Back August 12. I MIGHT have an extended post or two show up on the Emergency Blogging System, but don’t hold me to that because there’s something less than 12 hours before I head out of town.
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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.
Back August 12. I MIGHT have an extended post or two show up on the Emergency Blogging System, but don’t hold me to that because there’s something less than 12 hours before I head out of town.
Milwaukee (crAP) – El Picante, after getting a special one-day exemption from the INS to work in the United States at the urging of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, finished a disappointing third in Saturday’s controversial running of the Brewers’/Klement’s Sausage Race.
The controversy started immediately after Brett Wurst beat Guido to the finish line to win the race. Well-known bookie Knock-Knees Tony was seen giving Picante a large manilla envelope as Picante departed the field along the right-field line. Picante immediately left after the race for the Arizona Fall League and was unavailable for comment, but Tony said, “Can’t a lucky paisan help out a new immigrant?” Wurst was listed as a 500-1 longshot by various sports books.
Further adding doubt to the legimitacy of their wins, both Wurst and season-leading Guido reportedly tested positive for excessive amounts of protein in a meat test taken immediately after yesterday’s race. If “B”, “C”, “D”, and “E” samples from the pair, to be tested in Gantner’s Gardens at 11:30 am this morning, also show excessive amounts of protein, their finishes will be thrown out. Guido that he always had an unusually-high amount of protein, offering to have his personal butcher provide years of evidence. Wurst vehemetly denied the charge after bonking on Friday, claiming, “I drowned my sorrows in Icehouse instead of my usual Miller Lite, so between that and my miraculous recovery from Friday’s race, that threw my body chemistry off. I categorically deny taking any sausage-enhancing drugs.”
Brewers’ owner Mark Attanasio was not impressed by these denials, ordering Brett Wurst and Guido suspended until this matter is fully-digested. They will be replaced by Dr. Z and Vito Corleone in today’s race.
There’s a whole bunch of red on the radar stretching from the lake along the Milwaukee-Ozaukee County line to the Dodge-Jefferson County line headed to the southeast. The National Weather Service currently has severe thunderstorm warnings up for Ozaukee, Milwaukee, Waukesha and Jefferson Counties, and the winds are howling at or above 60 mph with plenty of tree and power line damage. One thing they didn’t quite mention was the lightning; there’s a whole heap of it. They should push through by about 10 am.
There’s more behind this; we have a severe thunderstorm watch until 4 pm.
The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance has the details on the municipal level. To wit:
– Among the municipalities with a population of at least 2,000 (230 total), despite the Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi) 2% tax “freeze”, property taxes increased 4.1% in fiscal year (FY) 2006 (2005-2006 on your calendar), the same as the average between FY2002 and FY2005. Throwing in the tiny communities kept the FY2006 increase at 4.1% and raised the average FY2002-FY2005 increase to 4.3%.
– 86 of those “large” communities raised those taxes higher in FY2006 than in FY2005 (when there was no Craps anti-Freeze).
– Local spending in the “large” communities increased by an annual average of 4.3% between FY2000 and FY2004.
– Local debt in the “large” communities increased by an annual average of 6.9% during that same time-frame.
Meanwhile, neither inflation nor compensation has kept up with any aspect of government taxation or spending over that time. Between 2000 and 2005, inflation in the Midwest was an annual average of 2.41%. Over that same time, compensation in the Milwaukee-Racine area went up an annual average of 3.48%.
Tell me again, members of the Party In Government, why we don’t need a property tax freeze.
Will the last person out of Wisconsin please tell We Energies to turn out the lights.
Revisions/extensions (11:19 am 7/26) – Forgot to mention all of those unelected taxing authorities, like MMSD and MATC, that weren’t even part of the Craps’ anti-freeze. Throw those in, and the news gets worse.
If you’re not reading his stuff on a regular basis, shame on you. Here’s what you missed the last few days (and I’m just including the seriously-funny stuff; there’s also some very serious stuff included):
– Dennis’ bachelor habits (damn but they look familiar)
– Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) hoping that the first thing embryonic stem cell research saves is his job
– The unfortunate deportation of the Milwaukee Brewers’ newest racing sausage, Chorizo
I bow down to the Cheddarsphere’s King Comic. We’re not worthy, we’re not worthy!
This morning’s Journtinel reports that executives with HNTB gave Gov. Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) $17,684. I suspect that it’s for future considerations because their second-biggest payday (a no-bid $685,000 contract to build mchange.org) came before Craps came to town, and their biggest (co-design of the Marquette Interchange) straddled the timeline.
Oh, and this fresh $17,000+ comes less than a year after the #2 official at WDOT held a highly-questionable barbeque fundraiser for Craps that HNTB officials attended.
