12 Reasons Why the GRT Won’t Drive Business Out of Illinois

The total bite from taxes and fees in Illinois will still be lower than half of the other states. We have the lowest burden of all of our surrounding states, and with the GRT will have the second lowest burden.

Affordable health insurance coverage will make Illinois a more attractive place to live, work and run a business.

Health insurance costs to businesses will be reduced.

With the State assuming a larger role in the funding of schools, the pressures to increase property taxes will be reduced.

The economy of the state of Washington, which has had a GRT for many years at rates similar to those proposed in Illinois, consistently out performs the national economy.

Job growth in Washington last year increased 60 percent faster than in the country as a whole.

The GRT spreads the tax burden more evenly across all business sectors, reducing the upward tax pressure on businesses that pay existing taxes.

The three states that have had a GRT for a number of years, Delaware, Washington and Hawaii, are ranked respectively 9th, 11th, and 24th by the Tax Foundation in its 2007 State Business Tax Climate Index.

In a Washington State Survey, only 8 percent of businesses said that the state’s tax system “had a negative effect on the ability to conduct business.”

A year after the GRT went into effect in Ohio, the Ohio Business Roundtable 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 adoption of a GRT in that state, calling the GRT, “a more broad-based, low rate tax structure that is reasonable and taps into the diverse business economy of Texas – ensuring that all businesses do their part in funding education for the future workforce of our state.”

There is no evidence that business is leaving Washington, Delaware, Hawaii, Ohio, Texas, Kentucky, New Mexico, or Arizona, all states that have some form of a gross receipts tax.

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Deja vu: Illinois Among Worst; Trial Lawyers Say 'So?'

It's not the first time -- and it's not likely to be the last time. Another national evaluation of the legal systems -- the systems that determine justice -- in the 50 states has been released and the great state of Illinois ... the "Land of Lincoln," according to our license plates ... ranks near the bottom.

According to a detailed poll conducted by Harris International, Illinois ranks 46th of the 50 states. The only states that rank below us are Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia. Nothing against any of these states but they're not quite the states Illinois likes to be compared with.

None borders Illinois. None has a city of the magnitude of Chicago. None has a professional baseball ... or football ... or basketball team. While all have great state universities (we assume), none has a University of Chicago or Northwestern to go with the University of Illinois and DePaul and Loyola and Illinois State and Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois and John Marshall and Kent ... and on and on ...

But that's who Illinois is ranked with the by the corporate attorneys who participate in the Harris survey.

These are the attorneys who tell their bosses -- the general counsels and the CEOs -- that these are the states that have good (and fair) judicial systems and these are the states that have lousy (and unfair) judicial systems.

"So Mr. CEO or Mr. General Counsel, where do you think we ought to expand or relocate? Where do you think we'll be able to grow our business and hire hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of workers without fighting with a legal environment that drains our resources and views us not as a sources of economic development but as a target -- a big target -- for litigation. Illinois? Are you kidding?"

The trial lawyers and their buddies try to minimize this survey every year but they don't know how.

Do they flip the numbers and say, "No, Illinois is not the 46th; Illinois is really the 5th in our ranking because WE evaluate states based on where WE think the environment is best?"

They like to call the survey "bogus" because of who is being surveyed -- the legal people of major corporations in Illinois and other states. Who is best suited to evaluate the legal environment as it relates to business -- to the job-creators?

I'd suggest to the trial lawyers -- my friends at the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association -- that you conduct a survey that shows which states YOUR members think have the best legal environment.

In fact, a survey in Illinois showing which of the 102 counties ITLA thinks are the best from YOUR perspective would be useful to all of us.

Show us where the business community (and medical community and local governments) are wrong. It would be interesting to hear from you.

**

I'm not sure when he said it or what the circumstances were but this comment by Abraham Lincoln is one of many that marks his greatness:

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough."

Of course, discouraging litigation is not something any Illinois lawyer favors so while it's not surprising, it is somewhat hypocritical that the Illinois State Bar Association is using Lincoln as centerpiece of their new "educational" campaign.

President Lincoln, of course, is dead. So he can't say, "They're using ME to promote their sue-sue-sue, fabricate-fabricate-fabricate conduct?"

(Editorial note: we don't know that Lincoln would have said "fabricate-fabricate-fabricate." It is likely that the concept of fabricating 'wrongs' had not arisen.)

