Rockford Amtrak Progressing

The Union Pacific freight train that was roaring through Marengo with horns blasting a little after noon Saturday was not a precursor of Amtrak service to McHenry County.

That was made abundantly clear at a Rockford College presentation Saturday morning.

The once-a-day round trip Amtrak engines and coaches are on the track from Chicago to Rockford and Dubuque though.

They’re picking up speed, but not through McHenry County.

There was a clue late last week when U.S. Senator Dick Durbin’s press release announcing Saturday’s meeting did not even mention McHenry County.

McHenry County officials from Huntley and Marengo attended anyway.

Under the aegis of Durbin and Congressman Don Manzullo, Amtrak officials presented the results of a study stimulated by a meeting last July.

There were three alternative routes, but the old Blackhawk route to Dubuque is the one that is so, so most likely to be selected.

Its major problem is “some congestion issues around Chicago,” where there is a need for “additional capacity.” The cost would be about $23 million for what the Amtrak chart calls the “direct route” with estimated annual ridership of 113,300 passengers.

The “Belvidere” route, which would go through Huntley and Marengo, has “no connection between Metra and Union Pacific in Elgin” and would need “a connector in Rockford.” The cost would be $32 million and the number of passengers 62,200.

Part of the route through the Rockford Airport is so bad that it would require “a complete rebuilding” and the “East is quite poor,” Franke said. The cost would be $55-62 million with 51,200.

The old Blackhawk route is the cheapest and Durbin, Manzullo and Acting Illinois Department of Transportation Director Milt Sees want action now. A cursory glance shows construction cost of $200 per annual passenger, while the Belvidere route is in the neighborhood of $513 and the airport route $1,100-1,200.

On capital cost, then, there is no question that the “direct route” is cheapest.

It wins on annual operating cost, too. The Belvidere route is 1.2 times as expensive, while the airport route is 1.24 times higher.

In absolute dollars of annual subsidy, however, the difference between the three is only $600,000.

The congress folks and IDOT want action so “now” that the public hearing will be on Monday, April 16th!

That’s two weeks from now.

And, disagreement is likely to kill the possibilities.

As Sees put it,

I, too, have been in this racket for a long time. The only way for people to get their projects is to agree.

Anytime you get into a protracted debate, you lose time and time increases money.

The window of opportunity can close on you very rapidly.

You have to help them help you,

Sees said, indicating the two congressmen.

Rockford Mayor Larry Morrisey, whose city wins regardless of which route is selected, said, “We don’t want to be fighting against ourselves. We look forward to rail coming to our communities.”

After Amtrak’s Mike Franke indicated service could be started as soon as two years from now, assuming negotiations with the railroad go well, Drubin said, “I’d sure hate to waste this construction season.”

Durbin called for “a spirit of cooperation,” for "not letting the best become the enemy of the good."

Other problems include the need for train stations.

“It’s going to be up to the locals to build the stations,” Franke said. “Five or six stations make sense.”

“Don’t come to us for earmarks for stations,” Manzullo warned.

There would be “no food service” and “the supply of Amtrak rolling stock is extremely tight.”

If Amtrak is to supply them, they will “have to be taken out of storage and rehabbed.”

Only one ordinary citizen was allowed to speak.

Janet Fisher, describing herself as “The Crazy Train Lady,” said, “I’m just thrilled with all of this. If we get something in place, it will blossom and grow.”

Manzullo wanted to know if the train could be used for commuting from Rockford to Chicago. He was told that the trip would take an hour and 45 minutes, leaving Rockford early enough for commuters and leaving Chicago at 6:15 in the evening for the return trip.

Manzullo made a point of stating,

There is not one passenger train that operates (without a subsidy).

Two of the people allowed to speak were state representatives.

Republican State Representative Dave Winters asked whether this effort could be part of the effort to extend Amtrak service to Minneapolis.

He got a “No” for an answer.

At one point, when Durbin was pointing out that it would take state legislation to change the "footprint" of Metra, Winters indicated that "very informal" talks were taking place that would apparently give the Rockford Airport Authority the power to deal with trains.

It is my impression that the Rockford Airport Authority has significant non-referendum bonding authority. Maybe local influentials intend to use that power to get money to pay for local Amtrak track repairs.

Rockford Democratic Party State Rep. Chuck Jefferson was the final speaker. He was effusive in his praise of Durbin.

Also introduced was Boone County’s Republican State Rep. Ron Wait.

Attending from McHenry County were Huntley Village President Chuck Sass and Village Manager Carl Tomaso, plus Marengo Mayor Don Lockhart and City Administrator Scott Hartman.

None got an opportunity to speak at the forum.

= = = = =
The Union Pacific train was on the track speeding through Marengo right after noon.

Next can be seen the three routes being considered and the table showing the cost figures for each route.

Acting IDOT Secretary Milt Sees is below on the right.

Rockford Mayor Larry Morrisey is down to the left with Senator Dick Durbin's picture to his right.

Underneath is a photography of Congressman Don Manzullo.

Below her is "Crazy Train Lady" Janet Fisher.

The three state legislators attending come next. On top, at the left, is Dave Winters. Below him is Chuck Jefferson. To Jefferson's right is Ron Wait.

Beneath the photo credit line are pictures of Huntley Village President Chuck Sass and his Village Manager Carl Tomaso leaving the meeting.

Next is a "before meeting" shot of Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton and Marengo Mayor Don Lockhart. Brereton got to speak, as did Boone County Board Vice Chairman David Taylor and Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen. Christiansen is seen to the left.

There is, of course, much more on McHenry County Blog this weekend.

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Governor's Tax Relief, Education Spending Still Not Good Enough

Thanks to CapitolFax, we now know that the Governor's Gross Receipts Tax has been sugarcoated with $1 billion in property tax relief. I say sugarcoated because the Governor's proposal provides only a fraction of the tax relief included in House Bill 750. And while Blagojevich still hasn't made the details of how his property tax relief plan would work, my bet is that he will be following President Jones' edict that property tax relief only goes to low-income families.

A property tax relief plan that fails to recognize that skyrocketing property taxes have hurt middle class families and Illinois employers is a failure in my book.

The two plans compared:

Blagojevich Gross Receipts Tax:

$1 billion in property tax relief, targeted to low-income families

• Only 9.2 percent of Illinois families are below the poverty level, and an estimated 50% or more of them rent and would not receive property tax relief;
• No property tax relief for middle class families;
• No property tax relief for employers.

House Bill 750:

$2.7 billion in property tax relief to every homeowner and employer in Illinois

• Every homeowner and employer receives a 20% - 25% rebate on their property tax levy for local schools;
• Property tax relief is spread across the state:
• 15% of property tax relief goes to Chicago;
• 27% of property tax relief goes to suburban Cook County;
• 32% of property tax relief goes to Collar Counties;
• 24% of property tax relief goes to Downstate Illinois;

• Property tax relief offsets net increase in corporate income taxes, so that Illinois employers see a net decrease in direct taxes paid by $100 million.

$900 million in additional direct tax relief for bottom 60 percent of family taxpayers

• Expansion of Family Tax Credit is fully refundable;
• Ensures low-income renters enjoy tax relief;
• Guarantees that bottom 60% of all taxpayers will see no net increase in tax burden.
  

At the end of the day, the Governor's plan calls for $8.6 billion in new taxes, with only $1 billion in tax relief, for a net increase in taxes of $7.6 billion. Funding for K-12 classrooms will increase $1.5 billion the first year, bringing foundation level funding to schools 6% below recommended levels. Higher education will see a meager $50 million increase.

House Bill 750 generates $9.05 billion in new taxes, but provides $3.6 billion in tax relief, for a net tax increase of only $5.45 billion, or 30% less than the Governor's plan. House Bill 750 provides $3.9 billion for K-12 classroom instruction in the first year -- 260% more than the Governor's plan, bringing the foundation level funding for schools up to 100% of recommended levels. In addition, HB 750 provides $300 million more for higher education, 600% more than the Governor's plan.

In the final analysis, only 20% of the net new spending in the Governor's plan goes to education, while 72% of House Bill 750's net new spending goes to education. Granted, this doesn't include new spending on school construction, and I'll post comparisons of both school construction plans as soon as they are available.

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Wow.

It's fairly light blog posting these days. I'm helping the Official MOSU Girlfriend to move from Uptown to Wrigleyville. I think I'm going to have to buy her some Sox swag as part of my 'agenda' to 'indoctrinate' her into the 'South Side' lifestyle. It shouldn't be too hard, as she's really only a fan of winning teams.

Anyway, that doesn't mean I can't do a link and run about possibly the most stupid and uninformed blog post in the history of internets. Go visit Robert Shirtliffe at Illinois Review.

While HB 1826 specifies civil unions as between "2 persons of the same sex OR the opposite sex," there's sure to be a growing dissatisfaction among the "Bs" of the anti-traditional marriage coalition of "GLBTs" (Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transsexuals). The "Bs" will sooner or later demand legal unions for those who can't make up their minds whether they want to be in homosexual or heterosexual relationships.

As bizarre as it sounds, the "AC/DC" movement is being popularized by videos like Janet Jett's above -- who, btw, is in a "relationship" with Carmen Electra these days. . . for me, bisexualism is nothing but promiscuity.

Wow. Just wow. There's just so many things wrong with this, I don't even know where to begin.

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Must-read two-page brief on Governor's tax plan by progressive D.C. experts. They don't like it.

The best tax analysts in the nation work for the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (www.itepnet.org). They have released a must-read two-page brief here:

The headlines:

Gross Receipts Taxes:
A Counterproductive Approach to Addressing Tax Regressivity

Illinois' Tax System: Truly "One of the Most Regressive"

Gross Receipts Taxes: Disadvantages Generally Outweigh Advantages

More Productive Approaches to Achieving Tax Fairness Are Available

----

The brief argues that dropping the corporate income tax, as Governor Blagojevich proposes, is a horrible idea, since it is the most progressive aspect of our tax system. It's the only tax that has the highest income earners paying more. Our sales and excise taxes hammer low-income people, which perpetuates poverty. In fact, here's how state and local taxes add up currently for taxpayers, based on their income.

13% of income paid by poorest 20%
11% of income paid by second 20%
10% of income paid by middle 20%
9% of income paid by 60-80% of income
6% of income paid by richest 1% income earners

Yikes.

See the graph on the policy brief. It's sobering.

We perpetuate poverty by taxing low income people far more than high income people -- as a percentage of income.

That's got to change.

Thank goodness Governor Blagojevich has made tax fairness the center of the debate. If we just used an actual flat tax, as Dick Armey and Phil Gramm and Steve Forbes and all the other Wall Street Journal Republicans have been pushing for, so that at the end of the year, everyone paid the same flat percentage of their income in state and local taxes, we'd have to dramatically cut taxes on lower-income people (income less than $45,000) and triple the state income tax to 9% or so on incomes above $100,000 or so. That would probably get us to the place where everyone pays about 10% of their income for state and local government.

Finally, the policy brief argues that we need to strengthen the corporate income tax by "repealing failed incentives like single-sales factor apportionment or by limiting overly generous net operating loss carry-forwards or carry-backs." And to lessen the burden on low- and moderate-income taxpayers, the brief suggests "instituting a graduated income tax structure or exempting groceries from the sales tax."

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Hell on Wheels

"Monday, hell begins." With those three words, CTA Chairwoman Carole Brown probably uttered the most accurate statement to date about the ongoing Brown Line renovations.

Almost three years of unprecedented service reductions will start as scheduled Monday on the CTA's busiest rail corridor in order to install elevators and expand platforms at the Belmont and Fullerton stations.

The board voted 6-0 to accept the recommendation of transit agency president Frank Kruesi to implement a 25 percent reduction in track capacity on the North Side corridor served by the Red, Brown and Purple/Evanston Express Lines.

Here's a paragraph that I had to read twice because I was sure that I misread it the first time:

But Brown and board member Nicholas Zagotta said they based their yes votes solely on Kruesi's assurances that the CTA has done all it can to prepare and to minimize disruptions for the 185,000 people who use the three rail lines, as well as for thousands of transit users on other rail lines and bus routes who will feel the crunch due to increased ridership.

Brown and Zagotta may have wanted to chat with legislators who represent areas along the Brown Line about their experiences in relying on the assurances that we got in the months leading up to the Brown Line renovation project. (Self-edited in the interest of not wanting to start a major confrontation.) Without getting into it, the vote may have turned out a little differently. Although in reality, it probably wouldn't have.

Before panic sets in, you should know that the CTA has a contingency plan:

CTA officials insisted riders can help operations go more smoothly by staying off northbound trains leaving downtown between roughly 4:45 and 6 p.m., when the number of passengers is expected to exceed capacity. The second busiest period is expected to be from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. for southbound travel, officials said.

So if you're following along here, the contingency plan to help riders get between work and home is...don't take the trains during rush hour. I couldn't make this up if I wanted to.

Riders may have then thought that they were getting some sort of reprieve upon learning that service will be increased on seven CTA bus routes during the morning and evening rush hours... that is until they find out that forty-two bus routes serve the area affected by the Brown Line project.

So if you're going to rely on one of the other thirty-five bus routes to deal with the disruption, you better stock up on deodorant because you're going to be in some close quarters.

Past experience tells me that the CTA has long-known what their plans were going to entail; the same way that they knew that there were going to be station closures while telling everybody else the exact opposite.

Part of the audit recently released by Auditor General William Holland in response to a House Resolution that I passed last session states that the CTA needs to improve communication and coordination with the public and elected officials. Looks like they didn't get the memo.

To read or post comments, visit Open House

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Does a "Good Business Tax Climate" Make the Economy Grow?

We have been told so often over the past several decades that a state has to have a good business tax climate in order for its economy to grow, that we have begun to accept it as the truth.

Economists have generally agreed on the characteristics of a “good” tax -- simple, productive, neutral, fair, transparent – but a “good business tax climate” has come to mean something additional in the political jargon of today – low, or no, taxes on business.

The promise is held before us: the lower your taxes, the healthier your business climate, the more your economy will grow. States are lured into competing against each other to see which can have the “best” business tax climate. Fear is generated that any tax increase will scare business away. Business funded entities construct “Indexes” so each state can see whether it is winning or losing in the competition for economic growth.

There is one small problem, however. The Indexes are never linked to actual economic growth. They measure the level of taxes and then leave us with only the promise of growth.

The Tax Foundation’s “2007 State Business Tax Climate Index” is typical. The report claims that the states with the “best tax systems” will be the “most competitive” in attracting new businesses and “most effective” at generating economic and employment growth. The only way to get a perfect score from the Tax Foundation is to have no tax at all. “Clearly a zero rate is the lowest possible rate and the most neutral base, since it creates the most favorable tax climate for economic growth.”

Is the Tax Foundation’s promise real? Do the states with the “best” business tax climates actually lead in the race for the Golden Fleece of business growth and prosperity?

Economists have argued the point using sophisticated models and arcane statistical manipulations. But let us do something more simple: compare the Tax Foundation state business tax climate ratings with the latest average annual (1997-2004) growth rates in state gross product reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Here is what one finds.

New Hampshire, one of the 10 best tax climate states, and its next door neighbor, Vermont, one of the 10 worst tax climate states, have identical average annual growth rates.

California, one of the 10 worst tax states, has a higher annual average growth rate than its neighbor Oregon, which is one of the 10 best states.


New York, one of the 10 worst tax states, has a higher annual average growth rate than Delaware, one of the 10 best states, which in turn has a higher annual average growth rate than New Jersey, that is, along with New York, one of the 10 worst states.

Wyoming and Montana, both among the 10 best tax states, rank last and next to last in growth rate among the Rocky Mountain states.

The two states with the highest average annual growth rates, Arizona and Idaho, both rank in the bottom half of all states when it comes to their “business tax climates”.

Texas, which ranks in the top 10 tax climate states, has a 40% slower average annual growth rate than its neighbor, Arizona, which ranks 28th in tax climate.

And lastly, Illinois, which ranks 25th in “business tax climate” according to the Tax Foundation, has a slower average annual growth rate than Wisconsin, which ranks 38th in tax climate, which in turn is growing slower than Minnesota which is 41st in tax climate and one of the 10 “worst” when it comes to business tax climate.

One can only conclude that business has not being paying a lot of practical attention to the Tax Foundation’s Business Tax Climate Index. There is something besides tax levels that attracts business and fosters growth and development. Competing in a race to the bottom in taxes is not necessarily a winning strategy.

Robert Tannenwald, vice-president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, may have a point when he suggests that states might make their economies better by enhancing public services valued by business.

Perhaps the overall business climate improves when states compete not to have the lowest taxes, but the best schools, the best community colleges, the best universities, the most rational health care, the lowest crime rate, the cleanest environment, the best transportation network.

Low taxes are not the only ingredient to a healthy, vibrant economy.

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Purple Hearts and Partisanship

I have a question to those of you here who spent a lot of time and energy in 2006 blogging in support of 6th District Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth (and against Republican nominee Peter Roskam).

If the 2008 presidential contest comes down to Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain (the two candidates who have garnered the most endoresements within the ranks of their respective Illinois parties), how would you deal with the difference in the Senators’ veteran status?

Personally, I think the fact that Barack Obama, like Roskam, was too young to serve in Vietnam and too "old" (in the sense that he had well passed the point in life when people traditionally make a deicision to either join the military or do something else) by the time the Gulf War came around means that while McCain's service record is certainly salient evidence of his strong character, it would be unfair to explicitly use his record as a negative contrast against Obama's.

Your thoughts?

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Bollywood Friday-"Blago as (Indian) Elvis"

This guy looks suspiciously like our Governor, don't you think? At any rate, he's got the moves!


xoxo,
Bridget

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Last US horse slaughterhouse shut down in DeKalb, unwanted horse problem will worsen

Here's a story that serves as a reminder that good intentions can have some awful consequences.

From AP last week:

Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, famous for its sleek thoroughbreds, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants. Some of them are perfectly healthy, but many of them starving, broken-down nags. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed, too.

The reason: growing opposition in the U.S. to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas.

And that was the situation before the nation's last horse slaughterhouse, a facility in DeKalb, Illinois, shut down yesterday. About 1,000 horses per week were processed to produce meat for human consumption--all of it was shipped overseas. Although Congress has been considering a ban on horse-slaughtering, a court ruling on agricultural inspections closed up the Illinois plant.

There is a belief that former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert kept the plant open and kept the anti-slaughter bill bottled up in the House.

More from AP:

It is legal in all states for owners to shoot their unwanted horses, and some Web sites offer instructions on doing it with little pain. But some horse owners do not have the stomach for that.

At the same time, it can cost as much as $150 for a veterinarian to put a horse down. And disposing of the carcass can be costly, too. Some counties in Kentucky, relying on a mix of private and public funding, will pick up and dispose of a dead horse for a nominal fee.

But some jurisdictions, because of fears of pollution, ban it. Glue factory? Dead horses aren't used for glue anymore. Shelters? They're overwhelmed with unwanted horses.

Old strip mine areas of Kentucky are seeing growing heards of now-wild horses.

However, in other parts of the country, say where I live, it's not practical to release a horse to live off the land.

What's going to happen to all of these unwanted horses? Some pollyannas think the market will sort itself out. Possibly. However, the way I see it, criminals, whether they are a part of organized crime, or perhaps a group of goofy meth-heads, will offer up there services to "take care" of the problem of unwanted equines. Those horses will be buried (maybe), burned, or dumped in ponds.

Nature abhors a vacuum. So does a free market.

As for the workers at the horse-meat processing plant in Illinois, unless an appeals court steps in quickly to reverse the lower court's decision, they'll lose their jobs.

But the people behind the horse slaughter ban mean well, and to them, that's all that matters.

To comment on this post, or to vote in the Pajamas Media presidential straw poll, click here.

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Where is the Evidence?

There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth since Governor Blagojevich proposed a gross receipts tax to pay for education and health care. To hear the business community tell it, the tax will turn Illinois into an economic wasteland as business flees the state.

Is there any evidence to support these predictions? Is this just Chicken Little scurrying around trying to persuade all who will listen that the sky is falling? Or is it, as Kristen McQueary suggests in her Daily Southtown column, the noise of those who see their lucrative tax breaks and loopholes disappearing?
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/mcqueary/318183,291MCQ1.article

There is no evidence that supports the predictions of economic doom.

Three states, Washington, Hawaii and Delaware, have had gross receipts taxes for some years. Over the past 20 years, the economies of two of those states, Washington and Delaware, have out performed the national economy.

The Tax Foundation, that friend of business, ranks the business tax climate of all three states in the top half of all the states, with Delaware 9th, Washington 11th, and Hawaii 24th.

