Name that Country

I really didn’t forget about this…I just was too busy to post anything!

Last week we had the country of Australia. I don’t think they can get much easier than that!

This week we are looking at a 7 out of 10.

Good luck!


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The Double Standard

The left loves to say that we are “behind several other states” when it fits their agenda like AB 157 (the Wisconsin Safe Climate for anything other than Business Act).

“I mean there are 10 other states that have already done it why are we so far behind!”

But when a conservative points out that 48 other states have conceal carry for law abiding citizens, they dig in their collective heels and wail that “we don’t want Wisconsin to become the “wild west” do we?”

AB 157 is BAD for Wisconsin.

My favorite quote today about AB 157 was: “Scientists continue to amass data showing the disastrous ecological and economic consequences of global warming pollution,” said Shahla Werner, Ph.D., Director of the John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club.

You’d think with a Ph.D. she would know that the “data” she is talking about in this press release is hypothetical data NOT actual data!!!

Big difference! Maybe she should stop trying to get crappy legislation through the State House and do a little reading about the subject she should know something about.

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Algore…eat your heart out….

All of you remember the movie…you know the one.

Well check this out…I found this photo on Watts Up With That?

Mount Kilamanjaro - Tanzania, Africa - still snowy. Photo by Neil Modie, January 2008

But the better image is the one Kate put together over at Small Dead Animals (don’t ask me I just read the blogs I’m not the one naming them!!)

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Good news!!

Well it looks like it is official Wendy Christensen (Caledonia’s Village Clerk) has filed the necessary paperwork to run for Racine County Clerk!

For all of the sorted details head on over to Caledonia Unplugged and get the full scoop!!

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Thank you Rep. Ott

Press Release: Assembly Bill 157 not the Answer


“We should all protect our natural resources,” said State Rep. Jim Ott. “However, AB 157 will have no impact on reducing global temperatures, but it would have a significant and negative impact on Wisconsin’s economy.”


“As recently as the late 1970s and early 1980s scientists and the media were talking about the possibility of an approaching ice age,” said Ott. “Imagine if lawmakers had rushed in and mandated all sorts of changes based on that assumption?”


This is why we love you Jim!!

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Survey

This was e-mailed to me a few weeks ago and I was hesitant to post it until I took the survey myself…I have and now I offer it to you:

*********************************************************************************************

The purpose of this survey is to examine how people think and feel about the political issues, parties, and candidates in the upcoming election. In the survey, you will be asked a series of questions about two political candidates, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. We are very interested in how individuals that find information on the web think about politics, and your participation would be greatly appreciated. In total, the survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

Click here to take the survey:

http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/stu/crweber/TAKESURVEY/election_2008.htm

Please feel free to contact Chris Weber (crweber@notes.cc.sunysb.edu) at Stony Brook University with any questions or concerns. Thanks for your help!

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Wisconsin Safe Climate Act…

State Rep. Spencer Black can’t even get the facts correct in a 5 paragraph press release how can the people of Wisconsin even think that the 15 pages of “climate” legislation is worth the paper it is written on?

In the press release it states “carbon dioxide pollution, the main cause of global warming” had they done any research at all they would find that H2O, not CO2, is the “main cause” of global warming; CO2 only contributes about 2-10%.


Next he states that “We have an obligation to act before we see severe damage to our environment, our economy and our quality of life”

Really? A longer growing season here in Wisconsin would be bad? Fewer deaths due to cold weather would be bad? (BTW you do know that more people die due to cold weather than hot, right?) A longer tourist season would be bad for the economy of Wisconsin? What exactly would be wrong with a warmer Wisconsin…assuming we are getting warmer? Have they looked at any of the recent stats about the global climate over the past few years? We are down about 0.3 degrees…oh my!

Lastly, one must only read the first paragraph of the legislation to understand what is going on here. From AB 157:

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. 15.347 (5) of the statutes is created to read:

15.347 (5) GREENHOUSE GAS MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COUNCIL.
There is created in the department of natural resources a greenhouse gas management environmental justice council consisting of at least 3 members, appointed by the secretary of natural resources from nominations received from environmental justice organizations and community groups, representing communities that have the most significant exposure to air pollutants, including communities with minority populations and communities with low−income populations.