A story printed below, from the Sunday Springfield State Journal-Register, reports on the ISBA advertising campaign to promote the image of lawyers in Illinois. This advertising campaign has been reported on before but it is being intensified and the story reports ISBA is spending several hundred thousand dollars this time. According to the Journal-Register,

"a 12-page insert to be included in more than 30 daily and weekly newspapers across Illinois is the centerpiece of the campaign. The insert appeared in The State Journal-Register on Wednesday."

It seems as if ISBA could save a lot of money -- and improve their image -- if they'd sit down with the leadership of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and tell them they ought to look in the mirror.

Cross-posted by Ed Murnane at Illinois Justice Blog.

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

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April 30, 1922: White Sox pitcher hurls first "perfect" game

On this date eighty-five years ago, Charley Robertson of the Chicago White Sox threw major league baseball's first "perfect" game. Well, not exactly, other perfect games had been hurled in the big leagues prior to 1922, but Robertson's unlikely gem was the first one to be called a perfect game, according to the book Unhittable,it was a Chicago sportswriter who coined the term, writing that the...

White Sox, according to captain Eddie Collins, had not let the thought of a no hitter, to say nothing of a perfect game, dawn on them until just three men stood between Robertson and the rarest of baseball glory.

Robertson was making just his third major league start; he was up against Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers--the ornery one was managing the team then. Cobb protested the game, claiming Robertson was throwing spitballs, which had been banned the season before.

It's a common saying that "any pitcher can throw a no-hitter," just a little skill and a lot of luck are needed. For proof of that, here is one for you Metro East folks, there is Bobo Holliman of the St. Louis Browns, who in 1953 threw a no-hitter in his first major league start, and won just two more games in his very brief major league career.

Only the greatest pitchers, so it's believed, have the skill to throw a "perfecto."

But to counter that mantra, there is Charley Robertson.

Robertson had a much longer career than Holliman, but his career record ended up being just 49-80, the worst of any pitcher who threw a perfect game.

There would not be another perfect game thrown in the majors until the New York Yankees' Don Larsen performed the feat in the 1956 World Series. The next regular season perfect game would have to wait until 1964, when current US Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) tossed one for the Philadelphia Phillies.

To comment on this post, please visit Marathon Pundit.

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Walking Over Allen Lee

Maybe I’m missing something.

Maybe 18-year old Cary-Grove High School student Allen Lee is so important that his actions deserve to be foisted by the Chicago Tribune on the brains of readers all over the metropolitan area.

Again and again and again.

Allen Lee’s essay has been featured on the front page of the Chicago Tribune THREE days this past week.

Does that strike anyone but me as overkill?

Or is the Tribune’s attempt to attract a younger readership?

Not to be outdone, two Chicago Sun-Times columnists weighed in with ridicule Sunday.

Mark Brown might have discerned the motivation:

He’s got a 4.2 GPA and probably doesn’t think he’s going to get much benefit from these last few weeks of school. So, he got an assignment he didn’t lie, and he acted out.

Can you remember how irrelevant the last few weeks of high school were?

And were you going into the Marines or onto college?

Brown also hits on the racism angle (as does Neil Steinberg) that I touched on yesterday in "Walking Over Allen Lee":

Unless somebody is holding back some important fact, this young man is getting a raw deal. He doesn’t belong in the criminal justice system. And the main reason he was treated this way is that people are on edge because another young Asian-American student killed 32 people two weeks earlier in Virginia. (emphasis added)

Brown is not kind to McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi:

Maybe you are from the better safe than sorry school of thought.

If so, you have a champion in McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi, who told me Friday,

“If all of us hadn’t acted, we would be subject to criticism for not acting. We’ll never know if we saved lives in this situation.”

Oh, that’s cute. Well, then, Lou, maybe you should try to figure it out, because if lieves were truly in danger, then you haven’t really saved anybody yet with your disorderly conduct charge, which only served to muddy up the reputation of an 18-year old who was back out on the street a few hours later.

Neil Steinberg lists six reasons for Allen Lee’s arrest:

1. Lee’s essay contained disturbing, violent images.
2. There was a massacre at Virginia Tech two weeks ago.
3. Lee is Asian, like the Virginia Tech gunman.
4. Lee’s teacher is inexperienced.
5. Her superiors suffer from the advanced form of stupidity particular to school district administrators.
6. Bumbling “where’s-the-bullet-Andy?” police work by the suburban cops.

Nothing more need be said. Lee, the supposed culprit, is actually the only one who has a valid excuse, bring 18 and green in judgment. The charges against him of course will be dropped, as soon as anyone with a brain gets involved.

