This came into Charlie Sykes’ mailbox a while ago from former Thompson-era Department of Administration secretary James Klauser:
7. December, 2009
Dear Friend:
Jim Doyle, after 8 years, will leave Wisconsin state and local finances in a shambles. In his first term he spent and borrowed; in his second term he spent [...]
(H/T – David Freddoso)
The Employment Policies Institute spoofed a GEICO ad as part of their Rethink Reform site…
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]The Senate held a rare Sunday session, ostensibly to work on PlaceboCare. However, Politico has the scoop on what really went on behind closed doors – the Dems were jonesing on Chinese food while watching football. What, Mr. Days is too public for them?
Seriously, the main focus of that [...]
Ever since Ed Morrissey figured out that Social Security had started to run monthly deficits back in May, I’ve been on it on-and-off. There’s some bad news, and some REALLY bad news over the last couple months:
The FY2009 primary (cash) surplus of the combined funds was $19.356 trillion. While [...](H/T – Darleen Click)
Reuters reported on Friday that the monthly federal deficits of $176.4 billion in October (official) and $115 billion in November (CBO estimate) mean that the start of the 2010 federal fiscal year is even worse than the record-deficit-shattering 2009 fiscal year. As Darleen pointed out, [...]
(H/T – Howie)
Politico has the news that top executives at National Public (read – taxpayer-funded) Radio told Mara Liasson to reconsider her appearances on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” and Fox broadcast network’s “Fox News Sunday”, all-but-ordering her to watch the network for 30 days to try and [...]
I originally posted this in 2007. Let’s re-run that, and add to it.
Hat-tip for the video – Jawa Howie. Now, watch and remember (or learn if you’re a recent product of public school education):
Click here to view the embedded video.
Of course, the lessons are rapidly being forgotten, [...]
While continuing to avoid stories on Climategate, the AP is focused on creating “news” where none exists.
In an article on Sunday, the AP attempts to be the first to announce that Sarah Palin is running for the Republican nomination for President. They conflate Palin’s book tour appearance in Iowa [...]
I pointed out to you here that while the advertised cost of the first ten years of the House Placebocare bill was $829, the real cost, if fully implemented, was over $1.3 Trillion, 57% more than claimed. The reason for this dramatic difference is that while the House plan has [...]
I hate to say I told you so but, I told you so.
Had you read my post from yesterday you would have had all the high points of President Obama’s Afghan speech, in advance and without having to watch his strained, poorly choreographed event.
So, what did we get? We got [...]
Tonight President Obama will interrupt yet another hour of television so that we may hear him share his brilliance on yet another topic. This time the topic will be Afghanistan and what he has decided to do with the request for additional troops. There’s no need for you to waste [...]
Newsmax is reporting the Mike Huckabee is leaning against being involved with the 2012 Presidential contest:
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he’s leaning slightly against running for president in 2012 but says it’s far too early to say what he will do.
I think this is nothing but publicity for Huckabee. [...]
Shoebox already listed what he is thankful for, but I do need to add my own list since the cook in my family (my older sister) is spending the day with her husband’s family (don’t worry; my overstuffing commences Sunday):
The Triune God – God the Father who created everything [...]Dear Readers,
Mrs. Shoebox and I along with Thing1, Thing2 and Grandpa and Grandma Shoebox, are heading across the great Midwest to spend this holiday with the extended Shoebox family.
Along with the start of the annual increase of my caloric intake, I’ll be spending some time reflecting this weekend.
There are many [...]
Poll after poll has shown that Placebocare is not supported by the majority of Americans. One segment that inexplicably hadn’t moved to the anti Placebocare side has been the youth. In fact, youth are one of the few segments that have consistently supported Placebocare. In a Rasmussen poll this [...]
Whereas the turkey is the offical bird of Thanksgiving, and
Whereas turkey is a delicious meat, and
Whereas turkey breast contains more protein and less fat and sodium than chicken breast,
Now therefore I hereby decree that a nameless, pictureless turkey be given a thorough plucking and a complete basting, and warmed to [...]