Ohio, Texas and Kentucky all adopted gross receipts taxes in the last two years. Nevada fell one legislative vote short in 2003. This year Governor Blagojevich and Governor Granholm in Michigan have both proposed gross receipts taxes for their states.

What’s going on here? Why does a gross receipts tax make sense to so many different people in so many different states? Is it just that all the politicians have completely lost their senses as the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and other groups would have us believe? Or is there some basic economic reason why a gross receipts tax at the state level is something reasonable to consider in today’s economy?

The answer to the last question is, “Yes”.

Over the last 40 years the economy has changed fundamentally. Our taxes have not; they are still tied to the old economy. The corporate income tax, full of loopholes, can no longer be enforced by states. Businesses representing the old economy are increasingly paying more than their share.

As the Texas Comptroller said 20 years ago, “There are whole industries today – enormously important and profitable industries – that weren’t even dreamed of twenty-five years ago. The new economy has been described by many names: service, information, space age, diversified. But our tax structure remains tied to the past, to hard products and assets attached to the ground.”

Robert Tannenwald, Assistant Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, notes that since 1980 the ratio of state corporate income tax collections to corporate income has declined almost 50 percent and state tax departments are “increasingly outgunned” in collecting the corporate income tax. Globalization, as well as tax breaks, plays a part. Richard Pomp, a corporate tax law professor at the University of Connecticut, predicts the tax at the state level has little future.

The issues of avoidance and fairness have been the motives in every state for adopting the gross receipts tax.

The Texas Tax Reform Commission, appointed by a Republican governor and made up mostly of business executives, perhaps said it best in recommending a gross receipts tax for that state, “The tax system must provide a level playing field that is essential for healthy, free market competition. … Those who benefit from Texas’ resources and services must pay their share. … The tax system must reflect the realities of a rapidly evolving economy. Texas must be the most competitive state in the nation when it comes to building or moving a business here, risking capital, and winning in a global economy. … Designing a broad and stable tax base that encourages job creation and investment was the Commission’s goal.”

Adoption of the gross receipts tax has not been accompanied by economic disaster.

A study by Ernst and Young done for the Ohio Business Roundtable projected that the 2005 tax changes will create 78,500 new jobs and inject an additional $6.3 billion in new capital investment into Ohio’s economy.

The Ohio Business Roundtable commenting on the gross receipts tax a year after its adoption, said, “Unlike the old business taxes, this new tax does not penalize job creation and investment, and also encourages participation in the global marketplace.”

The Texas Association of Manufacturers endorsed the gross receipts tax, saying it “goes far in maintaining the kind of business climate that made Texas a national stand-out.” The Texas Economic Development Council called it a “fair business tax that closes loopholes and provides improvements to the funding for education.”

There is no evidence the sky will fall.

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4,000 bills and counting....Uh oh...

"That government is best which governs least." - Thomas Paine

Most people give the famous Paine quip a thumbs up. Seems straightforward, right?

It fits with the Big 3 our democracy…life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. The government only gets involved when it has to. No more, no less.

It took a total of 15 minutes in Springfield to learn that that ideal is dead. Six feet down, heaped with dirt, and long forgotten. I'm mourning.

Case in point, take a look at SB1463 amending the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Westchester) makes it mandatory for teachers to have a moment of silence at the beginning of each day in every public school. The moment of silence is already allowed if the teacher choses; this bill just requires it.

Eric Zorn's Tribune column on Wednesday lambasted the legislation. I am not so concerned with the merits of the actual moment of silence. What gets me is the idea that the General Assembly should be the one making the blanket decision for thousands of teachers. Zorn hits it on the head:

It might help. But of course maybe, depending on the kids, they'd get a better start to the day if they spent that moment singing a happy song, stretching, listening to a good poem, or hey, here's an idea, getting right to work learning the material. Constitutional issues aside, that's a decision for their classroom teachers, not a crew of idle moralists in Springfield with their one-size-fits-all fantasies and their ill-concealed pro-prayer agenda.

Sen. Rutherford was the only dissenting vote. He logic was Paine-esque:

"State law already allows schools or teachers to start the day with a moment of silence if they want to," Rutherford said Monday. "That's important. If they feel the need to do it or believe it's a good idea, the law says they may."

Amending the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act to change "may" to "shall," the legislative brainchild of Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood), "isn't necessary," Rutherford said. "That's not what government should be doing."

Bingo. Illinois is a big state. Each school district is a little different. Each classroom type is a little different. Each specific crop of students is a little different. More "mandates" don't fit well with the diversity. The decision should come from those closest and most invested in the decision, not the folks sitting in the capitol.

Sen. Lightford defends her position:

"It will allow for more uniformity," she said. "Here in the General Assembly we open every day with a prayer and Pledge of Allegiance. I don't get a choice about that. I don't see why students should have a choice."

Consider me unconvinced. Uniformity is not automatically a good thing. Saying the legislation creates uniformity says nothing about the actual merits of the bill. That is not an argument; it's a description.

And she doesn't see why students should have a choice? Again, that is not an argument for the blanket mandate; it is simply a description of it. Besides, it isn't the students who are having their choice taken away; it is the teachers who manage the classrooms each day.

I just don't get it. And this is only one of many others that seem amazingly unnecessary, intrusive, and wasteful. What's the total bill count now? 4,000+.... Yowza. Talk about "governing least."

How did we get to this point?

Is it because only a few key players make the 'big' decisions, so other legislators have to come up with this nonsense to stay busy? Is it because these "feel good" things are easy to feed to the public and hard to argue against? Is it because legislators are eager to please anyone who comes with an idea for a bill?

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National primary election in February -- national popular vote in November

Yesterday the Illinois House overwhelmingly voted to create a national primary election for presidential candidates by moving the Illinois primary to February 5th.

In committee last month, Republican and Democratic members both expressed support for making Illinois voters relevant to presidential elections and unhappiness with a meaningless election in Illinois where the winner of the race was selected by voters in other states.

On the very same day the House moved the Illinois primary election, the Maryland Senate voted to join with other states and elect the president by a national popular vote in November. Legislators expressed support for making Maryland voters relevant in presidential elections and unhappiness with a meaningless election in Maryland where the winner of the race was selected by voters in other states.

There are two presidential elections: the February primary and the November general election. Illinois voters -- and in fact, all American voters -- should be central to both of them. We Illinois voters have been irrelevant to both the February primary and the November general election for quite some time. Yesterday brought a significant legislative step to end our irrelevancy for both elections.

There is identical legislation in Illinois to join with other states to create a national popular vote. The bills are HB 858 (sponsored by Robert Molaro with 46 total co-sponsors) and SB 78 (sponsored by Jacqueline Collins with 14 total co-sponsors).

Here is a Washington Post article on the Maryland legislation. Here is the website of National Popular Vote, the organization promoting the campaign (I lobby for them).

[cross-posted at djwinfo]

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IDOT Stiffs McHenry County Blog, But Thursday Durbin Promises Study on Amtrak Round-Tripper Chicago-Rockford-Dubuque Study Will Be Posted Online

March 22nd, McHenry County Blog was denied a copy of Amtrak’s study of the pros, cons and costs of various routes for daily round-trip service between Chicago and Dubuque via Rockford.

Here’s the reason given by the Illinois Department of Transportation, taken from the Freedom of Information Act [5ILCS 140/7 (1) (f).]:

(f) Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated, except that a specific record or relevant portion of a record shall not be exempt when the record is publicly cited and identified by the head of the public body. The exemption provided in this paragraph (f) extends to all those records of officers and agencies of the General Assembly that pertain to the preparation of legislative documents.

Didn’t Democratic Party candidate Rod Blagojevich express support for railroad commuter service for Rockford at that first 2002 debate?

The report, by the way, is promised by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin to be at this IDOT Amtrak web page on Thursday.

He and Congressman Don Manzullo will hold a public hearing at 10 AM this Saturday at Fisher Memorial Chapel at Rockford College, 5050 E. State Street in Rockford.

Here’s the top part of Durbin’s press release:

ROCKFORD – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo will host an informational meeting to discuss the findings of the recently-completed “Feasibility Report on Proposed Amtrak Service” from Chicago to Dubuque via Rockford and Galena.

Amtrak officials will present the report’s findings and discuss several service options. Durbin and Manzullo will be joined by Amtrak Senior Director of Corridor Planning Mike Franke and Senior Director of Government Affairs Ray Lang, Illinois Department of Transportation Acting Secretary Milt Sees, officials from Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Boone, DeKalb, Ogle and Winnebago counties as well as Dubuque, Iowa and passenger rail supporters. Following the presentation, there will be a Q & A session with members of the audience.

Durbin, who has long been committed to bringing passenger rail service to the northwest Illinois region, hosted a public forum in July where local officials were able to make the case for restoration of service directly to Amtrak’s top leadership.

Anyone notice that McHenry County is not mentioned?

I hope that does not discourage Huntley, Union, Marengo and McHenry County officials from attending.

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Story Refuses to Die

In a story first reported 10 days ago, the Knox County State's Attorney debacle continues to grow by the hour. Today's developments include the fired assistants filing a motion to retrieve their personal belongings from the office and rumors of two additional complaints of unlawful labor practices being served. Edit: the charges are actually for retaliation as reported in the Peoria Journal Star today.

I have been keeping up to date on the local political blog and have set up a live chat page for further discussion.

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How Over the Top is the ICJL?

Backed by the insurance industry and out-of-state big business interests, the Illinois Civil Justice League continues it's hard campaign to try to justify its continued existence. As I listen to their "the sky is falling" rhetoric, I'm reminded of a recent interview with Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who said interest groups do a disservice to themselves by adopting extreme positions and over-the-top rhetoric, mainly in an attempt to try to justify their existence and keep the cash flowing in from their extreme backers. Luntz was talking about groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), but he could have just as easily been talking about the Illinois Civil Justice League (ICJL).

Enter Senate Bill 1296. According to the ICJL, SB 1296:

would establish that if multiple parties are responsible for causing an injury or loss, it makes no difference which of the multiple parties is most responsible. It will be the party with the "deepest pockets" or most money who pays. It doesn't matter who is mostly at fault, it matters who has the most money.

The insurance companies backing the ICJL are the same guys who claimed that requiring insurance companies to cover preventative services like mammograms would drive up the cost of health care, so I don't take anything they say at face value. So, I read the bill. Here's what SB 1296 actually says. All that it says:

The apportionment of fault under this Section only applies to the parties still remaining in the case at the time of the final determination by the trier of fact. It does not apply to the defendants or third party defendants that have been dismissed for any reason, including settlement.

In other words, a jury can't find someone guilty -- apportion blame and demand payment for damages from them -- if they are no longer on trial because they've been dismissed from the case or have already settled.

Now, I'm no lawyer, but I took several classes on democracy in college and consider myself fairly well versed on the democratic ideals of justice. And, for the life of me, I can't understand how the ICJL can argue that a jury should be able to find someone guilty and sentence them if that person is not on trial because they've been dismissed from the case. Somewhere tucked away inside all of our Constitutional Rights regarding due process, I think we're entitled to know that we're on trial and be represented by counsel before a jury finds us guilty.

I also can't understand how the ICJL can argue that a jury can find someone guilty for something and demand restitution, when that individual has essentially already pleaded guilty and accepted punishment. Don't we call that "double jeopardy"?

Speaking of PETA

The ICJL finds itself making some very strange bedfellows in it's opposition to House Bill 1798 as well, which amends the Wrongful Death Act to hold murderers, drunk drivers, and others who unlawfully take a life accountable for the grief and sorrow they've caused under Illinois' civil laws. The ICJL believes that if you take a life, you should only be liable for the victim's lost wages and medical expenses (if they lived that long), so that killing a minor, a senior citizen, or a poor person will cost you nothing.

Here, I do have some expertise. My best friend was murdered when we were only 17 years old. The State's Attorney struck a plea deal with the two guys who broke into his house and stabbed him to death for Second Degree Murder, 14 years. The Ringleader was out in seven, and later had his record expunged by Gov. Ryan. Because of Illinois' arcane Wrongful Death Act, his family received no restitution for the lifetime of pain they got, including returning home day after day to the scene of their own son's murder. I got to be a pallbearer my senior year of high school.

I mentioned PETA earlier, and ironically under Illinois law, you are entitled to restitution for grief and suffering if someone kills your pet. I humbly submit that people deserve at least the same consideration as animals.

(before the PETA folks freak out on me, the bassethound with the knife in his head is a Halloween costume, and I love dogs. In fact, I put PETA a step above the ICJL.)

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Watch the other rings, too

While the circus is believed to have had its origin in ancient Rome, the three-ring circus is an American creation, dating back to the 1800s. The traveling Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus made the term "three ring circus" well known and millions of Americans of all ages enjoyed the spectacle.

Usually, the center ring was the primary act and lesser performances would take place in the two outer rings. Most of the attention - sometimes all - would be on the star performers in the center ring.

That seems to be happening in Illinois today, in Springfield.

While the center ring has featured the governor and his proposed gross receipts tax, opposed by virtually everyone with any sense of fiscal responsibility (including his lieutenant governor, comptroller and treasurer) other acts are attracting less attention.

In the second ring we see the debate over electricity rates, interspersed with an occasional news item about indictments in Chicago or the qualifications of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

It must all be good theater because that’s all that seems to be attracting any attention.

But way over there, in the third ring, is a show that nobody seems to be paying attention to. It’s the performance being produced by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and their willing props, members of the Illinois General Assembly.

Almost completely ignored has been the assault by personal injury lawyers in Illinois on the business community, on the medical community, on local governments and, ultimately, on the taxpaying citizens of Illinois.

Three troubling trial lawyer proposals are currently moving toward passage, with the agreement (and complicity) of more than half the members of the Illinois General Assembly:

The first proposal - SB 1296, which passed the Senate last week - would invalidate the time-tested and logical procedure that says the person or entity most responsible for causing injury or damage should be most responsible for providing compensation or relief. Instead, the trial lawyer proposal would change it to put the burden on the person or entity with the most money, regardless of percentage of fault. Even if you were 1% at fault, you could be liable for 100% of the compensation awarded. If you happen to be a municipality ... or a corporation ... or a hospital ... or an individual with any resources ... and you're named in a suit, whether frivolous or not, chances are you're going to be stuck with the tab.

The second proposal would allow trial lawyers to collect even more for medical costs than has actually been paid and would prohibits admission of evidence that payments by insurers have been made in compliance with agreements or contracts between hospitals, doctors and insurers. This bill, SB 747, was blocked in the Senate Judiciary Committee but the language of the bill has now been amended to SB 1027, which had already been advanced from the Senate Executive Committee to the floor of the Senate. The bill awaits final passage in the Senate, which is likely this week. This is an indication of the greed and tactics of the personal injury trial lawyers and their allies.

A third proposal would provide yet another source of revenue for personal injury trial lawyers. HB 1798, sponsored by Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, would allow compensation to be paid to beneficiaries of decedents in wrongful death cases for "grief and sorrow." Not just for actual loss, which can be calculated, but for "grief and sorrow," which cannot be calculated.

Of course, regardless of whether it can be calculated or cannot be calculated, the personal injury trial lawyers will get their cut of the "grief and sorrow."

While this assault on fairness has been largely ignored in the public square, so also has been the effort by civil justice reform advocates to restore -- or create -- some balance in the system. Unfortunately, the trial lawyer allies in the legislature have been successful in shooting down many of these reform proposals.

For instance, a bill (SB 1549 and HB 1896) to set standards for testimony by "experts" in court rooms in the aftermath of wide-spread exposure of "junk science" was shot down in both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.

Another bill (HB 1892) to establish some sensible guidelines for litigation venue (i.e. where a suit can or should be filed) was given a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee but no action was taken and none is likely.

Ironically, even the judges in Madison County, which has long been considered the poster boy for improper venue, have agreed that some changes need to be made.

Illinois legislators, however, do not agree.

Other bills would have tightened standards on evidence in asbestos lawsuits (HB 1897), clarified rules for class action lawsuits (HB 1893) and restore product liability laws that had been in effect in 1995-1997 (HB 1898).

But alas, the trial lawyer-controlled General Assembly will have nothing to do with any of the overdue reforms and the news media, alas again, is reveling in the action in the center ring.

To view or post comments, please visit Illinois Justice Blog.

Technorati Tags: trial lawyer, tort reform, Illinois Civil Justice League

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Black business and the gross receipts tax

Last week we saw the Governor rally support amongst black religious leadership. It seems obvious that at said press conference the ministers are for this tax-fairness plan and the Governor's programs for affordable health care and education. We see one segment of this population what about those blacks who owns businesses.

Well for the most part I saw opposition. Unfortunately no group is totally monolithic since I see that the governor has the support of another group of black business owners...

“The Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce and its membership embraces the ideas of the Governor's plan to invest in Illinois families by providing access to affordable healthcare for small businesses and all Illinois residents, increasing funding for our schools, and creating a tax system that is fair for businesses and families alike. The State Black Chamber of Commerce agrees with the Governor that ‘the need is clear and the time is now,’ and that is why we are committed to working with the Governor's office to get the General Assembly's support so that we may create a fair and equitable system that levels the playing field, reduces the burden on middle class families, helps small and mid-size businesses become more competitive and lessens the tax burden on all Illinois residents,” Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Larry Ivory said.

OK but what are those opposed to the tax fairness plan are saying anyway? From Crain's...

While ABLE formally decided to further review the matter and to examine a possible “alternative solution” to the state’s financial needs, President Hermene Hartman says the organization in fact opposes the proposal.

“We appreciate the governor’s desire to close corporate loopholes” in the existing tax structure, said Ms. Hartman, CEO and publisher of the Hartman Publishing Group, which produces N’Digo and Savoy magazines. “But making all business pay for the loopholes when we didn’t benefit from them is a mistake.”

Ms. Hartman is even more direct in a column posted on N’Digo’s Web site, which says passage of Gov. Blagojevich’s proposal as written will mean “the end of the entrepreneur” in Illinois.

Hmmm, what about this column by Hermene Hartman? Well here's a little taste of what she said in the aformentioned column...

The thought is that there are corporate tax loopholes favoring big business, so much to the point that some of the largest companies in that state are tax-exempt. The gross receipts bill is an attempt to correct that, and indeed it should. The tax excludes small business with revenues of $1 million or less. This sector represents the cottage industry, personality businesses, and ma and pa shops. These types of businesses usually do not employ more than three people. Everybody else pays.

The state has redefined “small business.” What happens to federal regulations that define small business? For the most part, small business is under $50 million or has “size standards.” Most businesses under a million in revenues do not hire, and are very small operations. The governor’s bill hurts small business enterprises that hire most employees and represent the fastest growing business sector.

For every million dollar for a professional service business, the proposal asks for 1.8 percent of gross receipts. That represents $18,000 per million. This is unfair. Essentially some companies will pay taxes on monies that might be passed through.
...
The entrepreneur is a special case, and I should hope along the way there is a separation between the entrepreneur business and the corporate business. There is a drastic dynamic distinction to be made. The entrepreneur is a small business working on his own steam, and is usually a niche type business with limited resources, bootstrap strategies, and in the case of the minority, limited access to working capital.

The comparisons are limiting. Why should the local neighborhood grocery store pay the same taxes as Jewel and Dominick’s? The small grocery will probably never grow to the heights of the Jewel. Why should the small boutique business be charged the same tax as the Michigan Avenue super store?

The point is, they shouldn’t. It is an unfair business comparison and an unfair business tax.

If this tax is passed in its present state, it is the end of the entrepreneur. The concept of small business needs to be reconsidered. A consideration should be given to grading business — small business, entrepreneur, corporate, and mega businesses. The margins of these businesses are drastically different. It is one thing for the Wal-Marts of the world to have a 5 percent margin, and another for the small grocer to have a 5 percent margin.

Entrepreneurs, as they exist in the State of Illinois, are on the way to extinction if this tax is enforced as it is currently stated. By the time you pay income tax, state tax, federal tax and payroll taxes, it just isn’t worth it. The entrepreneur’s operation is stifled, and literally the various governments become hidden business partners that most do not want.

Entrepreneurs are literally going to be penalized for being in business. It is unfair for the government to place the schools and health industry on one sector of society — the business community.

So she is going to bat for the entrepreneur here. And these are good points, but take a look at her recommendation and that includes raising the income tax. An income tax that she says hasn't been raised in 40 years...

Bite the bullet. Increase income taxes 1 percent for all citizens. This is the fairest tax of them all.

People who have children in school should be taxed differently than those who
have no children.

Tax businesses based on size.

Graduate the taxes by considering size of standards. Tax big businesses differently than entrepreneurs, different than small businesses, different than professional services.

