Somehow, until Sam pointed it out, I didn’t realize that I didn’t have yoSAMite says on the bloated roll. Sorry about that, Sam; it’s fixed now.
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.
June 19, 2009
The obligatory L’affair Flynn-McBride post
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice broke the news that Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn and UW-Milwaukee journalism lecturer/freelance journalist Jessica McBride (both married, and not to each other) had an affair at roughly the same time McBride wrote a lengthy piece on Flynn in Milwaukee Magazine. There are a few different directions I can take this bout of stupidity from the two of them.
First, if other rumors are true, this is not the first time either one of them have had an extramarrital affair. That limits my sympathies to the children of McBride and her husband, and any minor children Flynn may have.
Second, while this is a serious ding in Flynn’s credibility, it is not quite fatal for him. For those on the left that want to bleat hypocrisy, there is a major difference between Flynn and former President Bill Clinton – unlike the serial denier, who lied about L’Affair Clinton-Lewinsky to a federal grand jury investigating him for sexual harrassment, Flynn got out in front of this and admitted it, as well as apologized, before the story hit print. In fact, the Journal Sentinel reports that both Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett and the Fire and Police Commission are standing behind Flynn.
The same cannot be said for McBride. She has in the past taught journalism ethics, so she knows that it is a serious breach of trust to be bedding one’s sources, whether it is before the stories are written or whether merely the spark is formed during the course of pursuing the stories with ignition shortly thereafter.
Revisions/extensions (2:07 pm 6/23/2009) – Thanks to James Wigderson, there’s a follow-up that includes Bice’s questionable tactics and writing, based on a revealing of the timeline.
WTMJ-DT down, not quite out
For those of you who get your TV through antennas or satellite, WTMJ-DT went off the air about 12:20 am this morning, and is still off its normal digital channel (if memory serves, physical channel 27). For a short while, it also affected Time Warner subscribers and for a longer time, it affected Charter subscribers, but they managed to get a hard-wire solution.
In the meantime, Journal Broadcast and Weigel Broadcasting, which runs WDJT-DT/WMLW-CA/WBME-DT, has made arrangements to put a standard-definition signal on one of its WBME-DT subchannels, channel 49-2.
Related to that, WTMJ is the only private Milwaukee station that is able to run weather updates in HD. Hey WITI, WISN and WDJT – get off your duffs.
Revisions/extensions (8:38 pm 6/19/2009) – As capper points out in the comments, the on-air version of WTMJ-DT is back.
Sam’s the man
I’ve been so busy (or at least out of it) lately that I missed this announcement from Sam Hagedorn, the man behind YoSAMite Says and all-around good guy:
Today I filed my papers to become a candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly – 12th District. This is the seat currently held by Rep. Fred Kessler.
I’m running on who I am – a conservative.
I think the state government should lower taxes. How? Well first by looking for duplicate services and eliminating them. Those who receive money should be held to the highest standards and if they don’t meet those standards, they should stop getting the funds.
This budget and previous one’s have been put together behind closed doors. Our legislators need to be held accountable, especially when deciding on how to administer money. No budget should be voted on until the citizens of the state have a say in it. We need a daylight budget process.
I also believe that education is priority. The state should encourage the best in schools, no matter if it is a public, private, charter, choice, virtual school or home schooling. What matters is the education received.
In this economy and really at all times, job creation is important. Private industry provides the best avenue for job growth and entrepreneurship. The state should not stand in the way. Less government allows for more freedom to grow in all areas of life including the business climate.
I’ll have more on my website within a couple of weeks.
For those who don’t know the districts, the 12th covers most of the far northwest side of Milwaukee and the very-far northwest part of Wauwatosa.
Good luck, Sam. The bad news is that, other than Kathy Carpenter, the Cheddarsphere has not had any success in elections.
Pawlenty – Just Boring Enough to be President
At least that’s what the author of this article believes. Somehow the author concludes that the US voters swing from one extreme of personal characteristics to the other:
This has happened several times in the last 20 years. George H.W. Bush was seen as non-empathetic. Bill Clinton was full of empathy, and could capitalize on the contrast. Clinton came to be seen as lacking moral rectitude. George W. Bush seemed upright, and could again capitalize. Finally, the younger Bush came to be seen as overly certain. Obama took advantage by emphasizing his ability to see shades of gray.
