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.
Hot Air (among others) – Ken Mehlman out as “R”NC chair.
Good riddance. Boy, it was a real GREAT decision to throw full “R”NC support Arlen Specter, John Gard and Lincoln Chafee (who may yet bolt from the “Republican” Party, and who single-handedly will retire acting UN Ambassador John Bolton before he does so) in those primaries. Specter stabbed President Bush in the back on judicial nominees, and Gard and Chafee both lost in the general election.
Where’s Lee Atwater when you need him?
Owen reports that Dale Schultz is out, Scott Fitzgerald is in as state Senate Minority “Leader”.
Do note the continued use of quotes. They’re there for 2 reasons:
– With the Senate Dems united and in the majority, there won’t be any bills coming out of the Legislature that Doyle will be vetoing. Ergo, the only power left to the minority leader, the ability to hold his or her caucus together enough to prevent the override, is rendered obselete.
– Fitzgerald sticks his finger in the wind before taking a stand on any issue. That is not a sign of a leader.
Bonus coverage – Dennis York says that Mike Huebsch (R-a place without talk radio) will be the next Speaker of the Assembly, where the Pubbies have a 5-seat margin. Don’t look for him to be nearly as effective in thwarting Jim Doyle and the Senate Dems as Chuck Chvala was in thwarting Tommy Thompson and Assembly Pubbies.
Elliot has this week’s Carnival of the Badger up over at From Where I Sit.
Dr. Sigmund Fraud sure sounds real.
– Donald Rumsfeld resigns, will be replaced as Defense Secretary by Robert Gates.
– Dennis Hastert will not seek the minority leadership position.
According to the top-of-the-hour newscast, Kathleen Falk will not concede until at least the official canvas is completed, and then likely will pursue a recount strategy. Why am I not surprised? Is it because Craps needs her to refuse state cooperation into the federal investigation into him? Is it because Craps doesn’t really think that his running mate, Babs Lawton, is ready for prime time should he go down? In any case, the AG’s race isn’t over for at least another 20 days (November 27th, the last day that Falk can request a recount).
Brian Fraley, who engineered one of the two lone bright spots in Wisconsin, asks what the license plate of the truck that ran over us is. Let’s see if I can’t help answer the question after sobering up some:
– Taxes are dead as a campaign issue. – If you’ve read this blog at all, you know I’ve pimped the tax issue since I started. I hate to admit it has failed spectacularily, but it has.
Let’s take a look at two races; the 21st Senate and the Oak Creek/Franklin school referendum, both in areas that have been historically anti-tax. Before the now-retired Cathy Stepp, the previous two senators from the Racine area were tossed out because they advocated higher taxes. Indeed, George Petak suffered the first successful recall of a senator in ages over voting for the Miller Park sales tax. Running to replace Stepp were Bill McReynolds, who demonstrated fiscal responsibility as Racine County executive, and John Lehman, who actually said that Wisconsin was not a tax hell. The tax-and-spender won by 5 percentage points.
In Oak Creek and eastern Franklin, the school board sought a third spending referendum in a decade, one that costs more than either of the two previously passed, and made no effort to hide that they’ll be back for much more to address “needs” that were allegedly addressed by those two previous referenda as soon as the building authorized by that referendum is completed. Thanks in no small part to all these referenda, property taxes in the district rose to among the highest in the county. On the other hand, this was one of the hotbeds of the revolt of 2002, with Oak Creek sending a tax-freezing Republican to the Assembly, breaking 80 years of Democrat dominance of the district. That representative has run unopposed in both 2004 and 2006. The latest jam to the taxpayers won by 4 percentage points.
– Ethics is a “break”, not “make” issue for Republicans. – A LOT of Republicans with at best tenuous ties to Jack Abramoff and Mark Foley went down in flames. Meanwhile, Jim Doyle, Rod Blagojevich, Bob Menendez and William Jefferson, all Democrats being criminally investigated for various corruption charges, live on to collect more taxpayer-funded paychecks.
