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.

July 21, 2008

Somebody get Obama a calendar

by @ 15:28. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

Jim Geraghty runs the timeline that explodes the following utterance from Barack Obama to CBS News’ Lara Logan – “And first of all, if we hadn’t taken our eye off the ball, we might have caught them (Osama bin Laden, the rest of the Al Qaeda leadership, and the Taliban leadership) before they got into Pakistan and were able to reconstitute themselves.” The Cliff Notes’ version:

Late November-mid December 2001 – The leadership of Al Qaeda/Taliban make their great escape from Tora Bora under the cover of negotiations with the local tribesmen.

March 2002 – The US/UK buildup in Kuwait began.

March 2003 – The US and UK move into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Do read the whole thing for some bonus coverage on Obama’s acceptance of the current Bush administration policy regarding getting bin Laden and his stammering on a larger unilateral action inside Pakistan.

New York Times all the way in the tank for the Obamination and Al Qaeda

by @ 12:55. Filed under Politics - National, Presstitute Follies.

(H/Ts – Sister Toldjan and Jim Geraghty)

The same day that Rasmussen Reports released a poll stating that 49% of those polled believe that the presstitutes are in the bag for Barack Obama, The Drudge Report breaks news that the New York Times Sedition Slimes rejected the following John McCain op-ed piece:

In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation "hard" but not "hopeless." Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.

Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy. I was an early advocate of the surge at a time when it had few supporters in Washington. Senator Barack Obama was an equally vocal opponent. “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there," he said on January 10, 2007. "In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

Now Senator Obama has been forced to acknowledge that "our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence." But he still denies that any political progress has resulted.

Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, "Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress." Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City"”actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism.

The success of the surge has not changed Senator Obama’s determination to pull out all of our combat troops. All that has changed is his rationale. In a New York Times op-ed and a speech this week, he offered his "plan for Iraq" in advance of his first "fact finding" trip to that country in more than three years. It consisted of the same old proposal to pull all of our troops out within 16 months. In 2007 he wanted to withdraw because he thought the war was lost. If we had taken his advice, it would have been. Now he wants to withdraw because he thinks Iraqis no longer need our assistance.

To make this point, he mangles the evidence. He makes it sound as if Prime Minister Maliki has endorsed the Obama timetable, when all he has said is that he would like a plan for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops at some unspecified point in the future.

Senator Obama is also misleading on the Iraqi military’s readiness. The Iraqi Army will be equipped and trained by the middle of next year, but this does not, as Senator Obama suggests, mean that they will then be ready to secure their country without a good deal of help. The Iraqi Air Force, for one, still lags behind, and no modern army can operate without air cover. The Iraqis are also still learning how to conduct planning, logistics, command and control, communications, and other complicated functions needed to support frontline troops.

No one favors a permanent U.S. presence, as Senator Obama charges. A partial withdrawal has already occurred with the departure of five "surge" brigades, and more withdrawals can take place as the security situation improves. As we draw down in Iraq, we can beef up our presence on other battlefields, such as Afghanistan, without fear of leaving a failed state behind. I have said that I expect to welcome home most of our troops from Iraq by the end of my first term in office, in 2013.

But I have also said that any draw-downs must be based on a realistic assessment of conditions on the ground, not on an artificial timetable crafted for domestic political reasons. This is the crux of my disagreement with Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has said that he would consult our commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders, but he did no such thing before releasing his "plan for Iraq." Perhaps that’s because he doesn’t want to hear what they have to say. During the course of eight visits to Iraq, I have heard many times from our troops what Major General Jeffrey Hammond, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, recently said: that leaving based on a timetable would be "very dangerous."

The danger is that extremists supported by Al Qaeda and Iran could stage a comeback, as they have in the past when we’ve had too few troops in Iraq. Senator Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history. I find it ironic that he is emulating the worst mistake of the Bush administration by waving the "Mission Accomplished" banner prematurely.

I am also dismayed that he never talks about winning the war"”only of ending it. But if we don’t win the war, our enemies will. A triumph for the terrorists would be a disaster for us. That is something I will not allow to happen as president. Instead I will continue implementing a proven counterinsurgency strategy not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan with the goal of creating stable, secure, self-sustaining democratic allies.

I am shocked, SHOCKED that one of the leading mouthpieces promoting the McShame-Slimeroad Lieberal Protection Act would use its status as an exempted press organization to shill for the DhimmiRAT and against the co-author of that act. NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley (who Drudge reminds us worked as a Bill Clinton speechwriter) explains his decision to shaft McCain thusly:

The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information; while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans….

It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece. To that end, the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq.

McCain’s piece works for me because it offers a direct retort to the Obamination. I also could have sworn that “creating (a) stable, secure, self-sustaining democratic all(y)” qualifies as a concrete term of McCain’s definition of victory in Iraq.

I guess that hack wants McCain to accept retreat and defeat. I strongly suspect it will be a cold summer in Hell before that happens.

Revisions/extensions (1:18 pm 7/21/2008) – Lawhawk goes into the memory hole to dig out not only the fact that tne NYT allowed Hamas access, but defended that access by saying that it wasn’t in its interest to present only one side of the debate. I guess that only applies if the one side presented is not the New Sedition Slimes’ side.

R&E part 2 (8:22 pm 7/21/2008) – The Nose On Your Face dug up Shipley’s proposed rewrite of McCain’s op-ed (H/T – Doubleplusundead)

The Morning Scramble – 7/21/2008

by @ 10:30. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Let there be speed…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaFcx09BII4[/youtube]

You best get that extra-large cup of drink; this is going to take a while (hopefully as long as it took me to put the post-weekend edition together):