So that is what this is all about…more government bureaucracy and “help” for minority and low-income populations from the state DNR.

But it gets better…you see this bill isn’t as cut and dry as it would seem

286.23 Emission limits and reduction measures.
(2) REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING RULE PROMULGATION.
(b) Ensure that activities undertaken to comply with the rules will not have a disproportionate impact on communities with low−income populations.

So this means even though areas that are “run down” may have a higher out put of CO2…we can not force them to fix it to meet the state requirement under this bill but we would then be able to force other businesses and/or producers of “green house gases”* to further reduce their output in order to make up for these low-income areas.

* limited to carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexaflouride

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Today…


HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON!!!!

On this day in history, February 22:

1732 – George Washington, 1st US President, born

1819 – Spain ceded Florida to the United States

1854 – 1st meeting of the Republican Party, Michigan

1856 – 1st National meeting of the Republican Party, Pittsburgh

1872 – 1st National convention of the Prohibition Party, Columbus, OH

1879 – 1st Woolworths’s opens in Utica, NY

1889 – North and South Dakota, Montana and Washington were admitted to the Union

1900 – Hawaii becomes a US territory

1924 – The first presidential radio broadcast from the White House made by Coolidge

1932 – “Teddy” Kennedy, Senator D-MA, born

1935 – Planes were no longer allowed to fly over the White House

1968 – Jeri Ryan, Actress, born

1971 – Gilbert Brown, Defensive Tackle, born

1980 – The US Olympic Hockey Team defeats the Soviets 4-3 at Lake Placid

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Excuse me?

AP: Wolves to be removed from species list
Are they no longer an animal?

AP: Pakistan opposition parties to ally
Isn’t this head line one big oxymoron?

AP: Obama wins global primary
I didn’t know that this election cycle had gone global!?!

Reuters: Total lunar eclipse turns Moon red
I hope it turned it back again!!

Reuters: USDA unsure if Calif. cattle case isolated to plant
You know it’s bad when the government doesn’t know that cattle are not plants!

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Name that Country

I know that we have a few new guests to this blog so I will again ask that we take a little time when we answer the questions and give clues or hints so as to not ruin the game for others that are playing…besides if you already know it show off a bit and help those that don’t stand a chance at this game.

Now that that is over…Last week was hard but I thought the clue was really good, the country was Fiji.

This week I can’t make it much easier than this…1 out of 10.

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Do you know what this is?

******UPDATE*******
For those of you that I stumped with this one the chemical was Hydrazine.

Hydrazine is the rocket fuel that was still in the satellite the US Navy destroyed on Wednesday night.


But the question still remains: was the destruction of the satellite really due to this fuel or was it to:

a) show that we could do something the Chinese recently did?

OR

b) destroy a satellite that contained classified information and/or technology that we did not want a foreign country to get a hold of?

Just some food for thought.

****************************************************************************

This has been in the news quite a bit lately. Can you tell me what it is any why it has been in the news?

Image 1:






Image 2:



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Not Voting and Cross Over…

I am having an ongoing debate with a co-worker about her (him) not voting and my cross over vote.

Here are the pertinent parts of our many e-mails…you decide if my co-worker has a point.

Why my co-worker did not vote:

“I'm not voting for Hillary, because I'm not convinced she is the most beatable candidate and I think it's wrong and immoral.

I'm not voting for McCain, because I don't support him, yet, and I want him to know that.

I'm not voting for Huckabee, because although he is my favorite candidate and I support him, I do not want to increase the Republican base that is voting. I want Republican voter turnout to be low (which it may likely be due to those voting for Clinton anyways). So, perhaps my choice is more diluted because of that reason. Yet, my mind is made up.

Therefore, my vote is not to vote, because I want to make a point to McCain that he needs to think long and hard about his next steps if he wants the Republican base to support him. I want him to know that I'd rather not vote at all than to vote for him if he stays the current course. Maybe a vote for Huckabee does that, but I don't think so. I think a vote for Huckabee shows that I'm going to vote Republican no matter what; whereas; a no-vote says... maybe not so much.”