– Negative campaigning works, at least if you start early. – Let’s take a look at the governor’s and attorney general’s races. Jim Doyle’s campaign team started attacking Mark Green the moment Scott Walker dropped out of the race. Green’s campaign remained silent until September, and then didn’t go negative right away.
Similarily, JB Van Hollen’s campaign team started pointing out Kathleen Falk’s complete lack of prosecutorial experience the day after the primaries. Falk went very negative very late in the race.
– The “dinosaur” media still has a lot of sharp teeth. – As invested as talk radio and right-wing bloggers were in trying to stop the Democrat tsunami, the traditional media became invested in creating said tsunami. Guess who won.
– Pushing social conservative values still works most of the time. – Defenses of traditional marriage passed in almost every state in which it was an issue, and the return of the death penalty in Wisconsin was strongly endorsed. Balancing that out was the marriage defense failure in Arizona and the rejection of a strong anti-abortion initiative in South Dakota.
– Similarily, law and order is a winning issue. – See the attorney general race. Also, note that David Clarke, who is still working on turning the Milwaukee County Sheriff Department into a professional urban police force, handily defeated Don Holt, who wanted to return the department into solely a revenue generator. Further, John Chisholm, who at least says he wants to prosecute aggressively, handily whipped Lew Wasserman, who wanted to expand the catch-and-release program that is the DA’s office.
Revisions/extensions (9:30 am 11/8/2006) – Thanks for trying to talk me down, Charlie. I am going to need a lot of help with this one.
Revisions/extensions (8:15 am 11/8/2006) – We have a winner in the AG race, and I added a few other races I didn’t have before.
Further revisions/extensions (10:40 pm 11/8/2006) – Scratch the Virginia recount; George Allen is more honorable than Kathleen Falk. Needles to say, Allen is a Pubbie, while Falk is a ‘Rat.
Time to go through the winners and losers:
– Democrats – Well, duh. The ‘Rats took both houses of Congress (pending a likely recount in Virginia), the majority of governor’s mansions (including soundly keeping Jim “Craps” Doyle in position to reward his contributors and exact retribution on everybody else), and the state Senate.
– Terrorists – With control of Congress, the ‘Rats will defund the War on Terror and likely seek to conduct a “Constitutional coup” (they don’t have the 67 votes in the Senate to install Nancy Pelosi though). If the Islamokazis are smart, they’ll lay off the attacks a bit longer and let the ‘Rats also take the White House.
– Crooked politicians – Doyle, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez (all ‘Rats) all won. Also, William Jefferson, the Louisiana ‘Rat with the $90,000 in the freezer, finished first in his Congressional re-election bid and faces a runoff.
– Traditional marriage – Every state with a referendum on the ballot regarding marriage except one (Arizona the outlier, with Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin the majority) voted to uphold traditional marriage.
– Law and order – JB Van Hollen beat back official Doyle whitewasher Kathleen Falk for AG, and John Chisholm at least ensured that Milwaukee County DA’s office won’t become even more of a catch-and-release office than it already is.
– Republicans – Well, duh. Every type of Pubbie, from the very conservative (Rick Santorum) to the RepubicRATs (Lincoln Chafee) lost.
– Taxpayers – Between Doyle, the state Senate ‘Rats (especially John Lehman and Jim Sullivan) and various referenda (including, unfortunately, another $28.5 million in Oak Creek/Franklin), taxes will continue to skyrocket with no limits.
99% of the vote in –
J.B. Van Hollen (R) 1,055,342
Kathleen Falk (D) 1,046,327
Law and order now moves into the “winner” column.
Before I start on the winners and losers from this election, I would like to extend a personal “thanks” to former State Senate Majority “Leader” Mary Panzer for killing TABOR in 2004. Because of her, and because of the resulting re-election of Jim “Craps” Doyle (ALWAYS For Sale) and the takeover of the State Senate by the ‘Rats, taxes will continue to skyrocket in Wisconsin the next 6 years.