  • Justin Higgins found the Obamination Express rocking back and forth more than a ship in a hurricane.
  • Jim Geraghty notes that Barack Obama’s schedule is open for Lalapalooza (or is it Comic-Con?)
  • Flip found that details don’t matter to Obama; it wasn’t a single bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor but a whole heap of them.
  • Eric breaks out Spinal Tap and Winnie the Pooh to explain Obama’s Iraq policy.
  • Gina Cobb caught onto the fact the Obamination tax plan would mean a top marginal rate approaching 60% in places like New York. Ditto Wisconsin.
  • Vivian Lee pictures Hillary Clinton serving Obama tomatoes. I think that would be a meal she’s planning on serving about the middle of January 2011.
  • DrewM caught Obama thinking he would be running for Vice President, with an offing of Clinton on January 21, 2011. That would be the only way he could serve the “to 10” portion of his “8-10 years” dream expressed in Europe.
  • Slublog offers up yet another classic SluShop on the “8-10 year” dream.
  • The folks at The American Thinker have this weekend’s Red-on-Red episode. Operation Chaos lives!
  • Ed Morrissey points out that Obama’s second choice for his German speech is historically-deficient. I guess not teaching history has consequences.
  • Rick Moran is ashamed of his brother’s profession and their slavish love for the Obamination.
  • Karl found that Obama couldn’t put up with foreign presstitutes during the Obama World Tour.
  • Speaking of Obama not putting up with foreigners, Jim Hoft found him throwing Britain’s Prime Minister under the Obamination Express. Britain’s only been our best ally for the last 100 or so years.
  • Lady Logician asks who Obama’s character references are.
  • Jason (aka Ick) found the anti-Obamination sign of the day. If I ever need insurance in Manderville, Louisiana, I’ll be sure to look up Bud Gregg’s State Farm Insurance office.
  • Speaking of the Obama World Tour, Michelle Malkin has the T-shirts.
  • Janet Evans discovered the change Obama is talking about; our status as a superpower.
  • Michael J. O’Shea counts the ways the Obamination Presstitute Groupie Corps loves giving Obama tongue baths.
  • Ed Morrissey got a hold of the Obama World Tour dress code. He’ll get the same pass for offending the female half of the Obamination Presstitute Groupie Corps he got for the “Sweetie” kerfuffle.
  • Flip found Dan Rather joining the Osama/Obama mix-up in style. Then again, maybe the Rev. Jesse Jackson did break the ground for Osama bin Laden.
  • Erick Erickson found some more “inconvenient entanglements” that Obama’s advisors have with mortgage lenders. By the way, snow isn’t exactly pure; try letting some melt to see this proof.
  • Warner Todd Huston caught the official cable station of the Obama campaign, PMSNBC, trying to equate John McCain to the Joker.
  • Sean Hackbarth found James Dobson starting to warm to McCain.
  • Bill Quick recalls why the last 6 years of Bill Clinton’s Presidency was relatively-easy to survive; a Republican Congress and Newt Gingrich.
  • Patrick Ruffini has a plan to bring conservatism back.
  • The Vintage one has some good news out of Alaska – the primary challenger to Don “Bridge to Nowhere” Young, Sean Parnell, outraised Young in the second quarter.
  • Soren Dayton exposes the fact the ‘Rats don’t believe in ethics reform. After all, they have a coronation to pay for, and lobbyists are the ones with the excess money.
  • Gribbit found even more evidence that Gorebal “Warming” is a bunch of Bravo Sierra – the estimated temperatures in Europe over the last 1,100 years.
  • Brian says to blame Nancy Pelosi for high gas prices.
  • Bill Quick found a cop that was fired for demanding free coffee and tea from a Daytona Beach Starbucks under pain of reduced response times. I agree that he should also face extortion charges.
  • King Banian explains why airlines want a government takeover of the oil futures market.
  • Ed Driscoll terms the coming death of journalism a suicide. Bonus coverage; The News Organzation That Cannot Be Quoted™ is encouraging even more left-wing bias in its dispatches.
  • Lawhawk highlights the dangers of appeasement; Hezbollah is looking at more Israeli kidnapping operations now that they’ve been proven to work.
  • Matt Naugle has picture evidence of the Presstitute Folly of the Weekend; NPR’s whine that two rather-overweight Ohio women have to cut back on meat because the economy is soooooo bad.
  • Kate and Michael Ramirez discovered the ultimate dipsticks – Congress. Yes, the dipstick is dry.
  • Kathy Carpenter discovered the empty-dipstick Congress wants to raise the gas tax 52.6% and the diesel tax 41.7%. Once again, this proves that the ‘Rats are more than happy with ever-higher gas prices as long as government is the entity getting the money.
  • Emperor Misha I confirms that the MSM is stark raving insane. The letter combination of “a”, “I”, “q” and “D” isn’t exactly the same as “RATS”; after all, “‘Rats” do describe the ‘Rats.
  • Purple Avenger found evidence that Gorebal “Warming” studiously hides evidence of its reality.
  • Dad29 notes that the study noted above that finds, among other things, no historical link between rising temperatures and carbon dioxide comes from a former Gorebal “Warming” apostle. Once again I ask, how are we winning the scientific battle and losing the political war?
  • Speaking of the decline and fall of the presstitutes, Jerome J. Schmitt misses Tim Russert. Russert’s replacement, noted Gorebal “Warming” acolyte Tom Brokaw, failed to ask the Goracle about nuclear power during the course of a 40-minute tongue-bath.
  • Jim Hoft is shocked, SHOCKED that the presstitutes would misquote Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. For the record, it’s “withdrawal on success”, not “withdrawal regardless of success”.
  • Lawhawk caught Algore Goracle comparing offshore drilling to the Iraq invasion.
  • Fred Keller will be running a U.S. Presidents Trivia contest. This ought to be good.
  • Elliot explains for the benefit of the leftosphere what an American is.
  • Jim Hoft found two more pieces of evidence that Gorebal “Warming” is a bunch of Bravo Sierra – the Arctic ice pack has grown 11% over the last year, and sea levels are falling.
  • Mike explains that it won’t be 10 years before any new oil production would hit the pipeline. Bonus coverage – a lefty wants $8/gallon gas.
  • Donna Martinez points out that innovation is the last resort of government. Actually, in Wisconsin, the majority of the bipartisan Party-In-Government doesn’t believe in innovation despite a situation worse than the one in Orange County, North Carolina.
  • Bruce has a few travel tips for the fair-weather airline passengers.

I don’t have the time to see if this is the longest Scramble ever, but it sure feels like it. Maybe I need to expand it to the weekends.

That “Afghan FOB nearly overrun” story is falling apart

by @ 7:25. Filed under War on Terror.

(H/T – Kat)

Stars and Stripes gets the skinny from Col. Charles Preysler, commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. He corrects a couple of misconceptions:

– First, it was a temporary vehicle patrol base, not a full-up forward operating base.
– Second, while the Taliban got within hand-grenade range, and pressed very hard on a particular observation post, they didn’t get into the main position.
– Finally, it wasn’t “abandoned”; rather, it was already planned to be moved on down the line.

Also from the Stars and Stripes – a first-hand account of the battle. Go, read.

Roll bloat – Into the corner

by @ 6:29. Filed under The Blog.

I could’ve said, “Ick,” but that wouldn’t quite be accurate. Please welcome Ick’s Corner to that overbloated roll to your right,.

July 19, 2008

Housekeeping – feed address change

by @ 12:19. Filed under The Blog.

No, not this place, American and Proud. While there is no change in the main blog address, there is a change in the feed address. It is now http://www.americanandproud.net/?feed=rss2.

Revisions/extensions (2:43 pm 7/19/2008) – First some not-so-good news. American and Proud is not quite running right as I post this. Seems a fix I suggested so the older posts show up didn’t quite take. Sorry about that, Robert.

Now, some good news – Fausta’s Blog is back to its normal, own domain. Again, there is a feed change, this time because Fausta made the jump from Blogger to WordPress, so those of you who have her in your feed readers need to change that to http://faustasblog.com/?feed=rss2.

The Morning Scramble – 7/19/2008

by @ 11:56. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

This one’s dedicated to a local lefty who has no clue what words mean…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDZvP7T3B30[/youtube]

Thank you, guys.

Revisions/extensions (7:34 am 7/21/2008) – Kevin Fischer likens said local lefty blogger to another local incredibly-guilty white liberal.

