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.

January 12, 2009

“24” liveblog – over at Blogs.4Bauer

by @ 18:57. Tags:
Filed under Miscellaneous.

As usual, the gang is liveblogging. The fun and (hopefully) the kills begin in less than 4 minutes on your local Fox station (unless you’re on the Left Coast, in which case you’re behind by 3 hours).

The Morni…er, Afternoon Scramble – 1/12/2009

by @ 17:35. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

I’m a bit under the weather, which explains the lateness. How about some Jimmy Buffet to make up for that?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhiTsLr29XA[/youtube]

  • John Hawkins presents the 7th Annual Right Wing News Conservative Blogger Awards.
  • Moe Lane wonders what Sen. Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) will do to scratch his BDS itch when President Bush is gone.
  • Tom McMahon 4-blocks skills and intentions.
  • Jim Geraghty wonders who is left in the GOP who’s willing to fight. I believe the answer is, “Nobody.”
  • Allahpundit found the expiration dates of Barack Obama’s words have expiration dates – it seems he won’t even wait until the 21st to order Club Gitmo closed even if the order will be slow-played.
  • Ed Driscoll gives the presstitutes’ honeymoon with Obama 4-8 years. The only reason why it won’t be longer is because the “to 10 years” portion of Obama’s Presidency can’t happen.
  • Matthew Continetti finds Newsweek has lached onto Red China as the last, “best” hope of Communism to take over the world.
  • Kevin Fischer gets results – the 2-week “MJS Scorecard” is now all even at 4 pieces apiece. Money says they’ll slip back to their customary 3-1 liberal bias presently.
  • Jon Ham found the next bailout participants – NPR and PBS. Never mind they already get $400 million a year in tax money; they want it more than doubled. I’ll spell out the proper answer – November Oscar.
  • Jim Hoft found anti-Semitism very alive and well among the police in Duisburg, Germany. I’m surprised they, or the Islamokazis they were appeasing, didn’t leave a burning calling card.
  • John points out the fallacy of “cease fires in the name of peace”.
  • Back to bailouts for a second – Stephan Tawney is shocked, SHOCKED that Chrysler wants $3 billion more now (a 75% increase in what it got last month) and an unspecified amount for its finance arm.
  • Nick Schweitzer proves the difference between a private enterprise and a public venture on his and his girlfriend’s way back from Cancun. Those two have lousy timing – they’re back just in time for some serious cold.
  • Mark Tapscott has the latest bit of evidence that closed-door government is unhealthy for the taxpayers.
  • Rob reports the big screen TV ban is about to hit Not-So-Great Britain. For those that don’t think it can’t happen here, I seem to recall an item the other week about California wanting to ban big-screens.
  • Bill Quick offers the perfect solution for safety nannies.
  • Jib dug up the origin of the penalty flag. I can only wonder what would have happened to Orlando Brown if the flags were still weighted with lead.

A couple of housekeeping items that I’m a part of:

– If it’s Monday, the gang at Blogs.4Bauer is live-blogging.
– The January edition of Drinking Right is tomorrow, same place as always (Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee), same time as always (7 pm).

Not All Cuts Are Created Equal

by @ 5:15. Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

President elect Barck Obama and team have put out what passes for “detail” in the Obama administration, about Obama’s planned stimulus plan.   You can read the plan here.

I have to give Obama and his team credit.   When Paulson came screaming that the world was coming to and end unless he got $750 billion, he only had 3 pages to outline his plan.   Obama and team, screaming that the world will come to an end unless they get $775 billion,  have managed to use an entire 14 pages to outline their plan.   Well, unless you take out the title page, table of contents and extra white space…then you’re probably down to just 9 or 10 pages.   Even so, Obama has managed to double the number of pages explaining his $775 billion plan.   I guess the extra $25 billion does buy something!

Christina Romer, Obama’s nominee for chair of the Council of Economic Advisors is one of the authors of the plan/document.  

In a paper that Romer published in 2007, she concluded that tax cuts stimulate the economy 3x the amount of the tax cut.   In other words, for ever dollar of tax cut the economy grows by $3.   In Obama’s plan however, Romer and her coauthor argue that “tax cuts” will generate less than $1 of economic stimulus for each $1 of “tax cut.”   How can those be reconciled?

The reconciliation is pretty simple; Obama’s plan has no tax cuts.   Tax cuts are permanent tax reductions.   Rather, what the plan offers is a rebate similar to what was done last year.   They are being called “tax cuts” only because the mechanism proposed to effect them is tied to taxes so as give Republicans and some fiscal conservative Democrats, cover to agree to mortgage our children’s future.

Romer  is a well known and respected economist.   That last fact she allows permanent tax cuts and one time credits to be conflated in this plan is at best, disingenuous and at worse political dishonesty.   In either event, obvious manipulation and misuse of accepted terms as these, calls wholly into question the integrity and accuracy of a plan that even according to its authors is fraught with:

uncertainty (that) is surely higher than normal now because the current recession is unusual both in its fundamental causes and its severity.