Had she shepherded TABOR through in 2004 (and assuming it would have gone through this past session as well), it would have been on the ballot in this election. Now, with the party that officially says that taxes are not high enough in charge of one house of the Legislature, we won’t be able to get either a freeze or any form of TABOR/TPA through this session, or get it onto the ballot until 2012. I hope to be long gone from Wisconsin by then.
This is the Emergency Blogging System. Even if Papa’s had a WiFi hotspot and steveegg had a laptop, he wouldn’t be live-blogging the election.
The time is now 8 pm Central Standard Time. If the ‘Rats haven’t conned a judge to let them continue to bus people in from Illinois, the polls are now closed. It’s all over but the counting (and hopefully not the recounting and re-recounting and re-re-recounting like in Washington State in 2004).
This is the Emergency Blogging System. Steveegg is busy working the Casper for Everything Victory Party/November Drinking Right at Papa’s Social Club.
One hour, one hour left in the voting day. If you’re going to vote for the NRE-recommended candidates, do so NOW, then come on down to Papa’s. If not, then in the immortal words of Fighting Bob Anderson, “Tahellwitchoo!”
(H/T once again – RedState)
A ‘Rat county clerk sent only 150 ballots to a Pubbie-heavy precinct with 2400 registered voters. Needless to say, they ran out and got a drop-in-the-bucket shipment of another 250. They also don’t have any provisional ballots.
Paging Tom “Milk Carton” Barrett. THAT is the textbook definition of not providing not enough ballots, not the providing of hundreds of thousands more than registered voters you bitched about in 2004.
(H/T – RedState)
The Indianapolis Star is reporting that polls in one Indiana county will stay open an extra 2:40 to 8:40 pm local time because of extended problems with voting machines.
JSOnline’s DayWatch is now reporting that the State Doylie Elections Board has ordered Milwaukee poll workers to take down signs that say that felons who attempt to vote may be prosecuted. These signs were put up by the Milwaukee Elections Commission at the urging of both the city attorney’s office and the county district attorney’s office.
Guess the Doylies aren’t liking Jim “Craps” Doyle’s (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) chances.
JSOnline’s DayWatch reports that a polling site at Madison East High School received a bomb threat. The initial report at 11:34 had the site shut down and Madison considering asking for an extension, while the update at 11:54 said that the site was open until 11:40, then shut down for an estimated 20-minute search.
Catch the bastard(s) that made the threat and let him/her/them swing.
Revisions/extensions (1:18 pm 11/7/2006) – According to JSOnline’s DayWatch, they moved the machines outside and are voting again.
Various sources from JSOnline’s DayWatch to Owen to my own personal experience (19th when the polls opened with a nice line) all indicate that turnout is heavy in southeast Wisconsin. Keep it up!
Redstate.com is reporting multiple incidents of vote fraud and intimidation in the city of Brotherly Love. White out has been dumped on several polling books, some election officials are allowing unregistered people to vote, others are demanding people vote straight DemonRAT, and in one precinct, Republican poll watchers with valid poll-watching certificates are being actively denied access to the polls.
That wouldn’t have anything to do with incumbent Pubbie Sen. Rick Santorum’s legendary ability to close at the end of a campaign now, would it?
Revisions/extensions (1:37 pm 11/7/2006) – RedState has video of the blocking of the poll watchers.
This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated because steveegg is already at his polling place and casting his ballot. LOOK OUT BELOW!