More infamous thugs

by @ 11:20. Filed under Compassionate Lieberals, Thug Holloway.

Guess I must have missed the memo that a certain local lefty put out about “thug” being limited to a certain race. Funny thing is, Merriam-Webster also missed this, as their definition of “thug” is “a brutal ruffian or assassin”. I don’t seem to see any mention of race here, but Lee Holloway’s repeated use of physical violence against other members of the County Board qualifies him as a ruffian and thus a thug.

Since that local lefty seems to think that “thug” only applies to African-American gangsters, I decided to put together a small gallery of those that cannot be declared “thugs” anymore, at least if we listened to that local lefty instead of the fine folks that put together Merriam-Webster:


Eugene “Bull” Connor, racist who ordered the
Birmingham, Alabama Police and Fire Departments
to brutally break up civil rights demonstrations.


Members of the Birmingham, Alabama Police
Department, who used dogs and batons to
brutally break up aforementioned civil rights
demonstrations.


Members of the Birmingham, Alabama Fire
Department, who used fire hoses to brutally
break up aforementioned civil rights
demonstrations.


Salvatore “Sammy The Bull” Gravano, former
Mafia Underboss who killed at least 19 people.


Idi Amin Dada, former leader of Sudan who
oversaw the mass murder of hundreds of
thousands.


Pol Pot, former leader of Cambodia who
oversaw the creation of the Killing Fields.


Adolf Hitler, former leader of Germany
who oversaw the creation of numerous
concentration camps and the near-
extermination of the Jews in Europe.


Iosif Stalin, former leader of the
Soviet Union who practiced his
“(T)he death of millions is a statistic”
quote many times over.

I think I’ll stick with Merrian-Webster. By the way, thanks for finishing my initiation into the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

July 18, 2008

Roll bloat – see ya!

by @ 16:37. Filed under The Blog.

I picked this one up over in the comments section of one of Patrick’s posts, so I’ll give the hat tip to him. Leaving Wisconsin is chronicling all the companies that are taking the bastardization of the 1980s tourism slogan to heart and escaping.

R&E (6:19 pm 7/18/2008) – Lousy fat fingers forced me to clean up the spelling. Mea culpa.

The Morning Scramble – 7/18/2008

by @ 8:26. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

I wish I were in Texas right now instead of cloudy, steamy and soon-to-be-stormy Wisconsin…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAchKt2xjsw[/youtube]

  • Dhimmitude Watch, Part 1 – DrewM found the United States State Department selling “Mosques of America” calendars.
  • Dhimmitude Watch, Part 2 – Charles Johnson reports the Louvre will be opening an Islamic wing.
  • On to the envirowhackos – Gabriel Malor explains how the “science” Gorebal “Warming” is falling apart. If only we weren’t about to lose the political front of the war,….
  • Ed Morrissey notes the American Physical Society is now calling Gorebal “Warming” unproven and is calling for a public debate on the validity of the “science”. It’s a good thing High Priestess “Dr.” Heidi Cullen doesn’t control the accrediation of physicists like she wants to control the accrediation of meteorologists.
  • Ace is incredulous that the Congressional ban on offshore drilling is likely going to be renewed.
  • More Ace – he found Algore Goracle wants to raise taxes on energy $1 trillion to fund his moonbat “renewable energy” shot.
  • William Teach discovers yet another thing that causes Gorebal “Warming” – cows. Make my steak medium-well, please, and my glass of milk extra-frosty.
  • Mary Katharine Ham and Americans for Prosperity caught the utter hypocrisy of the Gorebal “Warming” crowd. As The Hammer says, “Click for the inane environmentalists arriving via cab; stay for the great Gore fleet.”
  • Mary Lazich outlines the rise and fall of biofuels.
  • On to the Presidential horse race – Ace highlights the brazen attack on John McCain by The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted. Three mentions of Ace and a couple more of my fellow Morons ought to cement my status as a Moron Blog.
  • Jim Geraghty found evidence that Operation Chaos is continuing to bear fruit, as fundraisers for Hillary Clinton met with…McCain’s camp.
  • Josh Schroeder asks, “Which McCain do you prefer, the Real Life one or the JibJab Cartoon one?” Do make sure you scroll for the actual poll.
  • Moe Lane found another state GOP looking for sanctions from McCain for daring to quote Michelle Obama – the Washington one. Bravo Zulu, WAGOP.
  • The letter-writing Brad V explains why the presstitutes don’t think Barack Obama stinks; they think he doesn’t sweat.
  • Speaking of presstitutes and Obama, Sister Toldjah found them treating Obama’s upcoming overseas trip like Elvis’ Army stint. No, it’s more like the Beatles’ first visit to America.
  • Flip found a Bush Doctrine-sized fly in the Obamination soup. Of course, it turned out to be pre-emptive surrender rather than pre-emptive hindquarters-kicking.
  • It Has Begun by Jim Hoft, Part 1 – he found the racists supporting Obama aren’t waiting until November to declare those of us who dare oppose the Obamination racist.
  • It Has Begun by Jim Hoft, Part 2 – he notes the Obamination Nation has taken to torching the property of die-hard supporters of Hillary Clinton. Say, wasn’t torching a favored tactic of the KKK?
  • The focusing Brad V has the Obamination campaign slogan of the day.
  • Karl explores the other side of Obama’s campaign coin.
  • PJ-Comix found the DUmmies all in knots debating Obama’s flip vs. Obama’s flop.
  • On to the rest of the wrap – McQ found the District of Columbia in contempt of SCOTUS. I wonder if a visit from the Supreme Court Police is in order for the DC Common Council.
  • Rusty wonders if The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted and the Taliban are sharing cameramen. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least; they both have a goal of defeating America.
  • More crAP – Jim Hoft found The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted carrying water for SanFranNan.
  • Wyatt Earp exposes the shallowness of Al Sharpton’s disappointment in Jesse Jackson.
  • Paul Socha wonders where the ‘Rats were when a field trip to ANWR was scheduled.
  • Patrick laughs at Sheldon Wasserman’s weak golf skills. The 47-year-old doctor/Assemblyman got outdriven by a 64-year-old woman whose health he attacked because he wants her Senate seat.
  • Fred has the first previews of 24:Exile, the Jack Bauer African adventure.

It sure seems like half my roll’s in Austin right now for AFP’s conference. Make sure you guys and gals hoist a cold one for me.

July 17, 2008

Wile Lee Holloway, economic super genius

by @ 21:48. Filed under Business, Politics - Milwaukee County, Taxes.

(H/T – Owen, basically just so I can send the trackback to the discussion there)

Charlie Sykes has the text of a press release from Milwaukee County Board Chair Lee “Thug” Holloway purporting to claim that, even with a 1-percentage-point increase in the sales tax in Milwaukee County, it would still be “cheaper” to shop in Milwaukee County than in surrounding counties:

FACTS PROVE COUNTY EXECUTIVE’S "˜TAX ISLAND’ CLAIM IS FALSE

Adjusted for gas prices, most County residents would still get better deal within Milwaukee County

Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway issued the following analysis after the County Executive vetoed an advisory referendum on taxes and claimed a small increase in the sales tax (and decrease in the property tax) would create a tax island in Milwaukee County. The County Executive chose a Greenfield camera store to make the announcement.