If Obama utterly fails the author believes that the next President to be elected will be the opposite of Obama i.e. the blandest of bland:
In other words, when incumbent presidents lose their luster, those with qualities opposite theirs can stand to gain. If the public sours on Obama, his pizzazz and speechifying abilities could be rebranded as a negative – “all sizzle and no steak.” In that situation, the GOP might do well to have somebody who can’t make a political rally look like a Beatles concert. Boring could be pitched as competent, sensible, and able to get the job done.
The conclusion…TPaw:
Of course, it’s still very early. My point is simply that the contrast between Obama and Pawlenty might be a beneficial one for the GOP to offer if the public has soured on the incumbent. If it hasn’t – it really does not matter what the party does. Popular incumbents never lose.
And that’s where this author, along with many others lose all credibility. Once again we have an author who believes that running as the anti Democrats is somehow an answer. It’s not. If we learned nothing from watching McCain’s debacle it is that running as Democrat lite or “I’m not him” or any other flavor that doesn’t run for something is a losing proposition. On top of that, if Obama does crash and burn, running as anything other than having a positive, solution oriented candidate will be a complete failure.
Maybe TPaw has a shot. I’m from Minnesota and can say I’m not convinced. He’s done a number of good things in restraining reckless Democrat spending. However, he has far too many tendencies to flop around in the mushy middle i.e. ethanol, global warming and the like. For TPaw to have a shot, including getting support from his home state, he’s going to need to shore up his conservative bona fides. We’ve tried milquetoast and it’s failed. Hopefully we’ll learn from our mistakes…then again, maybe not.
June 18, 2009
Just Keep Those Lies and Donations Coming!
“ABCNEWS prides itself on covering all sides of important issues and asking direct questions of all newsmakers — of all political persuasions — even when others have taken a more partisan approach and even in the face of criticism from extremes on both ends of the political spectrum. ABCNEWS is looking for the most thoughtful and diverse voices on this issue.”
Ah, yup!
ABC Employees Contributed Overwhelmingly to Obama
By CPR Staff on June 18, 2009 10:41 AM
Interesting to Note…
An analysis of contributions to the Obama and McCain campaign shows that ABC employees contributed more than $160,000 to the Obama campaign versus less than $5,000 to the McCain campaign.
Guess we won’t be expecting to see ABC running under the moniker of “Fair and Balanced” anytime soon!
Open Thread Thursday – thermonuclear edition (6/18/2009)
Krazy Kim is threatening to launch a missile at Hawaii (via Michelle Malkin’s Twitter page). The Angry Webmaster wonders whether President Obama will give a damn if his mother state gets nuked. I say, invest in SPF 1,000,000,000 sunblock.
Beyond that, and the $300 million in additional spending and a $485 million tax hike on the majority of Wisconsinites with investments passed in the State Senate’s version of Daughter-of-Necrobudget last night (via JSOnline), I’ve got nothing. Go ahead and fill in the blanks.
Revisions/extensions (8:15 am 6/18/2009) – For those of you outside of Wisconsin (and for those of you who forgot how capital gains in Wisconsin works), Wisconsin currently treats capital gains far differently than the federal government treats capital gains. Instead of classifying capital gains as short-term (less than 1 year of holding the property), medium-term (between 1 and 5 years of holding the property) and long-term (more than 5 years of holding the property) and taxing each group at a separate rate, Wisconsin takes 40% of all capital gains and taxes it at the highest applicable income tax bracket. What the State Senate did, instead of going for a oil company tax. was take the proposal from Doyle, the Joint Finance Committee and the Assembly Democrats to tax 60% of capital gains and make it 100% taxable. I believe Nevada is calling.
Just Wondering…..
In a letter sent to leaders of the Senate, President Obama now claims that Inspector General of the Americorps, Gerald Walpin, was fired because he was:
so “confused” and “disoriented” that there was reason to question “his capacity to serve.”
If that is grounds for termination in the Obama administration can someone explain to me how Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid are allowed to stay in office?
Just wondering…..