Revisions/extensions (1:36 pm 7/24) – Brian reminds us that while the original $600,000 contract was indeed approved under the McCallum administration, it was under the Craps administration that gave final approval to the overrun-plagued site.
I have installed a captcha device. Hated to do it, but I’m tired of having to go through 200+ spam comments a day from bots that figured out how to leave comments.
In this morning’s KOKO Puffs edition of DUmmie FUnnies, PJ-Comix chronicles the rebellion of the KOmmies over at Daily Kos over the Head KOmmie’s running of ads for a primary opponent of Gwen Moore’s rolemodel, Cynthia McKinney (No Respect-Loserville). The KOmmies are completely bonkers, and PJ attributes that to McKinney’s refusal to buy ads. However, if memory serves, if an outlet accepts paid political advertising from one source, it must accept paid political advertising from all sources.
Could the fact that this double-homicide happened right across the street from the Fourth Estate at 4th (and 3rd) and State be the reason why it wasn’t buried in the “News in Brief” like every other murder in Milwaukee, instead receiving the full-blown teaser on the front page and huge story on the front of the Metro section treatment?
One word describes it, especially the Thunderbirds – AWESOME!
If you missed it, Fred has some stock video of the Thunderbirds, and Patrick has at least 1 shot and possibly some video from today’s performance. Of course, I never did run into either of them, though I did run into The Asian Badger.
Now, don’t miss it tomorrow, even if it will be hotter tomorrow.
Revisions/extensions (12:30 pm 7/16) – Patrick was way too far north (he was about at the North Point snack bar), Aaron was only slightly too far west (though he has some rather extensive video), and both Fred and Dad29 were too far south (in addition to his pics, Fred has some live video of the Thunderbirds).
If you didn’t go yesterday, and you can dig up some sunscreen and a lot of water (trust me or at least the back of my neck and knees, you’ll need both), it’s not too late to go today. The US Army Golden Knights parachute team will be going about 1:50, and the Thunderbirds start up about 3:30. In between, there’s also an F-15 (I suspect it’s the -E Strike Eagle model because the narrator said it could handle 9 G’s, and they did have a crew of 2) that duets with a P-51D at the end of its run (that’s on one of Aaron’s videos), and an F/A-18F Super Hornet that duets with a F-6F Hellcat (though it looked a lot more like a F-4U Corsair to both the Asian Badger and me) at the end of its run.
The Lawgivers-In-Black (LIBs) of the Craps-packed Wisconsin Supreme Court just ruled that the state Constitution once again is worth nothing more than toilet paper, saying in a 4-3 decision written by Loophole Louis Butler (the packee) that no portion of the Constitution or previous SCOW decisions apply to Indian casinos or Governor Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale). To wit, Craps and the Indians can offer whatever games they agree to, including new ones never before contemplated.
Tell me again why the “R”PW didn’t oppose Pat Crooks.
President Bush best hope that Rick Graber is a better ambassador than party chair. Let’s see what “accomplishments’ Graber has since becoming the “R”PW chair in 1999:
MediaMole over at FreeRepublic said it best:
This is clearly the “Peter Principle” at work.
Prague will return to Soviet control under his watch. It doesn’t matter that the Soviet Union no longer exists. He managed to get Doyle elected and Kohl re-elected, he can lose the Czech Republic.
Let’s see if this activates the trackback/pingback to his WordPress sandbox. Seems he’s ready to bail (will the last blogger off of BlogSpot, please turn off the lights).
It’s too late in the night to get all the way back into blogging tonight, so I’ll do some tomorrow, I promise.
Revisions/extensions (11:11 pm 7/13) – stuck the trackback URL in the “Trackbacks” box.
Just haven’t had the energy to do much blogging, especially when everybody else has been saying pretty much what I have been.
Dennis York does a great job with “Scott McCallum – Visionary”. To resummarize that in song form (with apologies to Kansas for butchering “Portrait (He Knew)”):
He had a thousand ideas, you might have heard his name
He lived alone with his vision
Not raiding fortunes or fame
Never taxed much to speak of
He was off on another plane
The words that he said were a mystery
His fellow Pubbies said he was insaneBut he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could accept his view, Oh where was he going toHe was in search of an answer
Dig out from the tax hell we are
He was trying to do it a new way
He was bright as a star
But nobody understood him
“His numbers are not the way”
He lost in a bitter election
That’s why we are suffering todayBut he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could accept his view, Oh where was he going to
And he tried, but because of that his career died
When he left us the people cried,
Oh where was he going to?He had a different idea
A glimpse of the spending plan
He could see into the future
A true visionary man
“Hold the line on taxes,” he told us
But it died when he went away
If only he could have been with us
No telling what the tax bills might sayBut he knew, he knew more than me or you
No one could accept his view, Oh where was he going to
But he knew, you could tell by the budget he drew
It was totally something new,
Oh where was he going to?
