Dark Ages. The battle is not over.

We look to the founders for inspiration; George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine (“These are the times that try men’s souls”), Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty or give me death). We can’t look to them to leadership; we are the new leaders.

Quoting the end of the Declaration of the Independence to close.

DAD-WI – Mike Gableman

by @ 11:21. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

I’ll continue with the paraphrasing (I missed the very beginning of his remarks, so when I get the audio up, I apologize for joining it in progress). Now up, Burnett County judge, and candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Mike Gableman (who I ran into on my way in; he has a very good memory as he remembered me).

Thanks Mark for taking him through the kitchen as he quoted Reagan.

The reason he’s running – he’s right and Justice Butler is wrong. Butler’s judicial liberalism makes Wisconsin less safe.

Contrasting his long history of working with prosecutors, police and victims of crime with Butler’s working as a defense attorney. Points out that while Butler has been a judge longer, 10 of those years has been as a municipal judge in Milwaukee.

It is the small-business owner that drives the economic security and safety of the state. Once again, he states he will not substitue his personal views for the rule of law, which will be a step up from the current members of the court.

Closes with a pledge to restore the Court to applying the law, not making it. Never give up, stand together.

DAD-WI – semi-break

by @ 11:14. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

We have a couple of minutes while a video on AFP is playing. Time to catch up.

Owen, you know me better than to censor. I <expletive deleted> swear like a <expletive deleted> longshoreman.

Back to the live-blog with Mike Gableman.

DAD-WI – Steve Moore

by @ 11:11. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Before I get to him, Brian just handed me a list of notables in the audience. Once I get some light beyond the laptop, I’ll get that up.

WSJ Editorial Board member Steve Moore begins by asking where Al Gore is. Global Warming is one of the biggest scams in the history of mankind. It is not about climate change, but about shutting down capitalism.

He’s relating a story about an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms party (no, not the federal agency).

The debates at the WSJ editorial board are between the right and the far-right.

He is praising us for killing Healthy (and Depopulated) Wisconsin. He points out the taxes would have been higher than places like Sweden with it.

Hits Jimmy Carter, not only for being the worst President of the 20th Century, but the worst ex-President.

Comparing Clinton and Obama, when asked by friends who he would prefer, he said it’s like choosing between shot at by Bonnie or Clyde.

Onto taxes; “Fair” or Flat, it doesn’t matter. We need one of them. Polling the audience on whether we should do a flat or fair tax; about 50-50. Relates a story about one of the earlier audience polls; two of the guys in back were wildly waving when asked about keeping the current system. Both were tax accountants.

Both Clinton and Obama want taxes to go back to 40% from 35%. This while the rest of the world is adopting the Reagan low-tax model. Even France, which doesn’t have a word for “entrepeneurship”, is cutting taxes.

Obama is even worse than Clinton on taxes. His tax raises would return us to the 1970s.

On to the death tax. Quoting Steve Forbes – “No taxation without respiration.” The current temporary reduction and repeal is the “Throw momma from the train” death tax repeal. The fed death tax, which is slowly being reduced, is gone in 2010 and back in full force in 2011.

The Left talks about bringing us together; meanwhile, they push to separate the classes. Top 1% of the income earners pay 39.6%, bottom 50% pay 3%. Quoting Charles Barkley to one of his TNT co-hosts when pressed on why he would vote for George Bush – “Kenny, you dumb ass, I am rich!”

DAD-WI – JB Van Hollen

by @ 10:55. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

(More paraphrasing until I get the audio up)

James Klauser introduced Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen. He is glad to be here, and that this got rescheduled so he could make it.

Does life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness sound like change? Unfortunately, with the way government is, it is change.

Government has taken away the ability to defend life nowadays. They took the liberty to protect borders away. They changed the pursuit of happiness into (missed it; I will update when I replay the tape).

Even some of those on my side of the aisle (Republican) get caught up in government. We have become so much an entitlement society it is hard to get into government by opposing expansion of entitlements.

When he, as a kid, asked his dad what conservatism means, he answered that it is belief in limited government and self-determination.

The first priority is public safety. Even after he won, he kept his campaign slogan.

At the federal level, the first duty is protect the borders.

Onto the defense of his first year; it may not look conservative, but it is limited government. His vision of the Department of Justice is local control, with some help from the DOJ.

Conservatives do not believe in no government, but in limited government. He has made significant progress on the backlog at the DNA lab.

He will help local governments go after Internet child pornography, has increased the Medicare fraud department, is cooperating with the feds on illegal immigration.

He is contrasting his view on the role of the AG with that of his predecessors; he won’t grow it into a policy-making body, but that it be a law firm (and not a tort law firm either). That is part of restoring integrity.

Change begins with people in the grassroots. We need to change back to the way we were in the first place.

DAD-WI – Mark Block

by @ 10:40. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Next up at the podium, AFP-WI director Mark Block. Continuing with the paraphrasing…

Change; everybody’s talking about it, we’re doing something about it. 2 1/2 years ago, AFP-WI didn’t exist. Now, we have 12,000 members.