Eliminate taxes. If you are paying gross receipts taxes, eliminate other taxes.

Equalize state business. Minority businesses receive a fraction of state business and should be taxed accordingly.

Minority businesses should be taxed based on opportunity in the market place, and with a formula access to capital.

Small businesses should be exempt from taxes for the first five years of existence.

Have business people assess government waste to improve efficiency, and perhaps there would be a need to increase taxes.

Have the gross tax receipt deductible from federal taxes.

I think these points right here are some good points for discussion. I hear a lot of bellyaching perhaps we can look at some alternatives.

Addendum: More information from that Crain's article...

But business groups generally have charged that the governor’s proposal instead will hurt them by raising costs too high, and many comments at the March 15 ABLE meeting were in that vein.

For instance, according to a copy of meeting minutes, Leon Finney of the Woodlawn Organization said his and many other black-owned companies would be directly affected by the new levy and that the state perhaps should look for another way to raise money.

“The tax provokes a certain amount of concern,” Mr. Finney confirmed in a subsequent interview. “It’s small companies that provide most of the jobs that drive our economy. . . .We agree with the goals that the governor set (for schools and health insurance). The question is, how do you get there.”

Becky Carroll, Gov. Blagojevich’s deputy chief of staff and spokeswoman on budget matters, conceded that ABLE gave the governor’s plan a “mixed reaction,” but said that it indicates “a willingness to learn more about the plan before making any rash decisions.”

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“Public-Be-Dammed” Attitude on Sports Stadiums?

Chicago Tribune columnist Dennis Bryne’s piece on Monday was about secrecy and the hidden, unadmitted costs of the 2016 Olympics’ package put together by Mayor Richard Daley.

Are there are parallels in McHenry County?

Want to know the public involvement in McHenry County College’s minor league baseball stadium?

Here’s what I said in the public comment period at the beginning of March 19th‘s college board meeting:

It appears from the language in the contract dated September 27, 2006, signed by EquityOne Development’s Mark Houser and MCC President Walter Packard that the feasibility study’s findings and recommendations will be tainted.

I refer specificially to page 4, the 3rd paragraph:

At the completion of the feasibility study and independent review, if the College elects to proceed with the project, the College will contract with EquityOne or it’s (sic) assigns to develop the project on the college’s behalf.

By signing this contract you seem to have precluded competitive bidding on the Sports Center Complex and baseball stadium.

Is that correct?

No one answered, so I asked if I were going to get an answer.

Sandy Kerrick, the lawyer sitting at the table in front of the board, then told me that I could make any comments I wanted.

I replied that usually when I speak to a public body, I got an answer.

I got no answer from the McHenry County College Board.

They sat silent.

I wonder if what I said will be included in the minutes.

Time will tell.

As far as I know, this is the only comment made about the project in a public MCC Board meeting, although I admit to missing last Thursday’s meeting.

Someone has obviously kept Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley informed.

Someone has obviously talked in secret to Crystal Lake Park Board Commissioners.

Has there been public involvement beyond my statement that EquityOne Development’s recommendations were, by the nature of the contract MCC signed, flawed by self-interest?

Oh, I forgot.

MCC Committee of the Whole chairman George Lowe did read the names of those who participated in the March 19th secret meeting and he was kind enough to let me see how to spell their names and what their affiliations were.

Tribune columnist Byrne concluded his commentary on the way the Olympics’ package has been put together like this:

But there's also some of the public-be-damned way the public's business is conducted here, based on the belief that the public, even if it could understand what's going on, would screw things up.

How far from that attitude is the McHenry County College Board’s on its proposed baseball stadium?

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And Many Mooooooore!

"Hopefully, few will notice." -- Rich Miller

Today is the natal anniversary of Mr. Rich Miller, founder of the Capitol Fax empire.

If you blog about -- or even care about -- Illinois politics, you oughtta go wish him a happy one.

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The Great Chicago Exodus Is Actually The Cook County Exodus

From the times:

Census population estimates released today show Cook County posted the third biggest decline in the nation, losing 88,000 residents since 2000.

Only counties surrounding New Orleans, ravaged by a hurricane, and Detroit, clobbered by a declining auto industry, lost more.

In the same period, however, Kendall County, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, added nearly 34,000 residents and had the second-fastest growth rate in the nation -- 61.7 percent. Will County, south of Chicago, also made the top 100 fastest-growing counties. It came in 36th and grew 33 percent.

I guess I hadn't really considered the city's well known problem with large quantities of people heading for 'the burbs'. Black folks have been heading south to the far south burbs for quite some time, folks from the SW side of the city have long been white flighting for perceived whiter pastures of Orland Park and Lamont. Who doesn't have a friend or two who made their post college transition from Lakeview to Schaumburg or Naperville?

Population loss in Chicago? Unsurprising. But real meaningful loss to the entire county? It comes as sort of a shocker to me. I had always assumed that at least half of those relocating to the Will County house farms were coming north from middle Illinois, and that for every family who leaves Chicago to seek less busy streets and more retail is replaced by a family seeking to live in the city.

Apparently, not the case. 88,000 people leaving Cook County to head further away from Chicago is bad. Officials will always be at least decent in dealing with budding populaces. Dealing with declining ones is where things always get ugly.

Things to consider:
1. With such a pool of potential employees and the fact that it's infinitely cheaper to set up shop, will more upstart businesses steer for Will County?

2. If not, and businesses continue to set up in Cook, does this trend reflect even worse situations in terms of traffic on the commute?

3. What will Pace and Metra have to do to keep up with the transfer of the population from one place to another?

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Naperville Student Sues For Right To Homobigotry

I like to contextualize things and draw comparisons when it comes to the various forms of bigotry. It helps to sort things out and make them digestible. When I call Porno Pete's outfit(s) 'hate organizations' people ask how it is a 'pro-family, Christian organization' can be a hate organization. Simple answer - I've explained it before. Take any bit of Labarbera spew, replace "homosexual" with "black" or "Mexican" and you'd have a certified hate monger. Example:

Illinois’ only openly homosexual representative, Democrat Greg Harris, has introduced HB 1615, which would repeal Illinois’ ban on same-sex “marriages.” Pete LaBarbera of the Chicago-based group Americans for Truth says Harris and other homosexual activists are hoping to wear down Illinois voters, and over time pass what he describes as “radical” legislation.

Illinois’ black representative, Democrat Greg Harris, has introduced HB 1615, which would repeal Illinois’ ban on interracial “marriages.” Pete LaBarbera of the Chicago-based group Americans for Truth (about the black lifestyle) says Harris and other black activists are hoping to wear down Illinois voters, and over time pass what he describes as “radical pro-black” legislation.

Or every time Labarbera says "AIDS is a tragic result of the homosexual lifestyle" just think to yourself that "Cirrhosis is a result of the Irish lifestyle". Both have the same merit when you get down to the facts of it all. Get it? Good. You can push that in a couple of different directions and I assure you, it doesn't always come out the way you think it will, thus it's a very good rule of thumb when playing Know Your Bigot. Christo Con fruitloops will regularly decry this sort of stuff as being part of "the oppression of political correctness", or do something typically Limbaughesque and blame the ACLU for the fact that they're not longer allowed to use derogatory slurs. It's a psuedo intellectual approach to fight for their right to be non-intellectual, primitive, NASCAR watchers.

Riddle me this: Is this shirt appropriate in school?


You can read the relevant story at World Nut Daily, but the nut of it:

An Illinois high school student is in federal court seeking the right to wear T-shirts that declare sentiments such as "Be happy, not gay."

Heidi Zamecnik, of the Chicago suburb Naperville, wants to wear the shirt at school the day after the "Day of Silence," a nationwide observance April 19 to protest harassment of homosexuals in schools, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. This just continues the cycle of anti-Christian oppression and pro-homosexual indoctrination of our children in the evil public school system which is part of the Homosexual Agenda (TM). The next step will be for public high school administrators to sprinkle magic dust to make your kids gay. According to J. Matt Barber of Concerned Women For Americans For Truth, the dust, dubbed 'fairy dust', has already been distributed to public high schools by the ACLU and former members of the Clinton administration.

Fine. You caught me. I added the last part in there. Sue me.

The racial comparison works out pretty well because it reduces this sort of discussion to the "Black people can use the N word, so why can't I", "Well, Notre Dame's mascot is the Fighting Irish, isn't that racist?", and other assorted arguments you hear from privileged white folks who are pissed about ideas of equality. After all, who wants to bet that the same people who don't like the idea of a Day of Silence are the same folks who probably object to Black History Month in school? You need not look far for that argument to be made by Random Winger:

Now, everyone KNOWS the homosexuals in school get to wear their ‘Gay Pride” shirts.. so what about her rights? I remember (way back, ahem) when I was a teen in highschool, we were told we couldn’t wear any shirt with the Confederate flag on it, but black kids could still wear their MalcomX (talk about racist!).. NOT fair.. NOT right!

That particular post comes complete with threats of violence in the comments:

This *** stuff is wearing on me, they’re going to create REAL hate. They think bigotry and intolerance is bad now? Give it some time and more of this kind of stuff…

It's fair to put homobigotry and racism next to each other. They're both irrational, mostly dependent upon a fear of something different, and almost always veiled in self-defense against some vast agenda. It's not a coincidence that the same evangelical southern minded folks who were 'protecting the Christian identity' 75 years ago when opposing civil rights for black folks have no moved on to 'protecting the Christian identity' today by opposing civil rights for queer folks.

To be expected, the usual suspects in wingnutitude are up in arms over the matter, claiming it's a violation of the First Amendment. Of course, it isn't.

The narrow minded bigots will argue that "Well, the gay kids are allowed to wear their pride gear, all this girl is showing her straight pride", which lacks any intellectual honesty. If we have an Irish Pride Day and every girl from Mt. Greenwood wears a "Kiss me, I'm Irish shirt" it's showing pride. If an Italian kid wears a shirt on the same day saying "Proud Italian" it's showing pride. If our Italian kid wears a shirt that says "The Irish are a bunch of thick skulled, flat assed drunkards" it's bigotry and has no business in modern society let alone public schools. The same goes for if on our Irish Pride Day, Mt. Greenwood girl wears a shirt that says "Italians are wine drinking, mobster, murdering WOPs".

Likewise, if a gay person decides to wear a shirt emblazoned with this, it's ok:


It doesn't prevent a student from wearing this on the same day, and in fact - it's reasonable to do so and nobody would ever object contrary to the knee jerkers:


But it does make wearing something like this completely unreasonable:


It's equally as acceptable to wear something like this:




Simple enough concept to understand, you would think. But no. A sample of actual bigot quotes. For fun, replace references to LGBT with references to 'Mexican':
Return of the Conservatives:

It's no wonder with these leftist teachers so engaged in spreading the deviant lifestyle that that they object to having to provide a PE class. After all, what is more important to them: children's physical health or them being indoctrinated by the Rosie O'Donnell Idiot Brigade?

From the Ground Up:

The Gay Left's allies in academia are out to censor free speech in public schools all under the guise of "tolerance." The Dean has no balls to do the right thing.

The Wake Up Call (this one is good)

Once again, we see the pro-gay bias in our mis-education system. Maybe we need a straight rights coalition in this country.

Chicago Ray:

It's apparently OK to force a "Day of Awareness/Silence" upon all non-gay public school students annually on April 19th nationwide to stop the supposed "widespread harassment" of that whopping 2 or 3 percent of the students who think they're gay, meanwhile a non-gay student representing the other 97 or so percent of students who are not gay cannot wear a t-shirt to school like this protesting this mandated day of atonement:

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Abolish the Death Penalty

The Trib writes an Editorial today telling Illinois to abolish it.

Given the pattern of police brutality and subsequent cover up, it's awfully hard to defend execution as punishment.

The legislature should abolish it.

xp Prairie State Blue

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Pattern of Abuse

More for those still missing the pattern. From today's Trib,

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that six off-duty Chicago cops were caught on a downtown bar's video camera beating four businessmen, the second such incident in recent months, law enforcement sources said.

In the Dec. 15 beating at the Jefferson Tap and Grille, one alleged victim required reconstructive surgery on his face and another suffered four broken ribs, said Sally Saltzberg, a lawyer for the men.

Other bar patrons called 911. But when patrol officers responded, the off-duty officers involved allegedly spoke to them and the patrol officers left without intervening, sources said.

Security cameras inside and outside the bar recorded most of the beating, said Saltzberg, who said she has not seen the tape herself.

Zorn blogs on CPD abuse today too,

Police Supt. Philip Cline has said the right things about the attack: "It was disgusting. It was despicable conduct. ... The fact that he is a police officer is even more damning."

But to understand why this story is so big and feels so ominous to so many, he needs to look beyond the attack. Cynical, street-smart Chicagoans are weary of adjectives. They want answers.

You don't need to be a PhD in Math to see the pattern. Cynical Chicago street-smarts will do.

xp Prairie State Blue

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Cool Cities Act Passes State Senate

On Tuesday the Illinois State Senate passed "The Illinois Cool Cities Act of 2007", which would help Illinois local governments who want to do their part to combat global warming get the job done. The bill, SB 1242, is sponsored by newly elected State Senator Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) (and pictured here), and is her first to pass the Senate.

"Cool Cities" are local governments that have signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, committing to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012, the targets set by the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Eleven Illinois cities are among 425 nationwide that have committed to these reductions, and more and more are showing interest each week.

The "Cool Cities Act" will help these communities meet these goals by offering them technical assistance from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in calculating their baseline (what their emissions were in 1990), and in quantifying how much pollution will be cut by different strategies. Cities that adopt plans to hit these targets are recognized as "Illinois Cool Cities". This will help ensure that goals and commitments translate into real reductions in pollution, and result in model strategies for ways to save energy that other communities can learn from.

Holmes is proving to be a real breath of fresh air in Springfield. This is an innovative approach to one of the most important challenges of our time. It now moves on to the Illinois House, where State Rep. Sid Mathias (R-Buffalo Grove) is the lead sponsor.

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Tax proposals -- the more progressive, the better

[Cross-posted at djwinfo]

Half of public policy is spending. The other half is taxing.

Progressives tend to spend most of our time on the spending side defining what we want to buy -- doctors, teachers and bus drivers with operating dollars and hospitals, schools and buses with capital dollars.

Right-wingers tend to spend most of their time on the taxing side defining that they don't want their sponsors (high income people or corporations) to be taxed at all.

So, right-wingers tend to get their way. Government taxes on wealth and high incomes continue to fall. (Taxes on work and low-incomes, unfortunately, aren't attacked by right-wingers, so they tend to rise). And we progressives often don't get to buy the things that would be good for the nation because....there isn't any money.

The best group in the country working on arming progressives with analysis to advocate for taxes on high incomes is the Center for Tax Justice. They helped start a blog called Talking Taxes here and their website is here. If you're not a member, join up.

Anyway, in Illinois, we're lucky. We're in the midst of a glorious debate over tax fairness and Governor Blagojevich deserves a ton of credit for launching it. He's got a bold proposal to fund health insurance and education boosts through a gross receipts tax and a business payroll tax. The rhetorical center of his campaign is that business isn't paying enough. And they're almost certainly not -- especially the biggest ones with the most money. We have the lowest state income tax in the nation (3% for individuals, 4.8% for corporations), and people or companies with high profits or income can figure out how to shelter a lot of their income so they don't pay even that small levy. The rest of us, meanwhile, pony up with very high sales taxes and relatively high property taxes. That means taxes our regressive -- we hit low and moderate income hard and go light on high incomes. Not smart, especially since our middle class is getting flattened by other government policies: corporate trade agreements that export jobs, anti-union labor laws, tolerance of millions of undocumented workers without an amnesty and underinvestment in education so that education gets both more expensive and of lower quality.

So the great progressive debate happening this month is, in shorthand, 750 versus GRT. HB 750, championed by Senator James Meeks and cooked up primarily by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, is a straight-forward progressive reform that taxes high incomes more and low incomes less. (By the way, props go out to blogging Representative John Fritchey for representing a higher-income district but publicly recognizing that it's good for the entire state to get away from our poverty-perpetuating regressive tax system and championing HB 750. 750 got out of a Senate committee last year (after adding in some higher education money), and got a House committee hearing last week.

The Gross Receipts Tax is part of the Governor's submitted budget and has raised the ire of just about every business group in the state. (Opposition from the business community often, but not always, signals that the bill is good for most people of the state). However, most legislators aren't biting. As one legislator told me this week: "they're pushing the Kool-Aid hard. But I'm not sipping." The GRT is essentially a sales tax, and that hits lower incomes harder than higher incomes. That's regressive.

The Governor would like to buy some progressive things with the money -- just-about universal health insurance. That's good. But is that enough for Democrats to overcome the regressive aspects of the GRT? Based on the reaction so far, it doesn't look like it.

But again, the Governor has moved the debate in a great direction launching a campaign for tax fairness and an agressive call for change against the champions of the status quo. That alone earns him credit in my book. Now the General Assembly might find a better way of matching his soaring rhetoric.

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Trial Lawyers Running Wild

At the precise moment that the Illinois State Bar Association is launching a new campaign to improve the image of lawyers in Illinois, one of ISBA's main components and closest allies, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, is running its own campaign of greed, deceit and plunder.

Two weeks ago, the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported on ISBA's new campaign, in which the organization is using the image of Abraham Lincoln to improve its own image:

''Part of this effort is that we want to reclaim Abraham Lincoln for the legal profession,'' said David N. Anderson, assistant executive director of the ISBA.

President-elect Joseph G. Bisceglia said the campaign could benefit the profession as a whole.

''In our government, there's probably not a better symbol for lawyers and putting lawyers in a positive light than our own Abraham Lincoln,'' Bisceglia said. Both Bisceglia and ISBA President Irene F. Bahr said one of the main concerns of the association's members has been improving the image of lawyers.

President Bahr should meet President Cates -- Judy Cates, current president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. They should have a long conversation.

For ITLA's current campaign is likely to be more effective than ISBA's and ironically, it has been the activities of ITLA and its members that have caused the lousy reputation and image that lawyers have. ITLA actually should reimburse ISBA for the campaign, but that's for them to work out.

ITLA hasn't officially announced a "campaign," -- at least not publicly -- but ITLA members certainly are aware of it. The ITLA campaign is not patterned after Abraham Lincoln -- but seems more in line with the careers of two other historical Illinois figures, John Dillinger and "Baby Face" Nelson.

This is what is happening:

Last week in Springfield an ITLA-backed bill that would change the way compensation is determined in damage suits was passed in the Senate. The bill changes the rules of fairness in the Illinois tort system, such as they are. This bill (SB 1296) would establish that if multiple parties are responsible for causing an injury or loss, it makes no difference which of the multiple parties is most responsible. It will be the party with the "deepest pockets" or most money who pays. It doesn't matter who is mostly at fault, it matters who has the most money.

Steve Puiszis, president of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel, described it this way:

Consider this hypothetical:

You were recently involved in an automobile accident with a drunk driver. While neither you nor the drunk driver were hurt, a passenger in the drunk driver's car was seriously injured.

Although you were not at fault, the injured passenger sued both you and the other driver, claiming you failed to keep a proper lookout for the driver of the other car, who rammed the side of your vehicle after you entered the intersection.

The injured party then settles with the drunk driver because, as often happens, the drunk driver had minimal insurance coverage.

Should you be worried? Because of legislation currently under consideration in Springfield, you should be.

*

An ICJL survey conducted recently in twelve Illinois Senate Districts shows that more than 80% of voters do not think it's "fair to be judged on your ability to pay, as opposed to your degree of fault in lawsuits."

The same survey showed that more than 60% of voters think it's a "bad idea" for the General Assembly to pass laws that result in larger awards in personal injury lawsuits.

(Survey conducted in Senate Districts: 22, 31, 33, 36, 42, 46, 47, 49, 52, 56, 57, 59.)

SB 1296 is sponsored by Sen. John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Civil Law Committee. Cullerton is generally fair and always willing to seek compromise. He spent many hours in discussions with opponents of this bill, including the Illinois Civil Justice League, and he went out of his way to meet and try to accommodate the opponents.

He received many suggestions for compromise and he took them and/or discussed them with ITLA representatives.

But ITLA would have nothing to do with any compromise and the personal injury trial lawyers told Sen. John Cullerton last week that the bill must be voted upon as is.

That means the personal injury trial lawyers have dictated to the leadership of the Illinois Senate (at least the controlling Democratic leadership) that they want SB 1296 passed as is.

This bill can be blocked when it goes to the House (it will first be considered by the House Judiciary Committee) and a lot of effort and energy has been spent and will be spent by many opposing interests, including business interests, medical interests, insurers, many Illinois lawyers, and many others. The Illinois Civil Justice League is playing an active and leading role.