Republicans in Congress ought to be smarter than to fall for a one time credit that is called a “tax cut.”   They ought to be, we’ll have to see if they are.

January 11, 2009

If you’re looking for me the next 2 hours…

by @ 18:50. Tags:
Filed under Miscellaneous.

I’ll be live-blogging the start of Season 7 over at Blogs.4Bauer.

Drill Here, Drill Now Tues…er, Sunday – 1/11/2009

by @ 17:52. Tags:
Filed under Energy, Envirowhackos, Politics - National.

(H/T for the new news – Amanda Carpenter, H/T for the DHDNT concept – Jessi Olson)

My gas price – $1.879 just outside the bunker

Why do I have a special Sunday edition of Drill Here, Drill Now? It’s because Senate Majority Leader Dingy Harry Reid (D-OPEC) and 65 of his fellow members of the bipartisan Party-In-Government used their first floor vote of the session to lock up the not-yet-developed energy-rich land to the tune of $10 billion. Even though that’s supposedly short of a veto (which I hope would happen if this shows up before noon Eastern 1/20), the fact that there were several ‘Rats missing in action means that my prediction in the Weekend Scramble that the pork would net a veto-proof majority came through.

There is one place left to stop this, and thanks to San Fran Nan’s (D-CA) machinations, it is likely that the House will join the Senate in not allowing any minority-written amendments.

The Weekend Scramble Brunch, Part 2 – 1/11/2009

by @ 16:11. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

As I type, the road teams have went 3-0 in the first 3 games of the NFL Divisional Playoff round…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRbPWcLode0[/youtube]

  • Speaking of drilling, Amanda Carpenter reveals the battle cry of Senate Majority Leader Dingy Harry Reid (D-OPEC) – “DRILL NOWHERE! DRILL NEVER!” Bonus item – the Dingy One is using pork to make it veto-proof, and is also extending the record of not allowing a single GOP-authored amendment.
  • One item I forgot to throw in the first part – elliot found another sign of the coming depression – a nearly-empty remodeling show.
  • Peter is shocked, SHOCKED that 2/3rds of the various transportation taxes, totaling $40.3 billion in 2005, go for something other than roads. Bonus item – a staggering 29.3% goes to “administration and overhead”.
  • MuscleDaddy found the Islamokazis being inspired by Barack Hussein Obama.
  • Glenn Reynolds found another statement from Obama reaching its expiration date – the quick closure of Club Gitmo. I wonder who will be more disappointed: the Islamokazis or the domestic Loony Left.
  • Josh Schroeder has the quote of the week on Obama’s request to delay the final implementation of the years-long transition to digital TV because there’s another program that needs a bailout.
  • The Oh-So-Tolerant Left Update, Part I – YoSAMite found an Obama website linked to a childish “Bush Shoe Toss” event.
  • The Oh-So-Tolerant Left Update, Part II – James Wigderson discovered the Unhinged Left making death threats against the majority. I’m not surprised; they’ve been raging since (barely) before I was born.
  • Marcus Aurelius points out an inconvenient fact for the Dingy One – there is NO Senate requirement that a state’s Secretary of State countersign a Certificate of Appointment (or Certificate of Election, for that matter). Of course, since the Illinois Secretary of State caved and did sign, that’s a moot point.
  • Ed Lasky explains why we’re about to have Senator Smalley (Soros-Soros) – it’s all about the personal payback.
  • Aakash put together the comprehensive Senate-Designate Roland Burris (D-IL) file.
  • Stephen Green has the best Illinois governor Hot Rod Bagojevich (D) impeachment headline.
  • John McAdams pictures the coming Illinois license plates.
  • Michael Yon throws the red flag at those questioning British-American relations in the foxhole.
  • SteveF explodes the idea of having somebody like the IAEA handle nuclear fuel production. Why, if the IAEA didn’t exist, North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would about to have nuclear weapon…er, wait a minute, North Korea has nuclear weapons drawn from IAEA-“monitored” stocks and Iran is about to have nuclear weapons drawn from IAEA-“monitored” stocks.
  • Paul Socha proves that the Wisconsin DNR is what Dad29 calls “Damn Near Russia”. They want to be able to grab your guns anytime, anywhere. FUCK THEM!
  • Mrs. M-ITT, Imperial Sniper, will continue to have “sea kittens”. I only wish I could have found the “Walleye Song” on YouTube, but you’re going to have to go over to Indiana Walleye to download it.
  • William Teach has the latest cause of Gorebal “Warming” – the Internet. I’ll continue to do my part to try to prevent subzero temperatures by continuing to put up rambling rant…er, high-quality posts, but they’re due in the land of ice cream and frozen beer by Wednesday anyway.
  • Gregory Young busts the carbon component of Gorebal “Warming”. I’ve always maintained that blaming carbon was nothing more than a (post-)Communist plot to kill the Western economies; too bad this plot succeeded where the Soviets failed.
  • Noel Sheppard asserts we are right back where we were in 1977 in terms of climate – The Next Ice Age is back.
  • John blogs about eggs (that’s small-e). You know that was going to make a Scramble, especially the one from Big Bertha.