At today’s gas prices, a 1-cent increase in the sales tax would not create a tax island. For a camera costing $500, the sales tax in Milwaukee County would rise by $5. But, factoring in our current gasoline prices, it would be slightly more costly for many Milwaukee County residents to drive to the nearest camera stores in Waukesha County . Using the County Executive’s example of Art’s Cameras Plus on S. 76th Street in Greenfield, the nearest comparable camera stores outside of Milwaukee County are:

* Art’s Cameras Plus, 2130 W. Silvernail Road, Pewaukee (18 miles)

* Best Buy, 19555 W Bluemound Rd, Brookfield (14 miles)

* Mike Crivello’s Camera & Imaging Center, 18110 W. Bluemound Road, Brookfield (12 miles)

At a minimum, the nearest camera store outside of Milwaukee County is 24 miles roundtrip from Art’s Greenfield location. If an average vehicle gets 20 miles/gallon and fuel is $4.29/gallon, then the $5 in sales tax savings for a $500 camera would be offset by an increase in fuel of $5.14, making the Waukesha County purchase slightly more expensive than purchasing at the Art’s Camera store in Greenfield .

If the customer would choose to drive to the Art’s Camera location in Pewaukee (36 miles roundtrip from the Greenfield location), fuel costs would increase by $7.72, making the Milwaukee County purchase $2.72 cheaper.

Let’s send the train into the explosives shed, shall we? First, what idiot would drive from his or her residence to Art’s Camera in Greenfield, head out of the county, then return to Art’s Camera in Greenfield on his or her way back home? That difference in mileage would properly be the difference of driving from one’s residence to Art’s Camera in Greenfield and back and driving from one’s residence to an out-of-the-county store and back.

Second, Holloway forgot that the sales tax in Milwaukee County is already 0.5 percentage points higher than it is in Waukesha County (or Racine County, for that matter). Thus, if Holloway got his way, it would be an additional $1.50 per $100 spent, not $1 per $100 spent.

Now, let’s take a more-realistic example of somebody living at 35th and North, smack dab in the middle of Holloway’s district. I’ll even make it easier for Holloway by taking the Greenfield Art’s Camera out of the equation and substituting the far-closer Wauwatosa Best Buy. For the hypothetical resident looking for a camera, it’s a 10-mile round-trip to the Wauwatosa Best Buy and a 27-mile round-trip to the Brookfield Best Buy.

Here comes the tricky part; the trip to the Wauwatosa Best Buy is entirely on city streets, while the trip to the Brookfield Best Buy is mostly on the freeway (roughly 20 miles). As most vehicles get better gas mileage on the highway (Toyota and Ford hybrids excepted), it’s not accurate to simply say that the trip to Brookfield is 17 miles longer and use the same gas mileage estimate for both. Therefore, let’s use my car, a 2004 Subaru Outback Sport, as the vehicle of choice for that resident. It is rated at 21 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway, using the EPA estimate from that year. My experience has been that, for once, the EPA is pretty close to accurate.

The trip to Wauwatosa (10 city miles divided by 21 city mpg) would take about 0.48 gallons, which, using the Holloway estimate of $4.29/gallon, would cost $2.06. The trip to Brookfield (20 highway miles divided by 28 highway mpg, plus 7 city miles divided by 21 city mpg) would take 1.05 gallons and cost $4.50. Going to Brookfield would cost an additional $2.44. That would make the trip out to Brookfield worth it with a camera pre-tax price of $162.67 or higher.

It gets even better for that resident (and uglier for Holloway) if public transportation is used. The MCTS fare is $2 each way to Wauwatosa, or $4 total. The combined MCTS/Waukesha Metro Transit fares, including a $0.25 zone fee for taking Rt. 10 west of 124th St. and a $0.25 transfer fee between the two bus systems is $2.50 out to Brookfield and $2.25 back, or $4.75 total. If that resident wanted to spend more than $50 and take public transportation, he or she would be better off going out of the county.

It would be a boon to communities surrounding Milwaukee County, especially Waukesha and Racine, which do not impose the 0.5% county sales tax that Milwaukee, Ozaukee and Washington Counties impose.

President Pelosi? Not so fast.

by @ 19:57. Filed under Politics - National, Presstitute Follies.

(H/T – Ed Morrissey)

ABC News engages in some fantasy about how Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) can maneuver herself into the Oval Office come January 20. Let’s more-fully explore this.

The first trigger in this series of events would be a failure of either John McCain or Barack Obama to get to 270 votes in the Electoral College as recognized by a joint session of Congress. The most-likely method is a “clean” 269-269 split, but it’s not the only one. There are also the possibilities of a “faithless elector” denying one or the other 270 electoral votes, and a third-party candidate getting at least 1 electoral vote.

I will briefly touch on the possibility that a sufficient number of challenges to the electoral votes in Congress exists to prevent a certification of all 538 electoral votes. That very-nearly happened in the 1876 election, with the final Congressional acceptance of the results (as judged by a special joint Congressional/Judicial commission) on March 2, 2 days prior to the expiration of the term of Ulysses S. Grant. 3 U.S.C. Sections 15-18 govern the counting of the electoral votes and resolution of challenges to same, and under the limits of debate and recess, Congress would be able to handle no fewer than 56 objections prior to noon on January 20.

At the point no candidate gets at least 270 electoral votes, the 12th Amendment provides that the House of Representatives chooses the President:

…The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice….

ABC News claims that the Democrats currently have a 26-21 advantage in this, with 3 states having evenly-divided delegations. They neglected to factor in the Democratic pick-up in Mississippi, which makes their advantage among the state delegations 27-21-2. That would suggest an Obama victory should it go to the House. However, it won’t be this Congress that will decide this; it will be the next one. I haven’t taken the time to evaluate the possibility of Republican pick-ups (or further losses) outside of Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional, which would make Wisconsin’s delegation evenly-divided if John Gard were to oust Steve Kagen, so I can’t evaluate whether there would no longer be a majority (vice a plurality) among the delegations.

Let’s say that the House deadlocks. The 20th Amendment provides that the Vice President elect would assume the duties until such time that a President qualifies. However, the same situations that would cause an Electoral College deadlock would likely cause it to not choose a Vice President elect, as the 12th Amendment further reads:

…The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed,…

In that case, the Senate would choose the Vice President under the authority of the 12th Amendment:

…(I)f no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice….

ABC presumes that the Senate could deadlock on this issue, with the line of succession as delimited by 3 U.S.C. Section 19 (under the authority of the 20th Amendment) giving the keys to the White House to Pelosi. Indeed, even though the Democrats have an absolute plurality of 49-49-2, and a working majority of 51-49, Joe Lieberman is unlikely to vote for Obama as he has endorsed John McCain. However, in addition to the fact that it won’t be this Congress doing the voting, there’s the “slight” matter of Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution – “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.” As the Senate would be choosing between the top 2 vote-getters, and as the 111th Congress would be at the beginning of its term, essentially the only way for the Senate to not get a majority on its own is if they were evenly-divided at 50, which would give Dick Cheney the 101st and decisive vote.

