ILLINOIZE: August 2006

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Is Lake Geneva Sunday Night Traffic the Reason for More Cash Lanes at Marengo Toll Plaza?

Most from McHenry County, not to mention the rest of the state, will be blissfully unaware of westbound back-ups at the Marengo toll plaza near Route 20.

The reason is apparently Wisconsin weekenders returning home on Sunday night.

The reason, according to the Chicago Tribune, is that insufficient cash lanes exist.

There must be some heavy politicians/contributors in the queue.

Like, maybe, House Speaker Mike Madigan, who has a place at Lake Geneva.

(No, it couldn’t be Mike. He would have an I-PASS.)

It'll take a long time to pay off the exta $1.2 million cost from tired Sunday night drivers.

That’s 1.5 million 80-cent tolls.

Shame the Toll Board won’t also make it possible for McHenry County residents to head west from Route 47, not to mention get off in Huntley from the west.

But, then again, I doubt many who would find that useful are influential political types.

The tollway announced that the so-called “open-road tolling” for the Elgin Toll Plaza will be completed by late September.

Right on (election) time.

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You can read about how a Pittsburgh paper is using McHenry County's Gary Gauger as its top example of false confessions at McHenry County Blog.

End of the line for Illiniwek?

From the Sun-Times:

The last dance for Chief Illiniwek

After 80 years, Chief Illiniwek on Saturday will begin what is likely to be his last year of dancing at University of Illinois football games, university sources said.
The chief, who will appear at the season opener at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, will also dance at home basketball games this winter.
But after that, he will no longer be an official university symbol, the sources said.

I attended my first and last U of I football game as a freshman at U of I back in the 80's. My best friend since first grade is Native American, and I was repulsed by the display I saw. I joined a student-led effort back then to send a message to the administration that this symbol was doing more harm to the University than good, and while some of the most offensive wounds were closed (Kam's dropped its "home of the Drinking Illini" ad campaign, and "Sexiest Squaw" contests disappeared), this last vestige of our genocidal past remained.

Since then, I've politely replied to solicitations from the University Alumni Association that I'll be more than happy to write checks when the University drops the Chief. I'm looking foward to making good on that promise. The Chief is a blemish on an otherwise outstanding institution.

I know this issue has been a sore spot for many who, like me, love U of I and the time they spent in Champaign-Urbana, but don't see eye-to-eye with Chief opponents. I think that they will look back years from now and realize that U of I and Champaign-Urbana are no less a place for the Chief's passing into history.

ICIRR: "Denounce what we just said!"

Sun Times headline:

Group: GOP mailer likens immigrants to 'disease'

Wow, that’s eye catching, isn’t it?

The story, by Scott Fornek, opens:

A pro-immigrant group Wednesday called on Republican congressional hopeful Peter Roskam "to publicly denounce and repudiate" a GOP mailer that the group charges treats immigrants as "some type of disease."

Geez, after reading that headline and first paragraph, even I started to think, ‘maybe the NRCC went too far this time. That was pretty bad.’

But, wait!

I remember that our good friend, the So-Called Austin Mayor, has a copy of the controversial mailer on his blog. I've read it three times since I got to the office. I don’t see the word “disease” on it anywhere. Do you?

Interesting. Wonder why Fornek fails to mention that. I mean, he does relate a quote from an NRCC spokesperson saying that "They (the ICIRR) are trying to play politics by mischaracterizing what the mail piece actually says." Maybe that would have been a nice place for Scott to insert some background on just what the piece does say, which, whether you agree with the "path to citizenship" proposal or not, hardly likens anyone or anything to a disease.

Now, many of us in the blogosphere love to play the “why-haven’t-you-repudiated-or-distanced-yourself-from-that” game. But, really, this is a whole different game. This is the ICIRR – with the assistance of a sloppy journalist and headline writer – essentially trying to bully Roskam into repudiating and distancing himself from a quote that they just invented.

As a fan of spin and manipulation, I say to ICIRR: Bravo!

As a Republican supporter of Roskam, I say to ICIRR and the Sun-Times: Are you freaking kidding me?!?

UPDATE: It was brought to my attention by “Bridget” that the mailers in question may be these here. I took a look. Still not even a remote reference to illegal immigrants as “a disease.” So, my point still stands.

Friday: Fired DePaul Professor Thomas Klocek returns to Florida radio

Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.

Thomas Klocek, fresh from a Sunday night appearance on the Andrea Shea King Show, Central Florida's top talk outlet, will grace the airwaves of Florida again this Friday. This time, he'll be a guest on Constitutional Public Radio, where Andrea is joined by her partner Mark for some terrific talk radio.

Broadcasting from Florida's Space Coast, CPR is beamed from AM 1510 WWBC. If you're outside their broadcast area, you can listen on the internet.

As regular visitors of this blog are aware, Professor Klocek a longtime DePaul instructor, was fired after expressing his free speech rights in an out-of-classroom discussion with some Muslim DePaul students.

Sunday's show was recorded by DePaul student Derrick Wlodarz, a member of the DePaul Conservative Alliance. It's a great listen and available here.

Preceding Professor Klocek on Friday will be blogger Kitty Myers of the Kitty Litter blog--she'll be on at 3:30PM Eastern (2:30PM Central). Professor K. will be on at 4:05PM Eastern, (3:05PM Central).

What's become known as the Thomas Klocek Affair began almost two years ago when Klocek walked past a couple of exhibit tables of Students for Justice in Palestine and United Muslims Moving Ahead.

Andrea and Mark have a chatroom set up, and I'll be there Friday afternoon, while listening to the show.

In addition to being radio talk show hosts, Andrea and Mark have their own blog, Radio Patriots.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Mike Tristano Prison-Bound Thursday

House Republican Minority Leader (and once Speaker) Lee Daniels’ chief of staff Mike Tristano is enjoying his last days of freedom this year.

It’s off to Federal prison at the end of the month--but not for long.

Assuming good behavior—and there is no reason to believe Mike will not be compliant—he’ll be able to be with his family again in less than a year.

As I have written previously, Tristano was identified as “Official One” in Roger Stanley’s May 9, 2003, plea agreement. At the time I could only narrow it down to Daniels or Tristano. I was told that day that “Committee One” was the House Republican Campaign Committee.

Here’s what mail house owner Stanley and Tristano did in my 2000 primary campaign and that of McHenry state representative 1994 primary candidate Steve Verr:

At the direction of, and in in conjunction with a high ranking official (‘Official One’) of a particular campaign committee (‘Committee One’), and in conjunction with the 1995 and 2000 election cycles, Stanley arranged for negative direct mail pieces to be directed against certain political candidates who were opposed by Committee One.

In order to conceal that the true source and sponsor of the mailings was Committee One, Stanley assisted in recruited ‘straw’ and nominee officers to serve as the sponsors of the mailings. Further, in order to further conceal that Stanley was participating in the mailing process, Stanley caused postal forms relating to the mailings to be falsified and presented to postal officials.

Further, in one or more subsequent state proceedings relating to an attempt to determine the true source and sponsor of one of the mailings, Stanley and others participated in an effort to misrepresent the truth to state authorities regarding the true source and sponsor of the mailings, and thus further concealed Stanley and Committee One’s personal involvement in the mailings.

The guts of these charges were documented by Illinois State Board of Elections Campaign Disclosure Deputy Director Tony Morgando.

And, Morgando would not have gotten involved if I, in 2000, and Gerry Walsh, one of Verr’s allies, in 2004,had not filed complaints with the Board of Elections. (I was told that in 2000, mine was the only probe for which the Elections Board authorized subpoena power.)

So, don’t let anyone tell you that state officials don’t investigate criminal behavior...thoroughly.

That it took U.S. Attorney Patrick Fritzgerald to pick up the ball and prosecute that criminal behavior probably says more about the weak state of Illinois statutes than anything else.

So, the big question is whether Tristano, a former boss of mine while I worked for the Department of Central Management Services during the mid-1980’s, acted on his own or not.

I have been told that after the 1996 primary, when I lost McHenry County under dubious circumstances…

(Pause. More votes were cast for the folks running for GOP precinct committeeman in McHenry County than were cast for me and my opponent--Al Jourdan-backed county board member John Brehmer--than were cast for me and Brehmer.

(Let’s see. Brehmer spent $114,300, including $35,300 of in-kind help from people like the pro-abortion Personal PAC,a teachers' union and Jourdan, while I spent $93,400. Anyone think that with that kind of money being spent that the bottom of the ticket would total more votes than were cast for state representative?)

…Tristano looked at the results in Daniels’ office and said something like, “We could have taken him out, if we had gotten involved.”

That’s what a staffer at the meeting told me.

So, did Tristano act alone in authorizing the apparent laundering of money from the House Republican Campaign Committee through Roger Stanley’s business to pay for a negative mailing by the “Committee for Effective Leadership?”

Pardon me, if I believe he did not.

After all, he acted on Daniels’ behalf in offering me the post of Deputy Auditor General (paying something like $110,000) the summer before in Lee’s Elmhurst office and, after I lost the primary, some deputy director post or maybe it was an assistant deputy director job (paying above $90,000) in Financial Institutions or whatever it was called then.

Tristano may have pulled the levers of power, but I don’t think he did significant things like try to take out the only state representative whose legislative service included time before his boss’s 1974 election without Daniels’ approval.

Tristano, in my opinion, was not the puppet master. He was one of the puppets, albeit a well-paid one.

I have not referenced prior articles above. If you would like to learn more, I invite you to click here.

For more McHenry County Blog stories, including one on Michael Tristano that I'll post here tomorrow, click here.

Trouble Brewing

This may not be a politically popular position for me to stake out, but I'm just not sure that I'm buying into this:

A group of Starbucks employees in Logan Square have joined a union, the first group outside of New York, despite the coffee company’s refusal to recognize organized labor.
The workers at 2759 W. Logan Blvd. announced Tuesday night that they were affiliating with the Industrial Workers of the World Starbucks Workers Union in an effort to increase hourly pay, have a guaranteed number of work hours per week and to reinstate employees who they claim were fired for union organizing activity. Union representatives declined to disclose membership numbers...
Union members are demanding a pay increase to $10 an hour for entry-level workers from the current $7.50 an hour in addition to guaranteed minimum hours and healthcare benefits.
“There are no minimum hours and that’s the problem,” Mr. Tessone said. “Our schedule is at the mercy of the manager.”
With regards the healthcare, union officials claim Starbucks only covers 42% of its workers, less than the 47% that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is often criticized for.

While I understand that they may think that their timing is right, I think that some of their fundamentals are wrong. My reservations are based upon two factors: First, I believe that the current wages and benefits seem pretty darn good for the job requirements. Second, the numerous people that I have talked with who work or have worked at Starbucks, (including a former district office staffer of mine) all were very happy with the compensation structure and treatment of employees. In fact, Starbucks is consistently ranked as one of the top corporations when it comes to employee satisfaction.

As far as schedule and hours are concerned - welcome to the real world. Union or no union, seniority drives better scheduling and assignments. If people want to push for a living wage across the board, then they should pursue that struggle. But I think that these folks are going to have a hard time trying to find sympathy for their cause, (or loyalty to the store when another is likely only a couple of blocks away.) Then again, stranger things have happened, especially in this City of late.

To my friends at my local Starbucks, don't get me wrong, I love you guys. But this is bigger than my daily caffeine fix. Just please tell me that somebody in City Council isn't going to try to legislate this.

To post, or read, comments, visit Dome-icile

Pew's study on Politics and Religion

Not exactly local but I'm fascinated by this. Amy Sullivan writing in Slate on God's Party.

The Pew Research Center's annual poll on religion and politics, released last week, shows that while 85 percent of voters say religion is important to them, only 26 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is "friendly" to religion. That's down from 40 percent in the summer of 2004 and 42 percent the year before that—in other words, a 16-point plunge over three years.

Nationalize Wal-Mart (or should Illinois take it over instead?)

When I studied Economics in College, we on the left advocated nationalizing basic industries. Robert Samuelson explains the case for nationalizing Wal-Mart today.

It's not surprising that, as The New York Times reports, leading Democratic politicians have latched onto bashing Wal-Mart as a "new rallying cry'' that "could prove powerful in the midterm elections and in 2008.'' America's political culture routinely demands at least one hideous corporate villain. In recent decades that role has fallen to General Motors, IBM, Exxon Mobil and Microsoft; now Wal-Mart has assumed the mantle. But these wishy-washy politicians have missed the obvious solution to the Wal-Mart problem: nationalization.

Congress should just buy the company and then legislate good behavior. Wal-Mart executives "talk about paying them (workers) $10 an hour,'' Sen. Joseph Biden told a rally in Iowa, according to the Times. "How can you live a middle-class life on that?''

So let the Feds, or Illinois, or Cook County or the City condem Wal-Mart and seize it; and start paying each and every employee including my kids a middle-class salary.

I used to defend FDR's TVA as a great example of it.

Footnote: you know how politics has changed when you realize no one would defend nationalization (unless I get surprised here with comments).

August 15th was the 35th anniversary of Nixon's Wage-Price controls under his (not Lenin's) New Economic Policy. I remember making the signs to hang in my Dad's Dime Store on South Oak Park Ave explaining to shoppers and employees the number to call if they saw my Dad had violated wage-price controls. Feds required every store in America to display such a sign and they drafted the language for it.

Wish I had saved it.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Judy Calls Me

8/29/6 - So, here I am typing and who calls me?

Of course, you know that from the title.

She didn’t say,

Hi, Cal,

which seemed a bit unusual since I remember when we went to get ice cream on South Grand in her freshman legislative year and the last time I saw her at an event she kissed me twice.

Boy, did she have a beater back then. I’m not sure it even had a back floor. Maybe it was a back seat missing. Maybe, a window had plastic over it. Anyway, it was a junker.

We met Senate President Bill Harris at the ice cream parlor and he told us he had an autoimmune disease.

Funny, the things you remember.

Well, anyway, Judy said,

My new plan freezes property taxes for two years.

And provides

more money for schools.

She went quickly on, not giving me a chance to even say,

Hi, Judy. Why are you calling?

Anyway, she said something like

My plan provides both gas and property tax relief.

I waited for her to ask me what I thought about her plan and whether I had any questions, but, eventually, one of those really irritating telephone sounds started.

I guess she didn’t want to talk.

I wanted to ask her about that Chicago casino proposal and whether Daley had agreed to support her.

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I was going to post my Monday piece on Michael Tristano here today, but since he still has a day of freedom and this is more topical, if you want to read it before tomorrow, you'll have to go to McHenry County Blog, where there is a second post summarizing previous stories.

Monday, August 28, 2006

More Left Stream Media Bias

8/28/6 - Carol Marin displayed palpable bias in her WTTW Chicago Tonight interview of three Cook County commissioners and an alderman on July 19th.

This is a woman, who is showing more and more of her organization Democratic Party bias.

You remember her.

She became a national media heroine by quitting WMAQ-TV when the station hired former Democratic Party Cincinnati Mayor and then and now TV shock show host Jerry Springer to do commentary.

Then, in 2000, she was given carte blanc to create the “liberal thinking woman’s” nightly news show by WBBM-TV, but bombed.

This summer, she didn’t utter a public peep when WTTW hired no-longer-on-Chicago schlock radio host Mancow for similar guest commentaries.

On Chicago Tonight, Marin had been questioning just-named interim Cook County Board President Bobbie Steele about the financial situation at county government when she turned to Republican Party nominee for Cook County Board President Tony Peraica.

On the panel were three Democrats (Alderman Todd Stroeger, named the day before by the Cook County Central Committee to replace his father on the fall ballot, Cook County Commission Forrest Claypool and Steele), plus Republican Party nominee for Cook County Board President Tony Peraica.

A pretty normal 3-1 WTTW bias against conservatives. (Despite, the odds, conservatives are able to hold their own on these WTTW panels).

I finally got her exact words. You can listen them to here. (7 minutes in.)

Here’s what I was able to transcribe.

After interviewing Steele on substantive governmental questions, Marin changes course in what had to be a pre-planned attempt to smear Peraica:

Commissioner Prisonni (she mispronounces Peraica’s name), let me jump to you and ask about a political question…

Peraica says, “Sure.”

…because there are plenty of Democrats out there who might want to protest by voting for you, but they see you as an anti-gay, pro-gun, anti-abortion (pause) guy in the bluest state and county in the state, so what do you have to say to them on the social issues that are going to make you attractive if they do decide to jump the traces?

Peraica then tries to follow up on what Steele had said about doing a quick study to figure out how to save money, pointing out that 30 years of studies are already on the shelf and gets in that he has taken a pledge against raising taxes before Marin charges back to her agenda of trying to frame the fall election in favor of Todd Stroger:

OK, but, but, to my question first.

What are you going to do on, on the pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti-gay kind of, you’re not a social liberal.

Peraica responds,

There’s not anti-gay anything. That’s, that’s a myth that was created by some to paint me as some kind of an extremist.

I am pro-life. I am pro-2nd amendment. I am anti-tax. I’m a fiscal conservative. And I think that these issues that you try to kind of raise as a division between myself and the Democratic electorate who voted for Forrest Claypool are really a myth.

People care about their pocket books….

He challenges Stroeger and Steele to tax a no tax hike pledge, but Marin, surprise, surprise, fails to follow up.