The numerical balance in the Illinois House is not favorable to defeating the bill. Several Democrats will have to go against the party leadership -- and the personal injury trial lawyers -- and it's not promising.

But you can -- and should -- ask your representative to vote against this bill. You can get a direct connections through this link.

You can learn even more from ICJL's DEEP POCKETS ILLINOIS Website.

*

The current ITLA assault doesn't end with SB 1296, however. Also coming up in Springfield -- in the House this time -- is likely passage of another ITLA-backed money grab bill that was passed in the Illinois House last week. HB 1798, sponsored by Rep. John Fritchey, like Cullerton a Chicago Democrat (their districts overlap) creates a new target for the Dillinger-Nelson crowd. It would allow compensation to be paid to beneficiaries of decedents in wrongful death cases for "grief and sorrow." Not just for actual loss, which can be calculated, but for "grief and sorrow," which cannot be calculated. Of course, regardless of whether it can be calculated or cannot be calculated, the personal injury trial lawyers will get their cut of the "grief and sorrow."

A prominent Madison County attorney, Jeff Hebrank, said this in testimony before the House Judiciary Civil Law Committee last week:

"For nearly 150 years we have never permitted the beneficiaries of a decedent killed in an accident to get (compensation for) grief and sorrow. The reason is simple. They are not the tort victim. The decedent was. ... Now plaintiff lawyers want grief and sorrow"

Click here to read the Madison-St. Clair Record news report of the Hebrank testimony.

In a letter to all House members last week, the Illinois State Medical Society reminded legislators:

Two years ago, the General Assembly thoughtfully reviewed, investigated and debated damages in professional liability actions against physicians, hospitals and others. In the end, the General Assembly decided to maintain access to heath care and protect this vital service for the citizens of Illinois by capping non-economic damages. This bill would expand the damages allowed in wrongful death lawsuits and medical liability litigation.

But by a straight party-line vote last Wednesday, creation of this new source of money for trial lawyers moved a step closer to enactment. If it passes, the personal injury trial lawyers will get compensation for "grief and sorrow."

Can you feel their "grief and sorrow?"

HB 1798 is not on as fast a track as SB 1296 since the House deadline for passage of bills is not as early as the Senate's March 30 deadline but HB 1798 poses the same challenges to Illinoisans who think our state needs fairness and common sense, in addition to "grief and sorrow."

*

In other action last week, the House Judiciary Committee held hearings on four ICJL-backed bills. While they allowed two bills to remain alive in committee, they voted down the other two. This is the same committee that approved HB 1798 earlier in the month. The Committee is dominated by trial lawyer-interests, led by Reps. Jay Hoffman of Madison County and Lou Lang of Cook County. Rep. Careen Gordon was especially vocal - and even appeared hostile - to the expert witnesses testifying in support of our legislation.

Committee Chairman John Fritchey of Chicago is not as locked into trial lawyer-domination (he sponsored the "cheeseburger" bill to prohibit lawsuits against fast-food restaurants) but he generally leans in their direction.

We'll have more on the ICJL-backed bills later ... but for now it is urgent that action be taken to block SB 1296 and HB 1798. Follow this link to contact your legislators.

If you need more information about the bills, follow these links:

SB 1296

HB 1798

To view or post comments, please visit Illinois Justice Blog.

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HB0466 on limiting Charter Schools

State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) makes the case for the exact opposite of what she wants HB0466 to do. From yesterday's Trib.

The rise in applications to charter schools "is a sad commentary on our existing public schools," said State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago), who has filed legislation to stop the proliferation of charter schools.

If parents are turning away from the traditional public schools in their neighborhoods, she said, teachers and administrators should figure out why and fix the problems.

"Instead of opening charter schools, we need to go in there and see what the hell is going on in our schools," Davis said.

Best way to get people out there asking what's going on, is to open more of them.

via Collin Hitt at Spontaneous Solutions.

Besides Rep Davis just seems she's making it harder for parents to find out what's going on anyways with HB1890.

Amends the Open Meetings Act and the School Code. Provides that the term "public body" under the Open Meetings Act does not include a teacher peer assistance board or peer evaluation governing board established by a school district and the exclusive representative of its teachers under the Chicago School District Article of the School Code or a professional personnel leadership committee organized under the Chicago School District Article of the School Code.

xp Praire State Blue

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Fighting Tony Peraica

Peraica posts over at Illinois Review,

We had an historic opportunity to not only clean up Cook County government, but also to deliver a severe blow to the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine. Instead, certain commissioners (including the current Cook County Republican Chairwoman) thought it more important to be in good standing with President Todd Stroger and John Daley than to do what is right for Cook County taxpayers and residents.

What good's a GOP that caves in for Todd Stroger's budget. No one speaks out except Peraica here and instead expect Fitzgerald to do the heavy lifting.

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Knox County - In the spotlight for all the wrong reasons

In a story that has been developing for almost a week now, the Knox County State’s Attorney’s office has been mired in controversy. In a story first broke in the Peoria Journal Star last weekend, State’s Attorney John Pepmeyer has spent the last week both defending his office and decisions, and trying to explain possible motives behind the entire issue.

It first started with anonymous allegations that Pepmeyer would be accused of sexual harassment. According to the initial article, the State Police were being brought in to investigate the matter.

In Saturday's edition of the Peoria Journal Star, unnamed sources said Pepmeyer is accused of sexual harassment and the Illinois State Police - as well as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 - are investigating the accusations.

By Sunday, Pepmeyer had already issued a denial. Pepmeyer attributes much of the problem to political revenge sought against him. Pepmeyer was apparently investigating employee-prisoner fraternization in the sheriff’s office. The alleged employee was later hired into the state’s attorney’s office.

Pepmeyer said he was investigating allegations that a county employee had engaged in sexual improprieties with a federal prisoner about two years ago.

As the story made it to Monday, things looked better for Pepmeyer as he was able to gain support from the Knox County Board. Though the tide was starting to run in a different area as the AFSCME union started to hold their tongue about the issue. Initially, they had denied any grievances against Pepmeyer, but by Monday were much more tight lipped.

Spokespeople for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 Randy Lynch and Judy Johnson, which represent county union members, also said Saturday that no grievance had been filed against Pepmeyer and no investigation was going on.

But this morning Lynch refused to comment on whether a complaint had been filed against Pepmeyer.

"What the union does internally is confidential," Lynch said. "It is confidential to the people involved on our side."

On Wednesday, things started to get very interesting. There were indeed grievances filed, and it was also noted that 3 assistant State’s Attorney’s had not been into work all week. According to reports, there were initially 2 grievances filed and Pepmeyer has 10 days to respond to them. It has not yet been made known exactly what was filed as both sides have been quiet.

According to Tuesday's release, the matter will be handled internally between the union and the state's attorney due to the "sensitivity of the issues."

"If I had (gotten a grievance) I couldn't comment on it. I'm prohibited from commenting on any such topic, if there is such a thing," Pepmeyer said. "It's right in the grievance procedure that there is to be nothing but confidentiality attached to any grievance."

Additionally the 3 assistants were reported to have not been in all week.

Mike Kraycinovich, Dean Stone and Tracy Jones are absent this week. State's Attorney John Pepmeyer declined to disclose the reasons for their absences.

On Thursday the story morphed even more. Not only were the 3 assistants fired, but 2 more grievances were filed. According to reports, the assistants were fired for:

“acts of insubordination, failure to follow direct orders and failure to follow directives,”

Pepmeyer released this information in a press release that went out to local media outlets. In reports from AFSCME, they confirmed that the additional grievances were sent. Pepmeyer has 10 days to respond to these claims.

In a late developments last night, local media reports stated that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has been called in to help sort things out. This was a result of two of the fired assistants requesting action from the state. Pepmeyer himself has requested that a special investigator be appointed to the office, but that request was overruled in favor of Madigan’s involvement.

During a special hearing Thursday afternoon, Judge Edward Danner of the 9th Circuit Court in Knox County appointed the office of Illinois' Attorney General Lisa Madigan to join the Illinois State Police in investigating Knox County State's Attorney John Pepmeyer.

It will be interesting to follow this story a it develops. I hate to get ahead of myself, but it looks like some issues that have long been looked over because of people and politics are rearing their ugly heads. Everyone has their skeletons; it seems a few have fallen out of the proverbial closet.

To follow any minor updates or to comment on speculation, please visit thepoliticalwasteland.com. Additionally, I have a live chat page set up for discussion.

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More on CPD

The Trib on Emmanuel Lopez's shooting: sixteen times in the back.

Something's wrong.

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HDO's Sanchez Indicted

The day after charges against Republican Nick Hurtgen were dismissed, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald unleashed an indictment against HDO's Alfred Sanchez.

Note "uncharged co-schemers Individual A (who was the overall leader of HDO)"
and others are mentioned.

The following press release was received from the U.S. Attorney's Office and seems important enough to run in full:

RETIRED STREETS AND SANITATION COMMISSIONER SANCHEZ AND SECOND CITY EMPLOYEE INDICTED ON HIRING FRAUD CHARGES

CHICAGO – A retired commissioner of the City of Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation and a Chicago police officer who has held various city jobs, both of whom were high-level leaders of the Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO), a citywide political campaign organization, were indicted today on federal charges in connection with the ongoing investigation of city hiring and promotion fraud.

The retired commissioner, Alfred Sanchez, a principal organizer for HDO, was charged with engaging in a systematic fraud scheme to provide city jobs, promotions and other employment benefits to induce and reward political campaign work.

The second defendant, Aaron Delvalle, who assisted Sanchez in coordinating HDO activities and who received immunity from prosecution relating to this investigation, was charged with perjury for allegedly lying to the federal grand jury about his HDO activities.

Sanchez, 59, of Chicago, was charged with nine counts of mail fraud, and Delvalle, 34, of Chicago, was charged with one count of perjury in a 10-count indictment returned today by a federal grand jury. Both defendants will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court.

The charges were announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, together with Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and Kenneth T. Laag, Inspector-in-Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago.

The investigation of fraudulent city hiring and promotion practices stems from the federal investigation of corruption in the city’s Hired Truck Program.

Four previous defendants, including Robert Sorich, who was a high-ranking official in the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA), were sentenced last year after being convicted of rigging city hiring and promotion practices to reward political campaign work.

Sanchez and Delvalle are the 47th and 48th defendants, including more than 20 current or former city employees, who have been charged since January 2004. Forty-four defendants have been convicted, one is deceased, and the remainder are pending.

Sanchez was commissioner of Streets and Sanitation from June 1999 until he retired in June 2005, and was deputy commissioner from 1995 to 1999.

The department has about 4,000 workers and is responsible for garbage collection, snow removal, street sweeping, rodent abatement, street lamp maintenance, graffiti removal, and tree trimming and planting.

Before joining Streets and Sanitation, Sanchez worked in the city’s Health Department and was the First Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office of Information and Inquiry (I&I), where he performed certain personnel duties in both of those departments.

Delvalle has been a city employee since April 1997, working at various times in I&I, Streets and Sanitation and the Chicago Police Department.

According to the indictment, Sanchez served as a principal organizer for HDO, which was formed in the early 1990s and had many city employees among its hundreds of individual participants who were active in political campaigns and voter outreach activities, and HDO was divided into geographic divisions.

Sanchez was head of HDO Southeast, which had as many as 500 individual participants who performed political work on behalf of HDO-selected candidates during its peak years. Beginning in 1999, Delvalle assisted Sanchez in coordinating HDO Southeast activities.

Generally, specific political directives were disseminated through a hierarchical system in HDO Southeast, with Sanchez, typically through Delvalle, informing approximately six to eight “Political Coordinators,” each of whom directed certain individual participants, as to the particular political assignments.

Sanchez alone was charged with engaging in a fraud scheme beginning no later than 1994 through early 2005.

As part of the alleged scheme, Sanchez and uncharged co-schemers Individual A ( who was the overall leader of HDO), Robert Sorich, Jack Drumgould, Delvalle, Patrick Slattery, Roberto Medina and various other city employees and officials, engaged in the following conduct:

• while he was employed at I&I and Streets and Sanitation, Sanchez and certain co-schemers engaged in a systematic effort to provide public financial benefits, in the form of city jobs, promotions, and other employment benefits, in order to induce and reward campaign work to benefit HDO and other private political organizations;
• Sanchez and other co-schemers corrupted the city’s personnel process by awarding city job-related benefits in non-policymaking positions to applicants selected by Sanchez and IGA officials by: falsifying and causing the falsification of ratings forms; signing and causing the signing of fraudulent Shakman certifications; and otherwise granting preferential treatment;
• in the case of “mass” hiring sequences, Sanchez negotiated a certain portion of the total available positions with IGA officials in order to award the positions to individuals selected by Sanchez on the basis of their work on behalf of HDO. Applying political and other considerations, IGA selected the remainder of the candidates for the particular hiring sequence; and
• the individual HDO Southeast participants who received job-related benefits included individuals who provided Sanchez with various personal services and things of value, including home repair work, snow removal, lawn care and yard work.

The indictment alleges that Delvalle, acting on Sanchez’s behalf, informed individual HDO Southeast participants, including Political Coordinators, that requests for city job benefits be made through the individual’s Political Coordinator. Such requests included requests for a) entry-level city jobs; b) promotions to other city positions; c) increased overtime opportunities; d) transfers to more desirable work locations; e) pay increases and f) other job benefits for themselves, family members and other favored individuals. In submitting requests to Sanchez and Delvalle, Political Coordinators often provided specific information regarding the HDO participant’s level of political involvement.

The co-schemers allegedly tracked and maintained records relating to city job-related requests on behalf of HDO participants, and officials of HDO North and HDO South also submitted requests for city employment benefits at Streets and Sanitation to IGA officials and Sanchez on behalf of other HDO volunteers.

When he was an I&I official, Sanchez allegedly caused false and fraudulent ratings forms to be signed in order to favor his selections in the award of city job-related benefits. Sanchez and Medina, while at I&I, signed false and fraudulent Shakman certifications, attesting that political considerations played no role in I&I’s hiring sequences, when in fact, they knew that certain hiring decisions were based, in substantial part, on the applicant’s political participation.

At Streets and Sanitation, Sanchez and Drumgould allegedly caused certain individual HDO Southeast participants to become eligible to be interviewed for certain hiring sequences, even on occasions when the positions were closed to applications from the general public, and receipt of applications was not permitted under City hiring guidelines.

Sanchez allegedly directed Drumgould to take action on behalf of his selections in order to award city job-related benefits to those individuals, including awards relating to the following “mass” hiring and individual hiring sequences: 2004 General Foreman of Lineman, 2004 Career Service Laborer, 2004 Career Service Motor Truck Driver (MTD), 2003 Seasonal Laborer, 2002 Career Service MTD, 2002 Seasonal MTD and 2002 Lamp Maintenance Man.

As part of the alleged scheme, Sanchez also opposed the implementation of a lottery process for certain entry-level mass hiring sequences in order to retain his ability to influence the award of city job-related benefits to his selections.

According to the perjury count against Delvalle, on February 6, 2007 he was issued a letter of immunity, requiring his “complete, accurate and truthful” testimony before the grand jury.

The letter explicitly informed Delvalle that if the United States Attorney’s Office determined that he had violated any provision, or failed to give accurate and truthful information and testimony, then his statements could be used against him in a prosecution for perjury or false statements or other criminal proceedings. Delvalle, who was represented by an attorney, signed the immunity letter and acknowledged its terms, testified before the grand jury on February 8, 2007.

The indictment alleges that on February 8, 2007, Delvalle testified, among other things, as follows:

Q: And so whether it was termination issues or vacation issues or overtime or raises or promotions, I mean, you had no role in that part of [Streets and Sanitation], correct?

A: Correct.

Q: And you had no unofficial role either, correct?

A: Correct.

Q: And the entirety of your involvement as it related to coordinators or for that matter any individual people was getting names of people to check whether or not they made a lottery list?

A: Correct.

* * * *

Q: Other than the lottery list matters that we’ve discussed, okay, you have never made any attempt through official channels or unofficial channels to assist individuals with job-related benefits at Streets & Sanitation?

A: No, sir.

The indictment alleges that Delvalle’s testimony was false in that, he knew that:

• he participated in a process whereby HDO Southeast Political Coordinators, including HDO Southeast Political Coordinator A, submitted names of HDO participants to Delvalle and others in order to request and obtain job-related benefits on behalf of HDO participants;
• the process of job-related requests was not limited to Delvalle making inquiries concerning “lottery lists,” but in fact included efforts to coordinate and facilitate requests made by individual HDO Southeast participants, for jobs, promotions and transfers in city employment; and
• Grand Jury Exhibit Delvalle 2 was not a document limited to inquiries concerning lottery lists.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Manish Shah, Patrick Collins, Julie Ruder, Barry Miller and Philip Guentert.

If convicted, eight of the nine mail fraud counts against Sanchez carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while a single count carries a maximum term of five years in prison. If convicted of perjury, Delvalle faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The Court, however, would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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150 greatest places in Illinois

While not a political post, this may be interesting to some. The American Institute of Architects is honoring their 150th anniversary by selecting what they believe to be the 150 greatest places in Illinois.

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Chicago Cops

There was a time when progressives would have been out in the street the next day protesting this.

Those days seem gone.

What's it take for people to figure out there's a pattern of abuse in the CPD. I'm supposed to fear the Patriot Act instead?

xp Prairie State Blue and Bill Baar's West Side

Update: Sun Times: Did 2nd cop try to silence bartender?

Grand jury considering obstruction charge against officer who allegedly helped Abbate threaten, try to bribe woman

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GRT gets headlines while Madigan plays with HB750

Phil Kadner at the Daily Southtown has the scoop that I haven't seen anywhere else.

The Illinois House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations -- Elementary and Secondary Education is expected to hold a public hearing today on House Bill 750.

This is a measure that would change the way public schools are funded by increasing the state income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent....

Lots of good stuff in his column. Last year Speaker Madigan didn't let this tax increase go anywhere even after a Senate committee approved it. Now he's apparently allowing a House committee vote on it, which should raise more than a few eyebrows. Blago's gross receipts tax and new 3% payroll tax are horrible, but HB750/SB750 is also bad.

Not that I think they are smart enough to pull it off, but it almost looks like Madigan and Blagojevich are working together to make sure some form of tax increase is passed this year. Blago proposing the awful gross receipts tax sure does make HB750/SB750 look a lot better in comparison and sets HB750/SB750 up to be a compromise. Watch your wallets and call your Reps.

If it's voted on in committee today I'm going to be very curious to see how Republican Reps. Eddy and Prtichard vote, both of whom have not ruled out support of an income tax increase.

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Articles on the Illinois Black Legislative Caucus about job creation and economic development

They have been in the news a lot in the past few days. If you have been checking out my del.icio.us links, I've had a few articles about them. So what is up, you may ask?

Well from WBBM-AM, James Meeks co- chairman of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus talked about how blacks need to be better served in the job market.

Money is flowing in for economic development; it's just not going to the right places: That's the conclusion of a study by a Washington-based watchdog, and it's the basis for hearings by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

The caucus co-chairman is State Senator James Meeks of Chicago.

"I think there has to be somebody who is a point person, and there must be a plan that is in place to attract economic development to areas where we have the highest unemployment. And I think the governor, as the head official of the state of Illinois, it is his responsibility to make sure that these individuals also are taken care of."

A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity says the state is working to help the unemployed, and he calls the study "flawed."

From the Sun-Times talking about basically the same thing. This time saying that the state of Illinois' economic subsidies are going to those place where they're needed the least...

"There's a disconnect between the work that the department is doing and the finances in under-served communities," said Sen. James Meeks, joint chairman of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

"Why is it in every year there is no improvement in the job rate in certain areas? If it's true that the state is focused on those areas, we ought to see some changes. We never do," Meeks said.

A report looking at $1.2 billion in subsidies provided by the state from 1990 to 2004 found Chicago received only about 15 percent of the subsidies, though it's home to 38 percent of the region's population.

The report, released in January by Washington D.C.-based watchdog Good Jobs First, also found relatively few subsidy deals going to Chicago communities that are predominantly African-American.

Roughly $198 million in subsidies went to the Northwest corridor around O'Hare Airport, an area that was already an attractive place for companies to relocate, the report noted. That was more than the $177 million received in all of Chicago.

DuPage County, with about 11 percent of the state's population, got 18 percent of the subsidy dollars, and Will County, with less than 5 percent of the state's population, got over 11 percent.

The report concluded, "subsidies are going to the places that need them the least, while the struggling areas of Chicago and its inner-ring suburbs are getting less than their fair share."