Keep dreaming, ABC.

The Morning Scramble/Open Thread Thursday – 7/17/2008

by @ 9:11. Filed under Open Thread Thursday, The Morning Scramble.

Let’s see if I can keep this one short because it is Open Thread Thursday…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm2Mdma2dXw[/youtube]

  • Ace and the Morons break out the funny to help out the late-night talkers with their drought of Obamination jokes (I do have to put a content warning on this; we are talking about Morons).
  • John McCormack pins a few on Barack Obama (literally).
  • Curt found no principles from Obama. I must disagree that there is no history though; while there isn’t much, it is of a far-left nature.
  • Byron York wonders why Obama feels at such a disadvantage to John McCain despite a $52 million month.
  • Jim Geraghty answers that; the DNC is burning through its meager funds as fast as they come in. Bonus math – the Obama campaign spent $27 million in June.
  • Jim Hoft found that the Obamination supporters are practicing the Chicago Way, Mob Edition, on the die-hard Clinton supporters. Why am I not surprised they’re resorting to violence? Could it be that Obama is a Chicago politician, or is it that they’re hard-core lefties?
  • Lawhawk identifies the word Jesse Jackson used in the part of the infamous tape not aired yet (again, a content warning is in effect; it’s not the sanitized n***** you’ll see elsewhere).
  • Enough Obamination; let’s go to the Envirowhacko Watch – Ace caught Chuck Schumer wanting more drilling…in Saudi Arabia. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Chuckie said that Saudi oil is funding Al Qaeda.
  • Fred Keller lists all the products that come from a 42-gallon barrel of oil. Guess Harry Reid’s sick of all those products as well.
  • Van Helsing found mathematical proof that there is no such thing as “Global Warming”. Algore Goracle was last seen with a flamethrower in the Arctic.
  • Allahpundit is impressed that Newt Gingrich got 1.3 million signatures on his Drill Now petition to Congress. I will take the time now to remind my Wisconsin readers to sign Phil Williamson’s Drill Now petition going to the Wisconsin delegation in DC.
  • JammieWearingFool caught Algore Goracle baying at the moon on energy. Question for the Goracle – if you want to use clean coal, why did the guy you shared the ticket with twice lock up all the clean coal?
  • Paul Socha notes the US Forest Service wants to shut down 55% of the roads in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
  • Jim Hoft proves it’s not about the environment, but about sending us back to the 16th Century, for the envirowhackos.
  • Mark Heuring has the title of the day – “The Forecast Calls for Pain”. Actually, that’s an understatment.
  • Do I cut things off here, or do I continue? There’s too much in the feeder, so let’s clear it out. Moron Pundit explains his theory of just war. It tracks well with what I’ve said before; wars end only when one side suffers enough death dealt with sufficient horror that it gives up rather than continue to suffer horrific death.
  • Dad29 laces into Jim Doyle for his simplistic opposition to a temporary halt to the gas tax that feeds the state’s transportation personal slush fund.
  • American Pundit caught Yahoo acting like Google and recaptioning an AFP photo for leftist propaganda purposes. Guess I must have missed the Yahoo-Google merger.
  • John Derbyshire bemoans the coming application of Title IX to college science and math programs. I wonder which programs will become the analogues to the UW baseball team and Marquette wrestling team.
  • James T. Harris blasts McCain for kissing the NAA(L)CP ring.
  • Jeff Emanuel has the rest of the story on the 9 American soldiers killed while fending off a massive, coordinated attack on their outpost.
  • GayPatriotWest caught The News Organization That Cannot Be Quoted cooking the dispatches again.
  • Michael Rubin questions the wisdom of negotiating with those that want to kill you regardless of the result of said negotiations.
  • Charlie Sykes notes the censorship of history is alive and well on college campuses. It matters not that the book in question praises the defeat of the KKK; the fact that it mentions and pictures the KKK is enough to set off the ninnies.
  • Ed Morrissey notes Mitt Romney is clearing the decks of $45 million in loans to himself, presumably so he can be a more-viable candidate for VP. More likely, he’s trying to maximize cash flow to active campaigns (unlike a certain ‘Rat ex-contender).

Sorry about the length; there’s just so much material. Still, I know I missed some good stuff. Let me know what I missed.

Roll bloat – shore edition

by @ 6:59. Filed under The Blog.

I haven’t had my morning Dew yet, so I don’t have anything really witty to say. However, I do recommend adding North Shore Exponent to your rolls and readers because Kyle Maichle does have a way with words.

July 16, 2008

Another shiv in the back of Milwaukee’s business climate

by @ 19:54. Filed under Business, Politics - Milwaukee.

(H/T – Peter)

JSOnline’s DayWatch reports that the various groups seeking to impose mandatory paid sick leave on every private-sector employer in Milwaukee via direct legislation had enough signatures verified. Businesses with more than 10 employees would be required to provide an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, or 9 full days (72 hours) for a full-time employee, while small businesses would have their liability capped at 5 full days (40 hours). Employees would also be able to bank the time, but not take more than 72 hours per year.

Since this is direct legislation, the only way this can be stopped is if the Common Council decides to let the voters have their say, and then the voters reject it. The Council cannot otherwise do anything other than adopt it as-is.

Welcome to France.

Civilian National Security Force?

by @ 19:01. Filed under Politics - National.

How did I miss this one? Barack Obama uttered this back on July 2:

Obama repeated his pledge to boost the size of the active military. But he also said the nation’s future and safety depends on more than just additional soldiers….

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

Note – there is a reason why I cut the two paragraphs I did; I will return to them later in the post.

The first mention in a search of my over-bloated feed reader came from Charles Johnson over at Little Green Footballs on the 8th. Michelle Malkin put it in the Hot Air Headlines on the 13th. There were a couple of other mentions between then and today, but still somehow I missed it until Leslie Carbone and Fred picked it up today.

If one only looked at the portions of the article I quoted, it would either be exceptionally-good news or exceptionally-ugly news. Does that mean I’ll be able to get that Paladin (I still qualify as a member of the unorganized militia as defined in the United States Code)? Does it mean that Asian Badger (an ex-Navy pilot) would not only be able to mount a minigun on AB1, but replace AB1 with an F-15E Strike Eagle, complete with bunker-buster bombs (I call back seat!)? If it means that, we’re looking at something north of $400 billion in spending.

Does it mean that the military loses those and future weapons to match the inability of the populace to get automatic weapons or explosives? After all, Obama is on record as advocating unilateral nuclear disarmament and a “slowdown” of developing new conventional military weapons.

I guess it’s time to bring in the “missing” paragraphs to help explode some fantasies:

“It also depends on the teacher in East L.A., or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia,” he said.