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Photo of Carol Marin, looking left, taken from the WTTW 7-19 interview of Peraica and others.

For more McHenry County Blog stories, including one on Michael Tristano that I'll post here tomorrow, click here.

All He Can Do Is All He Can Do

Whenever Barack Obama's name is raised as a possible candidate for President, the rightwing critics inevitably cry out, "But what has he accomplished in the Senate?"

Today's rightwing Washington Times tells us how a lone coward in the Senate may have put a stop to an Obama-sponsored bill that would "require the administration to create a searchable Web site that would list the name and amount of any federal grant, contract or other award of money amounting to $25,000 or more."

It's a sign of just how hot an issue pork-barrel spending has become that the biggest game in political Washington this summer is trying to smoke out the senator who is blocking a bill to create a searchable database of federal contracts and grants.

The bill has the support of the Bush administration and activists on widely divergent sides of the political spectrum. It also passed a Senate committee without any objections, so the unknown senator is annoying many people.

Sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, and Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, the bill would require the administration to create a searchable Web site that would list the name and amount of any federal grant, contract or other award of money amounting to $25,000 or more.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, tried to win speedy passage just before the Senate left for its summer break, but at least one senator objected anonymously.

Now Porkbusters.org, a Web site dedicated to exposing wasteful government spending, is conducting a public campaign to smoke out the obstructor or obstructors, while blogs on both sides of the political spectrum have weighed in, demanding action on the bill.

In essence, the anonymous objection means that a senator has anonymously said that he or she would filibuster the bill if it were brought to a vote on the Senate the floor. If the Bush administration and Sen. Frist were behind Sen. Obama's bill like they say, they would simply bring the bill to the floor and call the mystery senator's filibuster bluff.

But that's a big if.

The "What's Obama Done?" meme has served the Republicans well -- and we know Illinois Republicans love "earmarks" -- so it's simply not in the GOP's interest for Sen. Obama's name to be attached to legislation that would expose pork-barrel "earmarks" to taxpayer scrutiny.

There is more non-Moonie coverage of the anonymous objection to Sen. Obama's bill here and here.

Note: If anyone saw this covered in the Chicago papers, please let me know where.

Cross-posted at the So-Called "Austin Mayor" blog

UPDATE: The Mystery Senator is revealed in Talking Points Memo:

It's Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), according to Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) comments a couple of weeks ago, recorded in a small Arkansas paper.

. . .And You Want to be Our Latex Salesman or Danny & The Tigers

This one is rich. Congressman Danny K. Davis had progressive circles abuzz with hopes of giving the County Board back to 'the people.' OK.

The man is a junket junkee. Fine. Globe trot. It's great big wonderful, wacky and wild world out there - but really Congressman a trip on Tamil Tigers? Folks, there aren't even any in the Little League World Series! Danny and the Tigers!

A couple of months ago he lights incense to and crowns Rev. Moon - the "Something or Other"

Okay, the tin-foil hat is on pretty snug. Then I see this in my un-paid for copy of The Tribune ( I haven't bought a Chicago Tribune since their editorial board out-sourced a political smear of Chicago Firefighters in 2004 to Kudzu boy) and all I could think of was that great Seinfeld episode: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608280101aug28,1,6377409.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed

The one where George is found out by the company that he is interviewing for - Because Van DeLay Industries is his buddy's living room. George asprawl with his shorts down and Jerry says, '. . . and You wanted to be My latex salesman.'

Congressman - ' . . . and You wanted to be Our County Board President.'

Klocek Florida radio interview from Sunday night audio available online

Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.

Thanks to Derrick Wlodarz for tuning in last night to Andrea Shea King's WDBO AM 580 (Orlando) interview of former DePaul professor and free speech champion Thomas Klocek.

You'll find Tom Klocek and Andrea Shea King here.

Derrick is a member of a rarity at Chicago's DePaul University: A group espousing common sense, the DePaul Conservative Alliance.

Blagojevich spends $500,000 on a rolling pin

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch runs down how the Blagojevich campaign is spending "more money than they know what to do with." The bulk of the story centers around the television commercial ad in which a photo of a rolling pin appears above Topinka's head in the commercial, an announcer intones: "Topinka opposes an assault weapons ban . . . because she says it could ban a rolling pin. What's she thinking?"

This ad, part of an early media blitz in which Blagojevich "spent a remarkable $5.3 million on TV ads in key markets - including a rare, early foray into the St. Louis market." The rolling pin ad ran over 500 times in the Chicago area, but did not run in the St. Louis area at all, that area received ads touting the governor's record on education and jobs, with a mere $100,000 spent. Topinka's campaign believes the amount of money spent is more like $8 to $10 million with no televised response from her side which has decided to wait until closer to the election to buy television time.

Scattered throughout the story are digs at Topinka for not utilizing television ads, comments like: "No response" to Blagojevich's ads, "She's been basically invisible..." etc. The question from here is, are we electing people on the basis of television ads? Looks like it, especially when political observers seem to think so.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

UPDATED! Tonight! Fired DePaul professor and free speech proponent Thomas Klocek to be guest on Central Florida's #1 talk radio station

He'll be on any minute now! There is a chatrooom feature. Chat with Andrea (and friends) live!

Thomas Klocek will be the guest on the Andrea Shea King's show tonight at 9pm Chicago time.

Klocek was a popular and respected 15 year adjunct professor at DePaul University in Chicago, the nation's largest Catholic college who was fired after a heated discussion with some Muslim students outside of the classroom.

Andrea broadcasts from Orlando, Florida on AM 580 WDBO. If you don't live there, you can listen on the internet.

Regular visitors to Marathon Pundit have read about the Klocek case. Now you have the opportunity to hear it from the professor's own words.

"Hiring Case Against Governor Dropped"

“A judge on Thursday dismissed accusation that Gov. X violated state hiring laws, allowing him to get out of a long running legal jam without personal punishment.”

Don’t the supporters of Governor Rod Blagojevich wish this headline and lead sentence were about him?

I guess I’m the only one in Illinois that thinks the parallels between the patronage problems of Kentucky’s Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher and Blagojevich’s merit more than a couple of paragraphs. (The headline above is taken from a small article in the Chicago Tribune on Friday.)

Just in case others are interested, here is a why the Democratic Party’s Attorney General decided to dismiss the case, here’s a column by former reporter Al Cross in the Courier-Journal.

Part of the reason was that

following an Executive Branch Ethics Commission opinion, had said he (the attorney general) would not run against Fletcher as long as his office was prosecuting the Governor. (Kentucky’s governor’s election is in 2007.)

And, here’s an interesting paragraph tid-bit:

It may have been telling that the agreement says the administration acted "without malice." Democrats targeted in the scheme would probably disagree.

A second column by Courier-Jouirnal columnist Bob Hill is more biting:

Did you ever think Kentucky would reach the condition where it almost missed the moral turpitude of "Crying" Paul Patton -- the previous occupant of the governor's throne?

And, more:

He (the governor) claims the secret negotiations cleared him of all charges and exonerated him of all allegations, a technical truth marred only by the fact that he'll never sell that self-serving garbage to anyone outside his political family.

So, governor, who has been at the helm of the Starship Kentucky the past few years -- Mr. Spock?

If you think Illinois columnists are tough on Blagojevich, this one is harder on Kentucky’s GOP governor.

And, of course, in Illinois not even the governor's father-in-law believes him.

Previous articles comparing Fletcher and Blagojevich here and here.

And, more on the Gay Games not yet having paid its bills in Crystal Lake at McHenry County Blog.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Chief Postal Inspector on Ryan Case in Springfield

I don’t know if it is significant or not, but the chief postal inspector in the investigation of George Ryan is now based in Springfield.

Maybe Basil Demczak just wanted cheaper housing.

Maybe the Feds needed a top-flight investigator on the ground in Springfield.

For what this postal inspector requested from me while he was vacationing, click here.

Maybe he had something to do with the Secretary of State’s 8,000 ghost payroll hour pleas. Their supervisor was Cecil Turner, “first vice chairman of the Sangamon County Democratic Central Committee and head of its minority caucus,” the State Journal-Register says.

More stories on McHenry County Blog, including the fall-out from the Gay Games in Crystal Lake.

California to legalize industrial hemp?

On Monday, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act was approved by the Assembly on a vote of 44-29. The bill is now taking steps toward Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk for his signature.

AB 1147 has gained momentum as more legislators learned that California businesses spend millions of dollars each year to import hemp from Canada, China and Europe.
...
The demand for hemp and its use in numerous products, such as food, body care, clothing, paper and even auto parts, has been growing rapidly in recent years. The U.S. hemp market now exceeds an estimated $270 million in annual retail sales, and the new law would give farmers the ability to legally supply U.S. manufacturers with hemp seed, oil and fiber and would not weaken anti-drug laws.

$270 million seems low to me, but that's enough for now. It's only a matter of time before the drug warriors figure out there are campaign contributions and votes to be had from farmers and industrial hemp entreprenuers and allow industrial hemp. Whoever does it first gets a head start on a huge new market.

Our power party gubernatorial candidates are playing dueling budget gimmicks with gambling when the simple idea of allowing industrial hemp would do more good for Illinois than either one of them will ever do. Blago wants to throw hundreds of millions around in corporate welfare and further shove ethanol and bio-diesel down our throats with an almost $2 billion spending package. A carbon-dioxide pipeline and 20 some fuel plants? No no no no no. Bad idea. Instead of spending that money on things ADM can afford anyway, cut and cap the gasoline taxes and let us keep our money to buy goods and create more jobs. (Gas taxes are for another post.)

Back on topic, I've talked about hemp before. Creating Illinois Jobs and many interesting tidbits of info about industrial hemp.

This really is a no-brainer and Illinois better get in on the action before it's too late. Come on Whitney, this is right up your alley.

*Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build and fuel cars from farm products.

*BMW is experimenting with hemp materials in automobiles as part of an effort to make cars more recyclable.

*Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. A kinder and gentler chemistry using hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine dixoide is possible with hemp fibers.

*Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop.

*Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton.

*Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values.

*Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.

HEMP FOR VICTORY!!!

But now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese, and shipment of jute from India curtailed, American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our Industry. In 1942, patriotic farmers at the government’s request planted 36,000 acres of seed hemp, an increase of several thousand percent. The goal for 1943 is 50,000 acres of seed hemp. - Transcript (exerpt) of the original 1942 United States Department of Agriculture Film, Hemp for Victory.

Blago's Back

Cross-posted from ICPR's blog, The Race is On:

Team Blago is back on the air this week with another flight of ads. The buy started Wednesday, August 23rd and runs at least through Monday the 28th. In placement it appears much like the waves of ads they ran in April, May, and June before taking most of July and August off: heavy on news and public affairs with a few prime time spots thrown in for good measure. But these spots are 30 seconds long, and are not bookended. These also seemed intended to prod his positives upward, touting his role in the Amber Alert system, rather than just drive his opponents’ lower.

And there are a lot of them. He’s spending $400K in Chicago for this buy, and it’s only 6 days long – that’s $65K a day on TV spots. For our analysis of ad spending earlier this year, click to Don’t Touch that Dial.

Blago’s the biggest thing going in Chicago TV these days, at least as far as political ads, but while he’s alone on the air right now, he won’t be alone for long. The U.S. Chamber had spots up in support of Democratic Congresswoman Melissa Bean, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has bought time in October and November (presumably for both Bean and Duckworth, though the contracts don’t say). The National Republican Campaign Committee matched that buy, and those federal commitments are already approaching $8 million in the Chicago area. Melissa Bean has reserved time for her own campaign in October in addition to the DCCC buy on her behalf.

Already, about as much ad time has been reserved for the General Election as for the Primary Election, and most candidates for state office have yet to jump in. Stations we spoke with expect the Governor's campaign to extend their buy beyond next week.

A book to be published next month raises some interesting questions about all this ad spending. What Sticks is an analysis of several large commercial advertising accounts. It concludes that 37.3% of the $1 billion (with a “b”) spent by 36 of the nation’s biggest advertisers was wasted on campaigns that didn’t achieve what they set out to do.

The book looks at commercial advertising, and political ads are a very different animal. But political ads across the nation are likely to hit $1 billion this year, and Illinois could easily see a fall campaign season as busy as or busier than the Primary. Is it really all worth it?

A crazy quote...

Thanks to a blog dedicated to the Chicago Public Schools a story from the Tribune about a Principal who decided not to take in any more students and allow class sizes that will ballon to over 40 students. On the Southwest side of Chicago thanks to the growth of the Hispanic community that way the schools that way are getting very crowded and this principal or actually interim principal, Martin McGreal, basically put his foot down and took a stand. Well it got him terminated.

He's only 37 years old and was once upon a time one of 12 teachers from Curie High School the system's CASE examined which was opposed by many teachers because it was thought to be confusing and not reflective of curriculum. CPS decided not to administer this exam.

Well in any event this was a crazy quote that Mr. McGreal said about what a demographic planner said to him about not worrying about a large freshman class...

McGreal proposed that some students and teachers use part of Lindblom College Prep High School, a selective enrollment high school about a mile to the east that is under capacity.

McGreal said he was appalled when one demographic planner told him not to worry about a large freshman class since many of the teens would not show up or drop out.

"He told me that we would probably lose about half the kids anyway," McGreal said. "That's the kind of mentality we're fighting."

Is that person serious???

Our Thoughts and Prayers For The Kadner Family

One of the sincere voices against political corruption and fair play to the underserved of America, The Daily Southtown's Phil Kadner is mourning the death of his father. A consistently tough-minded and fair critic of political corruption, Phil learned his moral code from his Dad.

The Daily Southtown's Dan Lavoie wrote a fine piece on the loss of a wonderful man. Our thoughts and prayers go with the Kadner family at this time of loss.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/251abn5.htm

Crunchy number stuff

A shameless violation of the three posts rule, but fun if you like regressions. Go straight to the very last paragraph on the shifts in the vote / seats ratio.

Political Arithmetik: Votes, Seats and the Generic Ballot

Steve Huntly on Emanuel's Plan

Steve Huntly's column on The Plan.

The Plan is mostly centrist Democratic stuff. However you may feel about issues he raises, there's no doubt that Emanuel is proposing for the Democrats a comprehensive national agenda, maybe even a winning one. Just one question: Is it an agenda that will appeal to the rabid Bush-hating, anti-war, bring-back-the-'60s crowd that seems to dominate the party these days?

A thread if folks want to comment about a book that will sell far fewer copies then Obama's but maybe have more lasting ideas (?)

We certainly have some literary Democrats in Illinois.

A nice guy.... a decent man

Mayor Daley's former patronage chief, Robert Sorich, recently testified under a grant of immunity before a federal grand jury investigating City Hall corruption, his lawyer said Thursday.

And Ald Balcer a few days ago at the Sorich fund raiser,

Balcer made no apologies for supporting his longtime friend and Bridgeport neighbor. John Daley and Degnan declined to comment.

Balcer said of Sorich: "I know him. I've worked with him. He's from the community. I go to church with his mother. He's just a nice guy -- a decent man. I'm not ashamed to call the man my friend."

Balcer's got guts. He doesn't bale.

You wonder what he and others will be saying after all is said and done here. Jim's done a lot for Vets in Chicago when he managed the City's Vets program. I hope he doesn't end up with egg on his face or worse here.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Trailing the World

I don't agree with his proposed solution, but Mayor Daley is absolutely right about the problem:

Mayor Daley suggested Thursday that high school be extended for a fifth year to defray college education costs now squeezing working poor and middle-class families.
Unless something is done to loosen the college tuition collar, Daley warned that the “birth rate will go down in the United States and our knowledge-based economy will not grow.”...
“America had better come to grips with this….If we’re a land of opportunity and we want to be a knowledge-based society and we want to compete against India and China, we had better educate our children. These young kids should not be worried about financial assistance — all worried in the [senior] year. Every principal will tell you that. They’re in their offices trying to figure out, ‘Can I get $500? Can I get $1,000, $1,500?’ We have to set our priorities and our priorities should be giving everyone an opportunity to go to college….I hope in 2008 there is a huge national debate on that issue alone.”

While I may have some other differences with the Mayor, I totally respect his passion about this subject. When he came down to Springfield last year, he met with Democratic legislators. The first, and primary, issue that he discussed was this one.

During his talk, he cited Thomas Friedman's must-read book The World is Flat and the concern that we are well down the road to being at a serious competitive disadvantage with foreign countries, whose educational systems and work ethic are outpacing ours.

Having just returned from Taiwan and having witnessed some of the accomplishments that they are making, I am even more concerned than I was a week ago. I hope to relate some of those observations here soon.

With respect to our local education, I am concerned that we are on the path to a crisis. The answer is not to lower standards and increase the time to take tests so that more kids score 'higher'. The answer is not to consider an increase in minimum wage service jobs to be a sign of economic prosperity.

The answer is to demand more of our education system and to realize that the needed changes will not likely yield results in convenient two or four year cycles that coincide with elections, but will require a willingness and the courage to take bold steps in order to accomplish long-term benefits for our future.

The answer is to prepare our youth to compete in a new world economy. To teach them not just proficiency in their own language, but in other languages as well that will make them desirable in a global environment. One step toward that answer may lay in year-round schooling that would provide societal benefits on many levels. I would be interested in hearing what readers think might be other parts of the equation.

