Wisconsin, kings of drinking! 44 Straight hours of.

A one-of-a-kind law lets taverns in the state remain open for 44 hours straight, from 6 a.m. New Year’s Eve to 2 a.m. Monday.

I’m a single guy who does not live at bars trying to not feel single. So, I am going to be liveblogging my New Year’s Eve. It is amature night, and I am not about to drive anywhere just to not be alone. Besides, I have a dog to keep me company.

6:30
The day started out with me waking up my 2 nephews (9 & 11) who spent the night at my house last night, just 5 hours after they went to sleep. Whenever they come to town to visit their Grandma, I have them over for a night of video games, movies, and pizza. Our usual day after ‘o’ gamming was cut short by me having to have to plow snow today. I got them up a little earlier than they liked so we could have one last battle royale and a super greasy breakfast their mom would never let them eat.

10:00
I was at work to plow snow. I got to run the big snow blower, and it went swimmingly. We were done in just 2 hours.

12:15
I received a call from my sister (mom of 2 nephews) at 12:15, she backed into the garage at our Mom’s, and broke her rear view mirror. She needed me to find a replacement. (On a Saturday, New Year’s Eve to make it worse.) So I drove around to local Chevy dealers and parts stores with no avail. Dealers were closed, and the parts stores didn’t carry the mirror, so thank goodness she is leaving Monday, instead of Sunday. I’ll get her a new one Monday morning before she leaves.

1:00
Plowed my driveway

2:00
I am currently at the Fortress of Solitude writing my Year in Rear View.

I have no intentions of going out tonight. I’m going to do my usual loaner thing and get a good steak, some broccoli, and a bottle of top shelf booze for a night all alone in front of the boob tube. It is not like I set out to do this, but circumstances led to me spending another New Year’s alone. Silly thing is, that I have never actually kissed anyone on New Year’s as everyone else does. There was one time I went to a party with an old buddy, but having his friend’s mom kiss me on the cheek didn’t count as far as I’m concerned. I’m a New Year’s virgin I guess, and it won’t change this time. (There was a chance if all that changing this year, but “errors crept in”)

So, I’ll be spending the evening deep with in the confines of RF HQ. I’ll post the happenings as they unfold.

(I’m not doing this to seem pathetic. Maybe I will give some other soul the comfort that like Valentine’s day, New Year’s can be just another night alone.)

Developing…

Update:
I just got an email that makes everything else this year pale in comparison. Thank you and same to you. You have made this year worth while!

6:00
Cooking a fabulous Sirloin, Broccoli, and Baked Potato right now.

7:29
Daredevil on a loop on New Year’s? You have got to be kidding me FX.

Oh and Miss Congeniality on TNT? OMG!!!!!!!!!

Screw it, I’m going to bed.

11:59
Nice nap. Woke up to watch ball drop. Yeah. It fell just like every other year. Whoopy!

12:01
Happy New Year

I really hope AM 1500’s new morning guy is just tanking his first week here so he has nowhere to go but up. Because so far, he sucks. I don’t mean to be a jerk, but I want someone who gets me going in the morning, not put me to sleep.

Sorry Willie Clark, I miss Bob Davis.

For all you boring wine bloggers. Professor Builds Computer Models for Wine

PITTSBURGH - Distinguishing fine wine from plonk is usually left to connoisseurs and winemakers, who rely on their senses, rough chemical measurements and the whims of nature to produce an exceptional tipple. But a Carnegie Mellon University professor, working with industry scientists in Chile, is hoping that computer models will identify the traits of good wine to help vintners produce more of it.

Yuck

Police Sgt. Rae Bontz said the tree-service employee died Wednesday while he and a co-worker were cutting branches at a Loveland residence.

Bontz described the death as an industrial accident but released no other details.

“It appears he was pulled into the chipper,” Bontz said. “We are still investigating.”

