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.

August 27, 2009

The rules are for thee, not for me – TurboTaxTimmy edition

by @ 11:13. Filed under Politics - National, Taxes.

(H/T – DRJ)

The TaxProfBlog found that, a few short months after Treasury Secretary “TurboTax” Timothy Geithner successfully dodged criticism and possible legal consequences over his failure to timely pay taxes by claiming TurboTax didn’t properly process his income tax returns for several years, the Tax Court rejected that defense in another case:

Petitioners have not met their burden of persuasion with respect to reasonable cause and good faith. Mr. Hopson admitted that he received both Forms 1099-R for the distributions and that he knew they constituted income. After using tax return preparation software for nearly 20 years, he simply filed the return that was generated by the software without reviewing it. The omission of the distributions resulted in the failure to report over 40 percent of petitioners’ total income for the year. Granted this was a one-time event, but petitioners nevertheless had a duty to review their return to ensure that all income items were included. Petitioners were not permitted to bury their heads in the sand and ignore their obligation to ensure that their tax return accurately reflected their income for 2006. In the end, reliance on tax return preparation software does not excuse petitioners’ failure to review their 2006 tax return.

Do note that the decision of the Star Chamb…er, Tax Court is final; according to the Internal Revenue Code, not even the Supreme Court can review it. Also note that it is not precedent-setting.

The Morning Scramble – Special Swimming Away Edition

by @ 10:55. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Yes, it’s back for one morning only. Before I get to the meat of the matter, I must point you to some heartfelt words from Emperor Misha I to the remainder of the Kennedy family. For them, the late Senator was not Senator, but family.

Now that the 24-hour period of “mandatory niceness” is officially over (hell, it barely begun before Nancy Pelosi declared a unilateral end by demanding that ObamaCare the Chappaquiddick Memorial Death Panels Bill be passed in his name), we need music. Maestro…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5H4YaYn8Qk[/youtube]
Since I’m going to be lumped in by the “arbiters of ‘absolute moral authority'” with those who I quite franky agree even if I remain silent, I have got to salute those who remember Kennedy for the hyper-partisan, (wo)manslaughtering drunk, Communist sypathizer he was:

  • We start with today’s Day by Day cartoon –
  • Eric unloads the woodshed, the brickbats, and everything but the kitchen sink on Kennedy after somehow managing to observe the full 24 hours. Remember Robert Bork!
  • The Angry Webmaster includes the kitchen sink.
  • Tom McMahon multi-blocked the ten hours that cemented Kennedy’s reputatoin.
  • Rick Moran notes that a sitting Senator leaving a young woman to die in the back of one’s submerged vehicle isn’t as big a news as it used to be. Of course, back then, it wasn’t exactly pursued either; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been in the Senate the last 30-some years.
  • The Winning McCain Part 1 – Robert Stacy McCain broke out the “Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment” line one more time. Point of order – she is now able to unleash 40 years’ worth of comments on the guy who left her to die in the back of his sunken Olds.
  • The Winning McCain Part 2 – he declared yesterday to be Mary Jo Kopechne Day, and, as the Godfather of Rule 5 blogging, included heaps of links to others who celebrated it as such.
  • Paula provided the inspiration.
  • Kate, who was inexplicably missed in McCain’s roundup, mourns the fact that Mary Jo’s dad didn’t outlast her daughter’s killer.
  • Trail-Mix, who was also inexplicably missed, breaks out the Wikipedia entry. I would have recommended YTedK.com, but it seems the website went into the graveyard in the ether and only the Internet Archive has it.
  • Emperor Misha I predicts Hell will run out of liquor inside a week.
  • Confederate Yankee remembers Comrade Swimmer’s collusion with the Soviets to try to oust President Reagan.
  • The DPUD Chad lists more of The Swimmer’s “accomplishments”, including repeated abandonments of countries to Communists, and influence-pushing to help one of his nephews in a rape case.
  • Dr. Dave lists all of the “compassion” Kennedy had while living.
  • James Wigderson remembers Kennedy’s life as “one of unlimited potential, much of it wasted.”
  • Peter notes Dean Wormer was wrong – fat, drunk and stupid is a way to go through life.
  • Fidothedog breaks out some classic Kennedy posters.
  • Obi’s Sister just couldn’t work up any sympathy for Kennedy.
  • Phineas notes that Kennedy’s treasonous relations with the Soviet Union was the blueprint for the Left’s actions during the Iraq War.
  • Van Helsing breathes a sigh of relief.
  • Basil opens up The Swimmer Joke line.
  • Frank J. has a few random thoughts, including wishing Mary Jo Kopechne would have been alive to see that she was a trending topic on Twitter. She and the place she died were also top Google searches.
  • Doctor Zero found a bill that is worthy of the Kennedy name – a term-limit bill.