Meeks said caucus constituents point to jobs as their No. 1 concern. He said he will likely sponsor jobs-funding legislation with a specific dollar amount that targets the neediest areas by zip codes.

"We keep voting for, and our governor keeps coming out with, initiatives dealing with health care, KidCare, universal health insurance," Meeks said. "We're not against any of those things. But if I have a decent job, I can get my own health insurance. What our community needs is jobs.

Well jobs are important issues for sure. Now Rev. Meeks is talking and while I could say no one should have to ask Gov. Blagojevich for anything, he should take a leadership role in this. The question is will he? For right now I may not see that.

Here's one last story...

The head of the state commerce department spotlighted the state's 4.6 percent unemployment rate at a hearing here Monday, but black state lawmakers were more focused on the 20 to 33 percent rates found in some largely black Chicago neighborhoods.

The hearing was called by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus to look for means to ensure economic development and work force development dollars are going to communities that need them the most and that they are providing pathways to good-paying jobs.

In addressing the group, Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Jack Lavin noted since January 2004 the state has added more than 166,000 jobs, more than any other state in the Midwest. He also pointed to programs including the state's critical skills shortage program, which focuses on ensuring workers are trained for jobs for which there is high demand; the challenge grant program, which has provided funds to 446 businesses in the state -- 180 of them in the Chicago metropolitan area and 30 percent of which went to African-American-owned businesses.

He said federal rules dictate how federal work force investment funds are distributed statewide and noted local work force investment boards oversee how those funds are allocated, although the state plays a monitoring role.

Chicago Urban League Policy and Research Director David E. Thigpen told legislators that as unemployment rates across the state have fallen, they refuse to budge in many African-American communities, where the unemployment rate for blacks averages about 12 percent, more than double that of whites, and ranges between 18 and 33 percent in communities including Austin, Robbins, North Lawndale and Washington Park.

He noted graduation rates, which in some communities lag the state average by 30 points, "are sending a steady stream of young people out in the communities with low skills and extremely bleak employment prospects."

Some 39 percent of the eligible population of African Americans in the state have, for one reason or another, given up looking for work, he noted.

It just ran into another issue that deserves attention. Not just economic development but education. Giving those people better skills to get better jobs. This is something worth working on.

Crossposted @ It's My Mind.

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Nipping it in the Bud

I read this Atlantic article several weeks ago, and just stumbled upon it again. It discusses a political philanthropy project that the article describes as “stopping the Rick Santorums of tomorrow before they get started.”

[Iowa state Rep.] Carroll was among the dozens of targets of a group of rich gay philanthropists who quietly joined forces last year, under the leadership of a reclusive Colorado technology mogul, to counter the tide of antigay politics in America that has generated, among other things, a succession of state ballot initiatives banning gay marriage.

The new project is the brainchild of former Colorado software mogul, Tim Gill. Gill is a long-time “quiet” gay activist and a member of Forbes 400 list of world’s wealthiest people.

Selling his company, Gill is now completely dedicated to philanthropy. His political donations have risen steadily over the years. Get this: in 2004 he personally donated almost $15 million to state and local races. His final 2006 numbers appeared to be even higher. Wow.

Two new tactics stand out with Gill’s approach: (1) a focus on state and local elections instead of national battles, and (2) stealth, without fanfare, media, or excessively large, “flashing sign” donations.

This makes a lot of sense, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard of anything like it before. Gill has clearly put a lot of thought into his ferocious political project, and his long-term plans have the potential to bring about real results. The strategy:

Trimpa cited the example of Barack Obama: an attractive candidate, solid on gay rights, and viscerally exciting to donors. It feels good to write him a check. An analysis of Obama’s 2004 Senate race, which he won by nearly fifty points, had determined that gays contributed more than $500,000. “The temptation is always to swoon for the popular candidate,” Trimpa told me, “but a fraction of that money, directed at the right state and local races, could have flipped a few chambers. ‘Just because he’s cute’ isn’t a strategy.”

Common sense activity like this will undoubtedly prove more effective than bulky national meanderings from other gay-rights groups, most dubiously, the Human Rights Campaign.

Needless to say, I like this development. A lot.

I have been incredibly disappointed with the social conservative focus on anti-gay marriage initiatives. Misguided, unnecessary, disgraceful. A political cheap shot. A distortion of true conservatism. It needs to end. It will soon. Thank the Lord. Oy.

Sorry for the digression…

What are your thoughts on the potential success of this strategy?

How would it play in Illinois?

The state of the GOP has been a hot topic here recently, could something like this bump off a few of the extreme righties and help push the party back to historic conservatism?

Is this a lost cause, and I’m just an uninformed rookie?

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Too funny to not point out.

The South Side Chicago Board Of Tourism:

In more primitive areas of Chicago, parking spaces are provided on an ad-hoc basis by plucky local entrepreneurs. Perhaps unbelievably, this somewhat charming if irritating practice persists to this day.

Southside neighborhoods are often populated with young children—even babies. Families, as they are called on the Southside, are in abundance and can be found at local parks, eateries, and other common gathering places, like U.S. Cellular® Field for instance.

Regional anomalies, such as having a winning baseball team, have lead to a perception that the Southside is much further away than it actually is.

It's actually a White Sox ad campaign - one which I hope they will continue during the Cubs losing season this year.

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Pulling a Fioretti

[Cross-posted at Chicago Carless.]

As several long-time Chicago aldermen stand to lose their council seats in the city's April 17 run-off election, one challenger bears additional scrutiny, and not just for his coiff. Last summer, when Bob Fioretti's campaign to unseat Chicago's controversial Ward 2 alderman Madeline Haithcock was just getting off the ground, the Ward 2 pretender was making the rounds of downtown nonprofits to drum up support. Now, anyone looking at (or talking to) Bob Fioretti might get the idea that he's possibly a bit, well, flighty of mind. Lord knows, his (is it or isn't it) hair decision doesn't help his case much.

Neither, in the eyes of me and my colleagues, did his mistaking one downtown highrise for another one day early last August. Apparently not one to be stopped by a little thing like an incorrect address, Fioretti burst like gangbusters into the 16th floor conference room where my confreres were feteing me on my (don't you mind which number) birthday.

The look of befuddlement on his face was priceless. But he didn't miss more than a beat. Regaining composure but realizing he was, obviously, in the wrong place, he strode into the room, looked at our festively set table, and said in all seriousness, "I'm Bob Fioretti and I'm running for Alderman of the second Ward, can I have some of your birthday cake?"

And from that moment on, every one of my colleagues began referring to doing something so absent-minded as to be asinine as "pulling a Fioretti".

I hope that Fioretti's style (and ability to decipher an address plaque) have improved since last year. Because if he wins the South Loop's Ward 2 from Haithcock in the upcoming aldermanic run-off election on April 17, he'll be helming one of the most contentious Wards in the city. And the problems there all revolve around location, location, location.

Ward 2, an odd mish-mish of South Loop and near southwest side addresses, is perhaps the city's hottest current development market for residential condos, most of them in the form of River North-esque condo towers. And just like in River North, NIMBYism runs high on the south end of downtown, too. As one condo tower after another has gone up on Haithcock's watch, residents have hemmed and hawed about losing light, and views, and other totally unguaranteed amenities of urban living.

Until recently, the most vocal anti-development group was the condo association at Folio Square, a small condo loft-conversion near the corner of Polk and Clark. They unsuccessfully demanded that Terrapin Properties' planned adjacent Burnham Pointe development be moved up the block in order to make sure they kept their stunning views of Blackie's Bar across Clark Street.

Even Haithcock, widely criticized (like Ward 42's soon to be former alderman Burt Natarus) for taking her marching orders from local developers (see these pointed Ward 2 threads in YoChicago and Skyscraper City), apologized at length on her now curiously off-line aldermanic website that there was nothing legally she could do to help. The few remaining wags at Folio Square finally shut up as Terrapin broke ground on the corner last December--and, boy, I bet they were miffed when the construction caused the closure of the surrounding sidewalks.

Their current silence is golden--downtown needs all the development it can get before the historic current housing cycle busts, only an idiot buys a high-rise condo next to an empty lot and expects to keep their views forever, and most importantly, Folio Square had more of a say about development than most downtowners usually ever get (hence the 42nd Ward's happy ouster of Natarus by the avowedly resident-friendly Brendan Reilly). And for fullest disclosure, I'm especially glad Folio Square shut up, since my partner, Devyn, will be living in the new building.

But these kinds of squabbles over the correct balance between the need to keep Ward 2 livable and the need for new development will only continue, and pretty soon it may even be residents fighting residents. Try putting this on your Ward 2 radar screens: calls from newly arriving residents in the condo towers going up on Clark between Polk and Roosevelt for the old-guard residents of the Dearborn Park super-block to take down their literal brick walls and finally open up their jealously guarded east-west cross streets. Mark my words, the battle is coming, and it won't be pretty.

Whoever comes out ahead on April 17 had better pull a page from the Brendan Reilly strategy book and start talking about building bridges between residents and developers and including residents in the development review process if they ever expect to be seen as a legitimate authority in the Ward.

Haithcock failed miserably in that regard. Given the ongoing development pressure in the South Loop, downtown deserves a lot better. And if Haithcock goes down, her successor, Fioretti, will need to work hard to convince Ward residents that he's really on their side. For his sake, I hope they find him more persuasive than I did.

Because last August I told Bob Fioretti to go find his own birthday cake.

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Why they think like they think.

I have some good news for the So-Cons. As it happens, minority women have a greater chance of developing HPV. Yes. Yes. I'm guessing that there are some folks out there who are somewhat overjoyed to hear that, as I'm quite certain when the word "STD" comes up, the minds of some of our more backwards friends revert to the mental dialog of "Well, good thing STD's are mostly in the ghetto". There's clearly a racial undertone to the wingnuttery - after all it ain't a coincidence that the most outspoken critics of the HPV vaccination are white.

If you're not completely on board with the notion that there are issues where sex and race can lead to an interesting tapestry of bigotry, not to mention how christocons are more than willing to sacrifice a societal good in favor of on paper sexual morality, you can check Chicagoist for a near perfect example.

Rep. Bobby Rush and two co-sponsors introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives in January that would allow groups to hand out condoms to inmates. The Tribune reports that inmates are 5 times more likely to contract HIV than others.

The debate is controversial for a few reasons. Most apparent are the reasons that faith based groups have, which is their on message mantra that first ascribes to abstinence only. Handing out condoms, they believe, would also encourage homosexuality. This is to be expected, as this debate has been going on for years.

The heads of these faith based groups are obviously either have heads crammed extremely far up their ass if they believe that you can promote "abstinence only" to help with rape situations that occur in prison, or just looking to punish those who rape (or get raped - perhaps just considering infection as a part of their payment on their debt to society) by ommitting of action giving people AIDS. One would think, that there would be at least some mild understanding that prison sex is actually rape, rarely an instance of actual homosexual behavior in that case - and show some relative compassion by maybe giving some of these folks a fighting chance to not get a highly deadly virus.

That's one of those places where SoCon moral ideas of sex override what is clearly a greater societal good. To put it succinctly, when an individual who got raped in prison gets out, he's going to go back to his wife and/or girlfriend and be yet another distributor of HIV regardless of 'abstinence only' teaching. We're all aware of how quickly the walking dead can stack from one carrier and that giving one person this omission of action type death penalty is actually akin to giving several people the death penalty. Based on a lot of their views on who's actually in the prisons (and perhaps validated in numbers) once can only assume that while they were horrified to find out that HIV/AIDS is not 'just a gay problem', they're more than interested in making it a minority problem via policy like this. It's a subtle undertone of racism, but it's definitely there.

Anyway, there's also some bad news for the socially disConnected. Women who live in rural areas are also highly at risk to get HPV, a fact which I'm sure strikes straight at the heart of most of the wingers who are almost always under the impression that none of that glorifyin' the lord outside the bonds of holy matrimony is going on in Tiny Town USA, rather it's a problem for the big cities. That starkly contrasts with the reality of towns and townys - where when the 'fun' thing to do on a Friday night is to hop in the pick'em up trucks, slowly driving down main street from the gas station to the video store, and making a return trip to pick up beer and sip it in the parking lot of the local Winn Dixie - thus kids are bored, thus kids are screwing.

As a matter of fact, just for statistical awareness of just how prominent this HPV is and just how at risk young women are to catch it, you should check out the the LA Times to get an a dose of reality as to where this all might very well head:

As many as 60% of men ages 18 to 70 are infected with HPV, according to data not yet published, raising the question of whether the new vaccine will be effective in reducing diseases linked to the virus unless men, not just women, are immunized.

It's well worth mention because men don't really enter into the discussion regardless of the fact that it's an issue for both genders. You see, one of the hallmarks of the So-Con architecture is that women should always be held to a higher standard than men in terms of sexual behavior. Consider for a moment, in our recent exhibit of Stanek's attempted slut shaming of Debbie Halvorson, if that instead the object to be shamed was a male. Odds are, Stanek wouldn't have the necessary amount of gumption to even attempt it and even if she were to, the "wouldn't abstinence be better, sir?" argument would fall squarely on it's face and probably be laughed off - even by the largely Christo-Con audience, because women never control a man's sex life.

It's a fact that while sexual empowerment amongst women is highly discouraged to the point where daughters should be made scared for their lives from sexual activity but for young men there's an expectation that they will experiment, without any presence of mind that while fathers may be secretly proud that their son has earned the nickname "Virgin Surgeon" in his homeroom class there's several daughters who have been dubbed slut in the same room.

There's more - read the rest, at my joint.

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State of ILGOP

IlliniPundit, Illinois Review, ArchPundit have all commented on this Aaron Chambers article which does it's best to account for the current state of IL-GOP and affirms that our party is essentially non-existent in terms of power.

The article spends most of it's time digging into the issues of corruption and the so called "George Ryan factor", which the article maintains singularly mitigates the GOP's power in the state. I tend to agree that corruption seriously undermines the public perception of the party. What I won't agree with is this idea that is best expressed Illini Pundit, that there is a double standard on corruption between Republicans and Democrats.

I've gotten into some vociferous arguments with some Democratic friends because I somewhat agree with Rep. Cross. I think, especially in Chicago, there's a tolerance level amongst rank-and-file Democrats for corruption by Democratic officials, because it's such a tradition: Daley, Daley, Rosty, Blago, etc.

On the other hand, when a prominent Republican is corrupt, Republicans either leave the Party in shame (and in droves, as happened after George Ryan's conviction) or they try to eliminate the corruption (as many are trying to do with Kjellander). Of course, Ryan was convicted, and neither Blago nor Daley have been charged, but Ryan's popularity plummeted as soon as the corruption became widely known. Blago and Daley were just re-elected overwhelmingly.

My belief that comparing Blago and Ryan on the corruption scale (at this point at least), is essentially akin to comparing O.J. Simpson to John Wayne Gacy. One was maybe caught but narrowly escaped. The other was definitely caught with a lot of dead bodies in his basement.

I don't believe that there is any particular bias - be it in the general public, in the media, or internally within the GOP voters - that holds Republicans to higher liability or standard when a conservative turns out to be crooked. To the contrary, I'm certain that the reason why the Ryan Factor has been such a malignant stain has been our absolute inability to mount a coherent defense separating the party from Ryan.

This is probably best attributed to some of the factionalism that Chambers describes, as we're yet to find a central message or vision that goes party wide, something that we desperately need to find our way back into power. Meanwhile, while the party is either busy fumbling around looking for this message (or maybe just sticking a torpedo to everyone else's) GOP voters have become less enthusiastic while centrist and moderate folks have been lulled into a trance to punch [D] when they get to the polls, probably best exhibited in the last gubernatorial race in which Topinka failed to energize any vote and was beaten essentially by folks who were probably just punching Dem's down the line anyhow.

The best wisdom in the whole piece comes from Jim Edgar:

Edgar adds that local organizations, from county chairmen to precinct committeemen, are the true machinery of a statewide campaign. "The state party can be helpful, but it's not the 800-pound gorilla," he says. "The 800-pound gorilla in this is still the local party organizations."

I'd go one step further to say that we're not just sickly and weak on local party organizations but even our statewide grass roots organizations who could potentially help shift power back in our favor come up drastically short in both form and function with very little quality control between local chapters. If we had local fronts and grass roots movements, it would be a simple task to remove the Ryan factor. Even at times, efforts are duplicated by different factions within ILGOP. Take for example, we have an Illinois Young Republican organization and a Republican Young Professionals ::cough cough:: Roeser front ::cough cough:: organization.

Now, don't me wrong. I'm not saying that YR organizations are the perfect tool for political organizations, but it's certainly a start towards some real deal activism that doesn't involve getting together wearing Nixon tshirts and sipping on lite beer at Nick's Uptown. Now, if that's the case, that we have motivated younger conservatives with plenty of political energy, why have two organizations serving the exact same function and usurping each other's human resources?

A better question is, why don't these organizations have more significant web presence to grab the interest of other like minded people? Why is it I have to search them out instead of them taking advantage of the great audience of the blogosphere and community message boards to try to establish something that's forward moving.

I could fill a thousand blog posts with the grabasstic nature of Illinois GOP related web sites, but that doesn't make the point any clearer. IL-GOP by virtue of not having a clear working relationship with it's local organizations and grass roots efforts is permanently disconnected from Illinois voters and it shall remain tarnished by George Ryan - after all he is the last GOP flavor in most people's mouths. Until that connection is made again you might as well say there is no Illinois GOP. We can be assured that's what the Democrats think.

As usual, xposted at my joint.

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Happy St Pat's Day

Terry Armour reviews some old haunts of mine. I probably earned a degree at Doc Ryan's University and was one of Horan's first customers when he moved to Madison street from Roosevelt Road. New owners for most of the spots now and it's a trendier Madison street for sure.

Last summer just east of what used to be Old Town West, and on the south side of Madison street was a newly exposed brick wall with an old advertisement for Fox Beer. I think it was Fox beer. I was on the bus to the Sox game with the crowd from Pioneer Tap when I passed it and I never got back with a camera.

Happy St Pat's day all.

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Arrested for Stealing Signs

It took me long enough to find this photograph I took last October 6th, a month before the fall election.

All politicians have complaints about their opponents stealing signs.

Sometimes you see people stealing them, as I did on Route 14 between Barrington and Inverness one very rainy weekend night right before the election. A young man was taking down a 4X8 foot Mike Salvi for State Representative sign.

Salvi’s opponent Verna Clayton, who sat near me on the House floor, was getting significant help from the House Republican Campaign Committee at the time, so you can imagine my thoughts. (No, I don’t think she had anything to do with the vandalism.)

In another race, I'm told a truck full of signs was followed back to a union headquarters.

This time, it was an individual who apparently just thought political signs were ugly.

As you can see from this picture, there was certainly overkill at the property which used to be and, maybe, still is part of Flowerwood.

When I drove to Wisconsin on October 6, using the back road past the Woodstock Hospital to get to Route 14, I saw only one sign on the way to Williams Bay. It was for Congressman Don Manzullo and was legally posted behind a person’s sidewalk on Route 14 on the north side of Harvard.

On the way home, when I saw the plethora of signs where Ridgefield Road intersects Route 14 near that wonderful Chinese restaurant, The Breakers, I stopped to take some pictures.

According to Chuck Keeshan, reporter for the Daily Herald, James C. Conley (according to the Circuit Clerk’s office, the man’s middle initial is “C,” rather than the “A” reported in the Daily Herald), a guy my age who likes to ride his bicycle, was arrested after complaints during a stakeout the day before I took my pictures. He was charged with taking down signs for Judy Baar Topinka, judicial candidate Charles Weech and Dan Rutherford, the GOP candidate for Secretary of State.

I can certainly empathize with Crystal Lake's Conley about the proliferation of political signs posted on highway rights-of-way.

Before 1992 this did not happen much.

Local politicians got permission from property owners and did not illegally post political signs.

It was the insurgent and successful congressional campaign of Don Manzullo which was the first I noticed putting up yard signs where they did not belong.

His primary victory against State Senator Jack Schaffer undoubtedly emboldened other candidates to follow suit. My guess is that Manzullo did not have the depth of organization to recruit enough homeowners and businesses to get rid of all his signs, so up they went along the roads.

Unfortunately, what works in politics, whether it be negative campaigning or illegal sign posting, is copied by future politicians.

And, no one in county or state government seems to want to enforce the law against illegal posting of signs—whether they be put there by developers or political workers--in road rights-of-way.

Without local enforcement—which only the Kane County Transportation Department is pursuing—expect to see the obnoxious and illegally place signs from developers and politicians for a long time to come.

But, if you are tempted to take down some of those signs, remember the people who bought the signs may have enough influence to get you arrested.