His partner, who was cutting branches from a bucket on a hydraulic lift, ran to the house where they were working, and a woman living there called 911. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police did not release either man’s name. Police Chief Luke Hecker said the victim was experienced at his work but did not release any other information.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

We have an old chipper at work. It is smaller and not nearly as powerful as newer modern ones. But I can tell you that I was told the first time I used it that if I went into it, “they’d just empty the truck into a big pine box and bury the whole thing”. It eats watches and gloves for breakfast. It will shred a 6″ branch in seconds.

For the benefit of the Packer fans: Which would be more difficult to shred into little bitty pieces? A tree (wood)? Or a human body? Mmmmmkkkaaayyy? Don’t mess with wood chippers!

It is feeling like a Keegan’s Trivia kind of night.

OK, the recent elections in St. Cloud were not a mandate for the liberal agenda, so I’d appreciate the gloating to settle. Neither were the November off year elections.

But, this is another sign of a growing trend. Due to appointments, retirements, and people seeking other offices, the MN Republicans are in huge trouble.

I’ve been terrified of losing the majority in the State House because incumbents just didn’t run again. That is now playing true. Incumbents win 95% of the time, so why the heck is everyone quitting? The DFL and liberal activist groups are going to out campaign us, period. So we cannot give them any advantages over us. Their message of socialized everything, higher taxes, and barriers to personal responsibility cannot win at the polls.

So why the hell is it? These super low turnout elections prove nothing more than DFLers can get their voters out. Plain and simple. I feel that had the November elections or this recent special election fallen in the even year regular election cycle, the outcomes would have been very different. Off year and special elections favor Democrats, plain and simple. Campaigning is their life, and they plan for this all year. All of the DFL satellite organizations miraculously show up and work like a well oiled machine on election day. Each part knows exactly what to do. It is a seamless operation, that is nearly impossible to out perform.

So what can the GOP do? First off, we cannot have our sitting office holders quit, retire, or move on to other/higher offices. We cannot afford to lose one more seat. I’m betting that in the 6th CD one of the 3 candidates who currently hold a spot in the State Legislature will get the nod, and likely be the next Congressperson. That will be another seat lost. Jeff Johnson is running for AG, he could be another lost seat. There are other Republicans thinking of or committed to retiring. We are in serious trouble folks.

Here is what I think has to happen, and quick. We need to come back together as a party. We need to unite once again to take on the DFL, rather than each other. Me and some of my webfriends have taken more slings and arrows over the last few months than the Democrats. Sure, we’ve slung some mud around, but mostly in hopes of addressing an error we’ve seen.

Pawlenty was right when he said that he could not take on the DFL, moderates, and the conservatives. But I see it being far worse for every Republican in the State if we all spend the next 11 months bitching and moaning at each other only to hurt each other and watch the Democrats laugh all the way to victory.

Someone has got to stand up on the right side of the political aisle and take the reigns of this party. We are fractured into the many different factions all working on their own agenda. The DFL doesn’t do that, they are all in for the greater good. Who in the Party can and will stand up and lead us? Can Gov. Pawlenty mend the fences with the fiscal conservatives to be the leader I think we need? Maybe an unelected official could step up and be the one.

Whoever it is, they have to stand up and be heard quickly. Not only are the GOP troops demoralized and ready to pack it in, but the public is seeing us as a weak and broken Party. What do Republicans stand for? More importantly, who can we look to for leadership and guidance?

(This is not intended to be an attack on any one person, nor the party as a whole, I mean that. I am seriously concerned about what I see happening. The old guard (grassroots workers/Party staff) hate the new digital activists (bloggers and webheads) and there is a growing divide between the old and experienced members and the young and energetic new kids on the political block. The infighting is unproductive and dividing us. We are not one Party right now. The DFL takes its many different factions and utilizes each and every one of them. Why can’t we do that too?

This is something that has been brewing in my head for a while. I just threw this up today, to get people thinking about it over the long weekend. Am I wrong? Am I right? You tell me.)