The Fly of Evil
First, in case you haven’t see it, the video:
Note President Obama’s fixed stare. Note the unblinking eyes. Note how he focuses all of his thoughts and his entire being on the fly that had dared to invade his personal space.
As Russia unilaterally rolled in Georgia, than Senator Obama, was unable to determine the oppressive side and said:
“I think it is important at this point for all sides to show restraint and to stop this armed conflict.”
President Obama and his team were caught surprised and flat footed as North Korea test fired three rockets and test detonated a nuclear device. The best President Obama could muster was this statement:
“We will work with friends and allies to stand up to this behavior.”
In the past week another sham election was held in Iran. At least 7 Iranians have been killed in protests focused on demanding fair elections. Obama’s response:
“It is not productive, given the history of US-Iranian relations to be seen as meddling – the US president, meddling in Iranian elections.”
Three examples where human rights and human lives were/are clearly being destroyed. Yet, President Obama can barely manage a frown of discouragement let alone clear and concise statements in support of those being oppressed. When it comes to human life, President Obama seems unable to recognize evil or attain a level of righteous indignation on behalf of those oppressed or yearning for freedom.
No, no indignation for humans but let a single fly invade his personal space during his time, in his interview and Obama becomes singularly focused like Tiger Woods with an eagle attempt for the win on the final hole of the Masters.
President Bush saw three countries that promoted evil in the world. President Obama only sees a fly.
June 17, 2009
RTA Madness – Senate edition
The Senate passed their own version of Daughter-of-Necrobudget on a virtual-party-line vote (Jim Sullivan, the target of a recall, was allowed to vote no along with every Republican). Others will cover the rest of the changes, but since I’m a laser on the RTAs, I’ll distill the differences between the Assembly version and the Senate version (thanks again to Greg Bump over at WisPolitics for doing the dirty work):
- The Chippewa and Fox Valley RTAs are out.
- The provision to allow Dane County to use its sales tax to fund roads is also out.
- The Southeast RTA is once again solely focused on the choo-choo, with all funding to the existing Racine and Kenosha buses (i.e. the additional $2 car-rental tax to make the total $18) as well as the requirement of Racine’s and Kenosha’s suburbs to fund the bus systems to get a KRM stop out.
- The Milwaukee County Transit Authority gets the “Regional” title back, with the sales tax bumped up to 1.0% and the “parks, culture and (county) emergency medical services” joining transit in the 85% (no percentage specified for each category) not allocated to municipal police, fire and EMS (allocated on a per-capita basis).
On to conference, where I expect nothing less than the worst of all worlds.
Four-Blocking the relationship between government and smokers
There’s already a spirited discussion in the Four-Block World comments, so join it.
Rainy Read Wednesday – Christian Schneider’s “McCallum’s Last Laugh”
Christian Schneider, who besides me is the charter member of the Scott McCallum Fan Club, wonders how the state budget situation would be different had Scott McCallum beat Jim Doyle back in 2002:
During his brief tenure, McCallum proposed a number of items that, had they passed, would have made the current recession infinitely easier to deal with. In his initial budget, in which he faced a $600 million deficit, McCallum proposed capping general fund spending to the same rate that tax revenues increase during a biennium….
In the same budget, McCallum proposed depositing 50% of any unintended revenues into a budget stabilization fund, in the event tax receipts fell short in the future….
Perhaps most importantly, McCallum made real cuts to real ongoing state programs – a decision which may have cost him his governorship. In the 2002 budget repair bill, McCallum proposed phasing out the state’s Shared Revenue program, in which the state sends $1 billion per year to local governments.
Related to that, Christian introduces us to Doyle’s new best friend – Rosy Scenario. I guess the difference in acceptable-to-Craps tax assumptions between exiting a mild recession (5% from McCallum, which is the 20-year-average) and in the midst of a devastating one is less than 0.5 percentage points.
Obamaese
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but President Obama and his administration have taken over the dictionary. Well, not exactly the whole dictionary, yet, but they have given new meaning to a number of words and phrases that haven’t had a change in their meaning from the advent of the English language until now. I haven’t been able compile the complete list of the New Obamaese Dictionary definitions but I have a few that you should be aware of.
Shovel Ready – Any project that rational taxpayers would vote a politician out of office for if they had voted to fund it during normal legislative processes.