Obama had first outlined many of the proposals he talked about Wednesday during appearances in Iowa last December.

It sure sounds like a combination of a return to the wussification of the standing military conducted under Bill Clinton and a massive expansion of the federal nanny state. Not at all surprising, yet disappointing, from a person whose first considered reaction to 9/11 was that the college-educated leaders of Al Qaeda just didn’t have enough education and welfare opportunities.

Roll change – striking out on her own

by @ 11:23. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Katie Favazza, the managing editor of Townhall Magazine, has decided to take her blog to WordPress. Please adjust your rolls to http://www.katiefavazza.com, and fix your readers accordingly.

The Morning Scramble – 7/16/2008

by @ 11:06. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

Summer is here…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fxhebNeFXk[/youtube]

  • Jim Hoft found a bare spot in the latest Obamination whitewash. Those of you with weak stomachs and those of you in “sensitive” offices, you may not want to view the latest SluShop presented by Ace (the rest of you, enjoy).
  • McQ highlights the long, sordid history of Barack Obama’s view on the Second Amendment. Do remember that past performance is an indicator of the future, and it’s bleak for those of us that are armed.
  • Patrick Ruffini sounds the alarm on the Obamination Ground Game. If memory serves, Hillary Clinton spent a ton on state-level staffing.
  • That includes the opening of Obama’s Waukesha office (from Cindy Kilkenny, who beat the local paint-catcher by two news cycles). Waukesha County, in 2004, had the second-largest percentage spread and largest vote-total spread favoring President Bush in the state.
  • Stix, with the help of Michael Ramirez, found the draft of Obama’s proposed Brandenburg Gate speech.
  • American Pundit found Time not knowing what happened in May 2004. Only in an Obamination does $22 million beat $26 million.
  • Uncle Jimbo fires for effect on the Obamination Iraq Flip.
  • Michelle Malkin educates Obama on the level of education of the Al Qaeda leadership.
  • More Gateway Pundit on the Obamination Watch – he caught Obama flipping on The New Yorker cover. Guess his wife (the bad Michelle) let him have his Malkins after the good Michelle told him to grow a pair.
  • Lee Cary found Obama’s plan to fully-federalize education. The good news; no more referendums to increase taxes to build new Taj Mahals staffed by millionares. The bad; no say in the increased taxes to build new Taj Mahals staffed by millionares.
  • Rick Moran found some rumblings below the Obamination mountaintop. Unlike Rick, I believe there is some cow to go along with the bell. The superdelegates already proved themselves to be a fickle lot.
  • Warner Todd Huston found that lobbyists will be sponsoring the Obamination coronation. Does this count as another Barack-track?
  • Byron York found the architect of the previous $6.3 billion accounting scandal at Fannie Mae giving economic advice to Obama. Suggestion for those of you looking for the outrage from the Left; don’t hold your breath.
  • Jim Geraghty found the Washington Post dangerously-close to apostasy as they declared that Obama is “indifferent” to the outcome in Iraq. When even the liberal Washington gatekeeper doubts one’s committment, there’s definitely something wrong.
  • William Teach found Obama caring about Muslim sensitivities over The New Yorker cover.
  • Smooth transition time (if I hadn’t announced it, that is) – Zip found the head of the Anglican Christian Dhimmitude Church bowing once again to his Islamokazi masters.
  • In light of the previous two items, Jon Ham asks whether there is nothing that won’t offend Muslims. Let me start with polygamy and honor killings.
  • Fred Keller says, “Know thine enemy.”
  • Mike Pechar found a brand-new religion; smokers. They already have more gumballs than the Archbishop of Cantebury. Unfortunately for the shrinking number of American smokers, the religion started in Europe.
  • McQ found even more evidence that Gorebal “Warming” has replaced Socialism as the leading secular religion. Actually, Gorebal “Warming” is merely the latest manifestation of Socialism, as it pushes the same claptrap (lack-of-)results arranged to a slightly-different set of “greivances”.
  • A lot of people caught this, but I’ll give the credit to Teresa – she found a direct connection between even the discussion of more drilling and lower crude oil prices. I believe Degeneration X has two words for SanFranNan.
  • Silent E and Michael Ramirez have 1,000 words for SanFranNan and her opposition to drilling where there is oil.
  • Kevin Fischer outlines the costs of allowing oil prices to continue rising. Do note that study was in a vacuum; it would be even worse with all the additional spending the ‘Rats, both nationally and statewide, want.
  • Dad29 has a simple solution to the petroleum crunch. Of course, those that are “sick” of oil won’t give up its advantages; they want us to give up its advantages.
  • Speaking of gubmint spending, John J. Miller and Americans for Tax Reform wish you Happy Cost of Government Day.
  • Sean Hackbarth caught Barney Frank (D) declaring the dollar (actually, $4,000,000,000) “lousy”.
  • Curt says there’s going to be trouble for “some” in Washington, namely those in the bipartisan Party-In-Government that thought the surge wouldn’t work.
  • Stephen Green found a Denver Goron that wouldn’t mind feces thrown at the police in his city.
  • Jeff Emanuel found that Rush Limbaugh is right again – conservatism wins every time it’s credibly espoused.
  • Tom Tancredo sounds the early warning on the potential failure of Mexico as a nation; their police are starting to seek political asylum here because they’re threatened by the drug cartels.
  • Ed Driscoll says the blogosphere market is up 48% this year. Shoebox and I are wondering where our mad blogging money is.
  • We’re in between Drinking Right and Blog ‘n Grog, but that won’t stop the beer from flowing. Wyatt Earp found a guy with a $1000/week beer habit. That’s some serious drinking.
  • James Wigderson thinks he’s part of the Drinking for McCain brigade.
  • Van Helsing found the next target of the Nannies; strong beer. Stay out of my Labatt Maximum Ice and everything will stay golden.

Boo Hoo, Don’t Hurt the Caribou!

by @ 5:10. Filed under Energy.

As the Dems continue to bet on a losing hand, they’ve posited all kinds of reasons why we shouldn’t open ANWR. The one that is focused on the heart strings and gets repeated with both great ignorance and emotion is: “You can’t drill in ANWR! The Caribou will be disrupted and not be able to migrate, mate, make little Caribous etc.”

As I’ve said before, I’d be happy to sell Alaska back to the Russians for the same price we bought it for. I’ll guarantee that the Russians would put a drill through the head of a sleeping baby Caribou to get the oil out.

I was initially suprised that some found my plan “insensitive.” However, when I thought about it more, I see their point. It would be like selling a used car that you knew had a bad head gasket. Why would we want to saddle the Russians with our Envirowhackos? We should be willing to deal with our own problem.

So what about these Caribou? The MSM would have you believe that they will be at big risk should we disrupt them in ANWR. When we show them pictures of Caribou hanging around the Prudhoe Bay facilities and pipeline, they tell us that they gather there because we have disrupted their migration patterns.

Nuts!

Take a look at what the Alaska Department of Natural Resources says about Caribous and oil drilling.