To read, or post, comments, visit Dome-icile

You can take the boy out of the fraternity...

I know, I know, this isn't a local issue...but this is not confidence inspiring:

U.S. New & World Reports’ Paul Bedard says our commander in chief “loves flatulence jokes . . . can’t get enough of fart jokes. He’s also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides.”

In an interview yesterday, Bedard, who writes “Washington Whispers” for the weekly newsmagazine, also said he’s heard about Bush’s full-salute “Austin Greeting.” That’s when new aides come in for their “meet and greet.”

“Word is,” says Bedard, “he likes to gas a couple, and then bring the aide in and see what the kid’s face looks like.”

Naturally, the aide can’t accuse the President or grimace or hold his nose. This dilemma apparently drives the presidential funny bone wild.

Arlene Jones's Black Entertainment District and Judy Baar-Topinka's crap shoot

If JBT says gambling's a solution, why not put that casino at the old Brach's Candy site on the West Side.

Arlene Jones made the case (again) today in the Austin Weekly News.

If we cannot get a large manufacturing company to relocate to the Brach site, then it is time we stand up for what we want that will benefit us! Why can’t our side of town become a tourist attraction? We have some of the best planned parks in the entire city within a stone’s throw of the Brach site (Garfield, Columbus, Austin Townhall, Humboldt and Lafollette). We have access to the green line and major streets. The Metra also zooms right past the Brach site.

A large percentage of our housing stock is part of the original bungalow belt. We can attract students of architecture and folks who just like looking at it. The entire world has enjoyed black culture through music, food, dance and slang. Do I have any proof that folks would come to our side of town? You know I do!

Years ago I was on the community council for the Garfield Park Conservatory. At that time, they would barely get 100 people a week to go there. Then they held the Chihuly glass exhibit and got 20,000 in one week! So I refuse to listen to anyone who wants to say our side of town cannot attract people. Hell, we attract those folks looking for drugs on a daily basis.

It's a natural combined with the mid-city transit way.

This is Birkett's old neigborhood. He and Topinka should get out there, at that old Brach's site, and hold a press conference. Maybe Jones would join them because she sure got it right about Garfield Park Conservatory.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Teacher Union Pay Hike Strategy Interrupted

In McHenry County’s Huntley School District 158, something I have never seen before happened Tuesday night.

A contract negotiated by three members of the teacher union’s 2005 ruling Majority Six school board members (one of whom, Glen Stewart, has now gotten a $101,000 school administrative post) went unapproved when the board put off the vote until right before a Thursday morning “board members meet the teachers meeting.”

This came after a 3-hour secret session op what most thought was a "done deal."

While obviously scheduled to bring pressure on any weak brothers, the meeting represents a set back to the ruling clique that I have seen nowhere else…ever.

The reason for the delay can be traced to publication by the Daily Herald’s Jeffrey Gaunt of an article outlining what he found out about the contract.

Angry citizen after angry citizen made the 10-16% raises for selected (many or most) high school teachers the reason they were criticizing the contract and the now Majority Five. (Stewart resigned after getting his new post and was replaced Tony Quagliano, an ally of the only minority member, Larry Snow).

Newly elected board member Snow’s name was brought up in a favorable light again and again by testifying taxpayers.

Others pointed to the School Board President Mike Skala’s wife’s being a high school French teacher and, hence, his having a conflict of interest should he vote for the contract. It may be even worse than that. She was a union representative for the high school last year.

Of course, with its five-vote majority, the Majority Five does not need Mike Skala’s vote to ratify the contract.

What seems to be at work here is the willingness of at least one of the school board members to reveal some of the contract’s contents before the vote...or, maybe, reporter Gaunt found another source.

One might think this is part of the “transparency” that new school superintendent John Burkey, who is from Dunlap, a suburban school district near Peoria, brought to the job.

But Burkey was clearly not pleased to be telling union leaders in the hall that the vote had been postponed.

Only one teacher was among those who spoke to the board. She talked of the unethical nature of revealing the contract’s contents before the board vote.

Now, I’ll certainly admit that it was unusual.

I have never heard of done before.

But, unethical?

How unethical is it for school boards throughout Illinois to decide on the biggest expenditure in the budget without having public discussion on whether the details—or even the total amount to be promised—are fair to the taxpayers.

It strikes me as a lot more unethical to blindside taxpayers.

Needless to say the ruling faction that the teachers' union helped elect will ratify the union contract that three of its members helped negotiate.

To find out what happens at the early Thursday morning, go to McHenry County Blog.

= = = = =
At the top is Huntley School Board member Glen Stewart offering his thanks to School Board President Mike Skala after being appointed to a $101,000 administrative job.

The head shot below right is of Larry Snow, the man who fought a fraudulently promoted tax hike referendum and then got elected to the school board. Below left is Skala.

Next comes the photograph of Superintendent John Burkey explaining to union representatives that a vote to ratify their contract will not be taken until early Thursday morning.

Finally, regular meeting attender Aileen Seedorf holds up a piggy bank that she said represented the savings of the community's children, which would have to pay for the "Titanic financial iceberg" the contract represented.

GOP's Requiem for the Hyper-Rich

Death and Taxes

The two words that just go together -- like Fear and Loathing.

And in today's episode of GOP Mailing Melodrama, the National Republican Congressional Comittee brings all four.

Of course the mailer in question also features low-budget cheesiness that we have come to expect from the NRCC's 6th District correspondence. First, there is pathos via clip art:

But it is somewhat unclear whether the woman in the clip art is trying to stifle her grief, her laughter or her vomit. Perhaps she witnessed something "just disgusting"...

And there is the now familiar odd-ball death imagery:

But there is no explanation why a multi-millionare -- the tax in question only applies to estates in excess of two million dollars -- would have such a battered headstone. And there are no clues as to why the deceased multi-millionare's family -- who, regardless of the size of the estate, inherit the first two million dollars tax-free -- didn't insist that the writing on the gravestone be written in parallel lines.

No one in my family will ever trigger the millionares' estate tax, but I would never EVER stand for such a shoddy headstone.

And there is the obvious question: Is this grave the home of the goofy ghost from the earlier mailer? The voters of the 6th District want answers!

But what about the substance of the mailer? Just as goofy.

"You shouldn't have to pay taxes when a loved one dies"? Okay, you don't have to.

All you have to do to avoid paying taxes "when a loved one dies" is not accept an inheritance from an estate of more than two million dollars. Not only is not inheriting millions my plan for avoiding the estate tax, everyone I know is going to avoid it that way.

And because the tax only applies to multi-million dollar estates -- less than 3 percent of deceased adults in 2002 had estates subject to the tax-- I'll bet that you and almost everyone you know will avoid the estate tax in exactly the same way.

And what about the claim that the multi-millionares' estate tax puts family farms and small business owers at risk?

The truth is that very few actually pay the estate tax.

The Tax Policy Center reports that in 2004, in all of the United States of America, roughly 440 taxable estates were primarily farm and business assets. And even considering estates in which farming or business was a sideline, the Center found only 7,090 taxable estates for 2004 that included any farm or business income. The estate tax repeal benefits primarily non-farmers and non-business-owners. People like the fellow pictured on the right:

And these hard workers:

But what about the mailer's claim that Democrat Major Tammy Duckworth just can't wait to spend your hard earned money?

Eric Krol of your Daily Herald reports that Maj. Duckworth has vowed to cut Congressional spending by ending the wasteful and corrupt practice of "earmarking" pork projects in Washingon. By contrast

Republican congressional hopeful Peter Roskam, who’s always billed himself as a fiscal conservative, tried to walk a political tightrope Monday by embracing an oft-criticized budget tactic for securing federal funding for local projects. The 6th Congressional District GOP nominee said he’d support continuing the so-called practice of “earmarks” if elected to Congress[.]

Well, that sure ain't gonna slow Congressional spending.

So, in conclusion, here are two pieces of free advice.

First, to the NRCC: While it is okay to use cut and paste graphics with no connection to the 6th District in your mailings, you should not use cut and paste arguments about rampant Congressional spending when 1) your party controls Congress, and 2) your candidate has embraced pork barrel spending.

Second, to Republican readers: Please, please, please donate to the National Republican Congressional Committee. No, really. If you're a Republican and have only one dollar to contribute to the election in November, please send that dollar to the NRCC. Nothing would make my Democratic heart happier than to see GOP campaign dollars directed to the masterminds behind these mailings. So Republicans, please give to the NRCC, and give often.

In fact, you Democratic voters might want to contribute to the NRCC trainwreck as well.

Secret agent man?

Is Sen. Barack Obama’s trip to Africa just a cover for his secret dealings with Iran and his plan to save the world from a nuclear disaster?

First this:

Iran responded Tuesday to a set of incentives from Europe and the United States aimed at ending its nuclear program, but did not agree to suspend the enrichment of uranium by the end of the month, the West’s primary demand.

In its response, Iran offered “serious talks” over its nuclear activities but did not raise the issue of suspending enrichment by Aug. 31, the deadline established by the United Nations Security Council, Western diplomats said.

Then this:

It is a policy of the U.S. government to have no direct communication with Iran. Between the two nations, there are no formal diplomatic ties.

But what if a U.S. senator and an Iranian foreign minister happened to be staying in the same hotel -- on the same floor, no less -- and bumped into each other in the hallway?

A hypothetical question, it's not.

Here in Pretoria, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motakki are staying in the same hotel. Their groups have crossed paths in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel, but the two officials have not. Yet.

Coincidence?

Big Jim to step aside

Former Gov. James R. Thompson is resigning as chairman of law firm Winston & Strawn LLP.

He plans to leave the chairman position next month after 13 years—nearly matching his record 14-year tenure as governor—but remain active as a Winston partner, he says.

“It is time,” he says.

When all you have is a Hammer, everything looks like a Nail

I never thought I would have anything nice to say about Joe Birkett, atleast on a blog.

But people's positions on the issue of crime and punishment often cross party lines, and for the first time, I find Joe Birkett on the same side as me.

The compelling lede from today's Daily Herald story, regarding the hyper-incarceration of drug addicts:

Nick Blasucci found himself in jail and in desperate need of a fix.
He traded his only pair of shoes for drugs that failed to get him high. He received a replacement pair but quickly put them on the black market, too.
It wasn't the life the 17-year-old suburban kid imagined for himself growing up in Glendale Heights. He yearned for his freedom, something away from the jail's bartering system and his tedious existence within it.
The DuPage County court system offered him a way to avoid incarceration. If he agreed to enter rehab, at the county's expense, he would receive probation instead of prison.
Blasucci had no desire to give up his heroin addiction. But if it meant his freedom, well, he would begrudgingly accept the deal.
"I stayed sober at first because I always wanted to look good in court," he said. "But, after a while, I started staying sober because I wanted it for myself."
Blasucci, who now lives in Batavia and has been sober for 16 months, credits the court-mandated program with saving his life.

Joe Birkett's response:

DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett - who championed the drug court program that put Blasucci on his road to rehabilitation - agrees incarcerating drug addicts is not always the most fiscally or socially responsible option.
"Ultimately, it's better to have someone getting treatment," Birkett said. "It's much cheaper to have someone out working, paying taxes and contributing to society than it is to house them in prison."

If Joe Birkett can admit it, why can't the Cook County State's Attorney's office just say it, instead of this?

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It's time to put a few better tools in our toolbox.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Dershowitz spanks DePaul's Finkelstein--again, brings up Klocek case

Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.

DePaul University's resident Holocaust-minimizer, Norman G. Finkelstein, gets another well deserved verbal thrashing from Harvard professor and author Alan M. Dershowitz.

From today's FrontPage Magazine:

The level of "academic" discourse on the Middle-East reached a new low—quite a feat considering some of the old lows—when the notorious Jewish anti-Semite and Holocaust-justice denier Norman Finkelstein wrote a screed suggesting that I be targeted "for assassination" because of my views on Israel. The obscene article was accompanied by an obscene cartoon drawn by "Latuff," a frequent accomplice of Finkelstein. The cartoon portrayed me as masturbating in rapturous joy while viewing images of dead Lebanese civilians on a TV set labeled "Israel peep show," with a Jewish Star of David prominently featured. The cartoon aptly represents the content of Finkelstein’s piece, which accuses me of being a "moral pervert" who "missed the climactic scene of his little peep show." He also claims quite absurdly that I "sanction mass murder" and "the extermination of the Lebanese people." (I’m surprised he hasn’t accused me of kicking of puppy dogs, scowling at little children, and parking in handicapped spaces.)

Finkelstein calls me a Nazi not once, but twice, first saying that I subscribe to “Nazi ideology” and then comparing me to Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, who was prosecuted at Nuremberg by my mentor Telford Taylor.

The peep-show cartoon was even too extreme for the notorious "Counterpunch," a Stalinist website that glorifies Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist enemies of the U.S. and Israel. Prior to its decision not to run this particular cartoon, Counterpunch seemed to have no standards, but even for them this one was apparently too much (though they kept in the "peep show" reference that inspired the cartoon).

More...

This academic pornographer, who uses "professor" in his byline even when he is spewing unacademic hate, is now up for tenure at DePaul University, a Catholic school in Chicago that recently fired a teacher named Thomas Klocek for offending Arab students during a discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Finkelstein was fired by several universities at which he previously worked for abusing students who disagreed with his bigoted views. The chairman of one department where he taught said he was fired for "incompetence," "mental instability" and "abuse" of students with politics different from his own. I wonder whether Finkelstein will submit this "assassination" article as part of his tenure portfolio at DePaul. He certainly should, since it is quite representative of his "scholarship." If he submits it, will it be accompanied by the masturbation cartoon? It should, because the cartoon too personifies Finkelstein’s academic standards.

The second anniversary of the beginning of the Thomas Klocek affair is on September 15.

Here is the Finkelstein Counterpunch article Dersh refers to in today's write-up.

Here's a previous Dershowitz spanking of Finkelstein.

Related posts: Norman Finkelstein article: Dershowitz' descent into moral barbarism

CAIR-Chicago recommended that DePaul fire Klocek

Hat tip to Dr. Steven Plaut in Haifa.

Scheurer Plays the Vietnam Analogy Card

Today, Moderate (anti-war) Party 8th congressional district candidate Bill Scheurer issued the following press release today:

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 22, 2006

Scheurer sees Vietnam in Bush Iraq war policy

President Bush’s press conference Monday was all too familiar to Bill Scheurer, independent Moderate Party candidate for Congress in the IL-8th District.

“For those of us who are old enough to remember, we’ve seen this all before,” Scheurer said. “We’ve put our troops in the middle of a civil war, with no end in sight and a president who insists they stay.”

Scheurer recalled the arguments in Bush’s speech as almost identical to those put forth by previous administrations during the protracted Vietnam war.

“He kept using phrases like ‘leaving before the job is done,’” Scheurer said. “The same things were said in 1965, and we wasted another eight years and countless lives, and nothing was accomplished.”

Scheurer said he believed his opponents’ support (incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean and Republican David McSweeney) for Bush’s Iraq policy might be because they were too young to remember the parallels between this war and the one in Vietnam.

“David McSweeney was 14 when Ronald Reagan was president. Melissa Bean was only 11 years old when the Vietnam War ended,” Scheurer said. “Neither one of them remembers how the war dragged on, pointlessly, taking with it 58,000 American lives, 3 million Vietnamese lives and billions of dollars in the end.”

Scheurer said that, lacking this sense of perspective, his opponents might easily be caught in the rhetoric of continuing the war.

“Bush’s contention that if we leave Iraq the terrorists ‘will follow us here’ is wrong,” Scheurer said. “Bring our troops home and secure our borders. Start focusing our military on national defense, their true mission, which Bush and his enablers in Congress (like Bean) have left undone.”

-30-

What's Your Take on the Game?

While I'm still shaking off the jet lag, how about some levity and creativity in the interim? With the massive amount of hype surrounding the Samuel L. Jackson movie 'Snakes on a Plane', I thought that we could try to put a local spin on the spoofs that have been put out there.

To get things rolling, I'll throw a couple out there:

A movie about the latest problems with the CTA titled, 'Mistakes on the Train'.

A film about Springfield corruption called, 'On the Take on the Plain'.

You get the idea. Have at it.

To read, or post, comments, visit Dome-icile

Registering Latinos in DuPage

Illinois Review’s unpaid (and, formerly Illinois Leader’s not-paid before she quit) editor Fran Eaton could be putting bread on the table by working at Kohl’s or Starbucks.

But, since she is more interested in the political process than stocking shelves or scalding herself making lattes, she is being paid to set up voter registration drives in west suburban churches.

She has called all sorts of churches and has good relationships with numerous Catholic ones.

So, it was nothing out of the ordinary for her to have contacted the office of St. Isidore’s Catholic Church in Bloomingdale and dropped off a packet of registration information at the church office

Eaton offered her assistance in setting up a voter registration drive.

That afternoon, Eaton received a phone call from a woman who said she said she was an employee of St. Isidore’s.

She said she “and 22 others are working full-time from Waukegan to the South Suburbs registering voters through churches and she found it interesting that I was doing something similar.”

She told me she was working for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

She asked me, “Could we work together?’

Eaton replied that it made sense to work together and not duplicate efforts.

