Well it has been one hell of a month!

I got back from Australia and launched right into the campaigns.

I do have to say Racine County has some awesome volunteers! They worked tirelessly to get the job done.

In the end we McCain did not win Racine County…I’m still troubled by this. On the positive side all Republicans that ran for seats in Racine County…Won in Racine County!!

I think that the next 2 years will provide a lot of fodder for us conservative bloggers…sit back and enjoy the show.

We will be returning to our regular line up this week. Welcome back!

With the election going on I’m working hard to ensure that Racine turns Red next week so blogging has not been a priority but this morning I saw the following come across my desktop and knew that I had to post something about it.

As most of you know I absolutely love the Tax Foundation. They are a non-profit non-partisan group focusing on sound tax policy. Well they created the CompeteUSA project designed to “raise public awareness of America’s high business taxes” and had a video contest and the following videos are the winners…everyone of them is worth watching!!!!


First Prize ($5,000): Andrew Patterson of Edmond, OK - "Tax Attack"



Second Prize ($1,000): Craig Kirchoff of Alexandria, VA - "Sally, the Corporate Income Tax and You"



Third Prize ($500): Lori Harfenist of Brooklyn, NY - "Taxes, Schmaxes"

OMG!!!!


Oops! Never mind!!! It looks like we forgot some data…

H/T Watts Up With That?

The National Post today posted the following article: Thirty years of warmer temperatures go poof

Other than the graph above here are a few highlights from the article:

"An analytical chemist who works in spectroscopy and atmospheric sensing, Michael J. Myers of Hilton Head, S. C., declared, "Man-made global warming is junk science," explaining that worldwide manmade CO2 emission each year "equals about 0.0168% of the atmosphere's CO2 concentration ... This results in a 0.00064% increase in the absorption of the sun's radiation. This is an insignificantly small number.""

I heard about this the other day and could not believe it…but Fred over at RealDebateWisconsin has got the goods: Racine schools hand out textbook with 15 page Obama love-fest...

I guess that schools are not for education but for indoctrination…”long live RUSD!”

Such a shame.

…and I’m still working out the kinks.

What that means is this page will still be a “blogging lite” area for a while, sorry people!

H/T: BadgerBlogger

I’d give the edge to Obama (50.1 – 49.9)…mainly due to style.

Obama seemed to be a little out of his element when talking budget. He seemed to want us to buy the notion that we can cut spending by not cutting a single program…I guess I’m still confused.

Both presented their points like Presidents…Obama was willing to say over and over “when I’m President” McCain did not do so. But Obama while seemed presidential did not seem to have any depth of the information.

I think that Obama got a schooling when it came to how government works…he seems to not understand the intricacy of the office of the President and McCain did a good job of pointing that out time and again.

Obama was willing to use the format of talking toward McCain and McCain did not meet his gaze once…McCain talked to the audience and the moderator and did not talk to Obama…I think that was a mistake the format offered it and since McCain was schooling him on the operation of the government it would have scored higher marks if those jabs would have been directed toward Obama not about him.

As most of you may have noticed I will be able to blog as much as normal. This is in part due to the fact that I am currently overseas and with limited internet access.

So what does this mean?

Well what it means is a few things…the usual “name that place” will still be going on every Tuesday but it looks like I forgot to pack my country listings so “name that country” will be on hiatus until I’m back stateside.

I will try to blog while I’m here but I can not guarantee anything at this point in time.

If you are interested in where I’m located I have provided the following images from Google Earth.

Cheers

gopfolk

Reuters: John McCain speech draws record TV ratings

Yeah the Dems thought that the show was over when “The Obama” hit a whopping 38.3 million viewers…then along comes our VP candidate and she gets 37.2 million…next night McCain with 38.9 million...a new record!!

Yep the base is here and we are ready.

I swiped this whole post from The Volokh Conspiracy h/t David Bernstein:

“If I were supporting Obama....

here are three things I'd keep quiet about with regard to Sarah Palin.

(1) How can she do her job as vice-president and take care of her kids? Which leads to the question, how can Obama do the much more demanding job of president and take care of his kids?

(2) What makes anyone think that Palin has enough experience to be "one heartbeat from the presidency?" Which leads to the question, what makes anyone think that a one-term Senator from Illinois who has been running for president for most of his term has enough experience to actually be president?

(3) Is Sarah Palin's church/pastor nutty? Which leads to such an obvious question that I won't bother raising it!

In short, it strikes me that Obama's allies may be succeeding at discrediting Palin to some extent, but only at the expense of undermining Obama. Even if raising such questions undermines Palin more than it does Obama, even much more, given how many people vote based on the top of the ticket versus based on the bottom, this is hardly a winning strategy.”

My wife noticed that I never posted a country last week…I’ll post 2 this week…

Then she pointed out that I had not posted on the blog for more than a week…

I have been so busy I just have not had time to do any of this…

My bad!!!

I’ll be headed overseas for work in 2 weeks so I had better get posting!!

The lefties are upset because the AP reported the following:

“It is, indeed, a last hurrah.