For the next 13 hours, the polls will be open in Wisconsin. See below for steveegg’s extended recommendations. To summarize:
Governor/Lt. Governor – Mark Green/Jean Hundertmark
Secretary of State – Sandy Sullivan
State Treasurer – Jack Voight
US Senate – Dave Casper (write-in)
Defense of Marriage Amendment – Yes (that is the ONLY vote that will prevent the Wisconsin State Supreme Court from imposing homosex marriage in the next year)
Death Penalty advisory referrendum – Yes
1st Congressional – Paul Ryan
4th Congressional – Perfecto Rivera
5th Congressional – Jim Sensenbrenner
8th Congressional – John Gard
5th State Senate – Tom Reynolds
7th State Senate – Dimity Grabowski
21st State Senate – Bill McReynolds
21st State Assembly – Mark Honadel (I know, he’s running unopposed, but we don’t want a write-in surprise)
Milwaukee County Sheriff – David Clarke
Milwaukee County District Attorney – Jeff Wagner (write-in)
Oak Creek/Franklin School $28.5 million borrow-spend-tax for another shiny new building – No
Owen notes that, in direct violation of the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, Wisconsin and the counties/stadium boards that collect sales taxes are still taxing internet access. This tax was to have been ended under this federal law on November 1, but Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) and company are too addicted to the $30 million it brings in every year.
It’s yet another reason to vote for Mark Green for governor tomorrow.
(H/T – unspun at Free Republic)
DemocRAT bribery for votes has hit Eau Claire. According to the RPW, Kathleen Vinehout the ‘Rat candidate for the 31st Senate District (held by RepubicRAT Ron Brown) got caught giving away hot dogs in exchange for votes. Also, a UW-Eau Claire professor used her university e-mail to encourage her students to accept rides to city hall for the purposes of voting early, with those drivers handing the students completed sample ballots with every ‘Rat filled in before they reached city hall.
RPW Executive Director Rick Wiley had the line of the day in the linked release, “Cigarettes, pastries and now hotdogs for votes. No wonder Democrats want universal health care. The people they are bribing for their vote are going to need it.”
Now, where have we seen this before?
Revisions/extensions (8:31 pm 11/6/2006) – Because “FAIR” Wisconsin unleashed a fresh set of lies through robocalls today (details at, among other places, Boots and Sabers), this has been brought back to the top.
Borrowing from Tom McMahon’s 4-Block World (which got added to the roll, just in case you weren’t viewing it from his main blog:
| DOMA approved | DOMA not approved | |||
| What changes 11/8/2006 |
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| What changes 11/8/2007 |
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Almost left for home without commenting on this:
Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale), as quoted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in July 2005 – ""˜The result of the freeze that I will sign will be that the average property tax on the average home will not go up at all next year, and will actually go down $5"² in December 2006."
14 of the 19 members of the Milwaukee County Board – A 3.6% property-tax levy increase is far preferable to a tax-levy freeze.
I’m proud to say that my county board supervisor, Paul Cesarz, was once again one of those that didn’t adopt the group think. Unfortunately, once again, he’s so far in the minority that this latest increase will survive the Scott Walker vetoes.
Remember to “thank” Doyle for this latest tax anti-freeze sublimation tomorrow by voting for Mark Green.
(H/T – Kate)
The lieberals aren’t waiting until election day to start their “give us more time to manufacture votes” challenges. The ACLU and NAA(L)CP filed a lawsuit late Monday in a Maryland district court to attempt to force the state of Maryland to accept absentee ballots postmarked the day of the election instead of the legal cutoff of the day before the election. Fortunately, a judge in Anne Arundel County rejected this attempt to allow them to steal the election from Michael Steele. No word yet on whether they’ll try to find an appellate court to allow them to do this theft.
Now you dimwitted might ask why the ACLU and NAA(L)CP would want to let absentee ballots postmarked the day of the election to be counted. Allow me to explain; the polls in Maryland close at 8 pm Eastern. A quick search through the USPS website reveals that the main post office in Baltimore has a last pickup of 8 pm Eastern. Even worse, that’s 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, 5 pm Pacific, 4 pm Alaskan, and 3 pm Hawaiian/Aleutian. Nothing like knowing exactly how many “votes” to dump into the system to steal an election.
If you don’t know who I’m going to say, you’re probably just rolling in with this being your first post read. The choice is clear – Mark Green over Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale). I’ll let Rick Esenberg’s words speak for me because he says it far better than I can.
Like the Milwaukee County DA’s race, I cannot recommend any of the candidates running. You have a do-nothing incumbent and 3 dumb challengers, each more insane than the last. Instead, I recommend writing in Dave Casper.
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