Stimulus – A spending bill that contains “Shovel Ready” projects that is passed only with Democrat support
Uniquely Qualified – an individual who is either a tax cheat or has other ethical issues, such that they wouldn’t be hired for, and can only get a role through appointment to a Democrat Administration role. (see Czar)
Czar – an individual who is given absolute power over a portion of the economy for which they have absolutely no working knowledge. Czar’s are often “Uniquely Qualified.”
I don’t want to run – A phrase used immediately prior to a: blaming one’s predecessor, b: expressing surprise that the situation was much worse than you had thought and c: making a claim that the actions you have taken will be “temporary.” Typically, a Czar who is Uniquely Qualified is appointed to run the business that “I don’t want to run.”
As I have repeatedly said – A phrase used to point the listener to a specific one of the many positions the speaker has taken on a particular topic. It is not used to dismiss the positions not addressed during the use of this phrase, only to make you think the speaker has actually made a final decision, at least until they next use of the phrase: As I have repeatedly said…
I’m trying to keep a list of these. If you have others, send them along. Who knows, we may be able to give Webster a run for his money by the end of four years.
June 16, 2009
How Many to Make a Trend?
I’ve shared before about a General Manager that I worked for in wireless. He used to tell us “Two does not make a trend.” It was his way of telling us that we shouldn’t get too giddy about a couple of success, that we needed a string of successes before we could claim a winning idea. I never heard exactly how many did make a trend. However, I’m pretty sure that President Obama is noticing a trend.
Monday as President Obama shared his ideas for solving the high costs of health care with the AMA, he was booed. He was booed because his plan didn’t contain the obvious need to include malpractice reform in his plan.
A couple of weeks back, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was laughed at by Chinese University students as he told them: he stood for a “strong dollar,” but that China should let its currency appreciate relative to the dollar, which, of course, would mean a weaker dollar. He simultaneously told China that their investments in US Treasury bonds were safe.
And early last year Obama was booed by the NAACP as he tried to warm to the crowd with stunning rhetoric like:
“I eat fried chicken, why sometimes I go to bed with a bucket of KFC, so I can eat it while I fall asleep, and again when I wake up in the morning.”
My point in this is not that Obama or his administration, gets booed or laughed at. Rather, my point is that for all of the accolades about his speaking ability and intelligence, President Obama, whether with friendly, neutral or unfriendly audiences, continues to misread his audience.
President Obama and his administration believes that just because they say it, it must be so. They believe that audiences somehow leave their God given brains at home and pant like Pavlovian dogs at whatever Obama or his spokesperson says.
Doubt me?
Obama is out pushing his medical insurance programs. He claims that by implementing the new plan he will reduce costs. Unfortunately for Obama, the CBO came out today and blasted his assumptions saying Obama’s plan will add an additional $1 Trillion to the deficit (remember, this is the deficit that Obama continues to claim he “inherited” and that he would cut in half) and that it will only cover an additional 16 to 17 million people.
Folks, if the net cost over 9 years to cover an average of 16.5 million people is $1 Trillion, that averages to over $6,700 per year, per person. For the average family of four, that is almost $27,000 per year. As a self employed individual I buy my family’s insurance so believe me I know how expensive health insurance is. However, $6,700 per year for your average individual isn’t just covering the basics, that’s enough to cover with a gold plated plan. It appears that once again, with government involved, costs don’t come down, they go up.
I think I hear the national health plan boo birds warming up in the wings!
June 15, 2009
I’m Back and Itchin’ For a Fight!
I’m back! I’ll tell you more about why I’ve been gone (if you care) at the end of the post. First, on to the lie of the day:
Over the weekend Joe Biden started building the case of excuses for the Obama administrations inept handling of the economy. In an interview Sunday Biden said:“everyone guessed wrong.”
Ummmm, excuse me Vice President Biden but not “everyone” guessed wrong. In fact, the very economists who you claim “guessed wrong” knew that what Obama advocated for would have a dismally ineffective impact on the economic situation.
At the risk of saying “I told you so” loudly enough so as to be heard over the cacophonous echoing that is the noise of an empty political head like Joe Biden, let me say “I told you so” and Christina Romer, one of the very economists that Biden refers to, told you so!