Edward M. Kennedy is taking the stage at the Democratic National Convention Monday night for what likely is his final appearance in a familiar setting.”

“I know a bunch of young Republicans. So young, they never knew Kennedy in any real fashion. Yet, even they have this massive hate on for the Kennedys.

Did the Kennedys' do something I don't know about short of winning an election against Nixon?"

AP: Barack Obama prepares to name running mate

Lets be honest…does it really matter? This guy is a weakling…He states that Justice Thomas didn’t have enough experience to be on the Supreme Court…has he checked his own resume!?!?! He barely has enough experience to be Senator from IL!!!!

AFP: Lost baby whale euthanised in Australia

I feel bad…but it had to be done else harm could have come to people.

CBSNews: Detroit Mayor Offered Deal In Assault Case

OMG!!! They finally labeled him as a Democrat!!! “Kilpatrick is a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention next week in Denver.”
So is he a Hillary or Obama supporter…just curious!!


USAToday: Today's photo: Zookeeper feeds baby squirrel in Bulgaria

They admit: “Hey, it's a slow news day.”

Yes, Yes, Yes…I know that this is a Thursday thing! I’ve been a bit busy and forgot to schedule this to run at the regular time…so here it is today.

Once again a big thank you to j. gravelle for this clue:




Bela Lugosi has rouge on his cheeks – Bela rouge…close enough!! Belarus is what it is more commonly called!


Good luck…4 out of 10

I case you don’t feel old Beloit college has put out there 2008 Mindset List…the purpose originally was to help professors understand incoming freshmen in college!! Now it is just a novelty that makes me feel older every year.

Here are a few of my favorites from the list of 60.

2008 Beloit College Mindset List

4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald's and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask "Want me to check under the hood?"
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about "nothing."
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
57. Offshore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.

Well it is being touted that Obama will pick his VP this week…just prior to the convention…and one side note on that…What was he thinking allowing Hillary to be on the ballot!!! Talk about dumb moves!!

From a strategic side who should Obama pick as his running mate?

From the opposition side who do we want him to pick?

I think that if Obama wants to win he needs to pick a more mature statesman that will help him in the areas that he is weakest (as in being President of the US) and that person would be Bill Richardson.

I hope that he picks someone weak…too bad Edwards is out…maybe Kerry? Or how about Pelosi!!!??

A few months back I ran down the numbers on replacing our coal fired plant with a solar plant (Is Solar a reasonable alternative? Continued) I’m sure there was more than a few of you that thought I was a little out there.

Well in today’s New York Times there is an interesting piece on the 2 new solar plants that will be installed in California. (Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California)

These two plants will have a capacity of 800 MW (remember that is operating at 100% efficiency) but only regularly produce a third of that!

The total area for these two plants…12.5 square miles or around 8,000 acres!!!

Oak Creek Power plant’s capacity is 1,153 MW (and operates at about 70% that capacity) and sits on 400 acres.

BBC: Running 'can slow ageing process'

Well for me it is!! I run regularly and I run slow…so does that mean I age even slower? I can hope, can’t I?

I’m sure a few of you hope I die early…but I plan to live forever!!

Swiped from Nick (h/t)

Would you rather have:

1. Cheap Gas
2. Independence from "foreign oil"

It seems our ‘friends’ over in the Green Party (let me remind you that their Presidential candidate is Cynthia McKinney – and here and here) want to re-write the constitution, they even go so far as to say that the current format for Congress is incorrect – granted you have to understand how the Electoral College works to say that but that is their insinuation.

So once again how does the Electoral College work?

Each state is given a number of Electors equal to the number of Congressman and Senators that represent the State. Each state has 2 Senators. The number of Congressmen is determined by the population. Therefore states that have a greater population have more Congressmen and therefore are weighted heavier in the Electoral College (i.e. California has 55 Electoral votes and Iowa has 7)

Now how the Electors are divided is up to the state. Currently 48 states do it the old fashioned democratic way -- winner takes all. That means the winner of the popular vote in the state wins all of the electoral votes.

The remaining 2 states, Maine and Nebraska, use a Congressional Method. This means that the winner in each Congressional district wins that Elector and the popular vote getter in the state wins the two Senate Electors. This is both democratic and representative. In my opinion I think this method makes the most sense these days and should be implemented on a more broad scale.

The first candidate to 270 Electoral votes wins!! It is really that simple.

Since the Electoral College is based simply on the Congressional Formula the Green’s claim that the Electoral College was created to “expressly increase the power of the slave states” seems rather asinine!

So what do the Greens want?

Well unlike what the democrats have been calling for – popular elections (meaning that those of us in ‘fly-over’ country would mean nothing and all the focus would be on the large population centers) the Greens are calling for Proportionate Elections.

What are those you ask? Well that would be the warm and fuzzy determination of elections. For example: If Wisconsin split 50:40:10 the Electoral Votes would be divided 5:4:1 for the respective parties.