Before anybody asks, I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.
Standard disclaimer; this was not coordinated with the RealDebate for Senate campaign. The worth of this post is $0.02
Fred reminds us that he has a nose for breaking slime. Well, there’s a LOT of slime to be broken in DC.
So, go vote for Fred in the BBA primary, and remember that both Aaron and Cosmo (Jonah Goldberg’s dog) are too young to be Senators.
(H/T – Charlie’s show, so no link yet)
I somehow doubt that this exchange as reported by Power Line has an auto-reply response as part of it:
Reader Henry David copied us on his over-the-top letter of thanks to the New York Times for blowing the terrorist finance tracking system:
Dear Mr. Keller:
I want to thank you personally for breaking the story on the government illegally using the SWIFT system to track money.
This administration is always breaking the law. They all belong behind bars. Just remember, it’s your duty to make sure they’re kicked out of office, in the most humiliating way possible. Republicans are killers of poor people all around the world. Crimes against humanity should not go unpunished.
Keep up the good work.
Henry David
Mr. David reports that he received a quick response:
From: Executive Editor Desk
To: Henry David [email address omitted]
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:37:16 -0400
Subject: Re: Attention Bill Keller
Thank you for your thoughtful – and very welcome – email.
We appreciate your taking the time and trouble to write!
Executive Editor’s Desk
My take on this:
The lieberals in this country see but one source of evil; conservatives. They are perfectly willing to align themselves with anyone and everyone, and use any every tactic necessary possible in their pursuit of the elimination of us, even if it is self-destructive. From their efforts to keep blacks as a permanent underclass to their use of Hispanics whose ultimate goal is to reappropriate large sections of the US for themselves including the largest concentration of liberals west of the Appalachians, from aligning themselves with Islamokazis who want every person who does not agree with them 110% dead to advocating the breaking of any and every law if it means embarrassing the Bush administration, it is clear that lieberals have taken the approach of, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Be very careful of what you wish for, lieberals. Your “allies” won’t hesitate to stick knives in your backs (literally and figuratively).
I’m shocked, SHOCKED to read in today’s Best of the Web that Russ el-Slimeroad (Moonbat-Al Qaeda) has some integrity issues:
That integrity, it should be noted, has its limits. National Review’s >Jim Geraghty catches Feingold in a highly misleading statement. Feingold to Russert:
You know, Tim, today it was announced that a guy named Hassan Dahir Aweys is now the head of the government that has taken over in Mogadishu in Somalia. He is on the State Department’s terrorist list. He is known as an al Qaeda operative, or somebody that is connected with al Qaeda. While we were asleep at the switch, while we were bogged down in Iraq, while we were all focused on Iraq as the be all and end all of our American foreign policy, we are losing the battle to al Qaeda because we’re not paying attention. I asked Ambassador [Henry] Crumpton [the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator] at a hearing the other day, how many people in our federal government are working full time on the problem in Somalia? He said one full-time person.
Geraghty unearthed the transcript of the Feingold-Crumpton exchange, and it turns out Feingold’s account of it is Clintonian–i.e., true, but only literally so:
Feingold: How many people does the State Department have working on Somalia full-time? I just want the full-time figure.
Crumpton: Yes, sir. There is one dedicated Foreign Service officer in Nairobi that looks at Somalia, but there are a multitude of others, not just in the State Department but across the U.S. government, that work the issue.
Well, he is a DemocRAT and a lieberal, so I shouldn’t be at all surprised. Oh wait, I’m not.
Note to the federales; this post is worth exactly $0.02, which by my rough calculations leaves the RealDebate for Senate campaign about $4,900 short of having to register.
Fred has launched the Write In RealDebate campaign, and it seems I’m an unofficial campaign advisor. I do agree with the “vote early” half of the slogan, but I draw the line at “vote often”.
It’s about time to head to the oldest track in the country, the Milwaukee Mile, to watch the two junior NASCAR series race. I doubt I’ll be in much of a condition to post much until Sunday.
OpinionJournal’s Political Diary could not be having their “open house” at a better time. While they still don’t archive them, I will archive this little gem from today’s edition:
Weapons of Mysterious Discovery
Saddam Hussein was lying when he claimed he had destroyed all his weapons of mass destruction. Since the Iraq Survey Group called off its search for WMD in Iraq in early 2005, some 500 artillery shells containing Sarin or mustard gas have been found, according to a newly publicized Pentagon intelligence report. Banned weapons continue to turn up. Why does the the Bush Administration seem allergic to discussing the fact?