Please reread this post where I provide the link to Romer’s own research that showed that “stimulus” at best gets a 1X multiplier while tax cuts provide a 3X multiplier. Also, please reread this post where I link to Romer’s own research that showed that stimulus packages don’t work because the government applies them to the wrong things and does so too late to have any effect.
Well, now that I think about it maybe I have to agree with Joe that everyone did “guess” wrong! But isn’t that just the problem? Regardless of the issue the Obama administration doesn’t want to be constrained by facts. The Obama administration is more focused on what they want the world or the particular situation to be rather than the reality of it. The result is that they continue to bumble and stumble their way around “guessing” at what they can do rather than using knowledge, facts and the information their very own people have, to deal with the issues they confront.
Perhaps the greatest irony of this whole issue is that Obama claimed his administration would be one that really focused on the facts and not emotion as he stated in his inauguration speech: “We will restore science to its rightful place.” Stay tuned for a lot more problematic “guessing” as Obama tries to solve the health care “crisis” and the global warming “crisis.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Where have I been? Well, if you must know (we must, we must (my homage to “Blazing Saddles”)), I have been working on an intraparty campaign in MN. I worked for the Dave Thompson campaign as he ran for the State Party Chair of the Minnesota Republican Party.
Dave was a fantastic candidate who really connected with the grassroots of Minnesota. He forced the entrenched machine candidate to commit to an open and inclusive party process, something the machine candidate has personally fought for years.
In the end, we didn’t prevail. However, Dave’s message, charisma and candor reinvigorated a large number of folks who had nearly given up on the MNGOP. We’ll now wait and see whether the new chair keeps to his campaign commitments and embraces all activists who believe in liberty and conservatism. If not, we’ll see if he reverts to his previous exclusionary approach which will cause the MNGOP to fracture and allow a blue state that should be red to be permanently dyed blue. Stay tuned, the state convention is in September, we’ll know then!
The very few who will not see a tax increase in WisTAXsin
If you meet ALL of the following conditions, you might not see a tax increase courtesy the Daughter-of-Necrobudget:
- You must make less than $300,000 per year in reported income
- None of your earnings can be from capital gains
- You must not drive
- You must not smoke (unless you shop at an Indian reservation tobacco store)
- You must not drink
- You must not get sick enough to enter a hospital or urgent care center
- You must not purchase over-the-counter drugs
- You must not buy downloaded software, songs or videos
- You must not shop in Milwaukee County, Calumet County, Winnebago County, Outagamie County, Eau Claire County, Chippewa County, or the urbanized portion of Dane County
- You must not shop at a business or buy from a business that has operations both within and outside of Wisconsin
- You must not own a business
- You must not rent a vehicle in Milwaukee County, Racine County or Kenosha County
- You must not own any real estate
- You must not own a phone
If you can claim all of the above, you just might not see a tax increase. There might be some dope dealers and users that meet all this, but the rest of us will be seeing a tax increase.
Revisions/extensions (4:54 pm 6/15/2009) – Fred decided to add to the list some over at the MacIver Institute. In addition to those who rent real estate…
- You must not operate a power boat.
- You must not operate any small engines requiring gas for operation.
I’m sure there’s more restrictions on who doesn’t get their taxes raised.
WP 2.8 bug – the file editor
While I like WordPress 2.8’s new file editor because it displays line numbers, and offers syntax highlighting and function help, actually using it to edit either plugins or themes breaks the blog.
June 14, 2009
Weekend hot read – Michael Totten on Iran
All I have to say is, read Michael Totten now. He’s been on top of the Iran blow-up since before they actually blew up. Today, he sees a bit of what happened in 1979 happening now…
The great Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski witnessed and wrote about dozens of revolutions in the course of his life. He has, perhaps, seen more revolutions than anyone in the history of the world. He knew, while he lived, revolutions better than anyone.
In his book Shah of Shahs, about the Iranian revolution in 1979, he describes the beginning of the end for the Shah Reza Pahlavi….
(Lengthy excerpt of the book describing a 1979 encounter between a policeman and a protester removed; the policeman backed off after failing to convince the protester to go home)
Now take a look at this video uploaded from the city of Isfahan. A ferocious-looking unit of armed riot police officers is shown running away in terror from civilian demonstrators.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRUTh76486I[/youtube]
Believe me, there’s a lot more there than I can bring over here.