The outro music comes courtesy Headless Blogger, who should enter his Dead Kennedy joke in Basil’s post.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWO4JxM3nDc[/youtube]

Once again, there is a reason why I don’t do Scrambles anymore – this took longer than it took Pelosi to bust up the 24-hour rule.

August 26, 2009

Time to return fire – prepare for the Kennedy Memorial ObamaCare bill

by @ 11:41. Filed under Health Care Reform.

(H/T – Jim Hoft)

It didn’t take long for the Dems to jump all over the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s corpse and call for passage of ObamaCare in his name. As Joe Walsh once sang, “Out to pasture, think it’s safe to say, ‘Time to open fire.'”

First, Agence France Presse reports Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) invoked Kennedy’s words on what screwing up health care for the second time. That’s right, folks. Those of you who hate HMOs have Kennedy to blame – he wrote the 1973 bill that introduced HMOs.

Meanwhile, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) wins the Limbaugh Is Always Right award for being the first to call for renaming ObamaCare for Kennedy.

I prefer Pasadena Phil’s name for it (in the comments on Michelle Malkin’s post) – the “Chappaquiddick Memorial Death Panels Bill.”

Rest in peace, Sen. Kennedy (1932-2009)

by @ 10:34. Filed under Politics - National.

Those of you in a cave may not know the news – Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) passed away last night after battling a brain tumor. It is a sad day for his party, the Senate, and our country.

I’ll leave it to others to eulogize Sen. Kennedy. I recommend Baseball Crank’s take. For those of you who are thinking about taking cheap shots, listen to Michelle Malkin:

There is a time and place for political analysis and criticism. Not now.

Yes, there will be a nauseating excess of MSM hagiographies and lionizations — and crass calls to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death.

That’s no excuse to demonstrate the same lack of restraint in the other direction. Not now.

I do, however, disagree with Michelle about not talking about the generalities of the implications. First, nothing of significance changes in the Senate for the moment, even though the Senate is now short a member. Because of his illness, he was rarely in the Senate to provide the 60th anti-filibuster vote. Of course, the need for that has been an illusion; there were almost always enough “Republicans” to break up any filibuster.

The reason why it is merely for the moment is the Massachusetts ganders of the Democratic Party are meeting the goose’s sauce. They failed to reverse a screw job they planned for then-governor Mitt Romney (R) by taking away the power of the governor to appoint a temporary replacement until the next general election. Now, there will be a special election held between 145 days and 160 days from now.

Shortly after that point, the Democrats will, assuming Masachusetts does what it has done since 1976 and send a Democrat to the Senate, have 60 permanent members of their caucus. I have a bad feeling about the second session of the 111th Congress.

Revisions/extensions (10:15 am 8/27/2009) – Somehow had the wrong birth year for Kennedy. Mea culpa.

The Killer Instinct

by @ 5:52. Filed under Conservatism, Elections, Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

Large amounts of talent combined with training and technology have made it reasonably easy to field “good” teams in hockey, football, basketball or baseball. However, it is the rare team that moves beyond good and becomes dominating. The difference between the “good” teams and those that dominate their sport is one thing; killer instinct.

You may not be able to precisely define “killer instinct” but all sports fans know it when they see it.  Nobody left a Joe Montana and the Fortyniners game no matter what the score.  You knew that Joe was going to play until the last down of the game scoring at every opportunity he had.  Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, some years of the Yankees and the Edmonton Oilers with Wayne Gretzy are all examples of athletes and teams that played with “killer instinct”

But, you say, this is a political blog.  What’s going on with the sports analysis?

As with sports, politicians are separated by the ability to have a “killer instinct.”  Look at Norm Coleman against Al Franken.  Ahead in the polls until he decided to side step ANWAR, vote for the stimulus and decide that he no longer wanted to run a “negative campaign” even though he had done that from day one until they day he changed with 6 weeks left.  Norm is the perfect example of a politician who not only didn’t have a killer instinct, he showed he had little political instinct of any kind.

The race between John McCain and Barack Obama also came down to killer instinct.  One had it and one didn’t.  You can probably figure out which was which.

Anyone paying attention can see that the health care plan is on the ropes and cap and trade may well be on life support.  The public, across all demographics except the extreme loons, are responding to polls with the equivalent of “I didn’t vote for Obama!”  We see early contests in Virginia and New Jersey showing polls that seem to support a significant and sudden swing towards Republicans.  Everything is pointing towards a significant resurgence for Republicans.  The question is, do they have the killer instinct?

Unlike the left who has never had any concern about “rubbing their nose in it” when winning, Republicans seem to have an inbred need to be liked by the other side.  The result is that when they get a chance to gain ground, Republicans often feel the need to “compromise” to allow the other side the ability to save face.

The Republicans (I use this term generically and certainly don’t mean all people who run under that banner) have gained ground, not through their own actions.  Rather, the Republicans are gaining in popularity mostly because in a two party system, they are the only other option.  While the Republicans benefit from being “the only other choice” today, I wouldn’t be betting my house on it sticking.  Based on the fact that a large portion of the general population are revolting against their political masters I think there is a fair chance that a “throw all the bums out” mentality takes hold if the Republicans look to cave on health care or once again become Democrat lite.