We have to change the mindset of some legislators who want to make us not just the highest-taxed state in America, but one of the highest-taxed states in the world.

We want to double membership this year. This is the big introduction of the Home Headquarter Kit hinted at back in December.

Closes with a heartfelt appreciation for everybody involved with AFP. Introduces James Klauser.

DAD-WI – Tim Phillips

by @ 10:35. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

Assuming my voice recorder is working, I’ll have the audio up. Until then, I’ll paraphrase.. The first speaker is AFP President Tim Phillips. He started with the weather (it’s not that cold, yet, but it is for a southern guy.

He’s onto the taxpayers’ rally. He pointed out that those that opposed us were doing so on the taxpayers’ dime (sounds a bit like the RTA using $495,000 of their $500,000 in rental car taxes to lobby for more taxes).

Onto the ideas that came out of Wisconsin. First, the good; welfare reform. Next, the bad; bloated government.

Onto global warming; he’s onto the propsals that the liberals want; ending the tax deduction of mortgage interest on “larger” homes, the Programmable Communicating Thermostats.

Mad props to Leah Vukmir, who told Tim that if we were bold about promoting freedom, we will change the dynamic of the slouch toward liberalism.

The reason this is called Defending the American Dream summit; each generation dreams the next one has it better. Tim going into a family story, ends it with when he came back home in a coat and tie (after his mom said that he would get a “coat and tie” job), his mom said get the coat and tie off and cout the grass.

I wish I would get to the Reagan Presidential Library; it is a very good place. Tim closing with Reagan’s last letter to America (I hope that the recorder is catching this). For America, there will always be a bright, new dawn ahead.

DAD-WI – the beginning

by @ 10:23. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

We started off with a video presentation of Ray Charles singing “America”, presentation of the colors, the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Now, we’re on the growth of AFP.

The corn-a-hole crowd is going with Plan B

by @ 10:21. Filed under Corn-a-hole, Politics - Wisconsin.

Everybody knew about SB380, which we sent packing. What nobody knew about, at least until yesterday, is the Assembly has a companion bill, AB682. Pete found out about this yesterday, and Owen reports that it’s almost out of the Assembly’s Committee on Biofuels and Sustainable Energy, with final exit from there being taken up on Wednesday in the form of an executive session.

Time to start calling the Assembly, especially the members of that committee (I’ll have those members tomorrow; I’m on the laptop from DAD-WI).

DAD-Wisconsin, the beginning

by @ 9:52. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

The bloggers are in the house, and we’re actually right in the thick of it (unlike DC). Pete Fanning is over to my right with his laptop, Fred’s on the left (sans laptop, but he will have DAD Random Quotes), Christian is floating around along with Kathy and Jo. The party will start shortly.

R&E (10:02 pm 2/9/2008) – Brian is also in to give those of us back in the corner some professional tips.

Huckabee will not be McCain’s VP

by @ 8:19. Filed under Politics - National.

I was just about out the door to head to DAD-WI when Mike Huckabee popped on Fox. I had expected him to drop out like Mitt Romney, especially since he had teamed with John McCain to deny West Virginia to Mitt Romney, but he isn’t.

I hope McCain likes that stab in the back.

Defending the American Dream – Wisconsin Summit TODAY

by @ 6:39. Filed under Defending the American Dream.

I hope you’ve registered by now (if not, you might still be able to do so here), and if you’ve already left for the Country Springs Hotel, you’ve packed that winter coat; a whole heap of Gorebal “Warming” cold will be filtering in during the day. Kind of appropriate, because one of the sessions is going to be on global warming.

I’ll be there with my laptop, camera, and digital voice recorder, so unlike yesterday, expect a fair amount of posts today.

February 7, 2008

Maybe I shouldn’t have said “never” to McCain

by @ 15:07. Filed under Politics - National.

I can’t yet say that I will vote for John McCain (indeed, I may never be able to say that, and the scales are still weighted against), but he has reached out and started to heal the rift between him and conservatives like me. There are still a lot of items that I need to have to either have explained or forgotten. Indeed, somewhere below I have 13 reasons to say, “To hell with him”, and I didn’t hear squat on any of those 13.

At the same time, I heard a lengthier explanation of why he can claim to be member of the low-cost portion of small-government conservative. I heard that he will be open to persuasion on his liberal tendencies.

I probably will just take the next few days off of national politics and run a heap of conflicting things through my head.

Taking one for the Gipper!

by @ 14:58. Filed under Politics - National.

OK, it’s still early, the emotions haven’t even subsided to being generously considered “raw”. Even so, it’s time to start thinking about tomorrow and what we will do now that the last person with any hint of conservative credentials has dropped out of the race. Do we now just rally around McCain because the party says so? Do we sit this one out? Do we go to the dark side and vote for the Dem just so that the Republicans don’t get all the mud?