Let’s see if some snow can stop the last road team before Jack comes back.

The Weekend Scramble Brunch, Part 1 – 1/11/2009

by @ 14:55. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Time to go deep into the archives for the weekend…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mD6YvuBIVA[/youtube]

We’ve got the 7th season of Jack starting tonight at 7 pm (Central; consult your local listings for other time zones) on Fox (Channel 6/6.1 in Milwaukee, 506 on the Milwaukee-area Time Warner Cable HD box, consult your local listings for the channel in your area). I’ll be helping live-blog over at Blogs4Bauer.

  • Stephen Kruiser calls Bravo Sierra on Barack Obama’s “FIRE!”
  • Owen reports Wisconsin governor Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale, who is lucky that none of his pay-for-play schemes happened in northern Illinois) wants to overrule the wishes of the taxpayers who rejected Taj Mahal schools. I’m trying real hard to not let loose with a “Fuck him and the union that bought him” line (oops, too late).
  • Dave in Texas finds dissention in the ‘Rat camp. I wonder if the Congressional ‘Rats are merely pissed that Obama’s attempt to create a majority with a negative tax liability is being sold as a “tax cut” instead of a raw, naked extension of welfare.
  • Doug Powers is shocked, SHOCKED that the architect of the worst economy in the US, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, is part of Obama’s economic team. I’m not; after all, another, more-successful of his team members, Warren Buffet, advocates a 1% GDP growth.
  • Patrick McIlheran proves that the resurrection of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, which is what Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway wants, will be even less successful the second time around.
  • James T. Harris explains why it wasn’t successful the first time.
  • Uncle Jimbo finds the looters at the gates. Er, they’re in power.
  • Ace breaks out the dinosaur for the impending death of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I mourn the fact that so much fisking material will soon be going to waste.
  • HeatherRadish proves that if there is no safeguards against abuse of paid “sick days”, they will be abused. Bold prediction – a lot more businesses in Milwaukee will fold now that they have to give 9 additional days of sick leave vacation.
  • Shoebox auctions off the number of jobs that Obama will “create” out of whole cloth and unicorn horns.
  • Asian Badger sees nothing good about Red China reducing its appetite for US debt. Can you say, “Stagflation”? (and that’s if we’re lucky)
  • Christian Schneider proves the only place the ‘Rats want to drill is into the economy.

The second heaping will be up shortly.

He Is “The One”

by @ 5:37. Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

2.5, 2.5 million jobs:

Obama outlines job-creation plan

 3.0, 3.0 million jobs:

 
Obama ups jobs goal to 3 million on bad economic news

3.5, 3.5 million jobs:

Obama: Stimulus will create 3.5 million jobs

And the latest:

Obama: Plan would create 4.1 million jobs

Clearly, President elect Barack Obama is “The One.”   There is no further discussion, the debate is over.   There must now be a consensus amongst the masses.    Not since the miracle of the loaves and fishes, have we seen an earthly being create any outcome desired simply with the imposition of an individual’s will.

Is Obama really that tone deaf or naive to not understand the credibility hit his already questionable plan takes, each time he announces a new  “outcome of the day?”

January 9, 2009

It’s For The Children!

by @ 5:36. Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

President elect Barack Obama made his first speech pitching the need for a massive government infusion to stimulate the economy.  

Parts of Obama’s speech sounded eerily like  statements made  last September as Ben Bernanke talked about the need for his bail out program.    Statements like:

We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime.  

I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible.

and

We could lose a generation of potential and promise, as more young Americans are forced to forgo dreams of college or the chance to train for the jobs of the future. And our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world.    

I’ve always been skeptical of the “don’t ask questions, just do as I say approach.”   While there are times when debate about how/if/when is not helpful, like when your house is on fire, most situations are not that way.   Most situations benefit from some discussion, debate if you like, amongst folks with varying perspectives.   In all but the most rare situations you will find that this debate makes for a better action and end product.

There’s a lot to not like about Obama’s proposed stimulus package:   the size of it, the increase in government employment, one time tax cuts that were proven last year to have little effect stimulating the economy.   However, there was a  statement in Obama’s speech that clinched my opposition to his plan.      A statement that was intended by Obama, to cause me to agree with his approach did just the opposite.   What was the statement?   It was near the end of his speech:

That’s why I’m calling on all Americans – Democrats and Republicans – to put good ideas ahead of the old ideological battles; a sense of common purpose above the same narrow partisanship; and insist that the first question each of us asks isn’t "What’s good for me?" but "What’s good for the country my children will inherit?"