And, the rule of thumb is that only ones on the road side of the utility poles are posted illegally.

As usual, if you click on the photos, you can get a bigger version. You can even identify most of the candidates advertised on the signs.

Always more on the weekends at McHenry County Blog.

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Bollywood Friday - Irish dance, Bollywood style!

So, you ask, does Bollywood do Irish dance and music? YES, proving once again that there is Bollywood for every occasion! Check out the title song from the movie Awara Pagal Deewana.

Happy St. Paddy's Day, everyone!

xoxo,
Bridget

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Fake Outrage: Deerfield High School (Updated)

Plenty of news out there folks, but just nothing that spurs my interest enough to crack out a blog post. I spent sometime yesterday giving my site a complete retool from Drupal 4.6 to Drupal 5.1. Give it a look. I'm still going to rework that theme, but I'm thinking I'm going to stick with those colors.

At any rate, I've been ducking and dodging having anything to say about the Deerfield High School Affair in which underclassman were to attend a diversity seminar and the local noise machine is having a Carnival running their yaps about it. For a while, I was thinking that maybe the Feisty Republican Whore has a point:

If you do something that 95% of people will never do (being a man who sticks his penis in other mens' rumps), people will naturally find that odd and bizarre simply because it's rare and not universally accepted as proper. Most will also, naturally, wish you to keep that tidbit to yourself in public. Sure, if you want to say that you're gay, that's cool, but it's rather natural for human beings to not want to be all up in your culture and 'what it's like to be gay'-type business. It's irrelevant to most people at the very least.

I might agree that there's limited potential for making real progress in terms of 'diversity' when talking about high school freshmen but as far as the notion of a little training session that might open a few people's minds - who the hell could object to that? Not perfectly comfortable with it? Maybe. But the reality is, gay folks are a part of life and the issue should be addressed early. Maybe a bit more maturity might be required to deal with it past age 14, but then again plenty of LGBT folks know they're gay when they are 14. But who in the hell actually thinks this 5 year old program is promoting homosexuality rather than just trying to stop the football team's defensive line from playing 'smear the queer' on some poor effeminate kid who doesn't closet himself (which of course, is just fine in terms of the average homobigots unspoken idea of gay suppression)? Give ya 3 guesses.....come on now.

If you guessed "Why Dan, our local hate organization, the Illinois Family Institute" you're correct. You'll note that the most often quoted person on this story is Lora Sue Hauser whom is listed as the head of a group called "North Shore Student Advocacy". What's not listed: long time board member of the Illinois Family Institute. IFI's site lists her most important accomplishment in combating the homosexual agenda:

For the last two years, Lora Sue has led the Alliance Defense Fund's program of "Day of Truth" at Deerfield High School; a response to "Day of Silence" from the Gay Lesbian Straight Network. Day of Truth allows high school students to express an opposing view regarding homosexuality.

In other words, she's a long time muckraker and that's why nobody is really taking this non-event seriously. You'll note that amongst the three pages of news results only a handful of them are from legitimate news sources; the rest from fringe publications. And nowhere will you find Lora Sue Hauser listed as an IFI board member, lest we have Dr. Michael Campion incident. And if you're still not convinced that this is drummed up by the noise machine, you can go ahead and take notation that the first instance of people actively having a problem over this in the last 5 years is is Porno Pete at Americans For Truth About The Homo Sexual Agenda (AFTATSHA), former IFI executive director. Predictably, IFI has said their bit. Double predictably, you can notice that the other banner waver in this case is former IFI guy J. Matt Barber at Concerned Women For America.

You'll may also take notice that the way this is going down, it's almost an exact model that was used in the StopTopinka.com incident. Literally folks, there's 4 jerkwads who share the same office in Phyllis Schlafly's basement cooking this stuff up. Through the miracles of the web, they'd have you think that they'd have millions of backers frazzled by all of this, but the reality is it's just a very tiny minority of hate filled human beings trying to draw more to the cause by misrepresenting something that is otherwise a good thing.

Remember: The stock and trade of the IFI/AFTAH/CWA crowd is the ability to dehumanize LGBT folks to make bigotry not seem like bigotry against another human being. Things like what SAGA is doing at Deerfield high school, goes a long way to humanize the gay community and thus is completely contrary to their rhetoric. Whenever somebody attempts to humanize, their method is to demonize.

Updated info - It seems that calling this a 'confidentiality agreement' was just as full of crap as the rest of the stuff you see coming from the Gang. Pam linked it up and a comment by the author of the upcoming book, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters dropped by to lay the dish:

The rest of the two page document continues to give rules about respecting each other's right to talk and not making judgements on someone because his or her opinion. If students agree to abide by all of these regulations, they sign the form.

There are four other attachments to the commitment agreement that was posted. Americans for Truth (in name only) makes the claim that they are a part of the agreement.

But I doubt it.

It obvious that they were added by whoever posted the agreement on the webpage in order to enhance the lie of "gay indoctrination

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Daily Herald: Hospital board revived

Today's Herald,

State senators approved a plan Thursday to extend the life of the controversial state board in charge of regulating hospital construction.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board is set to dissolve on April 1, effectively pulling the plug on health-care facilities in the midst of seeking approval to build new hospitals and medical centers. The plan to keep the board intact for another five years was proposed by state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat.

[***]

The only vote against the proposal came from state Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat. He said he supports abolishing the construction board as it exists now in favor of starting from scratch, but new members would have to be either health professionals, academics, or have a background in the health-care business.

I have no clue what professionals or academics will add to a board that's been nothing but a source of corruption, and done nothing to improve health care access in poorer communities.

Start from scratch and repeat First of All, Do No Harm before doing anything else.

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Tony Peraica

He's posting over at Illinois Review,

Governor Blagojevich proposes the largest tax increase in Illinois history. Todd Stroger cuts the Cook County budget irresponsibly – across the board, without any reason, forethought or rationale.

They both claim they had no other choice. The budgets are busting, they claim. There’s nothing else they can do. It’s either raise taxes – or close health clinics.

The choice, they say, is simple.

In fact, it’s not so simple. There is another way.

And he ends with some strong stuff,

Our campaign for Cook County Board President last year was used as a vehicle to expose the corrupt house of cards that is the Stroger machine. While we fell short on Election Day, we were successful in shining a spotlight on this corrupt county.

As we all know, when the light is turned on, the cockroaches scatter. Likewise, when the lights are turned off, they come back out in the open.

We are going to ensure that the lights stay on. The heat will continue to be turned up.

We ask that the citizens of Cook County continue their efforts to question the actions of the Stroger administration. Hopefully, by restoring trust in our elected government, we can protect the taxpayers of Cook County and, by extension, the people of Illinois.

Maybe Peraica's the Illinois GOP's Revolutionary.

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Where'd the Greens go?

Anon 6:33 wrote,

Put Greens in elected office and they will actually have the spine to legalize gay marriage.

and got me googling around since Illinois Democrats have proposed some pretty sweeping programs and curious what Greens had to say.

Their Website shows Sustainability was the theme of their recent March meeting in Normal.

Sustained obscurity seems the case. No spine's need for that, and strange for a left party when McKenna's out there calling for Revolution.

From his email,

People in this state are hungry for reform and Republicans in Illinois must be ready for a new Republican revolution – The kind of revolution where we no longer accept the status quo – Where we no longer accept a government that spends more money than it takes in – Where we no longer accept a government that doesn’t respect or protect the family – Where we no longer accept a bloated, corrupt government that puts the needs of the Governor’s cronies before the needs of hard working middle class families.

Revolution, working families: maybe Citzen McKenna's figured out the Illinois GOP must be the Party of Sam's Club,

So today's Republican party should be in favor of helping recent immigrants get ahead and slowing the flow of illegal labor--in favor of providing a helping hand to the hard working poor and cutting subsidies to the idle and shiftless--in favor of a tax policy that favors the working class and the productive rich. Above all, it should be in favor of limited government, and in favor of using government's considerable power to shore up the institution that makes a limited government possible--the beleaguered but resilient American family.

Illinois needs revolution, not sustainability, for we've sustained plenty -traditional and non-traditional families alike- with little reform in sight.

Update: Sustainablity must be the new progressive frame. It's sure not a fighting Liberalism of Paul Douglas: build; don't sustain.

xp Bill Baar's West Side

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Jesse White and Tammy Duckworth Talk About Adding “VET” to Veterans’ Driver’s Licenses

Earlier on McHenry County Blog, I wrote about a petition campaign being conducted by Crystal Lake’s John Blanchard to urge state officials to put the word “VET” on the driver’s licenses of veterans.

Blanchard already has over 100,000 signatures on the petition, the wording of which you can see here.

Wednesday I learned that last week Secretary of State Jesse White talked to Department of Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth about the idea.

White’s Public Information Officer, David Drucker, told me,

Jesse met last week with Tammy Duckworth last week and they discussed the idea of doing that.

They do tell me that we would need to get the approval of the General Assembly.

Duckworth's press person, Jessica Woodward, confirmed the meeting:

The Secretary of State thought it was a good idea.

It was just a first meeting. It’s a possibility that that will happen.

She added, "The director did talk to John Blanchard at the Stand Down."

Duckworth was the featured speaker at the early March Stand Down sponsored by Blanchard’s National Association of Systems Administrators Educational Foundation, which hires and trains homeless veterans for good paying jobs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to Camp Algonquin for her talk, but did attend the second day. Blanchard also put together an earlier October Stand Down.

So, which member of the General Assembly wants to get legislation passed that would allow the Secretary of State to follow Georgia’s example?

If you look closely on the image, which is a copy of a copy of a Georgia veteran’s driver’s license with the man's identifying information removed, you can see the word “VET” in the bottom center.

Drucker reminded me that Jesse himself is a veteran himself, having served as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division.

Drucker even knew how many veterans there are in Illinois:

We have 1.2 million vets in Illinois.

= = = = =
State Senator Pam Althoff and State Rep. Mike Tryon talk to Crystal Lake's John Blanchard at October's Camp Algonquin Stand Down for homeless veterans.

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The Media Wants To Destroy You

I think it would be funny if the KKK were to complain about media bias in their quest to protect 'white identity'. You know the drill on those folks. Their strategy is to mainly dehumanize black folks with clever language, accuse any white people who aren't on their team is being part of the black conspiracy, make parents worry about their kids, and preach a "we don't hate them, we just don't agree with them" line in order to seem moderate and rational, while hate - no matter how tempered in reason - is still hate. Check it:

"Stand with us Brothers and Sisters. Together we will overcome the forces that are trying to take our country away from us. NOW IS THE TIME!!!!!!!!!" (North Carolina White Knights)

"Just because a person is black or another race doesn't make them bad people. But you should always be careful where you go and who your friends are. Young girls should be extra careful. Many black boys feel extra cool if they hurt a white girl. Some kids don't learn until its [sic] too late." (Just for Kids Page, Knights of the KKK.)

Now imagine them complaining about a media conspiracy against them. It gets everybody riled up. Pretty funny, right? We'd all get a laugh out of that, regardless of poltical affiliations, right? We don't get that humor, because the Klan has been long silenced - forced underground. Oh they're still here and all - but they're not quite what they once were. So we won't get to hear about the African American Media Conspiracy.

Pitt that. But, if you want to hear hate mongers preaching about how the entire media is against them, you need only turn to Daniel T. Zanoza over at the Illinois Family Institute

Currently, state Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), who is openly homosexual and HIV positive, has sponsored a bill titled the "Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act" which would legalize "marriage" between same-sex couples. However, the press has not been as critical of this proposed legislation as they were of the PMI initiative -- which would only have appeared as a non-binding referendum on the ballot if the courts had not interceded.

Also, Illinois already has a Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which confirms the will of Illinois residents. If there were any initiative or bill which should be challenged by the dominant media, it is Harris' proposed legislation, because it attempts to supersede the will of the public. Individuals like Harris, and those who support his bill, have been successful primarily with the backing of activist judges and a liberal press. These individuals believe they have a lock on the meaning of social justice and equality. Therefore, they use any means possible to obtain their goal.

Harris himself says the public needs to be re-educated concerning the issue of "marriage." These words are sinister. Just how does Rep. Harris plan to re-educate Illinois residents? Will he and those who share his views use the state's educational system to create a new moral paradigm? That question has been answered many times over. The horror stories about children being exposed to explicit sexual information about the homosexual lifestyle are incalculable. And, with the media on Mr. Harris' side, you may one day have your children telling you that the "marriage" of two women or two men is a positive thing for our society.

Of course, by that time, they might be considering bills that will permit the "marriage" of two men and one woman; or a father and his daughter. Let your imagination run wild because only twenty years ago, what Rep. Harris has planned for our state would have been viewed as an obscene nightmarish prediction of the future.

A few things worth a note before I get into the point:
1. Note the dehumanizing rhetoric. They'll do everything they can to not address queer folks as being actual people.
2. Take notice of the inflation of "will of the people" on the PMI DOMA idea. It wasn't just court intercession - everybody in the know is aware that PMI went to immigrant communities to take advantage of people who don't speak English to get them to sign the petition.
3. Buzzphrase on HIV. Fair game and worth mentioning otherwise. Contextually on the IFI site - definitely an anti-gay dog whistle.

One of the ways the IFI can keep their supporters in the dark ages is by keeping them away from anything that might otherwise open their mind to the possibility that maybe queer folks are actually human beings by essentially attributing anything contrary to the IFI stance as part of a conspiracy to 'normalize' the LGBT community. It's a way of insulating people against things that would change their minds.

It's like this. For 50+ years the LGBT community has been an elephant in the room. Save for a few examples of high profile instants like Stonewall, there was very little public acknowledgment that a sizable portion of the population existed. Call it boomer era conservatism, call it locked doors thinking - whatever. Fact is, 40 years ago if a girl got pregnant before she got married she was sent off to the Dormitory For Lost Girls run by Sister Mary Holywater. If your wife had a baby that had cerebral palsy, the kid would be locked in the basement and rarely spoken of. If your brother happened to be gay, he'd be the black sheep.

Like a lot of our previous assbackwards social conventions are starting to get recognized as being assbackwards, popular media is starting to recognize and engage the fact that everybody knows somebody who's queer and the results you can view while watching shows like Will and Grace or The Sopranos. The media is not serving as a catalyst for change in society, it's serving as a reflection of change in society.

And if you accept the PMI/IFI premise that the majority of the population is anti-gay, then why do these shows do so well? Could it be a reflection that everybody is starting to grasp that queer fear is just one of those old social conventions with little relevance today?

So to offset the fact that people in the United States are getting away from these social standards that have been proven wrong, immoral, and intolerant time and time again - they drum up chump conspiracy theories to suggest that the rest of the United States isn't actually swinging in a socially accepting direction, rather they're the victims of a vast media conspiracy not only to 'normalize sexual deviance', but towards a bizarre end conclusion of 'father's marrying their daughters'.

It's important for these sort of Christian extremists to maintain this insulation between reality and paranoid fantasy, because without it Smith's target audience runs the risk of opening their eyes to the real world around them. And they have to sow a lot of fear into people who support them. Consider the last statement:

Let your imagination run wild because only twenty years ago, what Rep. Harris has planned for our state would have been viewed as an obscene nightmarish prediction of the future.

It's the rough equivalent of telling little kids to keep their eyes closed so the boogey man can't get to them.

SCAM notes the clear intellectual imbalance between Zorn's anti-gay commenters and pro-gay commenters which is exactly why people involved in IFI succeed: the hate tempered in reason, pseudo-intellectualism, psuedo-science, paranoia really only works on those that are not intellectually capable of reaching the very obvious conclusion that there is no threat to anyone from LGBT folks. Rather the only threat is to hucksters like Smith whom, once ultimately proved wrong, will lose their cushy 85,000 dollar a year salaries and be vanquished to irrelevance just like their bizarre antiquated ideology.

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Da Mare on Blago's Budget

So a few days after Da Mare goes to big businesses and starts asking for a few bucks to have the Olympics, Blago announces the GRT. Guess how that's going over at City Hall. I wonder just how many people are on Illinoize are going to take up a pro-GRT position simply because Daley is against it.

"To describe every major CEO in Illinois as fat cats is a mistake," Daley said. "They don't have to be here. They can go to Wisconsin. They can go to Indiana. They can go to India. They can go to China.

"So if you want to beat up businesses, go beat 'em up. And when they leave, just wave to 'em, and they are going to wave back to you."

"I have a good working relationship" with business, the mayor said Tuesday. "That doesn't mean I [don't] differ with businesses. I differ on issues."

But, taking a swipe at Blagojevich, he added, "I don't have to publicly condemn them continually."

A swipe? If that's a 'swipe', this is a love tap:

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Blago? Topinka? They're the same.

Cookies to Dennis Byrne, who says what needs to be said better than I can. Doing something so drastic and framing it as "If you don't support this, you hate the children" is positively crap. It kind of goes along with what I've been saying for the last few weeks - using it's for the children coupled with 'helping schools' is the best thing anybody in Illinois politics can do. On the other hand, using that to promote an otherwise bad idea like the GRT is fairly immoral. Steve Jobs told us the facts: Money does not fix the schools. Reforming the schools fixes the schools.

Contrary to popular belief amongst some of our commenters, I'm really not dismissing any of this stuff off the bat. In fact, I'd generally be ok with pumping money of into the schools if I thought it would be used for the better output, instead of being just a 'throw money at the problem' solution - I'm not even sure that Blago recognizes that there is a problem. I might even entertain the idea of a statewide health care program if it were wired in such a way that fostered some niche business growth, which is something that I don't consider beyond the realm of possibility.

And the GRT? I've tried to open my mind up on this one. I've tried to see if there was something I can like about it. I've tried half-heartedly to contextualize it in some way where it doesn't make Illinois a completely anti-entrepreneurial state but I find myself distinctly coming up short. As a matter of fact, I can't think of a single good thing about it. It's a sneak tax. The middle class is going to end up paying for it in cash and jobs.

Democrats have expressed dismay at the Hot Rod's plans. Republicans have been out with the criticism.. Suffice to say, there are some businesses right now who were wishing they had thrown Republicans an extra couple of bucks back in '06, and definitely some voters who were wishing that they didn't toss in a status quo vote. In the comments on the above link:

Had the Republican Party gotten their act together before the last election, we would not be having this discussion.

And isn't that just the 800lbs gorilla in the room.....

Call me a 'tool of the combine', but are any of the strident righty's sitting around kicking themselves in the ass for not lending a heavier hand to Judy Baar Topinka. As I recall, their main grudge with her was that there was "no difference between her and Blago". I think you'd have tough time trying to make that argument today, unless of course you want to argue that Topinka would take office, drop a business killing budget, and set the state's finances to self-destruct anywhere near the negligent level that Blagojevich is doing right now.

What I find particularly fascinating about it, is that there's a certain symmetry between that dialog we had as a state party back in '06 and that the same or substantially the same dialog we're going to have/or already having going into '08, as Tom Roeser, Bill Baar, and myself all provide clarion examples of when tallied against the dismay of the more ideologically pure.

The real kick in the teeth: we have to resolve this issue of being a 'true conservative' vs. being a combine politician or a RINO. And if we don't, Blago's budget is just going to be the tip of the fiscal horror iceberg. As Cap Fax commenters have correctly noted, the Dems have two or more strong candidates in the stable, and we have none. We need management conservatives now.

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Obama Not Licensed Lawyer Anymore

When you are a U.S. Senator, you can’t have outside income unless you write a book.

So, I guess it should not be much of a surprise that Barack Obama has let his Illinois law license lapse sometime this year.

But he didn’t decide to stop paying the licensing fee until this year, however, according to records readily available at the Attorney’s Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

And you may be surprised where I learned this information.

It was an email from Andy Martin, the only announced candidate for the Republican nomination to run against Dick Durbin for the U.S. Senate next year.

He included the tid-bit, almost as a throwaway at the bottom of a press release about having filed a formal complaint against Obama with

the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar, and Attorney and Attorney Registration Commission, asking for an investigation concerning whether Senator Barack Obama obtained bar admission based on false representations.

The basis for his complaint are the 17 parking tickets Obama just paid from his college days.

Notice: I have had parking ticket problems, too.

Martin writes,

Illinois agencies require that any outstanding parking tickets be paid prior to bar admission. It does not appear based on the available circumstantial evidence that Obama answered his bar admission questionnaire truthfully.

"V-e-r-y interesting," as they would say on Laugh-in.

His wife Michele, also an attorney, relinquished her Illinois license in 1993.

Always more on McHenry County Blog.

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Headed for some racial tensions?

I don't want to be anywhere near this story about the African American Curie high school principal, Jerryelyn Jones who was basically labeled as an education rock star and then got canned in favor of a Latino candidate which more closely represents the student body.