You don’t think the Republicans could be that dumb again right?  Wrong!

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican Representative, has introduced a bill that would provide a $3,500 deduction for “qualified pet care expenses.”  The Representative is concerned of family hardships as a result of pet care costs during this time tough economic time.

How can any clear headed Republican think that providing a tax deduction for pet care makes sense when A: we have a hellacious deficit already,  B: human health care costs are subject to a 7% threshold of adjusted gross income and C: most of the Republicans and the general public are fighting to abolish further government intrusion into health care for people.  Does Thaddeus really think there is an urgency of any kind for the government (me and you) subsidizing health care for animals when we don’t want to do it for humans?

A stupid bill like this proves that Thaddeus McCotter does not have the killer instinct!  I hope to hell the rest of the Republicans have better political instincts.  If they don’t I’ll lead the parade for a third party.

August 25, 2009

Sorry about the blogging funk

by @ 16:13. Filed under The Blog.

I’ve got a couple of things on the burner, but no real energy to push them from the back simmer burners to the front ones.

Tomorrow will be light as well, at least until late. I plan on making the Janesville Paul Ryan listening session, then take a trip to Madison for the AFP town hall.

August 24, 2009

We’ve Only Just Begun

by @ 5:48. Filed under Economy, Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

After stalling for nearly a month, late Friday afternoon, the Obama administration leaked that their periodic budget/deficit update was going to show…..well, let’s just call it a deviation from expectations.  Rather than “cut the deficit in half as he promised, President Obama will reportedly tell us that he will increase the deficit by $2 trillion dollars to $9 trillion dollars over the next ten years.

While this new forecast is in line with what the CBO estimated back when Obama proposed his budget, it still seriously underestimates what the deficit will be if Obama gets his policies enacted. Obama’s two largest endeavors, cap and trade and health care reform were not considered in the CBO’s June estimate.

While it’s hard to tell what effect cap and trade will have on the deficit, we do have numbers from the CBO on the effect of health care reform. The CBO estimates that the $9 trillion deficit will increase at least another $1 trillion if the House bill is passed. I say “at least” because we now know that the Obama administration doesn’t have an accountant or an economist who either is honest or any good at their job. Doubt me? Just go back and look at the assumptions they made for the stimulus, the budget, cap and trade or health care reform and then look at what the CBO said. Who has appeared to be accurate?

I also say “at least” because there is historical evidence that the first year of all major government health programs have been significantly underestimated. Take a look at this graph from John Goodman’s Health Policy Blog:

health care graph

It turns out that regardless of the administration, government run health care plans always cost more than they are expected to. Why, you might ask? Well, if you’re selling something, are you more likely to tell the “buyers” what the best or worst case scenario might be?

Taking a simple average of the plans on the graph, it suggests that the government health programs cost 538% of what the original estimate was.  OK, let’s not be the Russian judge.  Let’s throw out the high and the low misses.  Doing that still has costs coming in at 414% of the original estimate. 

If history is any indicator, the $1 health care reform plan will cost significantly more.  How do you like the sound of $4 trillion for health care and a 10 year deficit of “at least $12 trillion?

Whether $2 trillion or $5 trillion more, I think this video pretty well sums up the public response:

August 23, 2009

The polls are all wee-wee’d up

by @ 11:23. Filed under Politics - National.

I wonder if this is what President Obama had in mind when he lapsed into baby talk on Friday – The Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index hits a new low of -14. The dirty details on the first full day’s worth of polling after the wee-wee leakage (which also includes Thursday and Friday):

– Only 27% of all respondents strongly approve of Obama’s job performance, which is a new low.
– He’s starting to lose the Dems; less than half (49%) strongly approve.
– 41% of all respondents strongly disapprove, which ties the high.
– The slippage of independents continues; 49% strongly disapprove.

Unfortunately for himself, his party, and his country, Obama has called for the dynamite to blast through rock bottom. I just hope he remembers to chant, “Fire in the hole!” three times before detonation.

Revisions/extensions (11:40 am 8/23/2009) – (H/T – Michelle Malkin) Speaking of craters, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports on a Mason-Dixon poll that shows Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid losing to either Danny Tarkanian or Sue Lowden in a potential 2010 matchup. If Reid gets knocked out, he will be the second sitting Senate Democratic leader to lose in 6 years. Time to Daschle his dreams.

August 22, 2009

This Little POTUS Poem

by @ 5:01. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

Obama Market

Obama Oval
obama iceObama none girlObama lied

August 21, 2009

Local blogger singled out by the national presstitutes as example of blind blogospherical hostility along ideological lines

by @ 23:28. Filed under Presstitute Follies.