 Alaska Department of Natural Resouces says about Caribous and oil drilling:

Population dynamics: There are approximately 950,000 wild caribou in Alaska (including some herds that are shared by Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory). Caribou are somewhat cyclic in number, but the timing of declines and increases, and the size to which herds grow is not very predictable. Although overhunting caused some herds to remain low in the past, today, varying weather patterns (climate), overpopulation, predation by wolves and grizzly bears, and disease outbreaks determine whether most herds increase or decrease.

In the 1970s people were concerned about the effect of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, expanding oil development, and increased disturbance from use of aircraft and snowmobiles on caribou. Although there was some displacement of caribou calving in the Prudhoe Bay oilfield, in general, caribou have not been adversely affected by human activities in Alaska. Pipelines and most other developments are built to allow for caribou movements, and caribou have shown us that they can adapt to the presence of people and machines. As human activities expand in Alaska, the great challenge for caribou management is for man to consider the needs of our caribou herds and ensure that they remain a visible, healthy part of our landscape.

In fact, the myths you hear about the Caribou were based on hypothetical hysteria before any development had been done (sound familiar?) or, as the Heartland Institute shows in this paper, on incomplete studies:

In 1995, Congress considered opening ANWR to oil exploration, but the initiative failed. That same year, an important census was taken of the caribou herd that uses the existing oil fields. Caribou numbers were found to have declined from 23,000 in 1992 to about 18,000 in 1995.

Most notably, the numbers of caribou in the western part of the range (with the oil fields) fell from 14,842 in 1992 to 6,327 in 1995, while numbers in the eastern part of the range (without oil fields) increased from 8,602 to 11,766 during the period.

The results of the census were heralded in a front-page headline in the Anchorage Daily News, “Oil field caribou decline.” The story focused on speculation that something about the oil fields had caused the decline.
…..
The herd was counted again in 1997, and the caribou numbers were found to have increased from the 1995 levels, to over 19,000 caribou. The number of caribou in the western range (with the oil fields) increased to 10,669 between 1995 and 1997, while the numbers in the eastern range (without oil fields) fell to 9,061 caribou.

The year 2000 caribou census showed the herd population had increased to 27,128 animals. The number of caribou in both the western (oil field) and eastern (no oil field) ranges increased (to 14,295 in the western range and 12,833 in the eastern range). This provides strong evidence that the oil fields did not cause the decline in caribou numbers between 1992 and 1995.

Incredibly, these dramatic reversals of the negative results of 1995’s census were not reported to the public.

“But Wait,” the Whackos say. “We’re not talking about any ‘ol Caribou this time! We’re talking about the Porcupine Caribous and they are MUCH different!”

Um, no, they aren’t really.

The Porcupine Caribou wander vast areas and move their calving grounds from year to year just like their cousins by Purdhoe Bay. Yes, the proposed drilling area is in part of their known calving area, but so was Purdhoe Bay’s drilling area in a calving area. While Purdhoe Bay was more centrally located in a calving area (this is part of what you’ve heard referred to as the “caribou migration issue”) and much larger, the ANWR drilling area is proposed on the very Western side of a large, annually changing, calving area. Just like their cousins to the West, unless the Porcupine Caribou have become intransigent Democrats, they will adjust and be no worse for the wear…again, just like their cousins.

Perhaps Nancy and Harry could learn something from the Porcupine Caribou.   When the Caribou’s circumstances change, they adapt to survive while the Dems refuse to acknowledge reality.   Could it be that the Caribous are actually a higher evolved specie than that of a Democrat leader?

July 15, 2008

Late view on Obama’s refusal of public money

by @ 10:12. Filed under Politics - National.

I know, I’m way late on this, but things have been a bit hectic here at the bunker. The issue, at least for me, is not as simple as Barack Obama abandoning the scheme of a publicly-financed general campaign. I view public financing of campaigns as an abomination to the process of elections.

There is, however, the twin matters of Obama previously promising to enter that scheme and endorsing the scheme for everybody else. Sooner or later, all those flips, flops, spins, bouts of hypocrisy, and lies are going to catch up to Obama. I only hope they catch up to him before November; it will be infinitely worse for all of us if they catch up to him afterwards.

The Morning Scramble – 7/15/2008

by @ 9:48. Filed under The Morning Scramble.

C. Edmund Wright provides the inspiration for today’s song by declaring a return to the double-nickel could speed us to a recession…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfNATuw1DRs[/youtube]

  • Sister Toldjah could use some prayers and well-wishes.
  • Let’s start the Obamination Watch off right; Kathy Carpenter found the perfect wind-blown cartoon for it.
  • Ed Lasky caught Barack Obama reinventing his church attendance.
  • Ed Morrissey found a fresh coat of whitewash at Obama’s website.
  • Joe Repya declares Obama’s retreat-and-defeat plan for Iraq precisely that.
  • Mary Katharine Ham found some objectivity from ABC News regarding Obama’s plan to retreat and defeat from Iraq in 16 months.
  • Charles Johnson wonders whether Obama’s planned meeting with Fatah (nee PLO) is going to jeopardize his standing with Hamas. I’ll lay odds he’ll find a way to smooth things over with them.
  • Thomas Sowell asks, “Are facts obselete?” I submit that facts haven’t really mattered since 1992, and that the lack of history in the public-school cirriculum is making itself apparent now.
  • Vivian Lee compares Obama’s love to OJ Simpson’s. I wonder if the two will meet on the golf course.
  • Michelle Malkin declares the capitulation of both halves of the bipartisan Party-In-Government to La Raza complete with John McCain’s refusal to repudiate Obama’s characterization of ICE as terrorists.
  • JihadGene channels Krazy Kim Jong-Il as he reviews the latest issue of The New Yorker.
  • Trail-Mix delivers some harsh soon-to-be-realities for the Obamination crowd.
  • Enough Obamination for 1 Scramble; time for the folks Roy Innis call Energy Killers – Heather Radish isn’t excited by the rescinding of the executive ban on off-shore drilling. I’m going to have to explore the reasoning a bit more in a bit.
  • Shoebox does some math for the two-year-olds ruin…er, running Congress.
  • Dad29 explodes the Russ Feingold/Steve Kagen malarkey about all the acreage leased but not actively drilled by the oil companies. Why would they sink more drill bits into dry holes?
  • Kate has some not-exactly-random thoughts on Congress and gas prices.
  • Ed Morrissey found the greatest oil-spill polluter on Earth – GAIA!
  • Lemur King has today’s item blamed on Gorebal “Warming” – kidney stones.
  • There’s still some good stuff in the reader, but I can’t come up with a pithy category – James T. Harris spotted the telltale sign of hypocrisy from Bill Clinton; he opened his mouth on polarized politics.
  • Justin Phillips found today’s example of the folly of campaign finance “reform” – Sheldon Wasserman and his stockpiling of donations while taking public money. That reminds me; I still owe you my take on Obama’s refusal to participate in the public financing scheme for the general election after pledging to do so.
  • Kevin Fischer rips the rampant growth of gas-wasting, time-wasting roundabouts in Wisconsin.
  • Tom McMahon explains the non-economic reason why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are failing.
  • Jim Hoft notes not all is hunky-dory for the Mad Mullahs and their sockpuppet, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian students are quite upset about the way the theocracy is going.
  • Elliot has today’s example of the Aztlanization of Green Bay. How long before speaking Spanish is a requirement for employment? I give it 2 years regardless of who wins.