“She agreed to call me if she needed my assistance and that’s the way phone call ended,” Eaton said.

“I did a piece on Illinois Review that talked of my concerns about how one verified whether a person being registered is a U.S. citizen,” she continued.

“And, I called the DuPage County Board of Elections to ask if I would be held responsible for registering non-legal residents using the motor voter forms.

“She (the woman at the Board of Elections) said all I could do is accept their statements, that I had no way of verifying whether or not people are legal.

“On August 14th, I wrote an article about the situation for Illinois Review.

“I think the questions I raised in my piece disturbed them,” Eaton said, “because the next thing I know they had a (last) Saturday press conference and issued a press release accusing me of trying to infiltrate their organization. At least that’s what the Daily Herald reporter told me Saturday.

“They said they have asked for an investigation by (DuPage County State’s Attorney) Joe Birkett.

“I am not a secret agent. I’m just trying to register voters.

“I invite an investigation by (Joe Birkett and I hope the ICIRR will welcome an investigation of their work as well.

“Personally, I think ‘they doth protest too much.’

“Oh, yes. La Raza (the Spanish language newspaper) interviewed me this morning and I expect a story tomorrow.”

Maybe the investigation should be conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Coalition's press release can be accessed at McHenry County Blog.

What to give a governor who has everything

"Who the heck is giving Rod all this stuff?"

Republican lieutenant governor nominee Joe Birkett wants Gov. Blagojevich to disclose the thousands of gifts he receives from close associates each year. "Unless he comes clean, we have no way of knowing what the gifts are," said Birkett.

A state law requires that every giver of gifts of $500 or more be disclosed. With the Bla-governor under such close scrutiny, you might wonder what you can and cannot give him the next time he comes over for dinner.

The Daley Show is compiling a list of answers to this challenging question: What can I give a governor who has it all?

Penicillin
A small scrapbook of things you've done with him
A mirror
$499 in small bills
Attention - approval - your time - encouragement - laughter
Immunity from prosecution

Monday, August 21, 2006

Topinka: Medicaid Savings to Come from Managed Care

Gubernatorial hopeful Judy Baar Topinka responded today to charges that she hates grandmas and little kids. [Thanks CapFax]

According to Topinka, the $2.9 billion she hopes to wring out in savings from Medicaid will come from requiring folks to enroll in managed care style programs.

What I am proposing is that we manage the massive growth of the state’s $8 billion-and-growing annual program by transitioning Illinois’ Medicaid recipients into a managed care system just like the state offers its employees and private sector companies provide for their employees.
Amazingly, Illinois taxpayers are now paying for a Medicaid program that is much more expensive than their own private health care plans. While billions of taxpayers dollars go wasted, Rod Blagojevich is asleep at the switch.

Through better management, over four years, Illinois can wring $2.9 billion in savings from a program that will cost taxpayers nearly $40 billion.

Topinka couldn't pass up the opportunity to call Governor a big, fat liar. Well, these were the actual first words of her release:

Rod Blagojevich isn't telling voters the truth.

Topinka has put me in the rare position these days of defending Rod Blagojevich. I went back and looked at Topinka's release, "Common Sense Budget Cuts." The words "managed care system" don't appear anywhere in there. She does say:

Establishing a Medicaid Reform Task Force on her first day in office to determine how to precisely restructure our Medicaid plan. Follow in the footsteps of Florida—a state that is making their Medicaid system look more like private insurance than a government program.

Now, I'm not sure which it is. Is Topinka going to move us toward a "managed care system," or is her Medicaid Reform Task Force going to decide the best approach? Will medicaid recipients have a vote on the task force, or will it be packed with private insurance company representatives who hope to get lucrative subcontracts providing managed care services for Medicaid?

These are two good questions to ask. I'm sure someone has more.

But my first point is this: how can any reasonable person be expected to discern that Topinka was talking about Medicaid managed care, let alone Governor Blagojevich? Heck, some of Topinka's loyalists were convinced she was going to save $2.9 billion by targeting illegal aliens who travelled thousands of miles from Mexico, risking their lives through the desert, in hopes of sneaking on to the welfare rolls here.

My second point is this: If Topinka doesn't want her opponent to define her positions, her p.r. staff needs to do a better job of defining them to the public in her initial release.

My third point is this: I don't know many voters who think Illinois should be more like Florida (land of swamps, gators and hurricanes) or wish state government was run more like an insurance company. You guys might want to expand your Encyclopedia of Analogies.

Obama walks on water in Africa

Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.
Yesterday Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) thrilled residents of Capetown, South Africa by walking from their city onto the Indian Ocean waters to the former prison at Robben Island--where Obama viewed the onetime jail cell of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Did I make that stuff up? Yes. But some people are treating Obama as if he was the Savior. Earlier this month, Michael Madigan ridiculed magazine cover boy Obama as "the Messiah.

Here's an AP article about Obama's extended African trip. In the article, there is no mention of any legislation Obama has sponsored being enacted into law during his 19 months as a US senator.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Rick Pearson: A good reporter writes a bad column

Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.

Rick Pearson has been writing about Illinois politics for at least a decade, and he's generally considered to be a fair and decent reporter. I'm a little biased, as in 2002, I submitted a question to Pearson that not only got me invited into the studio audience of the final gubernatorial debate between eventual victor
Democrat Rod Blagojevich and Republican Jim Ryan, but he used my question too.

"Blago" is running for re-election this year, he's being challenged by feisty Republican Judy Baar Topinka.

Today Pearson unloaded a stink bomb in the Chicago Tribune. In his column, Rick wrote about the 34 city tour that the Republican party statewide ticket kicked off last week in Springfield. The tour will focus on that forgotten "corner" of the state: that part of Illinois south of Interstate 80, better known as "Downstate."

Up until about 10 years ago, heavily Democratic Cook County was counterbalanced by the Republican suburbs and Republican Downstate. The latter two aren't as "Red" as they used to be, and Illinois is now a "deep blue" state.

So focusing on Downstate makes a lot of sense for the GOP here.

Rick Pearson isn't so sure, as he wrote today. Free registration required:

Topinka said Blagojevich's treatment of the Downstate region was "rather shabby" and said her tour, which winds up Thursday in DuPage County, was meant to "go back out there and say, `Look, you count.'"

"There is something more than just the city of Chicago and Cook County," said Topinka, who lives in Riverside. "These are very important--God knows I love them dearly--but you know, it's like a mother with many children, you love all of them, and you have to bring everybody in."

Still, Illinois' political history is littered with candidates who stumbled while trying to strike the right symbolic note in their appeal to Downstate voters.

Topinka chose to launch her bus tour at the historic train depot where Abraham Lincoln delivered his farewell to Springfield en route to assuming the presidency. And we all know how Lincoln returned to Springfield.

Huh? What the heck is that supposed to mean? I'm sure Pearson didn't mean that Judy will return to Springfield as a hero, as Lincoln did.

New Ruberry posting rule: Anonymous comments, the "other anonymous" excepted, will be deleted. See my most recent Wal-Mart post below for a detailed explanation for my decision. Also, keep in mind, the sister blog to this one has a checkered history in regards to anonymous posters.

Bean's Forthcoming Pioneer Press Endorsement

Did anyone have any doubt about whom Pioneer Press favors in the upcoming 8th congressional district contest among incumbent Democratic Party candidate Melissa Bean, Republican Party standard bearer David McSweeney and Moderate Party candidate Bill Scheurer?

Let those doubts be erased.

Pioneer Press supports Melissa Bean’s re-election.

How do I know?

This week’s edition would be the one in which it could have run an unfavorable article about Bean’s ducking the Channel 7 TV debate with McSweeney and Moderate (anti-war) Party candidate bill Scheurer.

But, that topic was ignored in favor of

· not one,

· not two,

· but three stories

favorable to Bean.

I wrote about the first last week—her symbolic announcement of $2 million for planning Route 120 improvements. (In case you are wondering, $2 million might buy two right-turn lanes.)

Here are other pork stories, one and two.

But, there were two other stories:

· her being on a radio fund raiser for Turning Point yesterday, (unannounced time at Sam’s Club in Crystal Lake) and

· her opening her campaign office yesterday. (412 North Seymour on the second floor of the building at the corner of Seymour and Hawley streets.)

I know internet gambling is illegal, but my predicting a Pioneer Press endorsement of Bean is not a gamble on my part.

Or, does someone to bet McSweeney or Scheurer will get its nod?

More on McHenry County Blog, including my two-day trip to South Dakota, where a referendum is on the ballot that could result in a challenge to Roe v. Wade.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Chalk It Up to Innovation

Everybody knows that the web has changed our lives. But it is also changing grassroots politics as well. One group that is taking advantage of this is the Service Employees International Union.

While much of the attention on SEIU of late has been focused on the Big Box issue, they have also been actively working for some time now on their Americans for Health Care intiative. As part of their initiative, this coming Tuesday, they are having a series of press conferences and events in 34 cities around the country.

Activists at the “Chalk It Up!” events will draw murder-scene style chalk outlines on the ground to represent the approximately 18,000 people SEIU says die annually because of inadequate healthcare.

To help promote these events, a couple of their advocates had the foresight to whip up a simple yet effective video that they put up on YouTube.com. You can see the video here. I think that it was a smart way for them to help get their message out there. And I think that you will start to see more things like this in the future.

And if you're interested, the local Chalk It Up! event will be held this Tuesday, August 22nd at 1 pm outside Congressman Hastert's office which is at 27 River Road in Batavia.

My journey home from Taiwan starts in about 6 hours. I'll share insights on my trip in a couple of days depending on the joys of jetlag.

To read, or post, comments, visit Dome-icile

Just how large and painful will GOP's budget cuts be?

Let's turn to the Republican team for an explanation of governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka's proposed cost-saving restructuring of Medicaid.

"It'll hurt just a tiny little bit."

"They (not I, of course) will only cut this much."

"Actually, the cuts will be massive."

"But only those people in Chicago will feel the pain."

"No, every person in this state will suffer if I'm elected."

Finally, a detailed plan from someone who will give a rat's behind that she is governor.

More pain at The Daley Show

Friday, August 18, 2006

"They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason."

More postal goodness from the National Republican Congressional Committee:

While this one is not as egregious as the laughable earlier mailers, it is still pretty damn bad -- just try to parse the sentence that the NRCC chose to highlight on the flip-side:

The sentence's meaning is not immediately clear -- and it isn't even clear whether the apparent desire to reverse the increase in a credit by half is supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing.

And how about that dilemma that the NRCC presents: "Taxes or Diapers?" Geez guys -- and you know it was guys -- maybe next time you might wanna give the reader a desirable option.

But an argument could be made that the choice between a) some taxes to pay off Bush's deficits, and b) something full of the same old shit does properly symbolize voters' choices in November.

As I've said before: sometimes a political ad inadvertently reveals more than was intended. And in this case the NRCC has accidentally presented the voters with the question that must be answered in November:

Do we act like adults and return U.S. tax laws to the levels of the 90's -- when America suffered under the twin scurges of peace and prosperity -- or do we continue to borrow money and pass the Republican's record deficit down to this child and her children?

You shouldn't have to sacrifice your family's future to pay for tax-cuts to the hyper-rich.

Cross-posted at The So-Called "Austin Mayor" blog

Wal-Mart expansion means more money for current Wal-Mart employees

Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.

At work today I met with a Wal-Mart employee who will be working at the new Niles Wal-Mart.

After some small talk, she explained that she's currently working at the Forest Park, Illinois Wal-Mart, but is taking this job in Niles because she's been promoted to a supervisory position--with a higher hourly wage.

Those "big box" opponents are clueless on a lot of things. Here's one more. Wal-Mart, Target, Lowe's etc. building new stores means higher wages for existing employees.

And if new stores aren't built? Well, you know the rest...

Oh, before someone chimes in that the "big boxes" drive out existing business, the current Chicago expansion plan is to build stores in low-income areas, so there is little existing retail presence to be driven out.

And if some businesses close? This will sound cruel, but one of the rules of capitalism is that businesses are supposed to fail. The A & P grocery chain and the Montgomery Ward department stores are just two of the many retail giants that folded their tents. At one time, these blue chippers were as ubiquitous as Wal-Mart.

In fact, remember the driving-through-the-shopping mall scene early on in the Blues Brothers film? Most of those retailers (a few won't be familiar to non-Chicagoans) that Jake and Elwood trashed with the Bluesmobile don't exist anymore.

The Blues Brothers was released in 1980.

Related post: Wal-Mart scorecard: Niles 2, Chicago 1

UPDATE: Additional anonymous comments--pro or con--will be deleted. Pick any name you want, but if you don't care to at least put some sort of name on your comments, then start your own blog. To quote Rich Miller, "it's my post, I can do what I want."

Update Sat. Aug 19: A commenter, "the other anonymous, on this blog pointed out that A&P does still exist. They are no longer a national powerhouse, but they have a cluster of 107 stores in the New York City area. The full name of A&P is Atlantic & Pacific, but the chain obviously is no longer coast to coast. What was once a giant is now roasted rump.

As for the truly anonymous comments. Frankly, I'm sick of people making idiotic statements from the safety of anomonity. The routine goes like this: "You don't live in Chicago anymore, so you can't comment on Chicago issues." I'm not Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, Lebanese, Druze, Syrian, Iranian, or Maronite Christian. Does that prohibit me from commenting on the Israel-Hezbollah war?

In fact, like many, make that most bloggers who written on that subject, I've never been to Israel or Lebanon. Although I've been to New York and its suburbs, and somehow missed encountering an A&P. Boots on the ground don't always mean accurate reporting.

And if anyone wants to defend their belief that a suburbanite shouldn't post on Chicago issues, at least pick a name. I'm not going to argue with ghosts.

By the way, what about all those non-6th district folks commenting on the Duckworth-Roskam race? Then there's the 8th district and Bean...the 9th....

See what I mean?

Singer Linked to Vrdolyak Probe

What is it about Chicago aldermen and former aldermen?

They seem to get into trouble on a regular basis.

True, the current crop has not seen many indictments, but maybe that's because the U.S. Attorney's Office is too busy with bigger fish.

In any event, I was surprised to see former northside reform Alderman Bill Singer's name linked to the Eddie Vrdolyak probe.

Were you?

And, who was the former reformer who went to jail? He replaced the first Mayor Daley briefly.

Also posted at McHenry County Blog.

Duckworth and the Auditors

Duckworth wants audits on Halliburton in Iraq.

She can find them here.

If she wants to be serious on National Security, she really needs to comment on Clinton's old SecDef, William Perry's -a fellow Unitarian Universalist too; we're not all pacifists- column calling for a preemptive strike on North Korea; because ABC is telling us they're getting ready to test a nuke.

As an old DoD auditor, we're just the guys who come onto the battlefield after the fighting all over, and tell everyone what they did wrong (there is a cruder way we used to put it.)

Gov hires pros to do that and you can check the IGs site for more reports than you'll care to read.

I want Duckworth to challange Roskam about tomorrow and what the United States should do.

Lynn Sweet and Sen Obama

Is this the way to cover news?

I've been reading Chicago papers since the early 60s. I miss the cartoon of the long-haired-anarchist with the round bomb and lit fuse who graced the Trib's front page during the 60s. (I wish I could find an image of him for my blog.)

I have never seen the press link up with a politician quite this way.

This is the way to cover a rock star; not a United States Senator.

Sweet does Obama no favors covering him this way. Politicans need the heat to hone them.

Unless this is all about selling books and not serious politics.

Jacobs reaches across aisle with campaign cash

Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-36th is once again holding his annual fundraiser event August 24th at Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in Moline.

Tickets ranging from the $2500 "Frankie" level to the $30 "Sammy" level are offered for this Rat Pack themed event which is catered with fine food and drink from the upscale restaurant. Jacobs reported spending around $6000 with Johnny's on last year's event.

For the moment, cut just across the Mississippi to Iowa's hotly constested 1st District congressional race. This race has attracted national focus since before the primaries and is one of the few open seat races in the country, due to Republican Jim Nussle giving up the seat to run for Iowa governor.

It's tooth and nail and sure to be a big money battle between Bruce Braley, the Dem contender who represents that party's hopes to pick up the seat, and Mike Whalen, a wealthy businessman who's attracted fundraising visits from Dick Cheney and Bill Frist, among others.

What does any of this have to do with Jacobs' multi-thousand dollar fundraiser?

Well, it happens that Mike Whalen owns Johnny's Italian Steakhouse where Jacobs is holding his event.

Jacobs (and his father before him) have held several events at the restaurant in the past, but Mike Jacobs is doing so now even after Whalen has become the Republican candidate for congress in an extremely tough battleground race just across the river.

Grip and grin and bear it

At this point in her life, Judy Baar Topinka wonders what she's gotten herself into. And how can she get out? Maybe by making some joke about Rod Blagojevich never being in Springfield.

For more photos of Thursday's Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair, visit The Daley Show.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Should she stay, or should she go?

Immigration is a topic that stirs up a lot of passion throughout the nation. It’s also a hot topic right now in Chicago.

Immigrant activist Elvira Arellano braced herself Wednesday for a lengthy standoff with the government as she holed up in a Humboldt Park church, defying a deportation order.