What we should be talking about: Whether or not it's really appropriate that school administrators be expected to reflect the racial make up of the students. I firmly believe that there's some merit to both sides of that argument.

Honestly, I think we can all agree that Chicago is a relatively peaceful place in terms of public interracial drama. We can all agree that while there certainly are problems which are contributed to by all sides. They're kept quiet though. They're kept out of the public eye. That's what prevents the tension from boiling over into something ugly.

So we've got the black community that's already a little bit cheesed about the Mexican community at times pushing African American's out of neighborhoods, contributing to the "head south" problem that I was talking about the other day. You've got an already tense gang issue in certain areas - between Latino gangs and black gangs. Now, you have a front page news item where, regardless of outcome, one side or the other is about to get a serious pie in the face.

Make matters worse: any time you mention that dreaded word that begins in an L, ends in an O, and has ATIN in the middle when the Mexican population is asserting some civic fire power, the wingers - desperate to substantiate their fantasy land of our country being invaded by people looking for a job - immediately, and like moths to a lamp, turn up to make a stink.

See here, here, most hilariously here, and here.

So as if there isn't enough potential tension between 2 powerful minority groups, add in a third group of white civil activists who seem to appear to banner wave against one of those minority groups via their own bastardized chapter of the Minutemen. Anybody else seeing how this could add some fuel to some existing fires?

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Illinois Prisons: Return of the Middle Managers

They return via a fat study. From Pantagraph.com: Governor now wants more middle managers in prison system

The administration says the proposed changes are part of a restructuring that was recommended by the Harvey M. Rose Accountancy Corp. of San Francisco, which the administration hired for $443,000 in 2005 to investigate whether state prisons were adequately staffed.

The results of the consultant's initial study, however, were rejected and sent back for revisions. The final version – weighing in at more than 1,000-pages – called for the restructuring, budget documents show.

So now, four years after Blagojevich said the prison system needed fewer shift commanders, Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said the agency needs more.

''They need shift commanders,'' Schnapp said Monday.

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Illiniois on Giuliani

Krol in the Daily Herald,

Republican businessman Ron Gidwitz, a moderate, said Giuliani's support of abortion rights won't hurt him overall.

"He's a fiscal conservative and that appeals to the broad range of conservatives. He's a social moderate and that helps him in the general election," Gidwitz said.

Giuliani, who got a late start and is still putting together a campaign infrastructure in Illinois, huddled at a small private lunch with state Republicans before heading to the $1,000-a-head fundraiser at the Palmer House that was closed to reporters. Campaign officials wouldn't say how much the event was expected to raise. It was organized by Gidwitz, Aon Corp. executive Pat Ryan, venture capitalist Rich Earley and banker Robert Rodman.

Giuliani has a decent lead in early polls, with political site realclearpolitics.com's latest tracking putting him at 38 percent. But Giuliani said whoever's in the lead now "doesn't make much difference."

The Trib's coverage, and this in the Sun Times,

"Of all the cities that helped us after Sept. 11, Chicago helped us the most," he said. "One day I was actually driving through [New York] city about a month after Sept. 11, and I saw this police officer directing traffic. And the police officer had a Chicago uniform on. . . . He said, 'Mayor Daley sent me here."

Now that's a real politican talking!

PS: Illinois GOP needs to pay attention to Giuliani. He can teach the party how to reconcile some differences that should not be so divisive. They need to read Cal Thomas today.

xp at Bill Baar's West Side

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Springfields Vie for 'Simpsons' Premiere

I'm surprised I haven't seen this on here yet. Well either way I wonder if Springfield, Illinois is getting in on this action. Or if our state capital would even have a good shot at landing the Simpson's Movie premiere.

The Simpsons Movie is to be released on July 27th, 2007 and is based on the long time FOX Network Cartoon series. Been a long time coming too since The Simpsons have been on TV for 18 seasons.

Why is it here on Illinoize? I figured it was worth sharing because Illinois does have a Springfield.

Springfields Vie for 'Simpsons' Premiere from Washington Post

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Please Advise

This is my first ever foray into Springfield. I am a 21-year-old moderate who, I hope, escaped the intellectual clutches of college life without floating away into an unrealistic ideological fantasyland.

Don’t get me wrong; I am as optimistic as any good youngster needs to be. But I question everything. And I tell ya, my two short months here have generated an avalanche of questions. Too many. An endless list. Insurmountable.

In fact, I think there are a grand total of two things that I really do know for sure:

1) Working with the irreplaceable Rich Miller makes me the luckiest 21-year-old in the state.

2) No matter how hard I try, I will always have 100x more questions than answers.

Even though it is daunting, I have to start learning somewhere. Why not here? It would be silly not to tap into the wealth of knowledge, experience, and wisdom of the experts who traipse these electronic grounds.

So here’s a small sampling of a few things that have been troubling my undeveloped political mind.

Where I am going wrong?

- Do some legislators feel that they have a quota of bills to introduce each session? I am flabbergasted while trudging through the thousands of pieces of legislation. Is discussing the state government’s role in hand-washing a valuable use of time? Preposterous.

- Do public officials show real emotion in public? I’ve seen glimpses of it, but I am never sure when it is genuine or just an act. During the recent electric rate fiasco I was trying hard to read those outbursts, but I just couldn’t peg them. Is there a way to tell the passionate from the actors?

- Can someone really be “owed” a public office? It isn’t a Christmas bonus. It is a job. A difficult job. This discussion of Hastert’s upcoming open seat troubles me. Why do we talk about Sen. Lauzen, or anyone else, being “owed” anything? Who owes him? I understand that experience, contacts, and reputation are factors in an election. But that’s just it, they are factors in a candidacy, not the end all be all.

- Why doesn’t the public know that most Republicans and Democrats actually do like each other? They are friends. Poker games, fishing trips, and dinner plans almost always involve the intermingling of the parties. Party here is oftentimes like eye-color, ignored and hard to determine. Yet, ask most citizens and many presume that the two types of people are in a constant death match. Have elections distorted the reality of Springfield life that much?

- State politics still is a family affair, isn’t it? Obviously I knew that familial connections were instrumental in giving many a leg up in this political sport. But call me naïve, I didn’t realize how strong it remains. The more people I meet here, the more I’m learning how hard it is to get into the game, unless someone is holding a seat for you.

- Has any group, organization, department, individual, or program said that they don’t need more money? Can we ever make things better without raising $32 billion?

I’ll stop now.

Please advise an amateur.

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Who IS ICJL/Deep Pockets Illinois? Follow the Money.

The Illinois Civil Justice League has launched a new propaganda campaign, "Deep Pockets Illinois," aimed at thwarting the passage of Senate Bill 1296. If you believe ICJL's Ed Murnane, the world is about to come to an end.

I'll have more about the bill later, but before we get into the nitty-gritty of why the ICJL claims that legislation that merely codifies 20 years of judicial practice will bring the world to an end, I think it's fair to take a deeper look at just who's behind the ICJL and their political arm, JUSTPAC.

According to the ICJL, they are "a coalition of Illinois citizens, small and large businesses, associations, professional societies, not-for-profit organizations and local governments." Unfortunately, there's no way to verify that claim because nowhere does the ICJL disclose who actually funds them.

Fortunately, the ICJL's political arm, JUSTPAC, is required to disclose where their money comes from. So I went to the State Board of Elections website, and low and behold......

• More than half of JUSTPAC's funding comes from outside of Illinois;
• Fewer than 100 donors to JUSTPAC come from Illinois, but
• Nearly one-third of in-state donors have direct ties to the insurance industry;

And where does JUSTPAC's money go? Since 1994, JUSTPAC has given:

• $2,094,662.60 to 80 Republican candidates in Illinois.
• $500.00 to one Democrat.

Draw your own conclusions about who's interests JUSTPAC is looking out for. I believe that "he who pays the piper calls the tune," and if you:

• Live in Illinois, and
• don't work for the insurance industry, and
• Aren't a GOP candidate for office

JUSTPAC isn't working for you.

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DeepPocketsIllinois.com Launched to Defeat Trial Lawyer Bill Targeting Illinois Employers

The Illinois Civil Justice League Monday launched a new Web site - www.DeepPocketsIllinois.com - to build opposition to a new personal injury trial lawyer bill that would further build their litigation industry at the expense of Illinois employers.

The bill - SB 1296 - would make it easier for trial lawyers to go after the defendant with the most money - the deepest pockets - rather than the defendant most responsible for an injury.

The bill has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“This bill would ensure that defendants can more easily be held liable for more than their fair share in lawsuits simply because they have ‘deep pockets,’” said Ed Murnane, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League. “We believe - and fairness demands - that responsible parties should be held responsible for injuries or losses they may have caused. But this is nothing more than a personal injury trial lawyer money-grab that will be another stake in the heart of Illinois’ efforts to attract and retain new jobs and business investment.”

The new Web site allows visitors to learn about the legislation and to contact their legislators to urge a “No” vote on the bill.

"If enacted, Senate Bill 1296 will put Illinois further out of step with its neighbors, out of step with fairness, out of step with common sense and drop Illinois deeper into the tort 'hellhole' category that drives businesses out of Illinois," wrote Steven M. Puiszis, president of the Illinois Association of Defense Counsel, in a recent commentary piece. “SB 1296 is bad public policy and should not be passed into law.”

To view or post comments, please visit Illinois Justice Blog.

Technorati Tags: trial lawyer, tort reform, Illinois Civil Justice League

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Pizza Politics

Actually this has nothing to do with politics. It involves voting, I guess.

During Superbowl pre-game coverage, Bobby Flay had his "Chicago style tailgate" in which he stunned Chicagoans by making what he called an "Italian Beef" on the wrong kind of bread, with no cheese, no giardinara, and he put a dollop of mustard on it. Horror of horrors.

Obviously, I don't have a lot of fondness for the national TV chefs after seeing one of them desecrate a traditional food. That, and Bobby Flay is about as welcome south of Madison as Joe Francis as a feminist convention.

TV chef Rachel Ray is having a pizza competition. Chicago V. New York. Vote for your designee to represent Chicago.

Yours truly voted for Home Run Inn. Giordanos, in my mind, plays a close second, with Connies in third, replacing Aurelios.

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Daily Herald's Editorial: Closing the curtain on state government

From yesterday's Editorial on open government in Illiniois,

Open government matters at the state level, too, and the Associated Press has issued a scathing report on the Blagojevich administration’s tightening grip on records and information that should be available to the public.

AP political writer John O’Connor, in a new report, cites several instances of the administration’s refusal to release public information. Among them:

• The state Department of Corrections will not release information about staffing levels on the day last May when inmates at a Dixon prison held hostage and reportedly raped a prison psychologist.

•The Department of Central Management Services will not identify those who applied for jobs that eventually were given to politically connected job candidates.

• Illinois State Police will not make public the arrest report of a Department of Corrections chaplain pulled over for drunken driving in a state-owned vehicle.

The AP lists more examples, but these suffice to draw a troubling portrait of an administration that has moved in the wrong direction after initially pledging to usher in new and higher standards for open government and accessibility.

And from John O'Conner in yesterday's SJ-R.com,

Many states have tightened public access to documents in recent years out of concern over terrorism, identity theft, medical privacy and other issues. A nationwide review by The Associated Press found that states have passed more than 600 laws restricting access since Sept. 11, 2001.

But in Illinois, the Blagojevich administration's restrictions began roughly around the same time it was disclosed that federal prosecutors were investigating hiring practices and a campaign-contribution kickback scheme at a state pension system.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff denied anything has changed.

These names especially interesting...

The Department of Central Management Services will not identify those who applied for jobs that eventually were given to politically connected job candidate

...as I would think they'd have a pretty case against the State of Illinois.

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Trouble in Harness Racing Land

I read the most extraordinary column by Sam Lilly in the March issue Standardbred & Harness News.

It alludes to organized crime’s being involved in harness racing and urges a clean-up of unsavory aspects “for there to even be a future for horse racing (harness, thoroughbred, quarter horse.”

“Whoa,” I thought.

I haven’t read anything like that anywhere else.

Of course, I don’t read much about racing, but, given that there are lots of horses in McHenry County, I thought folks might be interested in reading some more.

This isn’t everything that Lilly wrote about the subject, but it lays out the seriousness of the situation:

There is a real concern on the part of some harness journalists that it may be getting dangerous to offer criticism I the harness world. The murder of Randy Rankin in Canada has all the earmarks of a contract hit. Of course, Randy had been most vocal about the “information” he had on illegal activities and was going to blow the whistle.

Down Under a prominent harness announcer had his automobile blown up in his driveway in what was construed as a warning. In his case he has gone into hiding…anyone who anyone knows there are unsavory characters in the horse racing game as in most others. It does give one pause however.

…reasons for blood and urine testing of horses in competition…

• deter cheating…
• punishing the wrong-doers.

Well, if it is to deter, then testing is obviously failing miserably…

I would put much more of the resources in pre-race testing, extensive pre-race testing…

Ontario with out-of-competition testing shows where the real power lies. Interesting enough that New Jersey has announced they are going to start such testing. This is how the Ontario Racing Commission has been able to catch people within the 72 hour period after an injection of EPO…Ontario…has not hesitated to declare these individuals undesirable and denied them racing privileges…

…if anyone thinks the infusion of slot money will solve all of the ills of horse racing, then they are sadly mistaken…There is widespread belief that reform of the racing product is absolutely essential for there to even be a future for horse racing (harness, thoroughbred, quarter horse).

I am more and more convinced that the taint around horse racing and the attendant gaming has reached a level where it can not be ignored. When you ask just about anyone on the street about harness racing and their response I something like

"oh, that’s crooked"

we have a major league problem.

For a long time it seems many in the horse racing game were fearful that if our laundry were aired publicly it would be do devastating that the industry might be destroyed. Whether it is true or not is not long an issue for debate.

As some jurisdictions have begun to lower the hammer those jurisdictions that do not are going to stand out like a sore thumb.

The consequences in my opinion is that those who give a hoot about horse racing will gravitate to those jurisdictions where they feel they are getting a fair shake and an honest effort. If they do not feel their current location is providing that – sayonara baby!

More at McHenry County Blog.

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Olympic Ponderings

I'm not going to lie: my soul is a little stirred by King Richard II's Olympic proposal. Stirred in the sense that I'm still not quite sure what to think about it. Da mare says that there will be no tax increases for the Olympics, that corporate entities will be kicking in a hefty chunk of change, and that the project can already be demonstrated to have a budget surplus.

Call me skeptical, but a surplus in a years away project built into a proposal which is, when contextually considered, a sales pitch isn't something that settles my fears about biting off more than the city can chew. These fears are fairly well grounded. Summation of them can be found over at Beachwood Reporter, but once the legitimate fears are done in that article, you need only keep in mind - Rhodes is a cynic. I'm a skeptic.

By the way, taxpayer dollars are already being used in time and manpower spent by city officials and the mayor's office preparing the bid. And if you think taxpayer dollars won't be spent as a matter of course - fixing streets and sidewalks and providing police officers and security measures - I have some beach front properties in Indiana I'd like to talk to you about. No money down!

Oh dear. We're going to be putting tax dollars towards ::gasp:: fixing streets and sidewalks! Good god. What if Richy Daley decides to put money into the CTA, which as we all know is nothing more than a vast network of death traps. Daley, corruption to blame .

If I didn't believe that the Olympics would serve as a catalyst for urban renewal, I wouldn't even consider supporting such an idea. However, the history of this town has been to take such events and use them as starting points for bringing back dead or dieing areas or create new landmarks in the city. Being a native Midway type, I saw first hand exactly how the city spending money in the area can revitalize the neighborhood. The city spent significant amounts of money cleaning up the area around Midway airport, reworking the streets surrounding it, some additional hotels sprung up. This, coupled with the then coming of the Orange Line, eventually contributed to the fully functional neighborhoods just west of Midway today even despite the fact that a previous retail center, Ford City Mall, was then well along it's way of becoming a gang infested cesspool.

Money spent on infrastructure, regardless of the catalyst, is never poorly spent.

My skepticism really sits largely in the fact that such a large plan over such a long period of time guarantees budget overruns. As the Second City Cop points out, these things have a historic tendency to run well over budget, leaving the host city often in debt:

How about the fact that NO Olympics in the last 30 years has made money aside from Los Angeles in 1984? Montreal just paid off its Olympic debt from the 1976 games last year. Britain is suddenly on the hook for FOUR TIMES the original cost estimate for the 2012 Games.

Once again, that refers to the host city - many businesses make money hand over fist. Hell, anybody with even a modicum of entrepreneurial spirit could probably make a mini-fortune should they decide to enter the fray, or even a homeowner who doesn't mind taking a vacation while renting their house out to some Euro types.

Of all the criticism, I do see some particular validity in something that Harold Henderson goes over the top on. I believe that the Olympics can be used as a good catalyst for urban renewal, but I would clearly state that using it for white urban reclamation is definitely bad. One of the things Daley has premised this whole Olympic idea on was that he would spread venues and places of interest throughout the city, particularly to some of the south side predominantly African American areas. An obvious result of this, that these areas will see a lot of gentrification - leading a great deal of the residents to do what many black folks find themselves doing when neighborhoods start getting white: Head south.

We already have an astounding problem with the South Suburbs becoming the Second City's Second City. I feel very little need to contribute to the problem.

When the Olympic proposal story first broke, a lot of the calls for the venue placement to be in African American neighborhoods were from the African American community. Why they're asking for their own undoing, I haven't the slightest. On the other hand, gentrification is going to happen one way or the other. Having the Olympics might speed it up and help it worm it's way into places it might otherwise have difficulty penetrating; though not having the Olympics isn't going to stop it.

Should Chicago be selected by as the host city, I'm thinking the biggest concern should be a lot of oversight of the Olympic project as to avoid the city being permanently placed in debt.

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"An Irrevocable Mistake" on Financial Aid

I think I'm still shocked by just how bold the Gov's budget is. Between an extra 10 billion for schools, a statewide healthcare program, and the GRT - I'm really surprised that Blagojevich came out of his Rezco indictment bomb shelter to drop out something so radical.

Belleville News Democrat has a great overview of the proposed business tax, a nifty blog I just discovered called Ora et Labora has a Economics 101 look at the GRT as well.

You don't need to be Larry Kudlow to figure out what's going on here: It's medium sized businesses that will be hurt the most and it's the middle class folks who patronize those businesses that will be paying for it.

Whilst I've spent the last few days chewing on that, I sniffed sniffed this off the Tribune:

State officials are preparing quietly to sell the majority of the state's $3.4 billion in student loans to lending companies in a controversial deal involving longtime friends and contributors to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Legislators blocked a proposal in the 2005 budget to sell the loans for a one-time windfall, a move critics feared could gut services to college students and their families and leave them at the mercy of private lenders.

It's not just the fact that FA is going more private that bugs me. It's the fact that it's going private at the hands of a well known Blago crony.

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Paul Green Trashes Con-Con

Now a Roosevelt University Professor of Policy Studies, Dr. Paul Green is well known to governmental officials.

Many have heard him speak at conventions.

Having served as a township supervisor, he brings an understanding of the political arena that few academics have.

Thursday night, Green spoke to the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation’s annual dinner. One of his former students is now the EDC President Chris Manheim

You can read what the Northwest Herald reporter Lix Wolgemuth wrote, but missing from that coverage was an almost diatribe brought on by a woman asking his opinion of holding another constitutional convention.

He said it would be “held over my dead body,” that it would be “a disaster.”

He waxed eloquently about the quality of the delegates to the 1970 constitutional convention, the first held in 100 years.

We “never had brighter people discussing anything,” he said.

“It was legitimate.”

I wonder what political entities are illegitimate.

Referring to a new constitutional convention, he observed,

It would be a lobbyist’s dream.

It would be a taxpayer’s nightmare.

The quality of people would not be the same.

= = = = =
Locally, 1970 con-con delegates were Jeff Ladd of Crystal Lake, Jeanette Mullin of Barrington, Stan Johnson of DeKalb and Maxine Wymore, from northern McHenry County, I believe.

More on the weekends at McHenry County Blog.

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Shake down the Hoosiers?

Via One Man's Thoughts,

Essential products and services - Given the historic policy of maintaining access to food and pharmaceuticals, the retail sale of food and pharmaceuticals to Illinois residents [Baar's emphasis] will not be subject to gross receipts tax. In addition, state Medicaid payments to practitioners will also be exempt from the gross receipts tax, providing an incentive for doctors and dentists to enroll Medicaid-eligible patients.

So grandma visits from Florida and we take her to Lalo's and she pays GRT and I don't? We have to show our drivers licenses as proof? What about illegals? Or Hoosiers?