Six months ago it is unlikely that many of us had ever used the word “Trillion” in a conversation without it meaning some astronomical amount that it was not credible; it was a charicature of a real number.   Today, the folks in Washington talk about trillions of dollars of debt in an off hand manner, as if there  were no repercussions or consequences to adding debt in multiples of trillions.  

It doesn’t matter who or what your are, an individual, a family, a business or even the government, there are consequences to excessive debt.   Unfortunately, the folks in Washington have learned nothing from the sub prime bust and see no problem with dramatically increasing the governments debt.   But, I do.

What Barack Obama doesn’t understand is that if we really did make this decision based upon what was good for our children, rather than what was good for us, we would not move forward with his stimulus plan.   This stimulus plan is focused on removing some rather minimal and at worst, inconvenient pain from us and loading a great big debt load, along with further government interference on the lives of the Shoelets.  

“It’s for the children” may make a good tag line if your campaigning to add a pool to the local high school.   In this case, if it’s really for the children, then don’t do it, they’ll do much better without it.

January 8, 2009

Scott Walker – Man of Principle Part 2

by @ 18:47. Tags:
Filed under Politics - Milwaukee County, Politics - Wisconsin.

Yesterday, I had a brief piece on Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s refusal to belly up to the bailout teat. Predictably, ALL the teat-suckers, from the usual suspects with Ds behind their name (or those that would have Ds there if the County Board were a partisan office) to the opportunistic “business leaders” who have become dependent on the teat, attempted to throw Walker under the bus. Let me put it this way; they don’t know Scott. He launched a two-front counterattack this morning with WTMJ-AM’s Charlie Sykes. While you listen to a poor-quality rip of the interview (the better-quality version starts at the 37:39 mark of Part 1 of the official podcast), you may as well read the e-mail (“borrowed” from Charlie):

How many people would take a gift of $1,000 and go out and buy a $60,000 sports car? While the gift is nice, it will not make the monthly car payments that are too large for the average budget. The same is true with the (so-called) stimulus package.

Federal money nearly always comes with strings attached. In fact, most federal transportation grants require a 20% (or greater) local match. "Free money" sounds nice but what happens when state and local governments cannot afford the match? If Milwaukee County receives $50 million for infrastructure projects under this formula, taxpayers in the county would have to come up with an extra $10 million. Does anyone think we have an extra $10 million in this budget climate?

A real economic stimulus will put money in the hands of consumers – and not the government. Tax cuts work. They did for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and they are exactly what John F. Kennedy called for in the 1960s. Each time, our nation got out of a recession by putting more money back into the hands of the taxpayers. The choice is simple: do we bail out failed governments with budget deficits or do we stimulate the economy and put more people back to work with real tax cuts at the federal, state and local levels? I choose the program that truly puts people back to work!

For the “benefit” of the outstate critics (I’m looking directly at you, Recess Supervisor), I’ll twist the knife just a bit – if adding “infrastructure” for the sake of adding “infrastructure” or creating make-work jobs were the solution, northern Wisconsin would be the economic magnet of the world.

I do need to give a shout-out to my county supervisor, Paul Cesarz. At the end of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story linked to above, he shows that he also gets the fact that resurrecting the Works Progress Administration will do no better the second time around.

Who’s Being Fooled?

by @ 10:08. Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

Dear President elect Obama,

Before you charge head long into this:

Obama Warns of Irreversible Economic Decline Without Action

Or this:

Obama predicts $1 trillion deficit ‘for years to come’

You may want to read, and seriously consider the implications of this:

U.S. debt is losing its appeal in  China

And this:

MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES

Sincerely,

Concerned Taxpayer

 

Here’s the boil down folks:

As of the end of October, before the really BIG debt sales, the US had increased it’s borrowings from foreign countries by 32% or $743B.   Of that increase, China took 26%, The United Kingdom took 28%, Caribbean banking centers took 14% and the remainder was spread throughout the world including $46 B to countries noted as “oil exporting countries.”

Do you see anyone in the current list of buyers that looks like their economy is doing well?

Do you see anyone in the current list that you would expect to be able to not only maintain their current debt purchases, but with softening economies, double or triple their purchases of US debt?

If China, who currently buys 26% of our debt, decides to cut back, do you see anyone ready, willing and able to not only increase their current purchases but pick up China’s part?

Obama and his administration have become solely focused on “stimulating the economy” and have gone so far as to say that they are not concerned about the consequences.   Somehow they would have us believe that they will find a magic pill to deal with those consequences when they come up.   The problem with this thinking is that it is the exact thinking that got us into this situation.

When Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke kept interest rates abnormally low from a historical to fuel growth for the past 10 years they didn’t worry about consequences.   Frankly, they didn’t think there were consequences.   Turns out they were wrong.   Now we know there will be consequences and we’re  choosing to ignore them.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice….

The Morning Scramble/Open Thread Thursday – 1/8/2009

by @ 8:27. Filed under Open Thread Thursday, The Morning Scramble.