Time to Talk to the Two Year Olds

by @ 5:39. Filed under Politics - National.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but Mrs. Shoe and I are proud parents of twin Shoelets.   Thing 1 and Thing 2 (the Shoelets) turned 10 this weekend and we had a great time celebrating including a viewing of Hellboy II by the Shoelets and myself (they just don’t make movies like that anymore!)   The reason I tell you this, is that working with twins hones your parenting skills early on.  

Mrs. Shoe and I quickly learned that we needed to address issues with the Shoelets  straight on.   If we let issues slide, they knew how to push the rules.   If there was a complex issue, something like why one of their school mates had 2 moms, we needed to discuss it with them giving them enough information to make sense of it with where they were at mentally, without dragging all of the adult jargon and issues along with it.     This method of not avoiding issues, but not over complicating and over explaining them is referred to by us as “talking to two year olds.”

As I posted earlier, President Bush has removed the Executive Order barring off shore drilling.   As expected, Harry Reid came out to snivel about Bush’s action.   Harry’s action plan seems to include three points

  • Crack down on “Excessive speculation.” – I’m not against this.   The problem I do have is that the DOPES used to tell us that the “Big, Bad Oil Companies” were gouging us.   After numerous investigations, they have yet to show us $.01 of gouging that has occurred.   If Harry can actually show me “Excessive speculation” I’m with him, until then, this is a red herring
  • The “Big, Bad Oil Companies”should drill in all the acreage they already have – What a great idea!   I wonder why those nasty companies hadn’t thought of it?   Could it be that there isn’t any oil there?   That’s non starter two!
  • President Bush, tear down that SPOR! – The Dems have said that President Bush should release the oil in the strategic reserve.   The strategic reserve holds enough oil to satisfy replace our  imported oil needs for about  2 months.

Releasing oil from the SPOR has become the new line in the sand for the Dems.   They seem unable to understand why this is a bad idea and why rather than reducing prices, drawing down the reserve could actually increase prices.

And this is where I start talking to the two year olds.

Nancy, Harry –

  • You only have 700M Barrels of oil in the SPOR.
  • You can only offset Imported oil for 60 days
  • You claim it will take 10 years to get any new drilling on line (It won’t, I’m just spinning their illogic back at them)

What are you going to do between 2 months and 10 years?   If you really believe that opening SPOR will bring down prices, what do you do when it runs out?

The problem kids, is that you have offered no solutions that increase oil production, zip, nil, nada.   If you deplete the SPOR without increasing production, you may get a momentary drop but once you run the SPOR down, prices will go back up and that may be the goods news.   With the SPOR  depleted, prices will  likely move even higher than they were before because that “threat” is off the table.

Drill here, Drill now, pay less,

July 14, 2008

Ryan responds to the Midwest job slash

by @ 20:47. Filed under Energy, Politics - National.

In case you missed the big local news, Midwest Airlines announced it is going to slash 40% of its work force. The office of my Congressman, Paul Ryan, passed along the following press release:

WASHINGTON – Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan expressed grave concerns at the insistence by Congressional leadership to continue to put off-limits vast supplies of domestic energy. Earlier today, President Bush announced that he will lift the executive prohibition on energy exploration along the Outer Continental Shelf, but Congress has refused to follow suit. Coupled with today’s sobering news that Oak Creek-based Midwest Airlines will be laying off over 1,200 of its hard-working employees, Congressman Ryan has had enough. Ryan issued the following statement in light of today’s troubling developments:

“Unless Congress takes action to lift its own moratorium, President Bush’s decision to lift an executive ban on offshore drilling is meaningless. For nearly three decades, Congress has made it illegal to drill for oil and natural gas along the Outer Continental Shelf. Those I serve in Wisconsin can no longer afford to put up with our misguided energy policies. In addition to the pain at the pump felt by families across Wisconsin, high fuel costs have led directly to announced layoffs for workers at GM in Janesville and Midwest Airlines in Oak Creek. Enough is enough: we need a comprehensive energy policy – and we need one today. Congress can start by ending its stubborn resistance toward boosting domestic energy supply, and lift its moratorium on offshore drilling.

“Today’s announcement from Midwest Airlines is devastating, and comes at a time when folks are already struggling in our current economic downturn. As we prepare for the difficult months ahead, I will do all that I can to provide assistance to the employees of Midwest Airlines hit hardest by today’s painful decision."

For more on Congressman Paul Ryan’s call for a comprehensive energy plan, please visit: http://www.house.gov/ryan/energy/

###

Bonus coverage – Ryan’s energy plan –

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsht3-Hiu-w[/youtube]

In sum, and in order; drill, refine, streamline the boutique fuels (including the very-special blend of the Algore/Whitman Memorial RFG we in the Milwaukee area have to suffer with), no food-for-fuel, invest in R&D for a replacement, invest in R&D for conservation.

God Didn’t Tell Him to Run

by @ 20:29. Filed under Politics - Minnesota.

Dang, Jesse Ventura told Larry King he isn’t going to run for US Senate.

In explaining his decision, Jesse rambled about all kinds of issues. The one that seemed to clinch it for him was that he didn’t want to subject his family to the Minnesota press.

As with all of his complaints about Minnesota media, Jesse’s shot tonight should have been pointed back at himself. The media aggressively and rightly followed up on stories about Jesse’s son’s escapades. Shortly before he needed to attempt a reelection campaign Jesse’s son, Tyrel was accused of using the Governor’s mansion as a party house in a tell all book by the mansion director. By the time this book came out it was already apparent that any positive that Jesse may have had, had ebbed from the memories of most Minnesotans.

Jesse told Larry that unlike President Bush, God had not spoken to him in his 57 years. But, and this is the way Jesse handles nearly everything, he left the door open that if God talks to him before 5 PM CST tomorrow, he could yet get into the race.

I’m going to be praying from now until 5 PM tomorrow. I’ve got enough stuff to talk to God about that it should keep Him too busy to get to Jesse.

You can thank me later.

Larry and the Loons

by @ 18:03. Filed under Politics - Minnesota.

For all of you who thought CNN viewers were in the tank for the Dems…guess again!

Larry King, Almost Alive, has Jesse Ventura on tonight.   Jesse has promised to tell the world, on national TV, whether he’ll run for Senate in Minnesota.

To honor Ventura’s latest publicity grab and ego pat, larry’s folks have a poll out letting you vote on who should be elected as Senator.   Remember that recent polls show Ventura at about 25% support in the state. Here were the poll results as of about 5:30 PM.

I’m sure glad they told us this wasn’t a scientific poll! I would have hated to see the A/P and Reuters stories retracted!

 

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