House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra, who held a news conference yesterday on the weapons discoveries, said the findings raise questions about the years of weapons inspections that had not resulted in locating the fairly sizeable stash of chemical weapons. He also noted that it was unfortunate that Americans had been given the impression that the 16-month search by the Iraq Survey Group was the definitive statement on the existence of WMD in Iraq. After continuing to get leads on possible WMD sites, the Defense Department’s National Ground Intelligence Center took up where the ISG left off and discovered the 500 shells in a variety of sites.
The Pentagon is downplaying the weapons discovery because, in the words of a spokesman, they were “not the weapons we were looking for” when the 2003 invasion occurred. Then Secretary of State Colin Powell had mesmerized television audiences when he spoke at the U.N. Security Council in January 2003 detailing stockpiles of anthrax and other toxins he believed Saddam Hussein had.
Still, the discovery should prompt curiosity about what more digging might turn up. To date, there has been an almost pathological reluctance on the part of the U.S. intelligence community to translate and analyze 36,000 boxes of documents captured from Saddam Hussein’s government. “The information released today proves that weapons of mass destruction are, in fact, in Iraq,” said Senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican. “It is essential for the American people to understand that these weapons are in Iraq.” He pointed out that during yesterday’s debate on a troop withdrawal resolution, several Senate Democrats said that no WMD had been found in Iraq, a claim, Mr. Santorum said, the declassified document proves is untrue.
The tantalizing clues found in the tiny portion of the National Ground Intelligence Center’s report that has been declassified should serve as a wakeup call for the Bush administration to consider releasing more material from the treasure trove of Saddam documents. The Bush White House’s failure to defend and explain its Iraq policies has proven to be one of the major reasons support for the war has fallen so dramatically.
Folkbum, check your fax machine for new talking points :-)
Dean has it, and he runs with the new logo from Belle.
Nick is looking for a host for next week. Head on over here for the details.
Let’s review the presstitute reaction (mostly courtesy a Yahoo News search (using the terms “Santorum”, “weapons” and “Iraq”) to the Rick Santorum bombshell yesterday that coalition troops found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein…
From the Cybercast News Service, because nobody else has the balls to put it up on the Web, though Fox News Channel did carry this –
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) announced Wednesday the finding of over 500 munitions or weapons of mass destruction, specifically “sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles,” in Iraq.
Reading from unclassified portions of a document developed by the U.S. intelligence community, Santorum said, “Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.”
According to Santorum, “That means in addition to the 500, there are filled and unfilled munitions still believed to exist within the country.”
As I type, I just finished hearing Santorum state this on the Senate floor. Where’s my apology, Russ el-Slimeroad? Where is it, Howie Deanie? How about it, Ketchup Boy? You asshats still want to bleat, “Bush lied!”?
Revisions/extensions (6:22 pm 6/21) – Here is Rick Santorum’s press release, something else you won’t see from the presstitutes:
U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, joined Congressman Peter Hoekstra, (R-MI-2), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today to make a major announcement regarding the release of newly declassified information that proves the existence of chemical munitions in Iraq since 2003. The information was released by the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, and contained an unclassified summary of analysis conducted by the National Ground Intelligence Center. In March, Senator Santorum began advocating for the release of these documents to the American public.
"The information released today proves that weapons of mass destruction are, in fact, in Iraq," said Senator Santorum. "It is essential for the American people to understand that these weapons are in Iraq. I will continue to advocate for the complete declassification of this report so we can more fully understand the complete WMD picture inside Iraq."
The following are the six key points contained in the unclassified overview:
"¢ Since 2003 Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent.
"¢ Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.
"¢ Pre-Gulf War Iraqi chemical weapons could be sold on the black market. Use of these weapons by terrorists or insurgent groups would have implications for Coalition forces in Iraq. The possibility of use outside Iraq cannot be ruled out.
"¢ The most likely munitions remaining are sarin and mustard-filled projectiles.
"¢ The purity of the agent inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives, and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal.
"¢ It has been reported in open press that insurgents and Iraqi groups desire to acquire and use chemical weapons.
After a bad couple of weeks in the “R”PW’s attempt to find somebody not named Lorge to take on Nobody’s Senator (hint; the ‘Rats didn’t let a simple thing called “death” stop them from unseating John Ashcroft), culminating with Rick’s, James’s announcements that they won’t run, the right side of the Cheddarsphere stepped up with not one, but two potential candidates. Aaron and Mary have both announced that they’re willing and able to challenge Nobody’s Senator.
Let’s see what all is involved in running a Senate campaign:
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