It’s time for a deep cut…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V184OzzaH-M[/youtube]

  • Matt cheers the first blog-to-film project, “Taking Chance”. Before it airs on HBO February 21, do read the post over at BLACKFIVE In fact, go read it now, then come back for the rest of the Scramble/Open Thread Thursday.
  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong When We Tinker With Nature, Part I – Sean M. reports we’re a step closer to “Jurassic Park” with the decoding of the long-extinct wooly mammoth’s DNA.
  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong When We Tinker With Nature, Part II – McQ reports the
    Gorebal “Warming” acolytes are prepared to go all “Matrix” on the atmosphere to enforce their reality with an “emergency Plan B”. Where, oh where do I begin with this one?
  • Ed Morrissey laughs at the weakness of Not-So-Great Britain, which has started handing out heating subsidies for the first time in 10-year existence of the heating bailout program because they can’t handle 12-degree weather. I could offer the adivce of a former President….
  • Van Helsing found the North Sea freezing up in jolly old England. In light of that, I think will offer the Brits that advice – put some ice on it.
  • Fausta dubs Russian strongman Mad Vladmir Putin “Mr. Freeze” for shutting off the gas spigot to the Ukrane and the Balkans even as Europe freezes.
  • Bill Quick and Glenn Reynolds battle it out over the future of the price of oil. While I usually am a fan of history, I do have to note that in the aftermath of the 1979 OPEC shutdown, the threat of the US actually weaning itself off of OPEC was credible, while it is not credible now.
  • There are many places I could have gone for news of the adult entertainment industry’s bellying up to the bailout teat, but elliot’s headline/lede combo takes the cake.
  • Lance Burri is genuinely shocked that the ‘Rats in Madistan would reintroduce “Healthy” (and Depopulated) Wisconsin with thfe road to the federal version wide open. Of course, the fact that those clamoring for it snookered the populace into “supporting” it without mentioning that it was the $15 billion doubling $30 billion tripling of the total state tax take so vile that it was merely a budget negotiating point last year may have something to do with that.
  • Speaking of taxes, Mary Lazich compares the fastest-growing states to state/local tax rates. Other than California, Georgia and North Carolina (all of which have weather in their favor), the rest of the top ten have low taxes. Funny how that works.
  • Kathy Carpenter looks into the rather-substantial and -smelly relationship between stalled Senate-Designate Roland Burris (D-IL) and ethically-challenged Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (D). I wonder if Harry Reid and company are going to up their asking price from Burris in response.
  • Flip found the #!@% ¿ Blagojevich Burger. While the guy who’s selling them won’t take less than $10, he’ll gladly take more because it is a “bleeping valuable thing…(only the bleeps aren’t really bleeps).”
  • Ken is struck by the similarities between murals of Barack Obama and murals of various despots (mostly Communists). Birds of a feather….
  • Fred asks, “What if Barack Obama was picking the Packers new Defensive Coordinator?” Don’t be afraid to answer, especially if you can beat my suggestion of Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
  • Jeff Wagner highlights the latest “victim” of the Culture of Badassery (©MKH). If only 70-year-old ladies couldn’t have handguns in the home, robbers could break in without worry of being held at gunpoint until the police arrive to arrest them </sarcasm_lefty>.

I WAS going to try to keep it under a baker’s dozen today, but there’s just too much goodness out there. I know I left more than a few bits out, so feed me.

President Elect Present Strikes Again!

by @ 5:53. Filed under Politics - National.

When asked today, what he thought about Ronald Burris being seated by the Senate, Barack Obama said:

“I know Roland Burris.   I think he’s a fine public servant. If he gets seated, then I’m going to work with Roland Burris just like I worked with all the other senators to make sure that the people of Illinois and the people of the country are served.”

Now I understand the whole “there’s only one President at a time,” theory.   It basically allows Obama to pick and choose which topics he wants to weigh in on and which he wants to be second guessing the current administration on.   However, if there was ever a topic that Obama should have an opinion on wouldn’t you think it would be this one?

One of the things  that I find completely amazing in the Burris saga is that Obama has had absolutely no comments about Reid’s refusal to seat the person who would be the only African American in the Senate.

According to the Chicago Sun-TimesHarry Reid talked to Illinois Governor Blagojevich telling him who he would accept as Blagojevich’s appointment.   According to the Sun-Times, Reid specifically lobbied against each of the potential candidates who were African American.

Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t even consider Reid’s comments as potentially racist.   But, that was before I saw the light according to Barack.   It is now clear to me that Reid’s insistence on not seating any of the African American candidates was specifically racist.   I only need think back to Obama’s perspective on a similar situation during the campaign.  

When I look at the three candidates that Reid specifically didn’t want nominated, I think “they don’t look like any of those   presidents on the dollar bills.”   Nor for that matter did any of them look like any of the other Senators seated in the chamber.   If the reasoning was good enough for Barack as a reason to become President why wouldn’t it be good enough to seat Roland Burris?