More, of course, at McHenry County Blog.

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Power to the People?

There are a few readers of this blog with whom I exchange e-mails on various topics from time to time.

One of whom, whose identity I have agreed to withhold, has given me the okay to print their e-mail last week regarding the issue of changing the status quo and addressing many of the complaints that the public has about government.

John I cannot disagree with you and other politicians who blame voters for not instituting change by the use of their vote. Incumbents have made it near impossible for upstarts or independents to get on the ballot let alone when a race. Add to that the passing down of political positions to family and friends and their are even fewer seats to be had.

Real change can only be made through guys like you taking political risks and holding other politicians to higher standards of ethical behavior and more importantly to serving the public rather than themselves.

The day of grass roots change has been over for years and you guys keep telling us the voters thats the only way things will get done but with so few challengers being able to crack the political machines in the cities and in the states far too few reformers get in at any one time to make effective changes and by the time the next election rolls around many have been sucked in to the game and just want to keep their jobs. Cynical but true.

You guys, the insiders have to make changes not voters. Voters cant pass a bill on term limits or campaign reform or patronage hiring or chauffers for political hacks etc. Only you guys can, so tell the fence sitters to stop waiting on voters to make the change and do some of the hard work we elected them to do.

So the question I have is, political theory aside, but as a realistic matter, do you think that the real power to effect change rests with the men and women who have the votes on legislation, or with the men and women who put us there?

To read or post comments, visit Open House

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Rob Warden: the moral challange of doing nothing

Rob Warden writing in today's Trib on Ignoring an injustice,

In 1982, Chicago Police Supt. Richard Brzeczek notified State's Atty. Daley in writing of credible evidence that Area 2 Police Commander Jon Burge and a group of subordinates had tortured a prisoner named Andrew Wilson.

Daley had the power -- and the duty -- to act.

He did nothing.

and,

Although for the time being the public remains largely oblivious to Daley's role in the torture scandal, the reality may begin to sink in as monetary damages from that period continue to soar.

To date, city and county taxpayers have coughed up more than $45 million to settle civil rights claims dating from Daley's time as state's attorney, plus an estimated $20 million in legal fees. And, on top of the $7 million the county paid for the special prosecutors' investigation, the city reportedly is on the verge of settling torture claims brought by Hobley, Howard and Orange for $15 million, lawyers involved in the case say.

History is unlikely to pass lightly over facts so plainly etched into the public record. Torture, it seems, is an indelible stain on the Daley legacy -- a damned spot that neither he nor his apologists can out.

Democrats beating the drums of retreat and isolationism now. Can't escape the challange to act though. In Chicago or in the rest of the world.

Durbin tells me years later he knew all along he was lied at those intel briefings on Iraq. Daley did nothing with Breczek's report. Give me an official who does their duty, with the information at hand, any time.

xp Prairie State Blue

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Socialism and Education

I read George McGovern and few days ago responding to VP Cheney about war.

People call McGovern the peace candidate now. I voted for him, but by campaign-time Nixon had started withdrawing from Vietnam, and McGovern's issues were domestic rather than war. A key one being a guaranteed national income. I remember arguing for McGovern's ideas in my economics classes at Grinnell College.

Now we have Colin Hitt over at Illinois Policy Institute offering this worthy proposal,

If their rhetoric is believable, if they’re serious about reforming public education, then Illinois lawmakers should consider creating an ‘earned education tax credit’: an annual $4,000 refundable tax credit for every student under the age of 23. The credit would count towards books and materials, but also towards the tuition costs of preschool, private school and college. A $4,000 tax credit – a scholarship in effect – would instantaneously deliver on promises from politicians on both sides of the aisle, and it would dramatically improve public education in Illinois.

My wife is a follower of Mike Ryoko and thinks higher education a waste and kids better off investing their college nest eggs in down payments on a two-flat.

So if we tweak Hitt's proposal here to a $4k credit to every Illinois young-adult for the four years between 18 and 22, that can be invested in education, or a business, or a two-flat; don't we have a program here worthy of Norman Thomas? Not exactly a guaranteed income, but a nice start in life, and without need of a bureaucracy too manage it.

Sounds progressive to me. In fact downright Red. I wish McGovern would have latched onto some of the ownership society ideas conservatives have taken from him, and mentioned those in that letter to Cheney.

xp Prairie State Blue

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Something Springfield should consider

via Publius Pundit

Iranian Secularist Movements applauded an historic bill which was passed unanimously by the California Assembly. The bill, proposed by Joel Anderson (R-El Cajon), "would prohibit California's public retirement funds from investing in foreign owned companies that do business in Iran."