No, it’s not your friendly neighborhood bomb-thrower, who has gone soft since Shoebox came on board. Lance Burri earned that honor from the Pew Research Center for plastering a WaPo columnist.

Guess I’m going to have to start trying harder (or not go on vacation and miss opportunites that Lance seized).

Friday Hot Read part drei – MadisonConservative’s “A game of Monopoly – Health Care edition”

by @ 16:24. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

Back in the day, I played a real cut-throat Monopoly. However, I wasn’t nearly as cut-throat as the federal government. I’ll let MadisonConservative explain:

Now, let’s say I’m playing with four other people. The four other people are normal monopoly players, playing by the normal rules. They represent private insurance companies. Now, I’m going to join the game. However, I get a different set of rules because I say so. I represent the public option.

First, in normal Monopoly rules, everyone collects $200 from the bank when they pass GO. Let’s refer to this as the capital that insurance companies get in order to run their business. They get it from revenues earned by competing in the health insurance market. However, for me, the rule is different. When I pass go, instead of getting $200 from the bank(customers), I instead collect $50 from each of the other players. Why? Well, the government gets its revenues by collecting taxes, not by providing competitive services. So, while the other players are collecting their money from passing GO from customers, I’m collecting my money from them. Their wealth is going down, directly leading to mine going up. Already, I have an advantage, because I’m the government. Guess what, though? Not only do I collect $50 from each of the other players every time I pass go, but I get $100 from the bank! See, the government doesn’t only collect taxes from businesses, but they also collect it from their customers! Once again, I have an advantage, because I’m the government.

Of course, there is more over at the HotAir Greenroom, so enjoy it. Do also read the comments.

How Did This Guy Get Through Harvard?

by @ 11:06. Filed under Obama worship, Politics - National.

Mortgage modification program – Fail!

Stimulus Program – Fail!

Cash for Clunkers – Fail!

Cap and Trade – Fail!

Fiscal Year Budget – Fail!

Foreign Policy – Fail!  Fail!

Is there anything that Obama has done that has worked or inspired the Country?  Apparently not!

Pic of the day – caskets for clunkers

by @ 9:50. Filed under Health Care Reform.

Via The Rumbler Report…


Click for the full-sized pic

Of course, that doesn’t count the massive overhead built into the program.

This is Not a Question That We Think About

by @ 9:10. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - Minnesota.

On a conference call on Wednesday, President Obama took on the “myth” that the House bill contained death panels saying:

Let me give you just one example, this notion that somehow we are setting up death panels that would decide whether elderly people would live or die. That is just an extraordinary lie.

(emphasis mine)

There is no such thing as a death panel, at least that’s what those who refuse to read the plain language and implication of HR 3200 will tell you.  No, the provisions that mandate end of life counseling are just one of the ways of “I’m from the government and I’m here to help!”

Folks, let’s be clear, call it what you want, but anytime you marry a limited ability to pay with an unlimited demand there will be rationing.  Some of it will be subtle i.e. long wait times, some not so subtle i.e. procedures denied.  The question is, would you rather deal with an employee of a health insurance company where you have legal and other options or would you rather deal with an employee of the DMV who tells you to shut up and sit down until it’s your turn?

Still not convinced?  Watch this video.  Pay particular attention to the question that they don’t think about:

H/T Dan McLaughlin

Do you suppose that proponents of Oregon’s government plan were telling opponents that a “death panel” was just an “extraordinary lie” as that bill was being debated?

“Is it cheaper to pay for someone to die than to help them live?”

This was the question that received the answer:

“That is not a question that we think about.”

Well of course it’s not!  At least not anymore than:

Is it cheaper and less inconvenient to murder this unborn child than to allow it life?”

Friday Hot Read part 2 – Maggie Thurber’s “Obama doesn’t get it – this isn’t a campaign anymore”

by @ 8:55. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

Maggie Thurber explains why the PermaCampaign that Obama is trying on health care is doomed to failure:

But that point aside, trying to convince people with the same ideology that you’re the best one of several to represent that ideology is much different from convincing an entire nation, the majority of whom claim no party or are Republicans, to join your cause.

Obama isn’t going to the opposing side and presenting his viewpoint on the issue, he’s handpicking audiences and ‘preaching to the choir’ and trying to re-energize his base. But that will only go so far as the vast majority of Americans are not in that group to begin with.

He’s still in campaign mode, trying to sell an idea, when the public would rather have the facts and the details – all the things they were too busy to bother with during the actual campaign. Now that Obama is in the White House, the public expects him to manage the operations, though he’s had absolutely no experience whatsoever in doing something even remotely similar. And now it shows, especially in how he blames everyone else for his failure in this regard.

As always, I highly recommend reading the entire thing.

Health Care townhalls a-plenty

by @ 8:41. Filed under Health Care Reform.