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The Democrat's Health Insurance Plan

Tightening the link betweeen employment and insurance coverage seems exactly the wrong way to go. It's regressive to when we worked our lifetimes (or tried too) for a single employer. That age is gone. From the Labor Law Center Blog,

However, the governor’s plan also calls for a new payroll tax as well on employers in the state who do not provide health care insurance to their employees.

So in this way at least, the plan by Gov. Blagojevich would reinforce the employer based health care insurance system that is currently the mainstream in the country. Other plans out there, such as President Bush’s, plan in part to remove this employer based health care system.

This is mainstream, not innovative. It's a plan for yesterday's economy, not tomorrow's.

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Adlai III's Best Idea

I can’t remember much about Adlai Stevenson, the 3rd.

After winning a state rep. seat in the 1964 bed sheet ballot, he was elected State Treasurer two years later, the same year that I was elected McHenry County Treasurer (despite my pitching Republican Harris Rowe in my fall pamphlet).

When he was talking about using state deposits to encourage loans for certain purposes, I remember visiting with him in his office. I suggested linking state money to Small Business Administration loans, having had that agency’s budget as my responsibility while I was a Budget Examiner in the U.S. Bureau of the Budget in 1965-66.

(When the tornado hit Belvidere, I offered to deposit some of the illegal surplus the McHenry County Board was accumulating to build the new courthouse in the towns banks, but apparently they were flush enough not to need it.)

But, back to Stevenson. I remember being disappointed enough with his service in the U.S. Senate to announce I was going to run against him. And actually doing some campaigning as far south as Lawrence County, hosted by State Rep. Roscoe Cunningham. (I wish I still had the welcoming poster. It had a characterature of me that actually looked like me.)

One thing that did impress me about Stevenson’s service was his suggestion—enacted into law—that the country have daylight savings time all year round.

That was during the energy crisis.

I wish we still had it.

But starting daylight savings time March 11th, as we do this year, is better than waiting until several weeks later. Last year the switch was made April 2nd, three weeks later.

Next fall daylight savings time will be pushed into November.

That will give trick or treaters more daylight time to gather goodies.

Unfortunately, it is not extended far enough into November to cover election day.

So, I lift a thank you toast to Adlai Stevenson, III, a man ahead of his time…at least as far as time goes.

More on the weekend at McHenry County Blog.

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Let the Games Begin in the 14th

Interesting set of reactions to my post concerning Jim Oberweis a few days back. Some folks were furious, a few thought it was right on, and I had a nice chat with State Sen. Chris Lauzen about his own ambitions for the slot.

Lauzen intends to highlight his consistent record of 15 years as a reform Republican in the Illinois Statehouse. It is a good message. Lauzen has been a consistent voice for fiscal sanity in the legislature and has worked tirelessly and consistently on behalf of issues that are important to the Republican wing of the Republican Party. My affection for Oberweis was not intended to slight Lauzen. But there is a significant hurdle he has to overcome.

Politics is not a game of wishful thinking. I get weary when people talk about how things ought to be. Not that I would not like to see changes - I would; and quite a lot of them, at that. But in order to get into place to effect those changes, you have to play the hand you are dealt right now. The fact is federal finance rules put anyone who is not an incumbent, not anointed by a united party or not personally rich at a huge disadvantage. This is what campaign finance reform has wrought - ironic when the founders took great pains to see that this sort of situation did not develop, even conceding that there would be pockets of graft, which was preferable to setting up a system that would effectively block out large segments of the electorate. I have never supported the incumbent-protection schemes that go under the pretty name of campaign finance reform, but I and everyone who works in the field has to deal with the reality of them.
Some argued that Lauzen deserves the nomination and no one should challenge him. They may be right, but it is not the way our system works. I didn't like it when old establishment Republicans would tell us who we have to support in a primary and I'm not very sympathetic when conservatives adopt the same tactic, even if I am sympathetic to a particular candidate involved. I would like it to be a fair fight, which incumbent-protection schemes (campaign finance reform) often prevent. But I am convinced that the only way you earn a nomination is by winning it.

The hurdle Lauzen has to overcome is money. It is a lot harder to raise money in a federal race. If he can't raise in excess of a million dollars for the primary, it matters little how much he might deserve the nomination; he can't win it. And as ugly as that may seem, there is a practical base there, too. There isn't going to be money flowing freely out of Washington to whoever the nominee is in this district. Since the loss of the majority, the money spigots to non-incumbent Republicans has dried up substantially. What money there is will be directed to those states where Republicans have the best odds. Out of the 50 states, Illinois ranks about 67th on this list. So if a guy can't get the money for the primary he is not going to have the money for the general election. The odds then loom large for a Democratic takeover of the seat.

If Lauzen shows a sudden and vigorous fundraising prowess, then you have a real and interesting contest for this nomination. But if he gets in and shows up with just a couple hundred thousand for the September report, it's not going to happen for him.

I certainly think either Oberweis or Lauzen would make an excellent Congressman. Each can point to certain strengths. What I do not think is prudent is for any activists to become so inflamed with fury during the primary that they damage whoever the eventual nominee is.
In a larger sense, while the old Republican establishment is not yet dead in Illinois, it is mortally wounded. There is a vacuum here and there will be competition over who the people are who will rise to fill that vacuum. There is no avoiding that. What can be avoided, however, is the policy of mutually assured destruction that the bickering wings of the party have engaged in for the last decade or so. It is a policy both sides have succeeded in.

Let us disagree vigorously and pointedly. But let us do it with respect and civility, seeking victory through the weight of our respective arguments and the power of our respective ideas rather than the nastiness of our bombast or the contempt in our snarls.

Cross-posted at Illinois Review

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Springfield Celebrity

On Wednesday the Capitol was graced with a rare and special appearance by a true Illinois fighter.

Someone who has been pouring his blood and sweat into giving the public what they clamor for and yearn to see.

A genuine role model and spokeman for our state.

Crowds built wherever he traveled in the capitol building, eager for a handshake, comment, or photo.

I was one of the lucky ones able to catch up with the man himself:

9-time Ultimate Fighting Championship Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes.

A Hillsboro native, and Eastern Illinois alum, Matt was a wrestling champion before venturing into the professional fighting world in 1996. He has since come to dominate the octagon, earning national fame with over 43 mixed martial arts victories.

Ask any devout UFC fan and they will tell you, "He's kind of a big deal."

The Executive Director of UFC personally asked Matt to head to Springfield to offer support for a bill that is currently welded its way through the process. The bill would ease restrictions on the fighting in the state, allowing for increased UFC activity within the our borders.

Matt was incredibly gracious throughout his visit. The echoes of the Governor’s State of the State speech could be heard in the background while the fighter mingled with a growing crowd; word spread quickly of his presence in the capitol.

He eventually did grow tired of the attention. And, like any good fighter, a quick headlock signaled his intention to leave.

We wish Matt the best of luck. May he continue to use his brawn, stamina, and brute monstrousness to do us proud.

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The Idea Shop on Democrat's Gross Receipt Tax

The Idea Shop sees fodder for Econ Grad Student studies,

This whole episode is pretty disappointing—a true victory of politics over intellectual honesty and sound policy. No economist worth her salt would ever recommend a GRT over the many, many good alternative ways of raising revenue that don’t lead to the hidden economic distortions of GRTs. Yet the Illinois governor’s office forges ahead, selling a widely discredited tax structure to the public as a tax on “business” rather than people.

This turgid resistance to the advice of economists is a remarkable thing to see first hand. As communicators, economists have a lot of work to do.

On the plus side, this wave of new GRTs promises plenty of good data on their economic drawbacks in about a half-dozen years. Watch for some terrific applied public finance work in about 2017.

Update: from an earlier Idea Shop post,

A note for trivia buffs: gross receipts taxes made a famous appearance in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged—remember the scene when central planner Wesley Mouch hits Colorado with a 5 percent gross sales tax, somewhere around page 250? The tragicomedy of bad tax policy continues. Read the full piece here.

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Sun Times: Woman with ties to gov's wife allegedly stole $2.1 mil.

Illinois is a mess. Today's Sun Times,

Anita Mahajan, who has had business ties to Gov. Blagojevich's wife, used lucrative no-bid contracts to steal $2.1 million from taxpayers while lying about her company's tax status, prosecutors said Thursday.

Mahajan, 55, was released on $250,000 bond Thursday night after being charged with six felonies.

The Pols all tangled together in greedy embrace. Somebody is going cut through this ugly knot. I don't if it will be Cal's Stop Rod, but this will come apart.

Anita and Amrish Mahajan are prominent members of Chicago's Indian-American community, with deep ties to some of the state's best-known politicians.

Amrish is president of Harvey-based Mutual Bank and was one of Mayor Daley's first appointees when he was named to a seat on Chicago's Plan Commission in 1989.

The couple were born in India. Amrish met and married Anita after becoming a U.S. citizen in the mid-1970s, and he described himself as a Democrat in a 1988 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.

"Indians must unite, get involved. Politics is part of the game," he said then.

Amrish and other directors of Mutual Bank have been generous political donors. As a group, they and their companies have contributed $40,000 to Gov. Blagojevich, $57,500 to former Gov. George Ryan and $37,500 to Daley since 1998.

Besides giving money to Blagojevich, the Mahajans have ties to former Blagojevich fund-raiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Rezko was indicted last year on federal charges stemming from an alleged fraud scheme involving state pension money.

Mutual Bank, records show, has lent money to Rezko.

In 2005, Mutual Bank held the mortgage on a lot that Rezko's wife, Rita, bought next to Sen. Barack Obama's South Side house.

Update: From Kass today,

Another interesting note is the investigation itself. The fraud charges against Anita Mahajan are not federal charges. They're state charges, filed by the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Suddenly, State's Atty. Richard Devine--the mayor's choice for U.S. attorney in Chicago years ago--has developed a hunger for public corruption cases.

Let's hope the locals don't ruin the infield before the feds play.

In January, five days before search warrants were served allowing county investigators to seize the Mahajan drug testing company files, Mayor Daley had the amazing foresight to quietly return Mahajan's $5,000 contribution.

The mayor, a White Sox fan, is smart. Blagojevich isn't even in the same ballpark.

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Bill Brady Rolls Out StopRod.org

State Senator Bill Brady has borrowed a page from his colleague State Senator Dan Rutherford by setting up an internet-based campaign to oppose Governor Rod Blagojevich’s tax hikes.

Rutherford did it before he ran for Secretary of State, concentrating of the fees that were imposed during Governor Blagojevich’s first year in office. I especially remember getting emails attacking the unfairness of sewage treatment fees imposed by the Illinois EPA.

Brady is attacking a larger target—the Democratic Party governor’s 6 billion Gross Receipts Tax.

Here is his press release:

Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) today launched a new website – StopRod.org – to give Illinois citizens an opportunity to learn how Governor Blagojevich’s massive new tax increase may affect them and to register their opposition to it.

“This is the largest proposed tax increase in the history of Illinois,” Brady said.

“I think it is important that consumers and businesses alike know they face higher costs and bigger government if the Governor somehow pushes this through the Democrat- controlled General Assembly. This is the governor again sticking its hands into the pockets of every business and every consumer in Illinois, to the tune of $6 billion just to pay for programs the state cannot afford today.”

“This is a tax that everyone who is concerned about the long-term economic security of Illinois should oppose. Illinois already is the eighth-worst job producing state in the nation, thanks to the Governor’s anti-job policies over the last four years.
With these new taxes, even more Illinois businesses will shut their doors or move across the stateline, and the financial vitality of Illinois families will be even more threatened,” Brady added.

No state funds are being used to support the new website, which is being paid for by Brady’s political committee, Citizens for Bill Brady.

Brady came in third in the Republican Party primary for governor in 2006.

First posted at McHenry County Blog.

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Adjusting Parental Notification

Hmm. So Jill Stanek can take a perfectly good representation of Catholic virtue and mock it via photoshop. I am completely outraged:






I guess that means I can fairly show you what Jill would look like if her odd ball band of quasi-feminists have their own self-loathing ways:


That picture was chosen simply because I know that the following are true:

-When you compare Christian fundamentalists to Muslim fundamentalist, they immediately wax like it's 1201 and rush to Innocent's Vatican for a Crusade against you.
-If you don't have a thing for snark art and you don't get this piece, I would probably explain it to you using the example of Jill Stanek. (If you're still not getting it, the joke might be on you - fair warning)
-Irony, Irony, Irony.

I just want to point out that Jill's latest has the intellectual honesty of a used car salesman. And yet, I think I would rather sit through a guy selling me a 'great condition' Ford Focus with 100k miles on it, rather than listen to what Jill has to say about good policy and bad policy.

Feminism For Dummies :
The reason why Jill and Co are upset about adding clergy to parents in terms of notification, is for the very same reason her ilk expects Debbie Halvorson to stand and expose her slutitude to the general public. It's the same thing, when she expects a teenage woman who has an 'oops' to face her parents, who may very well beat her to death, but a risk the Stanek crowd is willing to take to make sure that all women are swimming in Schlafly Pond Of Un-Fulfillment. By mandating that a young woman to face her parents, by which, safely assume Stanek means "Father". For more information, see patriarchy.

Get it yet? Thought so. Now for Actual Crazy Quotes From the Comments(TM) (crazy parts have been bolded, to make it easier on you):

No one is saying it's "a bad thing" to speak to someone else; I believe the point is that it is not proper for that someone else to then have authority to okay the girl's abortion. Big difference.

Just another attempt of pro-abortionists to take away parents right of consent over their children.

Jill also makes a valid point about how there are "clergy" to support just about any idiotic idea that you can imagine.

The first two provide a theme. The third is just funny.

One of the interesting things you'll note that almost always be it on the issue of choice, gay rights, or the HPV vaccination is that the targets of the discussion (women, queer folk, or young girls) all have a valid human condition causation working for them. We all know it. We all get it.

But, in order to service their argument correctly they'll always attempt to dehumanize the target. There's a few methods. When it comes to abortion in general they like "abortionist". If it's a discussion of teens having abortions, they just over ride the issue and pretend like the woman doesn't exist in the discussion. Gay rights - look for a key marker of 'homosexual agenda' or 'homosexual lifestyle'. HPV vaccination the discussion almost always rides to the completely head up your arse idea of abstinence.

They will never consider that for every woman thinking of having an abortion there's a woman who's in a very bad situation whom is making a very difficult decision. They will never consider that for every person living the homosexual lifestyle, there's man or a woman who wants to love and be loved. They will never talk about for every woman who gets HPV and later cervical cancer, that there's actually a woman deep down in there who was seeking gratification through sexual means.

And when they take out all of that human condition they fill the void with:

Jesus gave his life so that others could live. Not so that they could live, and then kill their children.

Raise your hand if you're starting to get it.

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Task at Hand: Negotiating Faith

There's plenty of good things to blog about today. Plenty of Blago talk and plenty of health care talk. Today is blog against sexism day which would probably give me ins to lambaste either of a pair of destinctly sexist Illinois Review pieces. There's plenty of other good stuff out there.

As I'm realizing, while I could go after the issues on this stuff (which I will continue to do without fail) the underlying issue here is how people of various levels of faith negotiate those beliefs against political views and ideas. Perhaps that's a much deeper topic than any blogger ought be pursuing, but all things considered being a quasi-theologian (at the very least on how his/her own faith interacts with his/her opinions) should be something we should all be doing as political tinkerers.

All too often, I'm pretty quick to dismiss the 'faithful', often time lumping those with strong benign religious beliefs as enablers to a very tiny group of holy rollers. Throwing those folks out on the rail is probably the wrong tact for people like me who would genuinely like to see the Big Tent be a peaceful place and not a barroom brawl. As a result of casting this stuff back and forth (of which, we are all guilty), we often have a tendancy to miss how the multiple perspectives on faith work.

Case and point and ultimately what brings this up: Illinois Family Institute's David Smith blogs why he's against state wide health care:

It infringes on religious liberty. Citizens will be legally required to subsidize health policies that pay for any treatment the government decides should be covered -- abortion, "morning after" pills, sexually transmitted diseases, in vitro fertilization, drug abuse, alcoholism -- regardless of their moral convictions and practices.

I had to ask. I just can't keep myself under control when I read something so ridiculous. I wanted to get this guy on the record saying that "since he's against sex outside of marriage, he sees providing statewide healthcare for sexually transmitted diseases as infringing on his religious liberty". So I asked. And he did:

STD's, alcoholism, and drug abuse are symptoms (health consequences) related to lifestyle choices -- and therefore completely avoidable through behavior modification, unlike appendicitis, broken bones and leukemia.

As for in-vitro fertilization, it requires the creation, the implantation and the destruction of (often dozens) of human embryos. The average success rate for IVF is only about 25%.

If you're saying to yourself "Wow, this guy is completely disconnected from the human condition", you'd be absolutely, positively correct. Behavior modification? We shouldn't fund infertile women's the opportunity to make the family omelette because we might ummm....break a few eggs?

Maybe without the ridiculous costs of health care and with accurate and functional treatment of drug and alcohol abuse maybe more families would have an easier time staying together. And this guy's response to how to deal with wide ranging public health concerns: BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION?. Granted, I can't decide if he's referring to the Burgessian "behavioral modification therapy" ala Clockwork Orange, or if he seriously thinks he's going to head for Uptown, climb up on a milk crate, and tell crack heads and street winos that they should just modify their behavior, but either way: Beam me up Scotty, so much for the 'pro-family' organization.

This guy is so deeply entrenched in exporting his perverted quasi-Christian world view it probably doesn't even boggle his mind that he's arguing that his religious virtue would be deeply offended if some poor infertile couple were to fulfill the dream of raising a family of their own at the expense of a couple of eggs that would otherwise have the societal value of an ameba. Seriously, by politically opposing providing much needed health care under the guise of 'god's view on families', I'm pretty sure that when Smith's number gets called, Peter is going to be waiting at the Gates with a pair of nun-chucks.

The underlying issue at the core of this, are those with an astounding lack of ability to critically apply what is clearly good for society vs. those that have managed to negotiate their faith into determining a good course of action. The stridently faithful have always had difficulties managing their religious virtue against social progress.

Now I would address this to Smith, Porno Peter Labarbera, or some of the others - but unfortunately, they're assholes. Plain and simple. Real people have real discussions about real things. These are not real people. Smith, for whatever tiny morally bankrupt portion of the population he represents, isn't really equipped with the social skills to engage in such a discussion.

Consider it a question of the day. If you're socially liberal - do you consider yourself religious? If so, how do you personally frame your religious values against some political views that might not be lock step? If you're socially conservative, do you believe that there's no discussion to be had on this stuff? If so, why? Ask yourself about greater goods.

Fair warning: for anybody who's popping up a "intersection of church and state" comment that agrees with Smith's line of crap - you know you're wrong, we know you're wrong, so save the keystrokes, ey?

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Medical Care for More Illegal Aliens?

Before it passed, I pointed out that All Kids' primary purpose was to pay for medical care of illegal aliens.

If you do an internet search, maybe you can find more that the two references to that possibility that I found (in the Quincy and Crystal Lake daily papers) before the bill passed, but I doubt it.

Senator Chris Lauzen was the first to send something out with the documentation.

The first mainstream media guy to agree was Dick Kay on Chicago Tonight.

That fact was confirmed, but not until after the bill became law.

(If you want to see how the All Kids revelation developed, you can find links in this story. )

Wednesday, I listened to news broadcasts.

Today, I read the articles.

I heard and read nothing about whether those without health care benefits who would benefit from Governor Rod Blagojevich’s “Illinois Covered” will have to be legally in the United States.

Would the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Associated Press and others please provide the answer BEFORE the legislation is voted upon this time around?

If folks want to support paying for such health care, that is, of course, their right.

Bur public discourse is not well served if the contents of legislation as pioneering as this is not known by legislators' constituents before it is voted upon.

A lot more at McHenry County Blog.

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So the tax may depend on where you are from?

The Trib has the budget document as a PDF

On Page 32 of the PDF there is a set of actions intended to 'mitigate any unintended economic consequences'

"Given the historic policy of maintaining access to food and pharmaceuticals, the retail sale of food and pharmaceuticals to Illinois residents will not be subject to gross receipts tax."

So if you sell someone food or pharmaceuticals you have to ask them if they are a resident? That's the way I read it, if a drug store in Calumet City fills a prescription for someone from Indiana it is subject to the tax? Same thing if someone buys a burger in downtown Chicago at a hotel? Oh you are from out of state, I have to pay tax on that. If I am understanding this right, it is going to be a management nightmare.

Much more on the gross receipts tax at OneMan's Thoughts including some insight into the impacts on health care providers.

OneMan

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