Related to that, Jon Ham wonders where the Obama administration and CNN are. Good question.
WP-Polls temporarily disabled – UPDATE – re-enabled
Due to an error with WP-Polls 2.5 and WordPress 2.8, I’ve temporarily disabled WP-Polls. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Revisions/extensions (10:08 am 6/14/2009) – Lester Chan was very quick in offering a fix, but it turned out the ultimate problem is with WordPress’ plugin editor function. In any case, polls are back.
R&E part 2 (12:44 pm 6/15/2009) – Had a nagging bug with the dark-gray bar displaying on the second poll question as the method of displaying multiple polls changed from a WP-Polls method to using multiple widgets. Lester got it 3/4ths of the way there, but that caused me to lose all the widgets below the polls. Finally found the problem, and got that 100% squashed.
Sorry about the limited site availability for a bit.
June 12, 2009
RTA madness expanded, explained – and revised
Revisions/extensions (4:55 pm 6/12/2009) – I’ve moved this post (originally published 4:28 pm 6/11/2009) to the top. The summary from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau is in (pages 38-42), and things get worse. I’ll clear up the original post a bit, and explain below.
WisPolitics’ Budget Blog reports that a rather sweeping amendment to the various Regional “Transit” Authorities contained in the Daughter-of-Necrobudget has been made by Assembly Democrats:
- The Fox River Valley RTA in the governor’s budget has been restored, including the 0.5% sales tax.
- The Chippewa River Valley also gets an RTA, with
an unknown funding sourcea 0.5% sales tax. - In a reversal of the usual car-taxes-to-transit subsidy, Dane County, and only Dane County, will get to use its 0.5% RTA sales tax to repair roads.
- At the insistence of the Federal Transit Administration, the KRM taxing authority’s responsibility is expanded to include Racine’s and Kenosha’s bus systems, paid for by a
$1 car-rental tax in the cities of Racine and Kenosha (which makes the total KRM RTA car-rental tax initially $17 in Racine and Kenosha; it is unknown whether, like the larger car-rental tax, this will be auto-indexed for inflation)an additional $2 car-rental tax in Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha Counties, raising the total tax to $18 per car-rental transaction. Of note, the bus systems only get the tax money if the cities raise funding of their transit systems (i.e. raise local taxes) by that amount. - The new sales tax the Milwaukee County Board gets to levy for their Regional
TransitTaxing Authority drops from 1.00% to 0.65%, but instead of also funding parks, cultural, and emergency medical services programs, 23% of the new tax (or 0.15% on the bottom line) will go to “offsetting police and fire costs in communities in Milwaukee County”. If you believe that will go anyplace other than the City of Milwaukee, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
So, why all the changes, and why now? Apparently, despite being close to $2,000,000,000,000 in the red for the 2010 budget, the federal government has enough money to reward those who grow government and raise taxes by creating RTAs by September.
Yes, that’s right. Much like the demand by the Assembly Democrats to the cities of Racine and Kenosha to raise local taxes so that they get a pittance of an amount from a state-imposed tax increase, the federal government is demanding local tax increases and increased amounts and levels of government to get a pittance of an amount from the already-overtapped federal Treasury.
Begin expanded explanation. Regarding the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (the rebadged KRM Authority):
- The car-rental tax is increased from $16 per transaction to $18 per transaction, indexed for inflation.
- The city of Racine’s bus system would get $1 of that, and the city of Kenosha’s bus system would get $1 of that, only if each city “generates new funds to match the vehicle rental tax revenues”.
- No other community in either Racine County or Kenosha County gets a stop on the choo-choo unless they provide a “sustainable funding mechanism” of an unspecified amount to contribute to their county seat’s existing bus system.
- Instead of empowering the Milwaukee County and Racine County executives to make appointments, it depowers the Kenosha County Executive and gives the Kenosha County board chair that seat’s appointment power.
- The SERTA will become the sole clearinghouse of grants made to the FTA by all three counties.
- Pedro Colon gets a KRM stop at Lincoln Ave. and Bay St. to go along with his previously-porked-in National Ave. stop.