Since I am a consitutent of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), I’ll list his listening sessions first (with the note that some, like the already-moved Kenosha one, may yet be moved):

– Monday, August 24
EAGLE: 11:30am-12:15pm, Village Hall, 820 East Main Street
NORTH PRAIRIE: 1:30-2:15pm, Village Hall, 130 North Harrison

– Tuesday, August 25
SHARON: 9:00-10:00am, Community Center, 125 Plain Street
GENOA CITY: 10:30-11:30am, Village Hall, 715 Walworth Street
PADDOCK LAKE: 12:00-1:00pm, Village Hall, 6969 236th Avenue
KENOSHA: 2:15-3:45pm, Gateway Technical College, Madrigrano Auditorium, 3520 30th Avenue

– Wednesday, August 26
WILLIAMS BAY: 9:15-10:15am, Village Hall, 250 Williams Street
FONTANA: 10:30-11:30am, Village Hall, 175 Valley View Drive
WALWORTH: 11:45-12:45pm, Village Hall, 227 North Main Street
DARIEN: 1:45-2:45pm, Village Hall, 24 North Wisconsin Street
JANESVILLE: 3:30-5:00pm, City Hall, Council Chambers, 18 North Jackson Street Craig High School, Large Auditorium, 401 S Randall Ave

– Thursday, August 27
ROCHESTER: 9:45-10:30am, Municipal Hall, 203 West Main Street
STURTEVANT: 11:15am-12:15pm, Village Hall, 2801 89th Street
RACINE: 1:30-2:30pm, Gateway Technical College, Racine Building, Great Lakes Room #114, 901 Pershing Drive, use parking lot D Roma Lodge, Roma Lodge, 7130 Spring Street

– Monday, August 31
BIG BEND: 12:45-1:30pm, Village Hall, W230 S9185 Nevins Street Big Bend Elementary School, Gymnasium, W230S8695 Big Bend Drive
NEW BERLIN: 2:00-3:00pm, Citizens Bank of Mukwonago – New Berlin Branch, 5450 South Moorland Road GREENFIELD: 2:00-3:00 pm, Whitnall High School, Auditorium, 5000 S 116th Street
GREENDALE: 3:30-4:30pm, Safety Building, 5911 West Grange Avenue Greendale High School, Auditorium, 6801 Southway

Meanwhile, my friends at Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin are taking care of the folks in the 2nd, 3rd and 7th Congressional districts:

– Wednesday, August 26
MADISON: 6:30 pm-8:00 pm, Mariott Madison West, 1313 John Q. Hammons Drive

– Thursday, August 27
LA CROSSE: 11:30 am-1:00 pm, La Crosse Center, 300 Harborview Plaza
ROTHSCHILD: 6:30 pm-8:00 pm, Rothschild Pavilion, 1104 Park Street

They will be featuring ABC News’ John Stossell at all three townhalls, and they invited both the Representatives and their challengers to the respective townhalls. While the AFP-sponsored townhalls are free, they do ask that you register as they will be ticketed events.

Just as a reminder, Rep. Ryan also has a simple request for attendees, one that should be observed by all at every townhall:

A spirited debate on the future of health care and on the proper role of government in our society has come alive in recent weeks. I welcome the debate, and look forward to the 19 listening sessions and community forums I will be holding across Southern Wisconsin in the days ahead. I invite the residents of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District to actively participate at these listening sessions – and to respect the fact that your neighbors may disagree.

The widespread disrespect, and even violence, from the extremes on both sides of this debate is regrettable. I am disappointed by the attacks leveled by the White House and leaders in Congress against those raising the legitimate concerns and questions raised by citizens. To hold a differing view does not make one a “tool of special interests”, and to voice those disagreements is not “un-American” or a sinister “scare tactic”. There is room for common ground on common sense reforms – but this will require responsible leadership to trump partisan gamesmanship.

My staff and I will make every effort possible to accommodate your participation and to ensure that your voice is heard. Anticipating larger turnout, I’m working to move some of the listening sessions to larger venues. The Kenosha Listening Session, for example, has been moved to the Madrigrano Auditorium at Gateway Technical College (3520 30th Avenue). Please click here for an updated schedule.

I’d ask that all attendees respect your fellow citizen’s desire to communicate with me. Shouting down your opponents at a listening session is not only ineffective, but quite simply rude. Arguments are not won by the volume of one’s voice, but rather the merits of the idea. I will work tirelessly in the days ahead to conduct these listening sessions with civility and respect for all views, and trust that the residents of Wisconsin’s 1st District will do the same.

Thank you,

Paul Ryan

Revisions/extensions (9:30 am 8/21/2009) – Corrected a typo introduced by me. Some days, I need a proofreader.

R&E part 2 (10:35 am 8/25/2009) – The location of the Ryan Janesville listening session has been changed due to larger-than-expected crowds.

R&E part 3 (10:47 pm 8/25/2009) – The Ryan Racine listening session has been moved.

R&E part 4 (12:04 pm 8/27/2009) – The entire Monday schedule has been moved about.