A couple days after Gallup’s 3-day tracking poll of adults showed a dip of President Obama’s job approval index below 50% (H/T – Ed Morrissey), Rasmussen Reports’ 3-day tracking poll of likely voters has Obama further under water than he’s ever been:
The Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index hit [...](H/T – DrewM)
So President Obama has supposedly decided on sending 34,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, far short of either the “low-risk” 80,000 or “medium-risk” 40,000 commanding General Stanley McChrystal had requested. Moreover, the term “off-ramp” has entered the lexicon, with triggers for a full retreat-and-defeat starting to kick in [...]
It’s been years since I’ve watched SNL on a regular basis. Part of it is it’s on late at night. But, most of it is due to the fact that their politics and mind haven’t aligned for years. As a result, I don’t find much of their stuff as funny [...]
No, I’m not referring to the new movie out starring Robin Williams, Seth Green and John Travolta!
Of the many reasons that I was opposed to John McCain’s nomination last year, one that stood out towards the top, was McCain’s position on Global Warming. You may remember that McCain was one [...]
There were several articles this week about recent polls that show Independents are abandoning Obama as they are sensing the impending sinking of the USS Democrat. One such article is this one from the Politico.
Amongst the stats that have the Democrats concerned are insights like this:
A Gallup Poll released last [...]
A few years ago, Governor Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) and Milwaukee Mayor Tom “Milk Carton” Barrett conspired to delay the rebuilding of the Zoo Interchange, which links I-94, the northwest terminus of I-894, and US-45, in order to focus on rebuilding and widening the stretch of I-94 between the [...]
We’re somewhere near 400 blogs on that bloated roll to your right (and over 400 feeds in my overstuffed feed reader), but there’s always room for more quality places as we find them. One of those is Soapbox Jill’s Liberty’s Logic.
[...]
Here’s the photo from Drudge:
Post up your best caption for the picture.
Here’s mine:
Reid needs support for his lower back pain after carrying the 2074 page Senate health care bill into the chamber.
Update: OK, how about “NO! When doing the Senate two step, you put one [...]
President Obama is now the Alfred E. Neuman of US Politics
AP: Obama, Holder predict conviction in 9/11 case
Ummmm…wasn’t this the same administration who said unemployment wouldn’t go over 8%?
I wonder if this will be another opportunity for Vice President Biden to tell us, after the fact, that the [...]
Actually, it’s almost too late since they close Friday, but I thought I would bring it to your attention. The nominations are now open for the 2009 Weblog Awards, so go forth and nominate your favorite blogs (and if I catch you nominating this place, I’m going to disown [...]
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker issued on Monday 35 line-item vetoes that, taken together, more-than-fully reverse the County Board’s decisions to raise the property tax levy 3.8% and make county government even less efficient. The Board will be meeting at 1:30 pm today at the County Courthouse (901 N. [...]
Is there anyone getting more press coverage in the past 10 days or so than Sarah Palin? Ever since she began her publicity tour for her book, right, left and every ideology in between has been writing or reporting (even if they have to make stuff up) on Sarah Palin. [...]
That’s right; at the end of the business day on November 16, 2009, the national debt topped $12 trillion for the first time in history. Things only get worse when one looks at the growing rate of the debt:
Over his first 300 days (209 business days at the Treasury), [...]It didn’t start with the Obama administration but it has accelerated to warp speed under their watch. What am I referring to? Well, the government trying to tell you how to live your life, of course.
Smoking Bans CFL light bulb Banning or taxes on sugar items Forced health insurance purchases Carbon restrictions Salary caps Car manufacturingThese [...]
There used to be a time where wars were fairly predictable. I don’t mean the length or who would win the war. I mean that ultimately, a war would end when one of the two sides determined that the “price” of continuing the war became higher than the one side [...]