Congressman Luis Gutierrez wrote a letter to President Bush "urging him to intervene on Arellano's behalf to block the illegal immigrant's deportation."

Senator Barack Obama says:

"I don't feel comfortable carving out an exception for one person when there are hundreds of thousands of people just in the Chicago region alone who would want a similar exemption. And I think that if we're going to deal with these issues, we've got to deal with them in a comprehensive way that affects all people, not one by one.”

What are your thoughts, should Elvira Arellano be deported?

That referendum on marriage.....

Some people on the left think marriage an issue worthy of debate. Beyond marriage had a full page add in the NYT. Here's their exec summary.

Check the signatures. They're not insignificant people.

They still call conservatives bigots but at least have the courtesy of explaining what they want. They deserve considerable review,debate.... and a referendum.

Marriage is not the only worthy form of family or relationship, and it should not be legally and economically privileged above all others. A majority of people – whatever their sexual and gender identities – do not live in traditional nuclear families. They stand to gain from alternative forms of household recognition beyond one-size-fits-all marriage. For example:

· Single parent households

· Senior citizens living together and serving as each other’s caregivers (think Golden Girls)

· Blended and extended families

· Children being raised in multiple households or by unmarried parents

· Adult children living with and caring for their parents

· Senior citizens who are the primary caregivers to their grandchildren or other relatives

· Close friends or siblings living in non-conjugal relationships and serving as each other’s primary support and caregivers

· Households in which there is more than one conjugal partner

· Care-giving relationships that provide support to those living with extended illness such as HIV/AIDS.

The current debate over marriage, same-sex and otherwise, ignores the needs and desires of so many in a nation where household diversity is the demographic norm. We seek to reframe this debate. Our call speaks to the widespread hunger for authentic and just community in ways that are both pragmatic and visionary. It follows in the best tradition of the progressive LGBT movement, which invented alternative legal statuses such as domestic partnership and reciprocal beneficiary. We seek to build on these historic accomplishments by continuing to diversify and democratize partnership and household recognition. We advocate the expansion of existing legal statuses, social services and benefits to support the needs of all our households.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

More Obama: on dumb wars

Obama made Drudge twice today. Here he is below on Iraq as a dumb war.

He should explain what makes Afghanistan a smarter war, or why a second front in Iraq bogs down the US and not terrorists.

Or why creating allies of the Shia Arabs and Sunni Kurds who fight with us in Iraq, doesn't help strengthen a moderate Islam which is really the only force that can defeat extremist Islam.

But he sure sounds like a guy running for Prez.

Enemies in Iran and North Korea, along with terrorist groups bent on doing the United States harm, are getting stronger while the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq, he said.

He was particularly critical of using civilian contractors in Iraq who make significantly more money than front-line soldiers.

The practice of using private contractors is depleting our armed forces of noncommissioned officers -- more and more noncommissioned officers are seeing the opportunity to make money by doing essentially the same job for a private contractor, Obama said."Unfortunately, the administration believes in private contracts for everything, especially Halliburton," Obama said.

Obama also criticized Democrats who are always opposed to war, even when force is necessary. In cases like World War II and, more recently, removing the Taliban government of Afghanistan, war can be the only option.

"There are real enemies out there and we have to face them," Obama said.

I don't know what would be so smart about using the military to wash dishes or serve on chow lines, instead of contracting out the work to Halliburton. That was the whole idea behind military to civilian conversion: let the military fight and let civilians do the civilian jobs.

As a footnote, a friend of mine came back from Iraq and told me the Halliburton facilities were the best run he found there.

Know Any Good Vrdolyak Stories?

This name from the past was on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times when I picked it up in the driveway.

The story is that Ed Vrdolyak--of “Fast Eddie” and “Vrdolyak 29” fame while a Chciago Alderman and Cicero afterwards--is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Apparently, he is an acquaintance of Stuart Levine,who is talking to the Feds--also discovered by the Sun-Times.

This multi-indicted, bi-partisan combine North Shore wheeler dealer guy was appointed to the hospital regulating board by both Republican and Democratic Party governors. (Remember his role in the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board's approval of Crystal Lake's Mercy Hospital?) Not only did Governor Rod Blagojevich appoint Levine to the IHFPB, but also to the Downstate Teachers Retirement System board.

And, I can't forget that Levine was GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan's law school study partner and biggest campaign contributor.

Vrdolyak had a quite insightful radio program on WLS for a while.

And, he even spoke in McHenry County to some Republican affair at Turnberry Country Club, I believe. That was after he switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, both of which he chaired.

So, do you know any good Vrdolyak stories?

The best one, well, the best one I can tell, came from former State Rep. Harry Leinenweber (now a federal judge married to former State Rep., State Senator and U.S. Labor Department Secretary and GOP U.S. Senate candidate Lynn Martin). Both Leinenweber and Vrdolyak went to the University of Chicago Law School.

Harry said that Vrdolyak was the only law student defending himself against a murder charge.

First posted at McHenry County Blog.

Do as I say, not as I do

Illinois Senator Barack Obama warns citizens at his 50th Town Hall meeting about gas guzzling, WPSD-TV reports.

It was among many points made to the standing room only audience at the Metropolis Community Center. Obama spoke on everything from DC politics to global warming.

He says part of the blame for the world's higher temperatures rests on gas guzzling vehicles. Obama says consumers can make the difference by switching to higher mileage hybrids.

Today the Senator said, "It would save more energy, do more for the environment and create better world security than all the drilling we could do in Alaska."

"After the meeting... Obama left in a GMC Envoy after admitting to favoring SUV's himself," claimed local News Channel 6.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened, remember this?

Hastert, who appeared to have walked to the station, left in the very fuel-efficient vehicle, apparently headed for his office. But he went only a block or so before he got out and stepped into his pre-positioned gas-guzzling armored SUV to take him back to his office. Alert photographers, suspecting a ploy, had followed the speaker and captured the bait-and-switch.

From the Far East to the Fairgrounds

I am writing this from Taiwan of all places, where I have been meeting as part of a delegation of Midwestern legislators (not at taxpayer expense) with Taiwanese government officials to discuss topics ranging from trade to education to mass transit. I will write about aspects of the trip next week, for now let me just say that it has been fascinating.

Until then, and on the eve of Democrat Day at the Fair (although since I am 13 hours ahead, it's Wednesday night as I'm writing this), and in response to several requests for this topic, I want to throw open a subject that I discussed about a year ago, but this time, in a somewhat different context.

Namely, just what does it mean to be a Democrat? Or a Republican for that matter?

The question has recently come to me in a couple of different ways. One is the reaction that people have had, pro and con, about Democratic elected officials who are presently not willing to endorse the Governor.

The second, and related, manner in which has come up is as a result of the lack of communication between the Speaker and Alexi Gianoullias, the Democratic nominee for State Treasurer.

The question raised is - where is the line, or where should it be, when there is not an alignment between party loyalty and substantive differences or concerns between individuals? Should one trump the other, and if so, in which direction?

When does one take a deep breath and take one for the team, or when is it appropriate to move from the party line? I could elaborate but I think that you get the idea of where I'm trying to go with this discussion.

I wish I had the time and energy to really go into this right now, but I just don't. I will briefly say that I think that our Party, any Party, needs to have some guiding principles around which it can unify in order to reach common goals. And to the extent that certain sacrifices need to be made for the greater good, then they should be made. At the same time, however, I believe that each candidate needs to be evaluated on their own merits, and that nobody should just get a pass based solely on a party label.

Since I obviously won't be at the Fair, you can feel free to tie this subject into whatever may (or may not) occur during the day there.

Because of the time change and my sporadic access to my laptop, it may take a while for your comments to get posted. (I am leaving comment moderation on because history has shown that it just needs to be left on.) So early morning (Illinois time) comments should get on relatively quickly, but the rest of them may not get posted until early evening (Illinois time), which will be when I am getting started with my Thursday. But rest assured that, as usual, all comments that are not inappropriate will get posted.

To read, or post, comments, visit Dome-icile

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Joe Moore: Putting the unions' money where his mouth is

Crossposted at Marathon Pundit.

Craig over at Morse Hell Hole came across Alderman Joe Moore's campaign disclosure statement for the first six months of 2006.

The North Side Chicago alderman is the principal sponsor of the "big box living wage" ordinance, an anti-jobs (although Moore denies that) measure that focuses only on Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, and other major retailers.

Moore is a recent recipient of Wal-Mart Watch's (a Service Employee International Union funded group) person of the week award.

The supporters of the ordinance will also deny it, but it's Wal-Mart that they have in their sight: They don't like Wal-Mart's philosophy, and they're angry that Wal-Mart has non-union stores.

Back to Moore: In that campaign disclosure statement, here are four telling donations:

SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 1
111 E Wacker Dr
Ste 2500
Chicago, IL 60601 $1,000.00
3/2/2006 Individual Contribution
Citizens for Joe Moore

SEIU Local 880 PAC
1024 Elysian Fields
New Orleans, LA 70117 $1,000.00
6/8/2006 Individual Contribution
Citizens for Joe Moore

UFCW (United Food & Commercial Workers) Local 1546
1649 W. Adams
Chicago, IL 60612 $500.00
3/2/2006 Individual Contribution
Citizens for Joe Moore

UFCW Local 881
10400 W. Higgins Road
Rosemont, IL 60018 $1,000.00
4/10/2006 Individual Contribution
Citizens for Joe Moore

UFCW is the funding source of Wake Up Wal-Mart, another anti-Wal-Mart group.

But Joe is doing it "for the little guy."

Related posts: Ald. Joe Moore, retail genius

"Big box" bye-bye: Target canceling plans for two Chicago stores

Another "big box" bails from Chicago over living-wage ordinance

Monday, August 14, 2006

Sticking It To Suburban Taxpayers

The Chicago Sun-Times had an article Monday about how property taxes are higher in most suburbs than in Chicago.

An accompanying chart showed all selected suburban homeowners (but those in Oak Brook) having a higher effective tax rate than Chicago homeowners. The lowest--Wilmette--was 13% higher, while the highest cited--Harvey--was 2 3/4th times higher.

That was not the point of the story, but that is what the figures tell me.

So, what are the “effective tax rates” that Reporter Abdon Pallasch writes about?

They are the only way I know to compare real estate tax burdens.

I found them at the Illinois Department of Revenue, but Pallasch cites a Civic Federation study.

“Effective tax rates” allow you to compare your tax burden to those of others.

To calculate your effective tax rate, divide your tax bill by what you could sell your property for.

Before you tell me that you do not know what your property is worth, let me suggest that you probably know more than you think.

But, if that is your excuse, go to Zillow.com. (I have compared it with a couple of homes in my neighborhood. On a couple it is pretty close, but I found one lake view home on which is off by at least 50%. Nevertheless, it is a start.)

So, if I take Zillow’s estimate on my home’s worth and divide that value into my tax bill, I get an effective tax rate of 1.9%.

In Chicago the average homeowner only pays 1.29% of the value of his home, as of last year’s tax bills.

That is up significantly from the 1.1% the Illinois Revenue Department found for Chicagoans five years before in 2000, but it in no way comes close to my McHenry County effective tax rate.

So, how does the Civil Federation figure that the effective tax rate
is actually going down?

I can understand the complaints of Chicagoans about higher tax bills. They are 25% higher than 5 years ago.

But their real estate tax bills are still low compared virtually all Cook County suburbanites and, certainly, those of collar county and Downstate homeowners.

This was, of course, posted on McHenry County Blog first, where the message of the day is--gasp--an anti-war button.

Dawn of the Living Dead

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that the same folks who argued that Terri Schiavo was alive and kicking -- even when her brain had turned to liquid -- wouldn't know when their referendum effort was dead.

As the Chicago Tribune reported over the weekend, the Illinois State Board of Elections has ruled that the anti-gay American referendum failed to secure the required number of signatures to appear on the ballot.

This in an e-mail sent out today by the Illinois Family Institute:

As we reported over the weekend, on Friday the State Board of Elections made its formal finding that our pro-marriage referendum had insufficient valid signatures to get on the ballot. As we cautioned, this SBE ruling will be overturned if we are successful in our federal court case challenging the constitutionality of Illinois' twisted election referendum law.)

This fight is far from over. Our hopes of getting the Marriage Protection Referendum on the ballot now lie with three judges on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Click HERE to read our full legal brief that was filed Friday; for a PDF version of the brief, click HERE.)

Still alive? Still alive!? Yeah, in the same way Stu Umholtz's campaign for Attorney General is still alive.

Of course, the cynic in me couldn't help notice that the e-mail also contained a fundraising appeal to give $25 to help defend the "Protect Marriage Referendum" from the ACLU. Of course, it would be much tougher for the IFI to raise money if it admitted that they failed on the referendum.

Obama becomes a Lamont-Democrat

Matthew Continetti in The Weekly Standard,

Also on August 9, the political action committee of one of the party's most popular and promising figures, Sen. Barack Obama, sent Lamont a check for $5,000.

Lamont's the future.

Footnote: I've got a bet going with Rich Miller that Lamont doesn't break his primary total in the general. Here's Peter Brown laying out the math behind the bet.

And I think Lamont's the future for Democrats regardless if he wins or loses. That's Obama's bet.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Governor Can't Be Tried in Office

I caught heat from the Blagojevich supporters the last time I ran a playful headline about the patronage problems that Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher having been “criminally charged with rewarding political supporters with protected sate jobs,” as the AP put it Friday.

Now, the good news has come for Kentucky’s governor that he can’t be tried while in office.

Of course, it was not the U.S. Attorney after the governor in Kentucky.

Here's a longer story on the Kentucky situation.

= = = = =
For those not from Illinois, Illinois Democratic Party Governor Rod Blagojevich is in the photo on the right, while Kentucky Republican Party Govvernor Ernie Fletcher is on the laft.

Radio is Airwaves and McDonalds is a Meal

Photo: Pervis Spann the Blues Man Helped Define Chicago Radio
Chicago Tribune media watchdog Phil Rosenthal hits one out of the Park ( Millennium or Grant?) with his Sunday column:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0608130240aug13,1,5601628.column?coll=chi-business-hed

The City of Drooping Shoulders will take anything. What was once a nerve center for national communications has become a toothache. Bobby Skafish was shown the door at WXRT much in the same way as other identifiably 'Chicago' broadcasters become exhibits in Bruce DuMont's Museum on Michigan Ave.

While teaching in Kankakee, IL , the center piece of the day was Lee Schrock's Spin on Valley Sports - Lee has been with WKAN since 1965 and continues to part of that region's culture. Along with the Illinois Farm Report, teacher/coach/broadcaster Lee Schrock was a great sounding board for the region. He was part of the identity. http://www.wkan.com/who/lee.html
http://www.wkan.com/who/lee.html

Chicago has lost its taste for identity in favor of canned calories from Corporate. Beverly Bean at 2734 W. 111th Street serves up better Java than any Starbucks and hires neighborhood kids. It is part of the culture of the neighborhood, as much as non-stop '16 softball at Kennedy, Mount Greenwood, and Beverly Parks.

Phil Rosenthal does a great job giving Chicago Media a full-length look at itself in the mirror. The city that launched Dave Garroway, Frank Reynolds, Wally Phillips, Larry Lujack, Ron Magers, Jane Pauley, Bob Collins, Mike Rapchak, Milt Rosenberg, Pervis Spann, & Fred Winston will settle for a Happy Meal of Whoopi & Limbaugh.

Great work, Phil!

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Blago Campaign Jumps the Shark

From the Herald & Review:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich lashed out at the Springfield press corps Friday, repeatedly calling them "sharks" while comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln.

The Chicago Democrat, making a rare appearance in the capital city to open the Illinois State Fair, defended his administration's handling of alleged corruption in state hiring.

But he would not take personal responsibility for the woes that have tainted his first term in office, instead blaming disgruntled state workers and the media for much of the problems he faces. ***

Rather, he said he's left the job of policing hiring to his inspector general's office and said that he would not take credit or blame for the hiring problems.

"Look, I'm modest. You want me to pat myself on the back? I'm not going to do that," he said.

Later, however, the governor compared himself to Lincoln during the Civil War, saying there have been "ups and downs" as he's attempted to reverse 26 years of Republican dominance in the governor's office.

"Not every military initiative from the Union Army was successful. It took awhile to kind of get that together and get it right. But the whole purpose of what they were trying to do was absolutely right, keeping the country together and then emancipating the slaves and providing freedom to millions and millions of people," Blagojevich said.

If you're in Springfield for the Fair, visit the Abraham Lincoln Museum -- and be sure to check out the exhibit recounting the time Honest Abe hid behind a crying baby.

Cross-posted at the So-Called "Austin Mayor" blog

The Bud Billiken Parade...

Today is the annual Bud Billiken Parade. I've never gone to one I suppose I wasn't that interested and neither were my parents but if I am interested I watched this parade on TV which has been shown on TV on either ABC7 or WGN. I can remember a couple of these parades that were held in about the last 7 years or so.

The first one I really paid attention to was back in 1999. I was listening to the radio buildup to it on Mancow's Morning Madhouse when he first started on Q101. He and his sports guy, Al Roker Jr (probably not related to the real Al Roker), were talking about this parade and Mancow wanted to participate. Well he did but I didn't see it on the original broadcast on either ABC7 or WGN so I had to watch it on his TV program at the time MancowTV. He was a goofball but he had some fun.