R&E part 5 (12:24 pm 8/27/2009) – I should have noticed that either the Greendale High School or the address listed was off. I do have a request in to Ryan’s office for clarification, and will update when I get it.

R&E part 6 (12:31 pm 8/27/2009) – It is Greendale High School. Meanwhile, maps to the Monday locations have been included in the updated post.

The trend is not Obama’s friend

by @ 7:27. Filed under Politics - National.

Regular readers will know that Shoebox and I have been tracking Rasmussen’s Daily Presidential Tracking Poll, and that it has been not-so-good for Obama the last month. The Presidential Approval Index (those with strong opinions) has been negative since June 30, and most days since July 24, the overall approval rating has been negative.

Other pollsters are starting to notice this trend. Door #1 – Gallup. While they still show a positive job approval for Obama in their daily tracking poll (out of all adults, not just “likely voters” as Rasmussen polls), the spread has never been closer than the current 51% approve/42% disapprove.

Door #2 – Zogby Interactive (H/T – Allahpundit). I do have to caution that Zogby Interactive polls involve a pool of self-selected people, so I do not put a lot of stock in it. I also have to caution that Zogby has not yet released all the numbers itself; just the 45% approval among likely voters. However, Newsmax got a hold of the poll early, and again, the trend is not Obama’s friend: 50% disapproval, highest disapproval/lowest approval in the history of the Zogby Interactive polling, and a loss of independents (38% approve/59% disapprove).

Door #3 – The Washington Post/ABC News poll (H/T again – Hot Air Headlines). While Obama’s approval rating is still at 57% (versus a poll-high 40% disapproval), only 49% believe Obama will make the right decisions for the country, and 55% say the country is on the wrong track.

Friday Hot Read – Mary Katharine Ham’s “What To Do When Washington Gets All Wee-Weed Up?”

by @ 6:41. Filed under Politics - National.

There is a reason why the blogosphere loves MKH beyond her beauty – she is brilliant. She teed off on Obama’s use of “wee-wee”:

“There’s something about August going into September where everyone in Washington gets all ‘wee-weed’ up,” the president said.

Yes, wee-wee, the sneakiest fear-monger. Tinkle, the silent consensus-killer. There is some debate as to what the president meant, though it may have had something to do with Sarah Palin? I don’t know, everyone’s equally stumped….

You’re going to have to go to The Weekly Standard to get the upshot. Trust me on this one.

You really should be following her on Twitter as well. Her younger brothers may not be too happy, but if one can’t laugh at family, who can one laugh at?

I’m From the Government, I’m Here to Help!

by @ 5:26. Filed under Economy, Miscellaneous.

So you think greater government regulation will help bring down pricing in health care?  If what we are about to experience with the repercussions of their decision to force “change” in the credit card industry is any indication, you may want to think again.

Newsmax has this articledocumenting the changes that credit card companies are now putting into place in anticipation of new government regulation which began yesterday.  While reading through these changes, remember that the new regulations on credit cards were ostensibly implemented to make the various credit card agreements more transparent and easier to understand and to impose restrictions so that credit card companies are less able to uniquely address high risk accounts. 

Amongst the changes being implemented:

Citi, for example, is in the process of informing some cardholders that it will institute an annual fee, about $30, on certain accounts.

That will help those who can’t pay….fewer of them will be able to get/afford a card at all!

And American Express Co. recently sent out notice it will eliminate over-the-limit fees on its consumer credit cards in October. They were dropped in response to a provision in that law that, starting in February, requires card companies to offer a way for customers to agree to pay each time a transaction triggers such a fee.

That’s good news for the over charger, until you see this:

the interest rate on her card will jump to 10.24 percent from 6.99 percent. If she makes any late payments, the rate will shoot up to 27.24 percent.

Citi and American Express aren’t alone:

American Express and Citi are not unique. A survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts of nearly 400 credit cards offered by the 12 largest issuers in the country found that rates have gone up on average 2 percent since December.

Yeah, consumers may find it easier to read their contracts but credit card companies aren’t going to give up the margins they’ve enjoyed.  By removing the ability for credit card companies to selectively deal with higher risk accounts the new government regulations have created market conditions that have the credit card companies increasing costs to all consumers.

August 20, 2009

Open Thread Thursday – 8/20/2009

by @ 13:09. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

I guess I picked a fine time to have an open thread in the midst of a HotAir-lanche. Oh well; it’s Thursday, so have at it, and enjoy some Megadeth/Wile E. Coyote…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPYAsbOpTtQ[/youtube]

2009 Wisconsin jobless claims blast past 2008 levels

by @ 11:57. Filed under Economy, Politics - Wisconsin.

With 4 1/2 months left in 2009, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the “over 753,000” jobless claims received by Department of Workforce Development exceeded the 738,352 jobless claims received in all of 2008.