What (s)he thinks of me (and any of you) for voting for Hillary (that still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth…ugh!!!):


"Once again - not voting is more of a civic duty than tampering with the election. The founding Fathers would be turning in their graves if they knew people were casting dishonest votes - they should all be ashamed of themselves and should have no say about the state of politics or what policies are originating out of Washington since they consciously tampered with an election bringing down the respect of America to that of a 3rd world country
- Good Job!"

...AND...


"There is no difference between not voting and voting for a candidate you don't want to win. None. Except one is a bit more honorable. You can say it's not tampering, but we all know it is, no matter what shade of gray you want to call it. It was an immoral thing to do and shame on you!"


So what say all of you?

Is staying home because your guy has no chance of winning sending a message to the winner?

Would the founding fathers be proud of my co-worker for sitting on his(her) hands and not voting?

Is voting in an open primary in Wisconsin tantamount to “tampering” with an election?

Is it more “honorable” to stay home and not vote?

How do all of you that crossed over feel about your “immoral” act?

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Now this is cool!!

On Wednesday night, February 20th, there will be a total lunar eclipse visible in this area.

The “show” will begin at about 7:43 p.m. CST and the total eclipse will occur between 9:01 and 9:51 p.m.

Click the graphic for more information!!

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Huckabee: “I may be killing my political career”

According to the ABC Blogs, Huckabee was quoted at an event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin saying, “may be killing my political career, but I know this -- if we don't start thinking in terms of solving some of America's problems, we're killing all of your careers.”

When he was later asked to clarify the quote he tries to argue that his campaign is similar to that of Ronald Reagan’s 1976 campaign against Gerald Ford…now that is a laugh!!!

Huckabee actually thinks that being in a no win situation with a zero chance of winning the nomination and a near zero chance of preventing McCain from getting the nod is somehow close to Reagan’s close delegate race with Ford. Reagan won a clear majority of caucuses while Ford won the majority of primaries.

Huckabee is no Reagan!! The fact that he continues to compare himself to Reagan proves just how far off base the guy really is.



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Question of Ethics

It seems that the “left leaning” group One Wisconsin Now is a little upset with Judge Michael Gableman’s campaign and have filled a complaint (way back in December) with the Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee but the Wisconsin State Journal is reporting on it just this last weekend.

They claim that the Gableman campaign violated the judicial ethics code which states in part “a candidate for a judicial office shall not knowingly or with reckless disregard for the statement’s truth or falsity misrepresent the ... present position or other fact concerning ... an opponent."

So the question is “what did the Gableman camp say that violated this rule?”

In a fundraising letter the following was written Louis Butler “provided the deciding vote to overturn a sexual predator decision by a circuit court, resulting in the release of the predator into Milwaukee County.”

Here are the facts:

In a case of Richard A. Brown, Louis Butler voted with the majority, in a 4-3 ruling, that ordered Brown to be released into Milwaukee County.

So the statement in the fundraising letter is in fact truthful and does not misrepresent Louis Butler’s position on this case at all. The One Wisconsin Now crowd is all hung up on the fact that, to date, Brown has not been released. That information does not change the any of the facts of the statement.

Gableman’s campaign will not be found to have violated any ethical standards.

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Knight Rider


Yes I was a fan of the original version and was rather glad to hear it was coming back…as long as it was without the Hoff!!

I’m an hour into the show right now and I have to say that it has potential…I will watch another couple of episodes before I say I love the show but at this point it is entertaining!!

Here is more info on the show and the new car!! Knight Rider


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What do you say?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted as saying:

"Nobody wants to sit there and say, 'Well there's no easy solution,' They want to send out a check to everybody to stimulate the economy. I suppose it won't hurt the economy but it's in many senses like giving a drink to an alcoholic."
What do you think?

Is the “rebate” program good or bad for us?

Bloomberg also said that the US “has a balance sheet that's starting to look more and more like a third-world country."

Harsh words for a guy that people think will be a 3rd party candidate for President.

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Supreme Court candidate, Judge Michael Gableman in Racine...TODAY!!!