According to Iranian freedom fighters, this is one of the best options the US has to effectively act against the Islamic Republic.

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Gov. Tom Cross

If people can run for president two years ahead of time, why not for Illinois governor three years before the election?

Look at this tid-bit in Sneed’s Friday Sun-Time column, obviously placed by a source friendly to Illinois House Minority Leader Tom Cross.

You can regale others with his liberal voting record in the comment section.

My soul is so aflutter I can’t.

Of course there is more on McHenry County Blog this weekend.

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Marriage: Your License To Screw

Oh it's fun watching fundies today. I've been having my fair share of laughs at the latest American Taliban Production known as stop the federal hate crimes bill. Their supposed reasoning is that a hate crimes bill is somehow akin to 'thought crimes' because in fundie theory the motive makes no difference to the crime. Of course, we all know each other well enough to be honest: It's because groups like IFI and Americans for Truth are about 2 hairs away from being declared hate organizations to begin and - in the world of the Jeebus freak it's their god given right to bash homos just like the big man did at Sodom and Gomorrah. Despite the Earthly shortages of both fire and brimstone, the fundamentalists always find a work around and it won't be long as the gay rights movement continues to quicken pace before that side starts with violence.

But the real fun these days comes from HB1331 or as IFI dubs it The Homosexual/Shack-Up Teachers Bill which gives some employees the right to grant their domestic partner their death benefits. It's interesting that IFI writes up as an 'excessive cost' issue as where if these particular teachers were married we'd be paying the benefits anyway therefore IFI's sole argument is that queer folk and people who don't subscribe to Christian extremist rhetoric about relationship validation through the church shouldn't get any money should their spouse pass. Remember: People who don't live the so called Christian life style are second class citizens and aren't entitled to superficial 'special rights' like money.

Side note: If you'd like to know why fighting gay marriage is entirely a lost cause, it's because even if SSM legislation doesn't come quickly, major employers are quickly adding domestic partnership benefits to their employment jackets and as the business world moves in that direction, so too will the public sector regardless of what trailer living fundies boycott - simply because queer folk on the whole have a profound amount of disposable income based on the fact that the vast majority of them are DINKs.

In order to really understand what's going on here you can spend some time taking a look at how the fundies view marriage but if you're really interested in seeing how they think, your best bet is to start with the fundie views on sex - simply because you'll find that almost every issue they take a huge stance on really relates back to sex. Even abortion, the long time fundie call (and probably one of the few issues where fundamentalists are on an acceptable side of the fence, though for entirely the wrong reasons) really is more about sex then it is about babies not being killed in the womb.

Jill Stanek was nice enough to admit it for us:

Gays and pro-aborts both fight for the same goal: Sex without judgment or consequences.

So while Jill is busy cooking up arguments for why we shouldn't vaccinate girls against the HPV vaccine, the real reason is because it empowers men and women to have sex without consequence, which if I remember correctly I already told you people and here she is essentially admitting that I'm right and that all of you wingnuts babbling about the great evil of STD vaccination are also full of it. And yes, I am gloating. 


Anyway, I encourage you to read through the comments to notice that not a single one of Jill's supporters actually ask the question: "Why should sex have consequences?" Instead of asking tough questions of themselves and their own humanity, they go into diatribes of how to force feed their counterfeit Jeebus into the masses:

Their views are simply evidence of their rebellion towards God. With that said, their arguments are easily destroyed by wielding the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

Sex was not created just as a pleasure mechanism!! Sex has a purpose: to create new life & to expand God's beautiful and totally unique creation on Earth!!! To bring Him glory!!

But remember, none of this stuff means they would argue in duplicity for what they say is 'protecting the family' but what is really bringing Jesus to the masses whether you like it or not.  You might also note that if it were a fundamentalist Muslim talking about the 'sword of the spirit', we'd all be demanding the FBI get over to this guys house and this guy would probably be screaming the loudest.



I couldn't make this stuff up. Seriously. I want you to look very closely at that Stanek statement and realize that those 14 words really are a nice peek into the extremist world view where all things related to sex and sexual empowerment is bad. In that world view, sex ought have consequences be it in terms of an unwanted baby, an STD, or being flat out told that you deserve violence against you for having sex with somebody who hasn't been approved by jeebus or not seeking validation of sex through the church.

And when you're pondering that statement and exploring the implied world view, ask yourself why exactly sex should have consequences?