I Will Not Work For You Barack, I Will Not Work Without My Pork

by @ 5:42. Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

President Elect Barack Obama gave an extended interview to CNBC today.   Much of the interview focused on the economy and the stimulus package.   The full transcript is here.   The size of the stimulus package was discussed in this exchange:

HARWOOD: It looks like it’s going to be at the high end of your range, around $775 billion.

Pres.-elect OBAMA: That’s correct.

HARWOOD: If it’s correct that, as your aides have said, the danger is doing too little rather than doing too much…

Pres.-elect OBAMA: Right.

HARWOOD: …why stop at $775 billion? Why not go to the $1.2 trillion that some economists have recommended? …

Pres.-elect OBAMA: Well, first of all I think it’s important to note that every economist, conservative or liberal, at this point agrees that we have to have a substantial recovery plan that helps to jump-start the economy, that short term it’s going to be expensive, but it would be much more expensive to see the economy continue in the tailspin that it’s been going in. We’ve seen ranges from 800 to 1.3 trillion and our attitude was that given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we’ll see how it develops. We are concerned…

HARWOOD: It’s going to get bigger.

Pres.-elect OBAMA: Well, we don’t know yet. But what we are concerned about is making sure that the money is spent wisely, that there’s oversight, that there’s transparency…   (emphasis mine)

Transparency and oversight are great but what’s this nonsense about starting at the low end and negotiating up?   Didn’t Obama just yesterday say:

“he will not allow Congress to attach any of those earmarks — lawmaker’s pet projects — to the stimulus bill.”

If no “pork,” “pet projects” or “earmarks” are added to the bill, and Barack has done his homework, how would the stimulus bill grow by up to 80% from what Obama is proposing?   Maybe Obama is taking Harry Reid to heart when he was quoted as saying:

I will tell him. "¦ I do not work for Barack Obama.

January 7, 2009

First high-profile victim of the Milwaukee sick-leave ordinance – Heinemann’s

by @ 18:09. Filed under Business, Politics - Milwaukee.

The overpopulated restaurant market explains the closure of Heinemann’s Fox Point and Brookfield restaurants, but there is an interesting line in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story that relates to its Milwaukee restuarant and commissary –

(Heinemann’s co-owner Peggy) Burns also blamed the new Milwaukee ordinance that requires employers in the city to provide sick days to their workers.

I’m shocked, SHOCKED that a business that operates at the margin would go under because it is being forced to pay for 9 days of paid sick leave vacation.

Revisions/extensions (8:30 pm 1/7/2009) – I need a copy editor.

Jack Kemp diagnosed with cancer

by @ 17:07. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Andy Barr at Politico brings the sad news. Jack Kemp, former Buffalo Bills quarterback, Representative, Secretary of HUD and GOP vice-presidential candidate, has cancer. My prayers go out to him and his family.

I feel so much better about the Panetta DCI appointment…NOT

by @ 16:04. Filed under Politics - National.

JammieWearingFool found former Clinton-era National Security Advisor Sandy Burgla…er, Burger giving DCI-Designate (and fellow Clintonista) Leon Panetta a rather dubious endorsement. From the Washington Post story:

Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger, Lake’s deputy before becoming national security adviser himself, said that Panetta “was part of the decision-making process for every single issue we were dealing with, whether this was in the Oval Office with the president or the Cabinet Room — the Middle East, Kosovo, China. He was a part of a small group of people who advised the president how to proceed on strategy and substance.”

That would be the Middle East where the USS Cole got all-but-blown out of the water and where Hamas and the PLO got rewarded for decades of terrorism with bases from which to conduct the next phase of the destruction of Israel, the Kosovo where an F-117 got shot down to prop up separatist Islamists, and a Red China that cemented its position as the low-price importer of goods to the US.

I was actually neutral on Panetta’s pending appointment until this came out. Allow me to borrow JWF’s words – “That alone is enough to disqualify him.”

Those who don’t remember history…

by @ 15:34. Filed under Politics - Minnesota, Politics - National.

(H/T – Lemur King)

I don’t know how everybody in my overstuffed feed reader missed this one when Politico’s The Scorecard reported this gem of a quote from Senate Majority Leader “Dingy” Harry Reid (D-NV) on Monday:

"Norm Coleman will never ever serve [again] in the Senate," Reid told Politico’s Manu Raju. "He lost the election. He can stall things, but he’ll never serve in the Senate."

News flash to Reid – your boy Stuart Small…er, Al Franken does not have his Certificate of Election yet, and it looks like nobody will get it until Franken’s carefully-engineered 1,000-vote gain from election night gets examined in the light of a courtroom. If the challenges are addressed in Coleman’s favor, Franken won’t even have a cancelled provisional certificate to wave in front of the Senate like John Durkin (D-NH) successfully did.

I wonder if the Dingy One really wants to go down that road, especially considering he’s up for re-election in 2010.

NRE ban on NBC lifted

by @ 12:32. Filed under Presstitute Follies.