Let me offer this for some mashing and hashing on. Think of it as part of your cathartic process:

I’m beginning to think (and I’ll grant you I haven’t finished my creative using of foul language each time I hear McCain use the phrase “My Friend!”) that our best bet might in fact be to get behind McCain.

Before Steve bans my posting privileges forever, let me explain. I think we can all agree that McCain is as close to the squishy middle as you can be and still be a Republican. I think it’s also apparent that McCain has a fairly strong following among certain parts of the Rat brigades. I think this Rat following could, especially if Hill is the Dem candidate, put a decent amount of support for McCain from the Rats. If McCain got that support and got the support of the conservative R’s, I think there is a chance he could win the November contest in what would be considered a landslide.

Assuming the above, can we use McCain the way he has been using us? Can we take his win and leverage it for a win for conservatives?   Let’s face it, the Senate and House races are going to be terribly important this year. In fact, they may be even more important if McCain gets in. They may be the groups that keep McCain holding any level of conservative principle. I believe that if McCain wins and does so in a way that I lay out i.e. large margins, he could have some decent coat tails to use in the districts that kicked the R’s out last election. Most of those districts tossed the R’s out on relatively narrow margins. Would there be enough good will with McCain to rebalance the House and keep the Senate from becoming any worse?

Could this be the silver lining?

Classless way to drop out (no, not the speech; that was great)

by @ 13:09. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Revisions/extensions (1:30 pm 2/7/2008) – My commentary focused on the way the campaign blindsided its supporters. Jim Geraghty, who focused on the speech itself, is correct in saying that the speech is the way to have gone out.

I remarked on my semi-live (well, it was live until the cable started going) Romney drops thread, “‘What a welcome’ as he gets cheered. Guess the crowd didn’t get the memo.” Jonathan Garthwaite confirms they were “blindsided”, and fills in some more details:

In the half-hour before Romney’s speech, his supporters were gearing at their booth area for their big moment as Romney was slated to speak at 12:30pm. They grabbed foam “mitts”, noisemakers and signs and marched down to the ballroom where they expected Mitt Romney to give a “fight to the convention” speech. Because security was so tight due to the Vice President’s speech this morning, most headed into ballroom early and listened to Laura Ingraham’s strong defense of conservative values in the face of a McCain nomination and introduction of Romney. They had no idea what they were really going to hear.

Brilliance, Mitt. Sheer, unadulterated brilliance! Rush is also hammering on this (I’m on an hour delay).

Time to start recruiting a write-in (Romney drops live thread)

by @ 11:31. Filed under Politics - National.

Hot Air and others are reporting Mitt Romney will suspend his Presidential campaign, with the announcement at CPAC coming up shortly (carried by C-SPAN2). I don’t have enough time to set up a CiL, so we’re back to the old method for one time and one time only.

F*CK! FU*K! FUC*!

11:38 (all times Central and in 24-hour format) – Laura Ingraham looking real good in black. Also, a question from the Hot Air thread questions what the difference between “suspending” and “ending” is, with the immediate answer that a “suspension” does not release the delegates. Wait one while I go through the Romney roster and see what is and isn’t officially “pledged”.

11:45 – Ingraham introducing Mitt as the “conservative’s conservative” and a “class act” (she got one of two right). There’s the calm-down horseshit again.

11:47 – “What a welcome” as he gets cheered. Guess the crowd didn’t get the memo.

11:48 – (Reminder; I paraphase a lot) Blue tie (not good). Family affair, blah, blah, blah. Last year, CPAC gave me a send-off. Thank you, 11 states that voted for me.

11:49 – Thank you for showing up and speaking up. “Conservative principles are needed now more than ever…. Unless America changes course, we could become the France of the 21st Century.”

11:50 – (More paraphrasing) Only one nation has laid down millions of lives, won, and only took enough land to bury its dead, the US.

11:51 – The biggest challenge we have to face is the attack on America’s culture.

11:52 – “Culture makes all the difference…. What makes America unique?” The drive to succeed, a belief in either God or a higher calling than themselves.

11:54 – “The threat to culture comes from within…. Some think we won against (the culture of welfare), but the liberals haven’t given up…. Dependency is culture-killing.” (perhaps Mitt should have given this speech to Bush 7 years ago when he pushed No Child Left Behind and pushing more of the tax burden on the rich).

11:56 – Talking about fatherless families; sobering stats (60+% of black families, 45+% of Hispanic families, 25% of white families are single-parent families). Pass the Marriage amendment.

11:57 – The failed Europe today is the result of liberalism run amok, driving out God and traditional families. Now onto the economy.

12:45 – Sorry about that; the cable started crashing as I was about to post a rumor that Romney would endorse McCain found on the HotAir thread. Lots of expletives were tossed around the bunker, and it turns out that Romney is going home. Sure sounded like a virtual endorsement of McCain at CPAC, however.

13:13 – One last thought; I hope you weren’t counting on a very conciliatory speech out of McCain in about 45 minutes (if my watch and the schedule are right).

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