The other one I heard about was when Alan Keyes marched in this parade. The crowd seemed to have turned against him. Probably for many reasons but this was one parade where he wasn't welcome. Anyway I think this was the same parade that made the news when some young people were sent to the hospital because they were at a concert and it was either too crowded or too hot.

I was just checking out the parade's website and looking at it's history there were so many people who participated including a President of the United States...

Some of the celebrities who have graced the parade's route over the years include Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Duke Ellington, Oprah Winfrey, Hop-Along Cassidy, Lena Horne, Spike Lee, L.L. Cool J, Bozo the Clown, Jack Brickhouse, Frank Thomas, Michael Jordan and President Harry S. Truman.

Here's another interesting fact...

Frank Godsen and Charles Correll of “Amos and Andy” fame were the first guests of honor in a parade attended by thousands and led by Robert S. Abbott in his Rolls Royce.

This parade is said to be a celebration of black culture and education. In fact it is billed as a back to school parade. If you can watch it on TV now and if you're so inclined pay a visit one day. Even consider participating with a float.
Crossposted @ It's My Mind

John Callaway, Walter Jacobson, and the Gov

Sig Other and myself caught the end of Callaway's show and watched his interview with Jacobson.

Jacobson said Blagojevich is in trouble (whow), said how disappointed he was Blagojevich failed to live up to his reform promises, and then concluded with he's really a guy with a good heart, but not too swift intellectually.

I've never felt the Gov a dunce. It's some of the dumbest commentary I've heard; and Jacobson a Grinnell grad too.

WTTW would be better off getting Illinoize on screen (including Skeeter) and the public would get lots more then they did last night.

None of us would probably cut as nice a look in a suit as Jacobson but that's what virtual, remote technology is for.

Newt Lives on in Carol Marin

The liberal Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin ended her critical column of the Rev. and State Senate James Meeks with words I last heard from Newt Gingrich:

Words matter.

Marin is taking Meeks to talks for talking about “House” “N-word” in the political arena.

Even I know the people he is talking about. It’s the folks that kowtow to white politicians like Mayor Richard Daley. (Hope the word “kowtow” doesn’t offend anyone.)

They are the organization Democrats and there a lot more of them now than in the days of multi-member state representative districts.

In any event, State Rep. Bernie Pedersen was a great fan of Gingrich. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, he would send me Gingrich tapes. I concluded that Gingrich was truly one of the deeper thinkers in the Republican Party. He had a coherent vision that I have seen no other Republican articulate since then.

And, his theme was

Words count.

I am sure that led to the 1994 Contract with America, which led, of course, to the Republicans taking control of the United States House for the first time in my adult memory.

It just seems ironic to hear super-liberal Carol Marin echoing his words.

But, it does not seem strange to read Marin’s defending Chicago’s Establishment.

= = = = =
Tha man who helped develop the concepts that Ginchrich propagated was Joe Gaylord. Gaylord grew up in Marengo, where I met him at a Young Republican funciton when he was home on vacation.

Besides being instrumental in developing the Contract for America, Gaylord wrote and recorded brillant campaign advice entitled, "Flying Upside Down." He is updating it.

McHenry County Circuit Clerk Bill Kays is a Marengo High School classmate of Gaylord.

Where else could you find that but on McHenry County Blog, where today you can learn how my political career began in the gutter.

Finish this quote:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday: “We’ve got a baby crying here, are you guys ...”

Friday, August 11, 2006

Roskam asks Duckworth: How does that work?

A Roskam Press Release dated today over at Illinois Review although it's yet to show up on his site.

WHEATON - One day after a foiled terrorist plot on American airliners departing from Great Britain, Roskam called on his opponent, Democrat Tammy Duckworth, to take a solid position on the Patriot Act and the policies that have protected our nation since September 11th, 2001.
[***]
The Patriot Act is one of many issues Tammy Duckworth has been elusive and vague on. In February, Duckworth said she is “torn but would probably vote for the compromise” (Daily Herald, 2/27/06, Patriot Act stirs…”). Duckworth also voiced opposition to terrorist surveillance programs saying “such actions after September 11 were understandable” but added that “it’s a different climate now” (Daily Herald, 2/27/06, Patriot Act stirs…”).

And some excellant advice from Daniel Henninger in the WSJ about a question every Republican (Democrat too for that matter) I believe obligated to ask,

That was unfortunate timing this week for the Lamont Democrats, declaring themselves officially the antiwar party within 24 hours of the Brits foiling an Islamic terror plot to spread thousands of U.S.-bound bodies across the North Atlantic, or perhaps across New York, Boston and Washington as the planes descended. Yes, we know; they support the war on terror but are merely against George Bush's war in Iraq. How does that work?
[***]
In a better world, the U.S. war on terror, at its core, would be bipartisan. That world was what Joe Lieberman's politics represented. That world is dead. Democratic support for the Republican administration's plans to fight these terrorists is down to about zero. This means the Democrats must have a plan of their own to defeat terror. Every Republican running for office at every level this fall should force his opponent to describe it. And if they aren't certain about the details, they can call Ned Lamont.

So Duckworth, Bean, Hare... how does that work?

cross posted at Bill Baar's West Side

Ed Fanselow in the DH on Cross stumps for Parke, Munson

I don't have a clue, but wonder what Cross is looking at. Here's Fanselow in today's DH,

Hinting that he smells the possibility of a Democratic coup in the suburbs this fall, House GOP Leader Tom Cross stopped in the suburbs Thursday looking to give an early election-season boost to two Republican lawmakers being targeted for upsets.

Fresh off a weeklong campaign swing through several key downstate House districts, Cross joined state Reps. Terry Parke and Ruth Munson for a lunch-hour media event in Schaumburg, where they echoed the familiar GOP refrain of hammering Gov. Rod Blagojevich over budget-making and the state’s fiscal crisis.

Cross had Munson on his comcast talk show a week or two ago, and I thought it was a great program. I wish he would post schedules and transcripts on his webpage (or comcast should) because I'd start linking to them.

Anyways, will the guru's educate me on these races 'cause Ned Lamont is a bore.

Protect Marriage Vote Rejected by State Board of Elections

If the Illinois State Board of Elections is the last word, the Protect Marriage advisory referendum will not be on the November ballot.

That’s what I heard on WBBM radio while I was out and about.

The Protect Marriage folks still have this federal court appeal alive, so the Board of Elections’ decision may not be the last word.

And, if the law allowed people whose petitions did not make the county clerk's cut to "rebabilitate" their signatures, I think what I found in DeKalb County means most whose signatures could not be read would be found to have signed the petition.

And, of course, there is more on McHenry County Blog.

“B-List” Indicted Democrat Hillary Clinton Fund Raiser Doesn’t Even Rate Party Affiliation in Stories

So, a major fund raiser for U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton pleads not guilty to swindling the Chicago Public Schools and not one media outlet in Chicago remembers to mention that one James Levin is a Democrat.

The Chicago Tribune did mention James Levin’s name in a July 21st editorial referring to “The B-List” of “Illinois corruption.” It even described him as a “longtime Democratic fundraiser.”

But the Tribune couldn’t remember to include that he was a Democrat in its article Thursday.

Associated Press says that the story started on the Chicago Tribune’s web site.

If I were inclined toward a conspiratorial theory of politics—well, I do live in Illinois—I’d think reporters didn’t want any Democratic Party corruption to be identified with their party.

Or, maybe the reporter is a supporter of Clinton for President.

But, no, only about 70-80% of reporters are Democrats and I am sure it was one of the forgetful Republican Chicago reporters who forgot to include the salient partisan identification..

They are reporting on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s legal problems, so I don’t know what to think.

The New York Post still has the best story on James Levin, not be confused with Stuart Levine, Jim Ryan’s top contributor who switched horses after the election and starting giving donators to Governor Rod Blagojevich, and is now under multiple federal indictments and cooperating with the feds.

This appears also on McHenry County Blog.

Have Wallet, Will Travel

Cross-posted from ICPR's blog, The Race is On:

We’re almost done with the new disclosure data; check back in bit for the grand unveiling. But in the meantime, here’s some observations on campaign receipts from out of state during the first six months of this year.

Illinois, as is widely recognized, has the loosest campaign finance regulations in the country. Where most states limit individuals and ban corporations and unions, or rely on targeted limits as between a regulated company and the public official who regulates it, Illinois’ law is anything goes. Since the laws apply to the candidates’ PAC and not to the donors, Illinois candidates can take far more money from donors in other states than those states’ officials can take from those donors.

For instance, Gov. Blagojevich raised $1,139,674 in itemized giving from outside of Illinois. Much of this giving would have been illegal if the donors had tried to give it to their own governors. Donors in California gave $117K, including $25K from ACC Capital Holdings. Donors in California can’t give more than $20K to their own gubernatorial candidates. Wisconsin accounted for $92K in giving, including $39K from Bulk Petroleum, $25K from Edison Liquors (a Wirtz company), and $20K from Miller Brewing. All of that giving would be illegal under Wisconsin law, which bars direct contributions from corporations to candidates. Likewise the $50K from Chess Financial in Ohio, the largest donor from that state, where direct corporate giving is barred. Indiana-based Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates gave the governor $25K. Of that, $7,500 came directly from the corporation, which is $2,500 more than Indiana law would allows corporations to give to its own candidates. The rest came from individuals, in amounts allowed under Indiana law for Indiana candidates.

There’s less to write about in Treasurer Topinka’s reports because she raised far less money: only $195K from outside Illinois. Very little of her giving would have been affected by limits elsewhere, were she running elsewhere. She reports $5K each from Ameren and Anheuser Busch, both Missouri companies, where companies are limited to $1,175 in giving to gubernatorial candidates. But the comparison does reveal something else about her donors – many of them actually gave more to her opponent. Ameren gave Blago $15K, while Anheuser Busch gave him $26K. She reports $5K from Teamsters DRIVE, headquartered in DC; Blago got $55K from the same group. She got $4.5K from Barnes and Thornburg, an Indiana company that also gave Blago $5K.

Donors from out of state are bound by the laws of Illinois, not the laws of their own states. It’s perfectly legal for them to give as much here as they want to, since our laws allow that. Why they would want to give here is, of course, another matter.

Big Box Bull

A local progressive candidate for alderman went into a 'main-street' liquor store and asked the manager for a donation to a private benefit that he/she was hosting. The manager agreed to cut the cost of his product and donated ice, CO2 tanks, cups, and an assortment of pop.

Two weeks later that same candidate threw a party for her/his volunteers and went to the Wal-Mart and bought cases of beer, wine, and pop with cash out of /her/his political fund. He/she supports the 'big box' living wage ordinance.

This parable is based on a real-life event.

The progressive candidate is very real and he/she is strident in support of the minimum wage increase for entry level workers at the long-hoped for BIG BOX STORES.

WAl-MART, like the fattening agent in American culture, McDonald's and its lesser lights, has swept the American landscape all but clean of main-street businesses: bankruptcies, loss of jobs, decline in home values resulting from economic catastrophe, urban blight, and clinical depression have all been the results.

Americans save a penny here and there and blow millions of dollars that should stay in their neighborhoods. They have freezers full of hamburger that will get tossed in a few months - I hope -pack the kiddies for a feed at MICKEYDs - I'm LUVVIN IT! -
and ring their hands when a diner closes two blocks from their houses.

Here in Chicago. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who could not even keep Andy Stern's radical numbers in house, lectured and warned Mayor Daley not to veto the Big Box Ordinance. Hell to pay! The standard chant is that Unions are mobilized! Okay.

Question - do individual Locals ask of their membership:
1. Do you have a Voters Registration card? Yes - Good
2. Can You Pass a Drug Test Today? Yes- Good
3. Do you or members of your family shop at Wal-Mart? Yes - wait a minute!
4. If the Rat Squad were to drive through the parking lot of Wal-Mart and find a bumper sticker for this Local on a vehicle, Would you mind if we took down your license plate number, ran a check on it, and asked you to explain its ( Foreign or Domestic?) being in that lot? Yes - Not too good.

There should be a grass-roots effort that mirrors the members of a community not stuffed to the gills on a diet of BS.

Don't Shop at Wal-Mart. Tell your family and friends not to shop there. Shop at the stores in your neighborhood that hire the kids from your neighborhood. You are asking those businesses to hire your kids' YOU have an obligation to shop there as well. Even though it might be a buck or two more. None of those dollars will end up in Sam Walton's hole in his Backyard in Arkansas.

Don't vote for the progressive BS slinger that is asking not only for your vote but also shaking down the merchants in your neighborhood and NOT supporting those businesses. Moblize - but get off the diet of BS.

Strike a pose

Vogue joins Obama-mania:

Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, offers an easy smile from the cover of the fall issue of Men's Vogue. He has been shot by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, who has given him the high-gloss treatment for which the Vogue brand is famous. This is not one of those under-the-microscope portraits favored by newsmagazines in which every pore is visible and every mole made plain. Those images portend a story that will be mostly grit and very little glamour. On the cover of Men's Vogue, the senator looks freshly exfoliated.

The occasion of the cover portrait and the accompanying story is ostensibly to mark the publication of Obama's second book, "The Audacity of Hope." But mostly it is to lavish him with praise and place him before a readership that likes its political profiles leavened with articles about tennis, architecture, a $13,500 bicycle, $18,500 binoculars and dogs as travel companions.

The September/October issue is only the third for Men's Vogue -- which has featured George Clooney and Tiger Woods on past covers -- and it marks the start of bimonthly publication for a magazine with an ad base of 300,000 readers.

Question...what will be the subject of the first negative Obama story?

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Statehouse To Run On Wind (Not Hot Air)

Under a groundbreaking agreement between the Sierra Club and Springfield's municipal utility, City Water, Light, and Power, the state capitol complex will be entirely powered by wind energy. Governor Blagojevich made the commitment to buy wind energy from CWLP for all the Springfield buildings under the control of the executive branch.

Having the state capitol powered by wind energy is not only a big boost to renewable energy in Illinois, but also symbolic of great work being done in Illinois to promote safe, clean energy choices that help reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources.

The deal with CWLP also commits Springfield to acheiving the emissions reduction targets of the Kyoto treaty on global warming, which is believed to be a first for any utility in America. Also in the agreement are state-of-the-art pollution controls for a new coal plant CWLP is building, and new conservation and efficiency programs.

Good work by CWLP for thinking outside the box, and by Governor Blagojevich for using the state's purchasing power to promote clean power. The end result is a good deal for the ratepayers of Springfield, and a clean energy model that others around the nation can follow.

Details here.

Posted by
Jack Darin

RTA Tax Hike - Red Alert

Opening Elgin’s Daily Courier-News to the editorial page yesterday (or today in the Sun-Times), I found a companion opinion piece to go with a front page story on the RTA’s need (desired) for more money.

So, I read the editorial, entitled,

Ideas needed
to improve,
fund transit

In the middle is this paragraph about former Jacksonville state representative Jim Reilly, who is the new RTA Chairman:

RTA Chairman Jim Reilly is blunt about the need for more money. The political reality is that neither the RTA nor the state Legislature will approve a change in the funding formula that cuts anyone a smaller piece of the pie.

[Does that sound like the situation with State Aid to Education, anyone?]

And all three of the region’s transit agencies already are using capital funds to meet operating expenses, a recipe for disaster if continued for even a short length of time.

The solution, therefore, is a bigger pie.

How to make that pie bigger will be a key question for the collaborative effort. Will it come from more state aid? An increase in the regional sales tax? Higher fares?

I mentioned in an earlier article that a push for higher RTA taxes is on the track. I see no one fighting it, yet former State Senator Jack Schaffer has potential as a new Metra Board member.

On the back page is one of those re-runs of how you can help the environment, with one very interesting addition (and I'm not talking about the Dan Ryan):

Carpool
Take a bus
Bypass the Dan Ryan Expressway during construction
Use Pace’s “vanpool” service
Ride your bike, or walk and
Log on to RTA’s new Web side www.movingbeyondcongestion.org

The main political purpose of the web site is to get your email address and commitment to support higher taxes, in my opinion.

Then, at a key time in the legislative process, RTA can solicit you to email your legislators to support a bill that will raise your taxes.

Or, am I being too cynical?

= = = = =
Posted first on McHenry County Blog, of course.

Jamming the polls in November

US News and World Report finds a memo forecasting high Republican turnout in November.

And now we know why Austin is finding all those ads about taxes,

And their favorite domestic issues aren't a surprise: They are pro-tax cuts, big on cultural values, and worried that Democrats want to put too much bureaucracy in healthcare.

Think the ACLU Will Leap In?

This is an interesting piece. Close on the heels of defending a 9/11 Denier on its faculty, the good folks calling the shots at University of Wisconsin-Madison declined to recognize the Knights of Columbus as a valid student orgaization:

"A lack of recognition means a group cannot rent space on campus, recruit students at UW-sponsored events or use the school's name in its title. Such groups also cannot qualify for student fees, although the Knights of Columbus have never been funded.

The university's stance could signal that a legal battle looms between the school and religious groups.

Another group, the UW Roman Catholic Foundation, has been in a long-running dispute over whether it can be eligible for student fees.

The Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom, a Christian legal group, sent a letter this week demanding UW stop applying non-discrimination policies to Christian student groups. The letter cited the example of the Knights of Columbus as well as the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which was not recognized last year by UW-Superior.

UW policies do not comply with a federal appeals court ruling last month forcing Southern Illinois University to reinstate the Christian Legal Society despite its requirement that members pledge to adhere to Christian beliefs, the center's director, David French, argued.

But Nagy said the UW System has reviewed that ruling and does not believe it has to change current policies to comply."

Here's the link to the Chicago Tribune feature - http://www.chicagotribune.com/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608100209aug10,1,3428280.story?coll=chi-news-hed

I have set my stop watch to see how quickly the ACLU comes in to help out.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

(Big) Boxed In

Mayor Daley finds himself in previously uncharted territories as he grapples with what to do with the 'Big Box' ordinance sitting on his desk. Much has been made of the fact that he has not previously vetoed any legislation, but in light of the fact that hardly any ordinances have reached his desk without his prior okay, I don't think that anybody should dwell on that historical tidbit.

No, what is unique about this situation is that the Mayor finds himself confronted with an ordinance that has major substantive and policy ramifications for the City, and that has resonated, both pro and con, from coast to coast. An ordinance that he has made clear that he doesn't like.

Magnifying the situation is that the issue clearly pits the business and labor communities against each other like no other could, and in turn, puts the Mayor squarely between the two camps.

I firmly believe that the Mayor is going to veto the legislation. And regardless of how you feel about the underlying issue, you have to respect the fact that when he does so, he is going to do so out of a sincere belief in his actions and clearly aware of the potential ramifications of his veto.

Congressman Jackson 'warned of political consequences' to the Mayor and to the Alderman who support the veto.

“That would be unfortunate, to not follow the will of the people, to not follow the will of 35 aldermen who made a decision that it's important to pay people a living wage,” Jackson said.

Personally, I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of any Alderman changing their votes on this issue because that is just not going to be a pleasant place to be. But you have to respect the process and if the Mayor is able to withstand any attempt to override a veto (without which support, he obviously wouldn't veto the bill to start with), that is part of how the process works.

At the end of the day though, if this all does play out in the manner I've set out, what will be unique won't be the veto, but the aftermath that follows. Uncharted territory indeed.

To read, or post, comments, visit Dome-icile

Passing the Torch

In the It's Gotta Be Easier Than the Last Job Department:

The Chicago Urban League has its first female president. Cheryle Jackson, a top aide to Governor Rod Blagojevich, was elected to lead the 90-year-old social and civil rights organization Wednesday.

There has been much discussion about a new face of civil rights leaders, a new generation of leaders. With Wednesday's announcement, a new leader emerges. Someone who has worked with the public and private sector, someone who was born during the civil rights era and someone who benefited from the struggles of original civil rights leaders.
It is a change in leadership for one of Chicago's oldest civil rights social service agencies. Wednesday, the Chicago Urban League made history by naming Cheryle Jackson the new president and CEO.
"I want this job because I feel like there's a calling in my life and I'm ready to answer that call," Jackson said.
Jackson is the deputy chief of staff of communications for Governor Rob (yes, they actually called him 'Rob' in the story) Blagojevich. Beyond that, she is credited with shaping strategy and policy in the governor's office to address the needs of the African-American community. She said that is why she wanted to take on this challenge.

Outgoing President James Compton is a friend and from numerous that we have had about the Urban League, it was clear that he was keenly interested in making sure that the reins were turned over to competent hands. While Cheryl has big shoes to fill, Mr. Compton obviously has confidence in her to fill them, and I wish her success in her important new endeavor.

To read, or post, comments, visit Dome-icile

"Then As Farce"

A wise man once said that a political ad can sometimes inadvertently reveals more than was intended. Today's installment from the National Republican Congressional Committee reveals one thing clearly: The GOP is out of ideas.

For years the Republican party has developed and perfected campaigns based on the toxic combination of Fear and Tax-Cuts. But now, as evidenced by this bizarre mailer from the NRCC, the GOP's once-trusted union of Fear and Tax-Cuts now produces freakish, mutant offspring.

Year after year, the Republicans returned to the same political gene-pool: Fear and Tax-Cuts, Fear and Tax-Cuts. And by doing so, the GOP has produced a inbred child of a campaign -- one that is ugly, dull and witless.

Cross-posted at the So-Called "Austin Mayor" blog.

Reader Round-up: Peraica, Inside the Big Box, Natarus Note

The Chicago Reader had a couple of well written and insightful pieces this week.

First, Ben "The Works" Joravsky gives us a much closer look at GOP County Board President candidate Tony Peraica, reminding folks why this Democrat-turned Republican-turned Reformer might have a tough time winning, all of the Stroger-outrage aside:

IN A RAGE over Todd Stroger’s crowning in place of his ailing father as the Democratic candidate for Cook County president, pundits and ordinary citizens alike have been thumping their fists on the table and declaring, “I’m voting for the other guy!” So it’s a good time to take a deep breath and learn a little about the political unknown who, if the protest vote continues to gain momentum, just might win the November general election.

His name is Tony Peraica, and he’s a hardheaded, quick-tempered, far-right-wing Republican maverick who’s not afraid to pick fights with Cook County’s most powerful politicians--including erstwhile allies in his own party.

Joravsky is a talented writer with a shrewd understanding of the innerworkings of politics and government in Cook County. The piece includes a great anecdote about Madigan convincing Peraica to drop out of a State Senate race. Steve Brown denies the story, Peraica claims is true, but whether Peraica is spinning yarns or talking out of school, it assures that Madigan will have Peraica in the crosshairs this fall.

Joravsky's written a must-read series on TIFs and property taxes. I hope somebody gives this guy a blog soon, so we can hear from him more than just once a week.

ALSO this week, Mick Dumke writes a pretty insightful Big Box piece that isn't about Big Box, but about the impact the ordinance is having on City Council dynamics. Read Who's the Boss and you might feel like you actually were ringside for the Big Box debate.

I really enjoyed this little part:

William Beavers’s position was less surprising. The Seventh Ward alderman had earlier bluntly dismissed supporters of the ordinance as fools or tools. Now he attacked its chief sponsor, the 49th Ward’s Joe Moore, accusing him of meddling in other people’s business and stirring up trouble on issues he knew nothing about. “Joe Moore is sitting over there thinking he’s a savior,” he said. “Let me tell you about Joe Moore--he voted against affirmative action.”

There was a collective gasp. Beavers was referring to a 2004 ordinance setting new rules for awarding city construction contracts to minority firms. Moore rose and asked Daley, in his role as council president, for a chance to respond. Daley granted the request.

“I voted against that ordinance because it did not include Asians,” Moore said. “It wasn’t expansive enough.”

Beavers laughed. The Third Ward’s Dorothy Tillman mocked Moore, calling out, “Anything he can come up with! Anything!” Fourth Ward alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Moore’s closest black ally, jumped to her feet. “Mr. President, point of order!” she said. “I ask that we halt the personal attacks.”

Daley pounded the gavel. Beavers sat down, and Tillman momentarily lowered her voice. Neither of them had mentioned that one of their allies in the big-box fight, 50th Ward alderman Berny Stone, voted against the ordinance for the same reason Moore did or that 42nd Ward alderman Burton Natarus, another ally, had voted against it because he thought contracts should be awarded solely on merit.

It's not often you see the words "Burton Natarus" and "merit" used in the same sentence.

9.9 Million Reasons to Support a Big-Box Living Wage

Your Chi-Town Daily News reports that documents released Tuesday by the Living Wage Coalition showed Target Corp. has received $9.9 million of taxpayer money to open stores in Chicago:

Target has received $5.3 million in city funds to subsidize a store in McKinley Park and $4.6 million to subsidize a store on West Peterson Avenue, according to the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group. ***
Supporters of the ordinance claim big-box retailers are some of the nation's wealthiest corporations, can afford the wage hike and will be drawn to Chicago's huge market potential despite it.

The report is, in part, a response to Target Corp.'s claim that the minimum-wage ordinance makes the opening of new stores in Chicago cost-prohibitive.

And that's just two Target stores. There is not yet word on how many millions of tax-payer dollars have been collected by the 40+ other Chicago big boxes that are now crying poor.

What Will Lieberman Loss Mean to Bean?

No one should expect an answer from me about the potential Liberman effect in the 8th congressional district, but it is a question worth asking.

3rd party candidate Bill Scheurer is on the ballot, even if few reporters seem to think he is worth writing about.

Maybe he isn’t, but his party’s name is the “Moderate Party” (even if his platfrom seems pretty left wing to me.)

That "Moderate" label will surely resonate with more than a few voters.

And, he is the anti-war candidate in the race.

Incumbent Melissa Bean has caught donkeychickenitis, causing her sponsor Rahm Emanuel to tell her to stay home from a Channel 7 television debate.

That will make it more difficult, but not impossible, for Scheurer to play his get-out-of-Iraq card.

$50-$100,000 of Chicago radio time would probably do the trick.

When I was in college, we used to call those against the Vietnam War “peaceniks.” I wonder if that is appropriate today.

Regardless of what one calls those who support Scheurer’s position, I think this is the most relevant question:

Can Scheurer raise enough for radio time and resist spending it on something else?

That’s 500 $100 contributors.

Or 1,000 $50 donations.

There are probably some against the war who can afford more.

Perhaps they will be ready to contribute substantially more, if Republican candidate David McSweeney is forced to dip into his fortune to match Bean's huge campaign fund.

If McSweeney self-funds, some of the deep-pocket supporters that Scheurer will surely have could make him really competitive on radio.

My guess is that he can raise the radio money with a newly energized support base that is potentially nationwide.

After all, I managed to raise that much to run for congress way back in 1982.

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The photo is of Bill Scheurer and McBeaney, his donkephant.

As always, more than the one political article a day posted here on McHenry County Blog.

Shame on Joe Lieberman

Crossposted at Yellowdog Blog

When DFA candidate Christine Cegelis lost the Democratic Primary in IL-6 to Tammy Duckworth, I was one of the loudest voices shaming Christine Cegelis to clearly and unequivically endorse Duckworth. To her credit, Cegelis did.

That's why I'm going to add my two cents about what's going on in Connecticut now, because I don't think we can tell progressives that they are welcome in the Democratic Party as long as they are civil enough to lose, and because I think that if Lieberman follows through on his pledge to run in Connecticut, it will divert progressive resources from Illinois. And if Lieberman should happen to win, it could permanently drive out the new progressives who have been entering the party all across the nation. Heck, if I was them, I'd start my own party too.

So, let me say it, loud and clear: Shame on Joe Lieberman.

Joe, you lost the primary, fair and square. You had a chance to make your case, your opponent made his, and the voters decided it was time for a change. You're on the wrong side of history, and it's too late to change the outcome of the election. But it's not too late to shape how you'll be remembered in the history books. Show some respect for the process, show some respect for the party you still claim to be a part of, and take your loss like a man.

AFL-CIO Leader Blasts Blagojevich

The longer the labor dispute for state contractors at the Illinois Department of Corrections drags on, the worse things get for Governor Blagojevich. Now, even AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is calling out Blagojevich:

The governor "should get involved, get busy and bring a resolution to the two-month strike," Sweeney said.
"Gateway Foundation has taken an extremely unreasonable position, refusing initially even to negotiate, then refusing to bargain fairly for eight long months," he said. "The state is responsible for the conduct of the vendors it hires."

The dispute centers around substance abuse treatment providers employed by Gateway Foundation, Inc. at the Sheridan Correctional Center in LaSalle County. Sheridan has earned accolades for it's substance treatment program, but the recently unionized employees there are paid 45% less than employees doing comparable work at other state facilities, according to the Sun-Times.

According to Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch, if a state contractor is screwing its workers, that's not the state's problem:

Blagojevich still views the situation as a dispute between the company and its employees, said Rebecca Rausch, a spokeswoman for the governor's office.
"We're not interfering in this dispute as long as the company performs" its obligations, she said. "If the company doesn't live up to its obligations, that's the point when it's in the taxpayers' best interests to intervene."

Which is kind of interesting, since one of the first major bills Blagojevich signed was to make sure that home health care workers working through state contractors across the state had a union contract. Of course, that union contract was with SEIU, which has given Governor Blagojevich over $1.7 million, making them Rod's top supporter, I believe.

Gateway's workers were organized by AFSCME, which was battling with SEIU for the right to organize the home health care workers. AFSCME has been a frequent critic of Blagojevich, over pensions, state hiring practices, and mismanagement of government. AFSCME gave Blagojevich over $350,000 leading up to the 2002 elections. But since he started giving them the shaft on their issues, he's gotten two token checks for $500.

Meanwhile, Gateway Foundation CEO Michael Darcy has given Governor Blagojevich $6,500. Gateway's lobbyist is administration insider Conlon Public Strategies.

Another "big box" bails from Chicago over living-wage ordinance

Cross-posted on Marathon Pundit.

Last month Chicago's City Council passed a "living wage" ordinance that applies to "big box" retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. But other retailers are also effected.

As I've note in prior posts, Chicago alderman such as Joe "Empty Storefronts" Moore have claimed that the "big boxes" are bluffing about cutting back on expansion plans into Chicago.

Home improvement retailer Lowe's told Chicago Alderman Howard Brookins that their plans to build two South Side Lowe's stores are now on hold, thanks to the ordinance.

Last week, the same "living wage" bill caused Target to postpone the building of two new Chicago stores.

Ald. Moore is in denial about Target and Lowe's canceling their Chicago expansion plans, telling ABC 7 Chicago:

I think it is just another step in the scare tactics and blackmail that a lot of these multi-billion dollar corporations are doing to try to beat this ordinance.

The four stores that won't be opening in Chicago, unless Daley vetoes Moore's bill, are all in low-income areas of the city. These areas are poorly served by retailers.

Many of the people who could be hired--those living in the community--don't have jobs, and since there is little retail presence in Chicago's poorest neighborhoods, Lowe's and Target won't be driving out many established merchants.

Organized labor is the driving force behind the "big box living wage" ordinance. They've threatened Chicago alderman who vote the wrong way on this bill to fund opponents against them in next year's municipal elections.

Caught in the middle of this dispute is "the little guy," whom liberals like Joe Moore and the unions claim to represent.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Legislators at Risk?

Cross posted from ICPR's blog, The Race is On:

Elections serve as a check on power – public representatives have to face the voters from time to time, and the public gets to decide if they want to retain the official or not. Today’s Primary Election in Connecticut has the nation wondering if Sen. Joe Lieberman will secure nomination to another term. But how often to voters actually reject a sitting office holder? ICPR looked at Primary Elections in Illinois and found the answer: Not often.

Indeed, most often, sitting legislators seeking nomination for another term are not opposed in the primary. Our report on Primary Elections, All in the Family, found that even when they are opposed, they win more than three times out of four. Appointed legislators do even better, winning every time since 1998.

Perhaps these results aren’t so surprising. These are primary elections, after all, and the voters are all of the same party as the incumbent. But when we looked at General Elections, as we did last Winter, we found the same results: sitting legislators are rarely challenged, and win most of the time when they are challenged.

This week we release the second part of our study of election competitiveness. Look for the final part, looking at how often sitting legislators are turned away from another term, after the November general.

Bean Chickens Out of, Duckworth Ducks TV Debate

I keep wondering how long it will be before the area’s daily newspapers start covering the three-way nature of the 8th congressional district campaign.

Of course, I know most would rather have a Democratic Party representative in Congress.

They made that wish quite clear in their endorsements of Melissa Bean over Phil Crane two years ago.

Still, the 8th congressional district is one of very few in the country with three candidates on the ballot.

Silence on third party candidate Bill Scheurer has a direct benefit to incumbent Bean, who plans to define the entire race on TV, rather than at public forums like the television debate that Scheurer’s press release talks about below.

Oh, to the newspaper folks.

Did I mention Bean is going to spend millions on TV, compared to a piddly amount advertising in your papers?

Why are you protecting her from legitimate criticism?

It is with that background, that I run the following:

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 8, 2006

Bean balks at debate

Incumbent won’t face Scheurer, McSweeney on ABC-TV forum

There are three candidates on the IL-8th District Congressional ballot this November, but before the election, it will be hard for voters to get to see more than two at a time, if Melissa Bean has her way.

A pre-debate meeting scheduled for today at ABC-7 TV in Chicago was cancelled when Bean, the freshman Democratic Party incumbent, refused to participate.

Republican candidate David McSweeney and Moderate Party (independent) candidate Bill Scheurer were both willing to enter the three-way debate, according to Jayme Nicholas, ABC-7’s public relations manager. McSweeney has consistently called for three-way debates in all his public statements on the question.

Nicholas said she hoped Bean would change her mind.

This is not the first time Bean has refused to participate in a three-way debate.

On July 17, McSweeney and Scheurer faced each other on Jeff Berkowitz’ “Public Affairs” program on public access television. During the interview, McSweeney noted several times that Bean had declined to appear.

Although Scheurer gathered more than 14,000 signatures to get his name on the ballot, Bean has refused to face him in any public forum.