Ed Morrissey has the oh-so-delicious video of Ann Coulter filleting Matt Lauer on the “Today” show. I know it’s not Allahpundit with the video, but Ed’s the next best thing (especially since they both blog at Hot Air), so the ban is over. That won’t stop me from ridiculing NBC at every opportunity though.

On a related note, I’m now taking odds on whether Ed gets Coulter on The Ed Morrissey Show before her next NBC family appearance.

The Morning Scramble – 1/7/2009

by @ 11:24. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Danger, Will Robinson. It’s the first hump day of the year…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmALL-V74Po[/youtube]

There is one good thing about an overbloated feed reader; I never run out of reading material. For that, I thank everybody I read.

  • Amanda Carpenter wonders where the Charlie Rangel ethics report is. Shame on San Fran Nan for forgetting to get Amanda a wedding present (of course, I also forgot, so consider top billing in today’s Scramble a late one).
  • Nate Beeler has the carTOON of the day. I knew I saw the Hot Rod Blago hairstyle before, and it was on top of a clown.
  • Bill Richardson (D-NM) Taint Tentacles Part I – Wyatt Earp found that Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) got $40,000 from David Rubin, the man who cost Richardson his Commerce Secretary-Designate spot.
  • Bill Richardson (D-NM) Taint Tentacles Part II – Rob reports that President-Elect Barack Obama (D) also got $3,300 in cash from Rubin.
  • King Banian runs the numbers on what Obama wants to spend, and finds that the Obama planned $1 trillion deficits-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see is over 6% of total GDP.
  • Michelle Malkin dubs it “The Generational Theft Act of 2009”. Subtle, and to the point.
  • Shoebox proves again and again the Jim Geraghty Maxim – All statements by Barack Obama have an expiration date. All. Of. Them.
  • Outgoing Flying Footballs, Part I – Charles Johnson is shocked, SHOCKED that Hamas would voilate the rules of war by putting ammunition dumps inside of UN-run schools, that the UN would look the other way while said schools are used as active fire bases by Hamas, and that the UN and the presstitutes would howl only after Israel exposes said sham explosively.
  • Outgoing Flying Footballs, Part II – Charles found more fauxtography from the French.
  • Outgoing Flying Footballs, Part III – Charles caught the Los Angeles Times becoming an official Hamas press organ, running a column by somebody so vile that the Clinton administration deported him.
  • Michael Totten delivers a backhand to the pressitutes doubling as Hamas’ press organs.
  • Stan is shocked, SHOCKED the Iranians shut down a paper for calling Hamas what it is.
  • Jim Hoft found the Danish forgetful of history. Who was the last Middle-European tyrant that denied education to Jews? Anybody?
  • Mark Tapscott declares the US, and specifically Minnesota, worse than the Roman Empire. After all, we’re about to have seated in the Senate the end of one of Caligula’s Senators opposite the traditional Mafia in-bed warning.
  • Lance Burri is having way too much fun with the Roland Burris (D-IL) kerfuffle.
  • Eddiebear is shocked, SHOCKED that “organic” food is a sham. After all, the creators of the modern envirowhacko movement, the Communists, would never deceive anybody </sarcasm>.
  • Donna Martinez timed the turn of Phoenix’ brand-new light-rail system from “hero” to zero – one weekend.
  • Jo Egelhoff identifies the one factor that could control health care costs. The only problem is, not only do most people not have any meaningful stake in costs, but everybody is conditioned to want to live forever on “somebody else’s” dime.
  • I can’t leave without some good news – CDR Salamander reports the Navy is starting to teach that history has practical day-to-day applications.

Roll bloat – adding some spunkiness edition

by @ 9:52. Filed under The Blog.

Or at least adding Moxie to the oversized roll. I still have to collate the feed of bloat, the roll of bloat, and the blogs of those I follow on Twitter and Facebook into a unified mess, so I’ll get there eventually.

Scott Walker – Man of Principle

by @ 9:14. Tags:
Filed under Politics - Milwaukee County, Politics - National, Politics - Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that, unlike Gov. Jim Doyle (looking for $3.7 billion) and Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett (bellying up to the teat with a $599 million “wish list”, quoting the story), Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker isn’t asking for any federal money despite some serious funding “dilemas”, including the unmentioned multi-hundred-million-dollar pension fuckup from prior years. Quoting Walker:

All we are asking for is “do no harm”. I’m not asking for any nrew projects or things to be done here.

The last thing you want to do is put money in the hands of government (in a recession).

That was in response to Doyle’s and the Wisconsin Counties Association’s request for all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties to belly up with their own wish lists. Of course, the County Board (the ones who gave us that pension fuckup) will likely send their own “wish list”, and thanks to the stupidity of the voters, the spend-and-tax-and-spend-some-more faction does have nearly a veto-proof majority.

But There’s Just One President At A Time Dammit!

by @ 5:57. Filed under International relations, Politics - National.