I’m sure I’ll catch hell for this one, oh well.

OK, that isn’t exactly true, but the amount that just 3 entitlement programs consume of the Federal budget ought to worry everyone.

WASHINGTON - Three growing entitlement programs consumed nearly half of all federal spending in 2004, and budget analysts expect them to make up an even bigger share in the future.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid accounted for more than $1 trillion in the 2004 budget year, according to the Consolidated Federal Funds Report being released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

Almost half of the budget on just 3 entitlements!

Overall federal spending was $2.2 trillion, an increase of 5 percent from 2003.

“The total federal spending increase is actually down a bit from recent years,” said Gerard Keffer, chief of the Census Bureau’s federal programs branch. “It had been running 6 to 8 percent in the past several years.”

For years, Washington has been fighting over how to manage the growth of entitlement programs. Analysts think the fight will continue for years to come.

And in the end, the US will be bancrupt if the special interests get their way. (Yeah you AARP!)

President Bush has pushed to overhaul Social Security and establish private accounts, but Congress has balked.

AHEM! Congress stood in the way this time. Congress didn’t want to fix the problem!

Other factors contributing to spending increases include an aging population and soaring health care costs, Penner said. The oldest baby boomers will start turning 60 in January, and once they start qualifying for Social Security benefits, costs will grow at an even faster pace.

And this my friends are the people who have their hands out the furthest right now. The baby boomers are becoming the 800 pound gorilla in the room of entitlement spending. Everything is being set up for them. Which is really no surprise as they are a 40,000,000 person voting block.

Penner said increased spending on entitlement programs eventually will mean less money for other programs and increased pressure to raise taxes.

That is the Democratic plan folks. Get more spending, so that they can get tax increases, so they can spend more. That is why we should be worried. If we continue down this road to free everything that is paved with taxpayer’s money, we will soon reach a dead end.

We must control spending. We must cut these entitlement programs. We must stop the government expansion. A small government is government incapable of controlling all our lives.

I just received this email from a friend in the St. Cloud area. The person is very very upset with yesterday’s election results, but more with the effort put towards it from some. I’m posting it unedited for everyone to see.

Dear Ones,
That soreness you’re feeling on your asses right now is from getting them kicked by a DFL machine that was fully activated for the special election in St. Cloud’s District 15 yesterday. You got badly outspent, out-imagined, and out-campaigned. Please do not write again in this blog’s comments, or in email to this fine host, that we have no right to complain and that you’re working hard. What you put into this campaign is irrelevant. What matters is what you got out, and what you got out is a lost seat in the Senate and energy for the St. Cloud DFL. You handed over to the pro-life movement a candidate that didn’t qualify for residency in the district, tarried while she twisted slowly in the wind, and then put up her mother. The state DFL sent mailer after mailer, put little post-it notes on St. Cloud Times newspapers, ran clever little ads that peppered the paper, and all you ran was one ad with the worst voice-over ever that was more drawn towards creating a negative for the DFL candidate than a positive for yours. (It even ran on Tuesday night after the damn polls were closed.) Where were your mailers? Where were your callers? Yes, you might not call me because I’m a known supporter, but you call me anyway to let me know you are working. You didn’t even leave a leaflet on my doorstep. My spouse wanted to get a lawn sign for your candidate and couldn’t figure out where to go to get one. We have both volunteered for campaigns in the past – why wasn’t someone calling us?

Don’t tell me you worked hard; lemmings work hard, and they still drown.

Your asses should be sore. You only gave half of them to this campaign.

Results-
Senate Seat:
Tarryl Clark (DFL): 55%
Dan Ochsner (GOP): 37%
Dan Becker (IND): 7%

House Seat 15B
Larry Haws (DFL): 71%
Kay Ek (GOP): 26% (write in)

I’m dealing with a broken water main at work, so I will be out of it for a while.

Sorry.