So what do you want? Should we preserve the republic as it has stood for over 200 years or should we rewrite the Constitution? Or should we chuck it all and move to a more “fair system” that includes other parties across the board?

AP: Fact Check: Properly inflated tires cut gas use

The McCain camp was quick to point out that Obama finally came up with a solution to the oil shortage!!

Obama’s plan…

“Making sure your tires are properly inflated, simple thing, but we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tuneups," Obama said. "You could actually save just as much."

In response to this just earth shattering news the McCain camp decided to one up Obama and in stead of talking about properly inflated tires they handed out tire gauges so that people could actually verify that their tires are at the proper pressure.

The “story” points out that Obama has other solutions…they are…spend taxpayers money on incentives, spend taxpayers money to do research into technology, and spend taxpayers money to force remodeling of old buildings.

Obama’s plan – More government sending will get us out of this
McCain’s plan – Allow business to do what they are best at

The Media thinks that McCain doesn’t believe that proper air pressure is good….when in reality the Media just doesn’t see how funny it is to have a presidential candidate say that properly inflating your tires will save as much oil as drilling…think about it this way what if President Bush would have had a press conference in the rose garden and said that he opposed the drilling of domestic oil because we could save that much oil by properly inflating our tires and getting a tune-up…They would have said they have proof that Bush was drinking again!!!

I used to have Math as a regular segment and it has fallen by the way side but I just saw an article on Scientific America that sparked my interest again so here is the math question:

“In the ancient society of Machudo, families wanted no more than three kids. Their eldest son had a chance of becoming king, so they would stop having children after they had their first boy. A family that had three children or had a boy was said to be "complete."

Assume boys and girls had an equal probability of being born. (In reality, boys are slightly more likely, but it's undignified for puzzle masters to deal with slight exceptions to basic rules.)

Warm-up: What fraction of complete families would have a boy?”

As many of you (I know that there are only about 3 of you reading this blog) have noted there has been little activity on this page this week. For that I apologize but I must explain.

You see, while I have a full time career as an auditor, I have a number of other activities that keep me busy and this week with Senator McCain coming to town I was extremely busy so I had little time for posting.

McCain’s visit to Racine was a success and I hope that we will see him back here in Racine at least one more time before winning Wisconsin this fall!

For now I’m back and I think we can get things back on schedule…

Thank you for reading this blog!

ScienceDaily.com: Frequent Family Meals Might Reduce Teen Substance Use

ScienceDaily.com: Older People May Need Less Sleep, Study Finds

I’ve now read the speech that Barry gave while over in Germany.

Who does this guy think he is?

To be honest while the speech is okay it was highly inappropriate for a lowly freshman Senator from the State of Illinois to be making in Germany. I thought Barry was running for the Presidency of the United States…the speech sounded more like something given by someone trying to run for high school class president.

There was little in there to get excited about…intro, history, hype, hope, berate the US, praise the EU, No to Nukes, Save the Planet, bash the US (again), say that “I love America”, and close with more hype.

I would recommend that Barry fire the people that thought this was a good idea.

I love when lefties get their undies in a bundle over things that Republicans do but I get really pissed off when they try to distort and spread lies about what we do.

Jay Bullock over at folkbum’s rambles and rants posted this today: The continuing Republican war on science

What really galls me is that these supposed “intellectuals” like Jay on the left seem to think that they are science minded…you know guys that believe Algore over scientific research…people that believe consensus is somehow related to science…that think “peer-reviewed” research adds any credit to an argument (see: cold fusion).

When in reality they are just ticked that Republicans believe that true scientific advancement should not be done within the realm of government. We should not allow political discourse to enter into a field that is meant to be driven by facts not emotions. But the left can’t seem to imagine science without government…I’m not surprised!

Here are a few things to note about the “Republican War on Science”:

While the Right does not wish to have government funding of embryonic stem cell research…the Left will not allow life saving research to be conducted on animals – even if independently funded.

While the Right reviews scientific research that shows anthropogenic global warming to be nothing but “hot-air” and has encouraged more debate rather than jumping to any one conclusion…the Left is moving swiftly (and blindly) to raising taxes around the world with new “carbon credits,” completely ignoring the swift decline in global temperatures.

FYI: The RNC will be utilizing the SMM during the convention and is open to the guests at the convention during this time. Press Release: SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA TO OPEN EXCLUSIVELY FOR 2008 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION EVENTS

This piece is worth reading: What Dems Can't Say About Drilling

Here is just a glimpse of what David Harsanyi has to say:

The problem is that when "green" fantasies crash onto the shores of economic reality (as they did with corn-based ethanol), we all suffer.

Don't worry, though, congressional Democrats have a bold plan. Hold on for 10 or 15 years and
they'll have a bounty of energy options. They promise. But no oil shale. No clean coal. No nuclear power. And definitely no more oil.

“the only thing now standing in the way of more domestic supply is the Democratic refusal to allow it.”

IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE!!!!!

AP: House Speaker Pelosi calls Bush 'a total failure'

I know return you to your regular blogging activities!

Thank you.