Al-Qaeda deputy calls for strikes on Israel

 

Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command has called on Muslims to strike Western and Israeli targets around the world in response to Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Ayman al-Zawahiri made the announcement in an audio tape posted on Islamist websites.

“This is Obama whom the American machine of lies tried to portray as the rescuer who will change the policy of America,” al-Zawahiri said, according to SITE. “He kills your brothers and sisters in Gaza mercilessly and without affection.”

Even Al-Qaeda recognizes that Obama’s words have expiration dates!

No More “Tax and Spend Liberals”

by @ 5:06. Filed under Economy, Politics - National.

Providing the first insight about his views on fiscal responsibility, Barack Obama today told reporters that:

the nation could face “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.”

How can that be?   I mean, I knew that this year was a complete write off but “for years to come?”

The last budget forecast from the Congressional Budget Office showed that we were going to run about a $455 B deficit for FY ’08.   Of course this was before the CBO understood how quickly revenues were decreasing.   It was also before the CBO, or the rest of us, knew that Hank and company were going to get their hands on $700 B to spend helping their friends.

After taking into account the most recent realities, the CBO will provide new projections with an expectation that it will now be $1T.   The $1T is before any of of the latest, proposed stimulus package but would include at least the initial tranche of Hank’s play money.

OK, so let’s walk this back…

The difference between the new $1T deficit and the old $455 B deficit is $555B.   It’s probably safe to say that the first part of  of Hanks play money, say $350B, is included in the new deficit.   That leaves revenue reductions of about $200B.

If we attempted to “normalize” the new deficit to Barack’s world, we would take the $1T, back out Hank’s “one time” spending spree of $350B and back down the $300B per year of spending in Iraq that we’re doing because we should have all troops back stateside or in the cost free combat zone of Afghanistan, by the end of January.   That would suggest that even if the economy never improved and we just rolled forward, Barack’s normalized annual deficit should be about $350B.   Of course if the economy does come back some we could expect that other $200B and perhaps even some of the original $455B deficit to come back bringing us closer and closer to a balanced budget.

So where’s the other $650B + each year coming from to make the ongoing deficit become $1T?

It’s not taxes.   Remember that Barack kept telling us throughout the campaign that while he was going to be decreasing taxes on the “middle class”, he was going to increase them on the “rich.”   We’re were told that the net result would be that 95% of the people would get a “tax break” but that overall taxes would stay the same.  

I guess that means that if revenue – expenses = deficit and revenue is the same or improving, the only way to increase a deficit is to increase expenses and if the $650B number is accurate, by a dramatic amount as our current federal budget is only about $3.2 T!

But wait, wasn’t Barack the candidate who told us:

Q: This year’s deficit will reach $455 billion. Won’t some programs you are proposing have to be eliminated?

OBAMA: Every dollar I’ve proposed, I’ve proposed an additional cut that it matches. To give an example, we spend $15 billion a year on subsidies to insurance companies. It doesn’t help seniors get better. It’s a giveaway. I want to go through the federal budget line by line, programs that don’t work, we cut. Programs we need, we should make them work better.

I can’t say that I really liked the tax and spend liberals much but at least they understood economics enough to know that you couldn’t borrow yourself to prosperity.   The new Democrats having been educated with the new math, no longer carry any pretense of balancing a budget, they go straight to “Spend!”

It looks like President elect Obama will carry one characteristic from his campaign to his Presidency, promises with expiration dates.

January 6, 2009

Drill Here, Drill Now Tuesdays – 1/6/2009

by @ 12:15. Tags:
Filed under Energy.

This was started by Jessi Olson back when gas was over $4/gallon. Despite the fact that gas is currently under $2/gallon, I’ll continue to do this on a more-or-less regular basis until the underlying message sinks into the collective cement blocks that pass for heads amongst the members of the bipartisan Party-In-Government.

My price for gas – $1.899/gallon outside the bunker

Today, I will focus on a different aspect of oil – heating oil. As I type, heating oil is rocketing off the floor of about $1.20/gallon established last month, up to a current level of $1.64/gallon. Yes, that is below where it was this time last year (somewhere around $2.60/gallon), and well below the mid-summer spike of about $4.15/gallon, but that drop was a result of the temporary opening of places like the outer continental shelf to oil exploration. The Democrats are already sharpening their knives to slay that opening, and the current surge in oil and gas prices is proof we are still at the ragged-high edge of the demand/supply-price curve.

Worse, Ed Morrissey passes along a report that friend-to-the-Left Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will no longer be sending his suitable-only-for-heavy-oils-like-heating-oil crude over here for “free”. The cynical side of me says that won’t return because he got what he wanted out of that “investment”; kindred spirits in charge of everything. Even if I weren’t cynical, the fact remains that CITGO isn’t in the charity business anymore at a time when costs are going up.

Do you really want to be dependent on the whims of a tyrant who can’t even keep his own country powered? If not, then I have three words for you – “Drill baby, drill!”

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