I had the good fortune of talking with one of Judge Gableman’s schedulers yesterday…Judge Gableman will be at the Racine County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner next week (I’ll post that Invite later)…and found out that he will be in Racine today!!!

So with a little prompting from his scheduler I set up a “meet and greet” gathering today!!

Come meet Judge Gableman, candidate for the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, today:
4:00 p.m.
JavaVino
424 S Main St
Racine, WI

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Romney’s endorsement…my vote?!?!

I guess this goes with my last post…with Romney’s endorsement of McCain…does that mean if I vote for Romney in the WI primary I’m really voting for McCain?

I’m not quite sure what to think of that…

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"Cross-over"

Is anyone really going to “cross-over” and vote the other side of the ticket?

My wife told me she just might do that.

What are you going to do?

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Name that Country

Well if you read the comments from last week you will notice that I was not the only person to think that I had done that country before…but I checked and rechecked and the county of Somalia had not graced these pages until last week.

This week is 10 out of 10 but with my hint I think it reduces it to an 8.

Hint: The map below depicts less than 2% of the country but accounts for over 87% of the population.

Good Luck and Have Fun!!

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How much more…

I’ve been wondering out loud to anyone who will listen and now to anyone reading this blog…how much more is Huckabee willing to take from the GOP?

I’m not the biggest McCain fan…I’m not even sure that he can win against Obama…but all that aside with Huckabee still in the mix it means that McCain needs to spend more and more money to secure the nomination and that the Party has less and less time to come together and rally around one person.

I know that Huckabee “didn’t major in math, (he) majored in miracles” but I’m sure someone on his staff has done the math and realizes that, since Romney dropped out of the race, Huckabee has only been able to secure <20% of the delegates. Since he has done so poorly he will need to secure more than 55% of the remaining delegates just to prevent McCain from getting the nomination! As well as it is mathematically impossible (miracle or not) for Huckabee to get the nomination with the remaining primaries.

Huckabee has said over and over again that he is not running for the VP spot and based on the way he is going I’m beginning to think that there is no way McCain would now even consider giving him the position anymore.

While I agree with Huckabee that I would rather have a choice not a coronation the facts are the facts…we do not have a choice anymore…McCain is going to be the nominee…numbers do not lie.

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“Government CarAid?”

Frank Lasee is Wisconsin’s 2nd Assembly District Representative

Lasee’s Notes
February 12, 2008

Government CarAid?

Last week I wrote about the health care cost shifting that goes on because the government pays a discounted rate for medical services. This increases the cost all of us pay for on our own healthcare purchases whether insured or uninsured. Some of the feedback I got on cost shifting was skeptical (many understood it, as well).

Let’s use an analogy of car purchasing. Say a dealer has ten cars that he expects to sell for $21,000 each. When the dealer sells the ten cars for $21,000 each, he will have $210,000. After costs of sale, financing and overhead, the dealer expects to average (for simplicity’s sake) $3,000 profit for each car. The dealer plans to have an income of $30,000 from the sale of these cars after covering his costs.

Suppose the government steps in and says that owning a car is a right. Dependable transportation to and from work is essential, which, of course is true. The government creates CarAid. Under CarAid any dealer must sell cars to program recipients for $5,000 for each car. Also for simplicity, each dealer will sell three cars for this $5,000 (30% of the cars sold, same percentage as government medical programs).

If the dealer wants to make the same profit and cover his costs he will have to charge more for the seven cars he sells to non-government buyers. To make the same income, the dealer has to sell each of the remaining cars for about $28,000. Since dealers have to subsidize CarAid, the cost of a car to you just went up to at least $28,000.

Then the dealer ups the list price of all the remaining cars to $28,000 each. Now a car aggregator (like a big insurance company) comes to him and says “I have a pool of car purchasers who will buy four cars from you and we want a 25% discount or we will buy those four cars from another dealer (because he will give us a discount).” So the dealer sells them at a 25% discount or $21,000 to that pool of people. (Note that the 25% discount brings the cost back to the original sale price of $21,000.)

To continue the analogy…

Rep. Lasee hits the nail on the head! More government interaction with Health Care is not the way to drive medical prices down!