Regarding the Milwaukee Transit Taxing Authority:
- Delete the “Regional” from the name.
- The 0.15% sales tax imposed for “police and fire protection” will be split based on the number of officers and firefighters (i.e. almost all the money’s going to the city).
- Specify that the MTA would be a tax-exempt entity.
- No word on whether the 15% requirement to the city of Milwaukee to run the mini-choo-choo is still in.
Regarding the Chippewa Valley Transit Authority:
- Eau Claire County would be first, pending both county board and voter approval.
- Any municipality that has any presence in Eau Claire County would automatically be part of this.
- If it is established, Chippewa County could join the same way (county board and voter approval), with the decision to either join or leave binding on all municipalities in Chippewa County.
- Membership, with 4-year terms, would be set by each member county, with no more than 17 total and including three members appointed by each county member’s county executive and approved by the county board (one of which would be an initial 2-year term, then 4-year terms after that), a member appointed by the mayor of each member county’s largest city and approved by that city’s common council (an initial 2-year term, then 4-year terms after that) and a member appointed by the governor.
- The funding source would be a 0.5% sales tax.
Once again, the screwing gets deeper. Maybe I should hire Moron Pundit to put together a way-NSFW graphic.
Revisions/extensions (9:12 am 6/14/2009) – I have to thank Lance Burri for the Rule 2 boost.
A junker of an idea
The Detroit News reports that the House and Senate leadership have agreed on a $1 billion plan to get older cars off the roads, to be stuffed inside the $106 billion war supplemental (off-topic, I thought there wasn’t going to be “war supplementals” in the ObamiNation). The major details are the same as the version that passed the House on Tuesday:
- Those who trade in a vehicle made after 1983 that has a combined (new) EPA mileage rating of less than 18 mpg can get $3,500 in a government voucher if the new passenger car has a combined EPA mileage rating of at least 22 mpg and is at least 4 mpg greater than the previous vehicle’s combined (new) EPA mileage rating, or the new light truck has a combined EPA mileage rating of at least 18 mpg and is at least 2 mpg greater than the previous vehicle’s combined (new) EPA mileage rating.
- That amount increases to $4,500 if the new passenger car’s combined EPA mileage rating is at least 10 mpg greater than the previous vehicle’s combined (new) EPA mileage rating or if the new light trick’s combined EPA mileage rating is at least 5 mpg greater than the previous vehicle’s combined (new) EPA mileage rating.
- Since the old car will be crushed or shredded, that voucher will take the place of any trade-in value.
Exit question part 1 – how long before this becomes mandatory, with the only eligible cars made by either UAW Motors or Government Motors? Exit question part 2 – will this be any more successful than the “gun buyback” programs?
Revisions/extensions (9:08 am 6/14/2009) – I somehow missed the requirement that the old vehicle can’t have higher than a combined 18 mpg.
Czar-mania
Jim Lynch decided to award me the title of Omlete Czar as part of the Czar Craze coming out of the ObamiNation Administration. He’s got a few of my friends as other Czars:
– Czar of all Czars – Jack Bauer
– Babes Czar – Wyatt Earp
– Tango Czarina – Fausta Wertz
– Jedi Czar – The Jawa Report
– Moron Czar – Ace
– Pirate Czarrrr and Beach Czar – William Teach
A couple more for the good of the order:
Humor czar – Christian Schneider
Beer czar – Jib
Rule 5 czar – Robert Stacy McCain
Links and Despair Czar – Allahpundit
Czar of Trogs – Lance Burri
Czarina of TV appearances – Mary Katharine Ham
Now, do I give Flight Czar to Asian Badger or Dave?
It’s the final countdown
Today is the last day most TV stations will be broadcasting analog signals. Let’s celebrate with some one-hit wonder…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_IKcMl_a9A[/youtube]
Tim Cuprisin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a list of what will be happening today:
- Channels 18 (WVTV), 24 (WCGV), and 30 (WVCY) previously shut down their analog broadcasts.
- At 9 am, Channels 10 (WMVS), 36 (WMVT) and 49 (WBME) will shut down analog broadcasts.