I’ve been out of steam for a while, but I think I have some now. Let’s see what I missed:
Tom “Milk Carton” Barrett decided to be the “savior” of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and announced that he would be the de facto nominee for governor on Sunday. The timing [...]On Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released an actuarial report that analyzed the recently passed House version of Placebocare. Chris Frates at Politico.Com reviewed the report and pulled out some very interesting insights and conclusions. You can read Frates’ full review here.
Of the many items that [...]
Rasmussen has shown itself time and again to be an accurate pollster. Some might say that they lean a bit to the right in their assessment of poll results but I find that they tend to be pretty fair in their assessments. That said, every now and then I see [...]
You may remember Carrie Prejean. She was the young lady who was discriminated against in the Miss USA 2009 pagent because of her Christian views, which just happen to align with the majority of Americans, regarding gay marriage. Miss Prejean became quite a celebrity following the pageant events and rightly [...]
Sorry about the lack of posts. Other than Drinking Right, I’ve just been out of it all week, and Shoebox is decimating the pheasant population of South Dakota. Oh well; I may as well put up a song that was heavy in the TalkMess rotation back when Kevin Matthews was [...]
First, watch Nancy Pelosi give her rational for Placebocare:
Did you catch that explanation?
Well, the point is that we want to make sure that everyone has access to health care. For a long time now people who haven’t had health care or provided it had placed the burden on others. Everybody [...]
I believe I said it before, but it bears saying again – Without your service and the service of those who served before you, I wouldn’t be here doing this in the greatest country in the history of mankind.
[...]The German website Spiegel Online had one of their reporters interview former East German border guard Lieutenant-Colonel Harald Jäger as part of their extensive coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Jäger, who was in charge of the East Berlin checkpoint at Bornholmer Strasse, was the first guard [...]
It’s Thursday, and after that long post yesterday, I’m out of steam. Let’s have an instrumental to warm up…
Click here to view the embedded video.
You know the drill; feed me links.
[...]In case you haven’t noticed, I am a race fan. That is why it saddens me to have to tell you that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported that Milwaukee Mile promoter-to-be Historic Mile LLC has pulled out after failing to get enough financing to pay NASCAR for the [...]
In 2008 with Barack Obama running for President, campaigning on a platform (if you were willing to listen) of ideas that would move the nation dramatically to the left, New Jersey supported him by a 16% margin and Virginia supported him by a 5% margin.
In 2009 New Jersey and Virginia voters did not [...]
From the AP of all places:
WASHINGTON – President Hamid Karzai greeted Barack Obama’s coat tail loses of Tuesday with as much admonishment as praise on Monday, pointedly advising Afghanistan’s partner in war he must make more serious efforts to end corruption in America’s government and prepare his nation to ultimately [...]
After Dede Scozzafava announced that she was suspending her campaign, I thought it was odd that she didn’t immediately endorse Hoffman. In fact, you can see my comment about that in my Saturday post. I guess this was just another of those “call me Carnac” moments.
On Sunday, Scozzafava endorsed [...]
This is the Emergency Blogging System. This is not a test; a test has questions.
For those of you in the US (and not in those parts that don’t observe Daylight Savings), Daylight Savings Time ended at 2 am local time today. If you have a WordPress blog (whether it is [...]
WWNY-TV is reporting that Dede Scozzafava is about to announce that she will release her supporters to Doug Hoffman.
The anticipated announcement is apparently as a result of this poll just released by Siena University. The latest poll shows Hoffman and Owens in a statistical tie and shows Scozzafava [...]
I attended Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI, and my Congressman) townhall meeting at the Franklin Public Library, where he dropped off a copy of the 1,990-page present House version of PlaceboCare. If you have the 36 minutes to watch the entire townhall, the 4-part video is below (and yes, it is [...]
President Obama has acquired two more Czars. Here’s a clip from their first meeting:
These are Czars I could accept!
H/T Big G
[...]