Snap question – what are the two differences between 2008 and 2009? Hint; it is not a recession, as the article points out that it “started” in December 2007.

Hot Read Thursday – Doug Ross’s “Real Men of Congress”

by @ 6:31. Filed under Politics - National.

Remember Bud Light’s “Real Men of Genius” commercials? Doug Ross put together a version featuring Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), and you actually have your choice of places to look at it. Since Doug is part of Hot Air’s Greenroom, you can either look at it over at Doug Ross @ Journal or Hot Air Greenroom.

I can’t do this justice by excerpting, and I don’t feel like lifting the entire thing. So go, read.

Breakin’ Up Is Hard To Do

by @ 5:15. Filed under Health Care Reform, Obama worship, Politics - National.

Quick, put together a list of famous duos. Here’s the one I just came up with:

Sonny and Cher
The Carpenters
Lewis and Martin
Abbott and Costello
Fred and Ginger
Bergen and McCarthy
Siskel and Ebert
Murphy and Duel

Odd thing about my list is that while they were all incredible talents when together, the individual performers never seemed to rise to the same level of fame and accomplishment once the duos broke up.  This is especially true in situations where one of the partners died like Siskel and Ebert or Murphy and Duel, andlet’s face it, Charlie McCarthy was never quite the same after Edgar Bergen’s death.

I’d like to add one more duo to the list of “great when together but awful separately;”  POTUS and TOTUS.

POTUS and TOTUS were one of the most amazing political duos ever.  Focused, eloquent and convincing are just some of the adjectives used to describe the performances of these two. 

Who can forget their performance in Germany where POTUS apologized for America saying:

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

Or the night POTUS won the Democrat nomination and in Minneapolis, TOTUS came up with this unforgettable line:

this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal…

Sadly, like several of my notable duos, the incredible talents of this duo ended with the death of one of the partners; TOTUS.  We now know that like Peter Duel, TOTUS led a troubled life and on July 13, 2009, chose to end it.

What caused TOTUS to end his life? 

Through June, POTUS’ strongly disapprove ratings had not moved above the low 30’s.  On July 2nd, the strongly disapprove rating hit 35% and has been moving up since then.

On June 28th, Rasmussen reported that Republicans had taken a lead, outside of the margin of error, in the generic poll for the first time in a few years.

These events made it clear to TOTUS that despite his best efforts, POTUS was a complete loser.  TOTUS understood that it was one thing to be performing together in the carefully crafted and controlled environments of campaigns.  However, it was now a completely different challenge to try to perform together in the rough and tumble world of actually governing.  No matter how good TOTUS was, no matter how well he did his job, he understood that POTUS wasn’t up to it and was going to hold him back.  Worse, while TOTUS was handling his end of the act flawlessly, POTUS was the one who got all the adulation.

The final straw for TOTUS came on July 12th.  This was the day that Rasmussen reported that the most important issue that POTUS and TOTUS campaigned for, health care reform, now had more Americans against it than supporting it.  Seeing that this was the beginning of the end and knowing that he wouldn’t be able to convince POTUS to resign, TOTUS did the honorable thing and threw himself from the stage.

Since the death of TOTUS, POTUS hasn’t been the same.  Several times last week, POTUS attempted to convince Americans that the government could run successful commercial operations by pointing to the continuing loses of the USPS!  Over the weekend, POTUS said he wasn’t for single payer before he said he was for single payer before he said he never said he was for single payer health care. 

Clearly, POTUS has loss his luster.  As his polls and those of his pet projects continue to sink, POTUS attempts to maintain his swagger as if he was still in the halcyon days working with TOTUS; but he’s not.

It was sad to watch Sonny attempt to perform without Cher.  It’s incredibly sad to watch Ebert become gloomier and reserve praise only for the most obscure of foreign films, without Siskel.  Likewise, it’s sad to watch POTUS attempt to carry on.

When Peter Duel died the producers of Alias Smith and Jones attempted to bring in Roger Davis to fill the role.  The show only lasted another 17 shows and most of its fans felt it was a painful 17 shows.  Perhaps POTUS could learn something from Roger Davis.

August 19, 2009

Social Security – worse than expected

by @ 18:12. Filed under Politics - National, Social Security crater.

(H/T – Amanda Carpenter)

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), the ranking memeber on the House Committee on Financial Services, did an interview with The Tuscaloosa News editorial board, and unleashed a shocker – Social Security could start running deficits before 2012, far earlier than the most-recent “Intermediate Case” estimate from the Social Security/Medicare Fund trustees of 2016 for the combined OASDI Social Security funds. Quoting Bachus:

The situation is much worse than people realize, especially because of the problems brought on by the recession, near depression….

What this recession has done to Social Security is pretty alarming. We’ve known for 15 years that we were going to have to make adjustments to Social Security, but we still thought that was seven or eight years down the road. But if things don’t improve very quickly, we’re going to be dealing with that problem before we know it.