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Lou D’Abbraccio…

For those of you who do not know Lou, he is a great guy that can be loud as hell when he needs to be!!! Most importantly he is running for the Racine County Board in District 3.

Yesterday at the Racine Taxpayer Association Lou had the following to say about KRM and Crime:

KRM: “I am unequivocally opposed to anything which increases the net burden on Racine county taxpayers, particularly the taxpayers of my district who already face a fairly onerous burden as it is.” Yet there is a value to building links for the broader economy. He suggested that the project be tested with buses if the public approves it in a referendum.


Crime: “The simple answer is there are no simple answers.” Crime, education and employment are intertwined. We have to make sure that dangerous people are confined, but we also have to look at expanding the local economy so that there are alternatives to crime.

Both quotes are from the JT and the full article including comments from others can be found at this link.

WAY TO GO LOU!!! Keep on fighting man!!!

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A few funnies...






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Suspended for….???

MSNBC’s David Shuster has been suspended for the following:

DAVID SHUSTER: Bill, there's just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea's out there calling up celebrities, saying support my mom, and she's apparently also calling these super delegates.

BILL PRESS: Hey, she's working for her mom. What's unseemly about that? During the last campaign, the Bush twins were out working for their dad. I think it's great, I think she's grown up in a political family, she's got politics in her blood, she loves her mom, she thinks she'd make a great president --

SHUSTER: But doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?

Can you tell me what he is being suspended for?

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VP…who would you choose?

With McCain pretty much wrapping up the whole nomination for the GOP the VP hunt begins.

Those of us on the Conservative side of things want him to be sure to choose a good right winger but there are those that believe that McCain will side with another middle of the road Republican (RINO if you will).

Who do you think McCain will choose?

Here is a short list of rumored contenders:

Governor Crist
Governor Huckabee
Governor Romney
Governor Sanford
Senator Lieberman
Senator Thompson
Rep. Hunter
General Powell
Sec. of State Rice

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Global Cooling?!?!

Well maybe not yet but it could be right around the corner…

Those of us that have been looking at the Global Warming nuts and questioning their every word are once again vindicated by science. The sun, not mankind, is a more likely source for the 0.8 degree temperature variation we have seen in the last century.

This was posted on Investor’s Business Daily yesterday:

The Sun Also Sets

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Pints and Politics

What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t mention what the Kenosha Republican Party is doing tonight!!!

Okay...Who’s buying the first round?


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Too funny not to post...


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MITT!?!?!

Reuters is reporting that Mitt Romney will suspend his Presidential Campaign…still developing…

Romney to suspend president campaign: party source

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Is the “Fix” in?

I’m beginning to believe some of the rumors.

Do you think that McCain and the Huckster have a “dirty deal” brewing?

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Name that Country

I guess last week’s country wasn’t all that hard…it was of course Guatemala!!

I’m feeling generous this week too so I’ll put another rather easy one out there.

4 out of 10

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The Delegate Count

I have been asked by a number of people how all this delegate stuff works and why would Romney and Huckster stick it out when they “really don’t have much of a chance.”

So here is how things shake out:

McCain needs to win @59% of the remaining delegates (@988) to secure the delegate count, not an easy task since he was only able to secure less than 55% of the delegate count on Super Tuesday.

Romney or Huckster would need to pull off a miracle needing to secure 95% and 102% of the remaining delegates respectively.

However if Romney or Huckster were to drop and pledge their delegates to the other…and all the delegates were to go to that candidate…they would only need to secure 25% of the remaining delegates!!!

The numbers are on the side of the conservatives but who would drop? Huckster? Probably not...but if he did most of his delegates would flow to Romney. Romney? Not likely…but if he did would his delegates flow to Huckster…what is the difference between McCain and him? Not much so I’m not sure if the flow would be entirely secured for him.

So that is how the numbers break down and my analysis of things…what do you think?!?

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Speechless…

H/T The Smoking Gun

I’ve been confused before and I’ve been drunk before but even in my most drunk state I think I could tell the difference between a child and a case of beer.

Beer Before Babes

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Not a good way to start Super Tuesday…

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