- Also at 9 am, Channel 63 (WYTU-LP) will cease Telemundo broadcasting and begin simulcasting the CBS and local programming carried by Weigel corporate sister Channel 58 (WDJT) in analog. Because the mandatory digital conversion does not affect low-power stations, The Business Journal of Milwaukee previously reported that Channels 63 and 41 (WMLW-CA, also owned by Weigel) will continue to broadcast an analog signal after today.
- At 11:30 am, Channel 6 (WITI) will bring back Albert the Alleycat and the playing of the national anthem one more time as part of a special signoff of its analog signal. They then wil run a loop of digital transition information for the next two weeks, with audio still available at 87.7 MHz on the FM dial for those two weeks.
- At noon, Channel 12 (WISN) will shut down the analog signal.
- Also at noon, Channel 4 (WTMJ) will run a 2-hour loop of digital transition information, with analog signal shutdown at 2 pm.
- At 11:59 pm, Channels 55 (WPXE) and 58 will shut down their analog signals. That does not affect the simulcast of Channel 58’s signal on Channel 63.
For those of you who have every TV/VCR/DVR hooked up to ATSC tuners (either built-in or converter box), cable, satellite or AT&T’s U-verse, or watch nothing but low-power TV, you’re golden. If you still have at least one TV, VCR or DVR that isn’t and don’t like or can’t get the very-limited choices low-power TV offers, you’re about to be SOL.
Revisions/extensions (8:20 am 6/12/2009, with Part 2 at 8:28 am 6/12/2009) – A couple of housekeeping notes based on the fact that the FCC has ordered the abandonment Channels 52-69 so that they can be auctioned off for other telecommunications services:
- WVTV will be returning to physical channel 18 from its pre-transition digital physical channel 61 at 9 am. That means that those of you who get WVTV via antenna will need to rescan.
- Channel 63 (about to become the analog version of WDJT) will soon vacate that channel. Weigel does have a construction permit on file with the FCC to move the analog signal to Channel 49 (about to be vacated by WBME), with the same coverage as the current Channel 63 signal.
- WMLW has a application in to the FCC to assume physical channel 24 for its analog signal as physical channel 41 has been assigned to digital stations in Green Bay and Rockford, and WCGV will remain on physical channel 25.
R&E part 3 (10:40 am 6/12/2009) – The loss of the analog Telemundo signal did not affect either the Time Warner carriage of Telemundo (on cable channel 27), its broadcast as a low-power digital station on physical channel 17, or its simulcast on WBME’s digital signal at virtual subchannel 49.4 (physical subchannel 48.4).
Relating to Weigel, and specifically WMLW, while it does have a low-powered digital signal at channel 13, the return to the frequency by Grand Rapids’ WZZM after its pre-transition relocation to channel 39 means that prior plans to make the digital signal full-powered had to be set aside, and it will continue to be available on WDJT’s digital signal at virtual subchannel 58.2 (physical subchannel 46.2).
Also, WMKE-CA, which operates on Channel 7, runs America One programming, and is essentially available only in the northern 2/3rds of Milwaukee County (and notably, not in Oak Creek), apparently will continue to broadcast its analog signal. The parent company does not have any plans to construct a digital tower.
June 11, 2009
Open Thread Thursday – 6/11/2009
It’s Thursday, so let me know what I’m missing. It’s cold, dark and dreary in the land of cheese and beer, so we need blues…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sMWTqUuSh4[/youtube]
June 10, 2009
Wednesday Hot Read – Christian Schneider’s “Willy Wonka Explains the Wisconsin State Budget”
Christian Schneider reaches into the Dennis York bag of blogging to explain the Daughter-of-Necrobudget:
Yesterday, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau released their summary of the state budget as rushed through by the Joint Finance Committee last week. It’s a long and complicated document, so we here at WPRI have enlisted some help in explaining many of the big themes included the budget.
As it happens, most of what legislative Democrats passed can be explained by eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka, star of the 1971 children’s classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Here are some famous quotes from the movie, and how they shed light on the budget currently before the Legislature. Cuddle up with your favorite little Oompa Loompa and read along:
Anyone who can work “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” quotes into a very serious look at what the Assembly will be working on instead of the majority making a pilgrimage to The Won is a genius.
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