Back in May, when the trustees issued their report, Ed Morrissey and I picked up on a disturbing trend – there were several months of the OASDI fund running a negative monthly balance, with a very slim 12-month (April 2008-March 2009) positive yearly balance. At the time, I said, “I might not bet on Social Security running red for a 12-month period this year, but I’ll take the ‘early’ in just about any pool.” Looks like the “early” will be paying out.

Revisions/extensions (9:06 pm 8/19/2009) – I just took a quick look at the April and May numbers (I’m wondering why June’s is not available; this time in May, March’s numbers were), and they’re not all that encouraging:

– April had a net positive inflow (less “net interest”, which really is a future tax increase) of just under $20.5 billion. That compares very unfavorably to April 2008, which had a net positive inflow of about $24.3 billion.

– May had a net negative inflow of $1.9 billion, compared to a net positive inflow of $3.1 billion in May 2008.

Taking out the bogus positive of December 2008, that’s 6 out of the last 10 months that had a net negative inflow.

Since I previously warned that looking month-to-month is not a particularily good indicator, let’s put that in terms of year-over-year. That puts the 12-month rolling net inflow, as of May 2009, at just $43.3 billion, $8.9 billion less than the same number just 2 months prior.

One more thing – going back to my May post, I discussed the stoichastic model first sleuthed out by Chuck Blahous. Using a 5,000-run model, the trustees found that half of the time, Social Security went into the red before the end of 2014.

Meanwhile, the 2011 time frame Bachus talked about to The Tuscaloosa News is within the 80%-confidence window of that model. Indeed, that window starts in 2010, and runs until 2017.

R&E part 2 (12:51 pm 8/20/2009) – Welcome to the craziest part of the extended Hot Air universe. If you didn’t read Ed’s current column at American Issues Project, I recommend you do so sometime today.

In the meantime, I encourage you to take a look around and enjoy the hospitality Shoebox and I (but mostly Shoebox) have to offer.

R&E part 3 (9:18 am 8/21/2009) – Welcome Doug Ross @ Journal readers. Again, I encourage you to take a look around and enjoy the hospitality Shoebox and I have to offer.

Ask Egg – the dog days edition

by @ 8:19. Filed under Ask Egg.

It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to the mailbag. In fact, it’s been so long, the advice being sought would have been ignored. Oh well; I may as well run with it anyway.

Letter #1:

Dear Egg,

I’m having a lot of fun rehabbing my shoulder with a bunch of high-schoolers, and I made my first goal of avoiding all the two-a-days of the NFL training camp. I still have the urge to stick it in the eye of Wile E. Thompson (mud-spelled-backwards), and I think I found the perfect situation. There’s a certain team that wears purple whose best quarterback isn’t half as good as I was with the bum shoulder, and they’re still waving $10 million in front of my face after I told them I didn’t want any two-a-days. Should I jump?

-Hoppin’ in Hattiesburg

Dear Hoppin’,

Get your ass back on the tractor and enjoy the fact that you’re still able to break the fingers of those high-schoolers. The half of those up here that really didn’t mind your stay in New York will get entirely pissed off if you go to the hated dome on the far side of the Mississippi, and somehow I doubt that too many of that team’s fans will be all that thrilled that you got out of the two-a-days.

Seriously; you’re almost 40, and the fact that you had to have the surgery on that shoulder proves you don’t heal as quickly as you used to. I don’t care that the Vikings play half their games indoors; you’ve been fading badly at the end of each of the last couple seasons.

I would just hate to see things end for you the way they ended for Joe Theismann.

-Egg

Letter #2:

Dear Egg,

I’m scared shitless becuase the sheepl…er, people are turning against ObamaCare, and there’s still a couple weeks before I can return to the safety of the Beltway. Worse, I waited too long to ask the SEIU to provide “hands-on security” at my townhalls. What do I do?

-Running for the Hill (Captiol, that is)

Dear Runing:

Grow a pair and get out there like Paul Ryan and Ron Kind.. If you actually head out into the district, you’d find that, while many of us vehemently disagree with ObamaCare, we’re quite civil about it. Just ask Kind.

Oh, and leave the union thugs at home; they only cause trouble.

-Egg

Letter #3

Dear Egg,

A person whose job I want is about to announce he won’t be seeking another term. I desperately want to lose the first word of my title, but I’m afraid he won’t actually leave early enough to give me a leg up in the competition to replace him on a full-term basis.

Did I mention that I despise him because he has done absolutely nothing for me?

-Madtown Junior Partner

Dear Junior Partner,

Patience is a valued commodity. At the very least, let the fireball contract before you go sniffing around the carcass.

If, like a moth, you just can’t ignore the flames, don’t compound the damage by wasting taxpayer dollars on your obsession.

-Egg

That’s all the time we have for this installment of Ask Egg. If you need off-the-wall advice that will save your hide, just let me know before you do something stupid.

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