I readily admit that Rod Blagojevich's and Jim Ryan's refusal to debate me in 2002 peaks my interest in this story.
= = = = =
Just learned that Tammy Duckworth refuses to debate Peter Roskam on ABC, plus Fox.
= = = = =
Anyone have an image of a donkeychicken

Monday, August 07, 2006

Big Business strikes back against Senator Collins' law on Sudan divestment

Senator Jacqueline Collins has championed a law (SB 23, here) that requires all public pensions to divest from any investments in Sudan. Technically, it prohibits the Treasurer from depositing any funds or contracting with any financial institution that does business in Sudan. Sudan is one of the saddest places in the world, where a genocidal campaign is waging.

To try to stop the horror, the State of Illinois is trying to avoid profiting from the misery of others. The state law requires all public pension funds to get a certification from private equity firms that they are not investing in Sudan (until the genocide ends). This has caused some administrative problems for investors and private companies, as they can no longer profit in the Sudan and today they fought back.

In federal district court in Chicago, they have sued the State, claiming that the state law is not permitted by the federal Constitution, because it resembles foreign policy and that's implicitly prohibited. (I don't recall that debate in Philadelphia....)

Keep in mind, no American companies are permitted to invest in Sudan, pursuant to a federal law passed in 2002. So only non-American companies are impacted by the Illinois law. And these non-American companies are getting together to use the resources of our country (the federal judiciary) to ensure that our pension funds can finance their operations in Sudan.

The main plaintiff in the case is the National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org), a big money organization out of D.C. that always seems to be advocating for lower wages and higher profits (funny how that works out). They managed to recruit eight Illinois pension funds to join the case.

Senator Collins released a statement arguing that state pension funds have no standing to sue the state, and that divestment is not foreign policy -- it's just disassociation with a genocidal country. Governor Blagojevich defended the law as well. This bill, by the way, was co-sponsored by Peter Roskam and Ed Petka and passed out of the Senate unanimously. It also earned 89 votes in the House and was supported by both Governor Blagojevich and Treasurer Topinka. But where there's money to be made.....

Here's an article from the federal government. (Yes, that's our government propaganda press at work. But, a good article nonetheless).

I hope those conservative judicial activists don't infringe on the authority of Illinois to decide where and with whom to invest our billions in pension funds. I really can't imagine the Founding Fathers, each of whom believed passionately in states' rights, would have taken the view that a state could not direct their own funds away from a particular foreign nation. Part of me hopes this case goes to the Supreme Court, as I'd find the debate interesting, particularly to see what Justice Scalia, Mr. Original Intent, would say.

Anyway, it seems a little sad that a bipartisan initiative that will likely help end an ongoing genocide is the subject of a lawsuit because profits are apparently more important that helping to stop a genocide.

Blagojevich Ends Questionable Internships

The Blagojevich administration took some positive steps today to reform state hiring practices. According to the Sun-Times, the administration has implemented new rules that honor the spirit of government internships, rather than trying to stretch the definition of internships to suit expediency. For the first time, state hiring rules will require that interns be recent college graduates.

Starting Sept. 1, a candidate must have received a college degree within the previous 18 months and hiring must be done in accordance with a court ruling that prohibits political considerations. Salaries will be uniform, the internships must be advertised in Illinois colleges and state agencies, and internships will last a minimum of 12 months, instead of six.

I'm not sure I agree with the reforms, in part because I think that interns should also be open to people who are re-entering the workforce or changing careers. That said, uniform rules became necessary because of widespread allegations that the Governor's office was using the internships to get around state hiring preferences for veterans, often to benefit campaign contributors and their friends.

Internships went to a spouse and cousin of top Blagojevich aides, the 60-year-old relative of a Democratic congressman, a lawmaker's son who already was on the state payroll in a similar capacity, and a longtime state employee and former campaign staffer who was named one agency's $54,000 human resources director.

Before anybody gets their dander up, let me say that two of my great-grandfathers fought in WWI, one grandfather in WWII, and another in Korea -- he's past president of his American Legion Post. I'll never forget visiting th Vietnam War Memorial with my dad to look up the names of the friends he'd lost. Republicans love to attack Democrats on sill things like flag-burning, but it tends to be our family and friends that do most of the fighting and dying to protect that flag.

That said, I'm not sure the veteran's preference in state hiring is such a great idea, and I think it should be revisited. Perhaps veterans are historic victims of hiring discrimination that needs to be addressed through affirmative action, and I just don't know about it. But it seems to me that if we want to thank veterans for their service to their country, we'd be better of ensuring health coverage for all who return than reserving state jobs for a lucky few.

Any thoughts?

How Much Political Nepotism Can You Take?

Are you one of those who are outraged when reporters like the Chicago Sun-Times’ Chris Fusco puts together a story on nepotism in the administration of Governor Rod Blagojevich?

Or, are you one of the “Kiss my mistletoe” kind of folks? You know, in the tradition of the first Mayor Richard Daley when he was confronted with steering insurance contacts to his son?

Fusco’s article today covers how employees of the Joliet, Aurora, DeKalb and Downers Grove of the Illinois Department of Human Services have supervised the time sheets of their children, seen children get full-time clerical contract jobs that bypass unions.

Now, I can understand why Blagojevich would want to replace clerical workers on the state payroll with contract workers.

That way he can still get the work done, but brag that he has cutting the state payroll by 13,000.

Politically, that’s better than larding on 5,000 new payrollers (after firing Republicans, of course), the way Governor Dan Walker did when he got in office.

Looks like this story got its start from a union complaint, but there are other nepotism stories out there.

More stories on McHenry County Blog, including one on former GOP State Rep. Dolly Hallstrom, who recently passed away.

Revealed: RNC Vision of Female 6th District Voters

Sometimes a political ad inadvertently reveals more than was intended.

For example, this mailing from the National Republican Congressional Committee indicates that they either believe that the ladies of the 6th District are crazed, screaming harpies or that they don't mind being portrayed as such.

I would understand if this photo of a shreaking fury was mailed exclusively to the Illinois Family Institute crowd -- they do strike me as a shrill, bun-haired bunch -- but this mailer was addressed to 'The Bride of So-Called "Austin Mayor"'.

Something tells me that this bizare mailing from the NRCC is not going to make up for Creepy Pete's crumbing field organization.

Cross-posted at The So-Called "Austin Mayor" blog.

It pays to be in the Rauschenberger family

Can we finally all agree that Steve Rauschenberger isn't the "reformer" he claimed he was during his failed runs for the US Senate, Governor and Republican National Committeeman?

From Kristen McQueary of the Daily Southtown:

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Steve Rauschenberger, who dropped out of the governor's race to run with millionaire businessman Ron Gidwitz, spent thousands of dollars from a joint campaign account on salaries for family members.

His brother and campaign chairman, John Rauschenberger, earned well over $62,000 from January to June — $20,000 of that through an "election bonus," according to his campaign disclosures. Rauschenberger's 79-year-old mother, who has worked for him for years, earned a $10,000 campaign bonus in addition to several monthly stipends.

The money came, mostly, from Gidwitz who agreed to sweeten Rauschenberger's campaign operation in exchange for a runningmate.

My Nephew

I know this is not the forum for family promotion, but my nephew Andy just got a video camera and made a movie during 4th period. He is Vice-President of the AV club and did a bang up job. How did he remember all those lines? You can view his movie here.

Illinois Shadow

Democratic National Committee Meets in Chicago

From Lynn Sweet's blog.

Washington, DC - Members of the Democratic National Committee will gather in Chicago for the DNC's annual summer meeting August 17-19, to organize and energize Democrats to win up and down the ballot this November. Chairman Howard Dean will address the general session Saturday along with Governor Rod Blagojevich, Mayor Richard Daley, Reverend Jesse Jackson, House Candidate and New Mexico Attorney General Patsy Madrid, and Ohio Secretary of State Candidate Jennifer Brunner, among others. In Chicago, DNC members will participate in community service activities, hold constituency and regional caucus meetings, and vote on proposed resolutions, the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules, and the Call for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

So how do seeing some of these faces on local TV impact local congressional races? Dean has always come off sounding odd to me. Blagojevich, well, go below; we're all speculating on his indictment.

Daley is our local Republicans favorite Democrat. The Soap Blog Chicago folks think he's in cahoots with Wal Mart; and after all Bush did visit to cut birthday cake with him.

Jackson, well, you can get a strong reaction on him from white and black alike. Watching him on TV with Bobbie Steele I was just taken with how literally old and creaky Liberalism had become.

So what happens with these folks out there doing community service activities in cynical Chicago.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Blago Bye-Bye - Part 2

What started with a whisper to a fellow Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board about changing a vote on Mercy Health System’s proposed Crystal Lake hospital, looks like it is going to be quite injurious to Governor Rod Blagojevich’s health.

Stuart Levine was indicted for stopping hospital expansions where the administrators would not agree to hire his buddy Jacob Kiferbaum’s construction firm. (Mercy agreed.)

But, Levin was multi-talented.

He was appointed by Blagojevich, not only to the hospital approval board, but also to the Downstate Teachers Retirement Fund’s Board.

There, he apparently co-opted former Democratic Party National Finance Chairman Joe Cari of Chicago to try to shake down a firm who wanted pension fund investments.

Blagojevich received $4,267 in airfare from Levine after his law school study partner and candidate for governor, Attorney General Jim Ryan, was defeated in 2002. Levine was Jim Ryan’s biggest contributor. (One can only wonder what corruption would have been attempted had Ryan beaten Blagojevich.)

In his plea agreement, felon Cari swore that Levine had told him about how campaign contributions were directed to Public Official A” and two associates in exchange for state government investments.

The Chicago Tribune reveals the flip in a very small and, I believe, last minute story.

The Sun-Times chimed in Sunday, providing additional confirmation that Levine is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

See also “Time for Blago Bye-Bye.”

And, “Blago in the Toaster.”

And, maybe even, “Blago Roasting on an Open Fire.”

And, there are two more McHenry County connections--one certainly significant, one maybe relevant--to this story. To read them, go to McHenry County Blog.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Big Money

Cross-posted from ICPR's blog, The Race is On:

We're still refining the data from the recently-filed campaign disclosure reports so that we can post it to the Sunshine Database -- check back in a week to 10 days for that -- but in the meantime, I looked at how reliant statewide candidates are on large contributors. Donors who give more than $10,000 to a candidate represent a tiny fraction of all donors, but can account for a huge chunk of that candidate's total receipts. In 2002, most of the candidates for statewide office got most of their funds from these large donors (read our report, Attack of the Gigantic Campaign Contributors, for the figures from the last election).

We're not done standardizing the names of the donors, so it's possible, likely even, that I'm missing some cash here, but I took a preliminary look at how much money comes from large donors this time around. Remember, checks of this size are illegal in most states, and in most instances in all federal elections. How did our statewides do?

Gov. Blagojevich reported $6.7 million in receipts in the first half of the year. Of that, at least $4.2 million came from large donors -- 64% of his total take. About a fifth of his haul came from donors who gave more than $100,000. His Republican opponent, Judy Baar Topinka, reported $3.4 million in receipts, of which 42% came from large donors. Green candidate Rich Whitney, if you're wondering, reported $1,757.40 in total receipts, and none if it, obviously, came from large donors.

For AG, Lisa Madigan reported $1.3 million in receipts. Just oover half (54%) came from large donors. Challenger Stu Umholtz reported $108,000 in receipts, none of which came from large donors. Secretary of State Jesse White shows $581,000 n receipts, 36% from large donors, and Dan Rutherford reports $356,000 in receipts, 7% from large donors. The Green candidates did not report committees.

Campaign disclosure reports can be read in several ways: to see who's trying to curry favor with whom, who draws support from where, who knows people who give them money. An over-reliance on a small group of donors can be troubling because it calls into question the candidate's ability to put voters' interests ahead of their contributors'.

Family PAC Cruise

Harry Carey’s food was being served on the lower deck before the boat began its tour of the berths of the Tall Ships and Lake Michigan’s shoreline.

The boat load of Family PAC contributors first cruised up the Chicago River far enough to see the Tall Ships docked along lower Wacker Drive. These were some of the smaller ones.

Next, the Evening Star was out to Lake Michigan through the docks past Navy Pier.

North far from the shoreline out by the lighthouse was the first destination and, then, it was south of Navy Pier for a view of the Sears Tower.

It was well after sunset by then.

The program of awards began, in which State Senator and congressional nominee Peter Roskam was the main honoree.

I won't bore you with the details here, but you can find them at McHenry County Blog, along with more details of the Protect Marriage petition drive.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Are You Ready to Rrrrrrrrumble!?!?!?

Dennis Gannon has promised "WW III" if Daley vetoes the recent Big Box Ordinance. That not only means a full court press to override the veto. It also means painting a big Target on any and all alderman who vote against the override, ESPECIALLY the flip-floppers.

Here's a list of the alderman currently NOT supporting the ordinance, and the amount of cash-on-hand they reported at the end of the latest reporting period (Democratic Ward accounts in parentheses):

Madeline Haithcock (2nd) - $16,559 ($853.53)
Leslie Hairston (5th) - $35,135 ($74,533)
William Beavers (7th) - $409,181 ($17,222)
James Balcer (11th) - $0 ($140,692)
Arenda Troutman (20th) - $33,948 ($6,507)
Howard Brookins Jr. (21st) - $9,518 ($2,053)
Isaac S. Carothers (29th) - -$4,528[negative balance] ($154,169)
Carrie Austin (34th) - $533 ($9,853)
Emma Mitts (37th) - $57,244 ($18,505)
Burton F. Natarus (42nd) - $582,907 ($143,836)
Vi Daley (43rd) - $99,858 ($3,648)
Thomas M. Tunney (44th) - $210,728 ($643)
Helen Shiller (46th) - $94,658 ($715)
Bernard L. Stone (50th) - $16,500 ($70,745)

Of all of them, I would say only Beavers and Haithcock are in good shape. Clearly, most of them are not ready for WW III. I was SHOCKED at just how vulnerable Bernie Stone is, as one of the leading voices along with Burt Natarus for an aldermanic pay raise and opposition to federal oversight in state hiring. Tunney's combination of cash and popularity mean he's probably fine, but there's a bazillion people planning on going after Vi Daley.

Natarus's cash-on-hand is deceptive because he'd like to hold on to most of that when he retires. His big opponent for 2007 is clearly former Vallas campaign spokesman and current AT&T executive Brendan Reilly, who's only been fundraising for seven months and already reports $179,341 on-hand.

Dennis "Ike" Gannon is a great General, and like all the greats, he welcomes peace while he prepares for war.

On the other hand, Jerry "Patton" Morrison over at SEIU would surely love nothing more than to launch the tanks and start steamrolling over a couple alderman, just to send a message. If he can get permission to launch the nukes, Morrison would take out half the City Council.

Up until now, Chicago's business community has enjoyed a pretty friendly City Council that has followed Daley's marching orders. They may have lost this one vote, but it's really only a token loss compared to all of the money on the table in any given year. Take the upcoming vote on the LaSalle Steet TIF, for example.

For the next couple of years, Big Business's mantra to the city council will be "You owe us one," and the aldermanic response to labor is likely to be "I gave you Wal-Mart, what do you want from me?". But if Daley vetoes the Big Box Ordinance, that goes away, and Big Business risks losing total control over the council, and that's alot to gamble just to pull Wal-Mart's chestnuts out of the open fire.

Politically, the fact that the ordinance passed takes the heat of of the alderman, even those that voted for it. But a successful Daley override would crank the heat right back up, and I don't think Daley and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce want to spend the next seven months waging a very expensive war to defend 10 or more vulnerable alderman.

Mayor Daley, Alderman Austin: Which is it?

I've heard two arguments against the big box ordinance. The first is that we need jobs in minority communities. The second is that the law will be ineffective, because Wal-Mart will just ring the city with stores just across the city limits.

Which is it folks? Because if Wal-Mart is just going to build on the other side of the street, can't city residents simply walk across the street to work there?

Looking back again at what Alderman Carrie Austin said:

"I'm depressed. Calumet Park has land right across the street they can develop. Our development will just sit there for another century. I don't need more housing. I need sales tax revenue and jobs. How do I pull my community out of the slump that it's in? How do we get a rebirth? Sales tax revenue. That's how."

Alderman Austin's much stronger argument is about sales tax revenue, but if economists are right and Wal-Mart squeezes out other retailers by undercutting them on prices, that means Wal-Mart actually results in a net loss in sales tax revenue, not a gain. And as Austin should be well aware, sales tax revenues generated in her neighborhood don't stay in her neighborhood, that money goes back into Mayor Daley's piggy bank. And I think we all know how that piggybank is divided up.

Of course, if Austin really is that concerned about increasing tax revenue in the city, she could always say 'No' to Mayor Daley's plans to extend the LaSalle Street TIF district. My bet is that it's alot easier for Austin to say 'No' to tens of thousands of working poor than it is to say no to Mayor Daley.

Cruising with Caprio

Tonight my bride and I shall be cruising along Lake Michigan looking at Tall Ships, the ones with sails.

Whether the scheduling of Family PAC’s annual fund raising cruise was a fortuitous accident or planned all along, Executive Director Paul Caprio certainly has an excellent date—boarding begins at 6:15 on the Evening Star, southwest of Navy Pier, and the boat sails at 7.

The price is right--$160 per couple ($85 per person) for walk-ins.

After seeing Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought my son might want to g