So consider the rhetoric:
1. Sex outside of marriage is sin.
2. Public policy should punish those who have sex outside of marriage. This punishment may be done through action or inaction.
3. Christian extremists ought be able to choose who is and isn't allowed to get married.

Cool gag, ain't it? Their number one purpose with all their 'focus on the family' crap is to decide who screws and when - which is why the social sex control known as marriage is so important to them because it's the only societal control that allows them to expand past the ongoings in their own mega churches and into mainstream society.

So by public policy validating relationships in practice that otherwise remain unvalidated by the good lord, essentially the G is again departing from the default Christian control on yet another issue which continues to illustrate that their previous majority dominance is dwindling and so to is their ability to control the 'sin' around them via public policy.

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Parental Notice Rollback Fails

Thanks to Family PAC's Paul Caprio for alerting me to the vote taken on the rollback attempt on parental notice prior to a girl's getting an abortion.

As I wrote earlier, I think the existing language is weak. In fact, I voted against it when it passed, outlining ten ways to avoid telling your parents before getting an abortion, if that House Bill 955 passed.

But this vote was a test between current pro- and anti-abortion forces in Illinois and pro-abortion Personal PAC, Planned Parenthood and their allies lost.

State representatives having constituents in McHenry County split 3-2.

Republican Mark Beaubien of Barrington Hills and Democrat Jack Franks of Bull Valley voted in favor of the weaker notification standards. Republican Mike Tryon stood in support of current law by voting, "No."

Caprio said that Family-Pac had initiated 33,000 grassroots calls to parents in eleven districts where House members were undecided prior to the vote.

And McHenry County Right To Life leader Irene Napier was certainly involved in stimulating calls in several districts.

“I understand that the pro-abortion lobby is threatening to launch a $250,000 campaign against members who voted with parents against HB317" Caprio continued. "

"Such a campaign of intimidation and misinformation against members will be met by Family-Pac with a massive grassroots response by parents:

'Bring it on.'”

The bill was sponsored by Chicago Democrat John Fritchey.

You can enlarge the roll call by clicking on it. More on McHenry Count Blog.

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Durbin's memory loss on Iraq

What am I missing here? I met Durbin at O'Hare back then. I shook his hand and told the him I'd say a prayer for him to make these decisions. What a fool I was.

Durbin in today's Washington Times,

The Senate's No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee.

"The information we had in the intelligence committee was not the same information being given to the American people. I couldn't believe it," Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said Wednesday when talking on the Senate floor about the run-up to the Iraq war in 2002.

"I was angry about it. [But] frankly, I couldn't do much about it because, in the intelligence committee, we are sworn to secrecy. We can't walk outside the door and say the statement made yesterday by the White House is in direct contradiction to classified information that is being given to this Congress."

From Thomas,

S.AMDT.4865
Amends: S.J.RES.45 , S.AMDT.4856
Sponsor: Sen Durbin, Richard [IL] (submitted 10/9/2002) (proposed 10/10/2002)

AMENDMENT PURPOSE:
To amend the authorization for the use of the Armed Forces to cover an imminent threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction rather than the continuing threat posed by Iraq.

TEXT OF AMENDMENT AS SUBMITTED: CR S10229

STATUS:

10/10/2002:
Amendment SA 4865 proposed by Senator Durbin to Amendment SA 4856. (consideration: CR S10265-10272; text: CR S10265)
10/10/2002:
Amendment SA 4865 not agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 30 - 70. Record Vote Number: 236.

Update: Powerline's take on our Senator from Illinois,

Durbin accuses himself of cowardice, but it's hard to know what he would say about the other Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee: as the Times notes, five of the nine Democrats on the committee voted for the war, and at least two of them, Levin and Rockefeller, specifically said before the war that Saddam was pursuing nuclear weapons. Apparently they didn't get access to the double-secret information Durbin now talks about, four years after the fact.

On balance, I would acquit Durbin of cowardice and convict him of mendacity.

Also check Flopping Aces.

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Dan Cronin: I hope people are watching

Eric Krol in today's Daily Herald,

Armed with a veto-proof majority, Democratic Senate President Emil Jones Jr. is under fire for choosing ComEd’s campaign cash over its customers, getting his wife a $70,000 pay raise in her state job and helping his son land a new job at taxpayers’ expense.

At the same time, Jones also is pushing for a massive tax increase — the largest in the state’s history — and advocates a major gambling expansion, an issue not exactly popular with the public.

[***]

With upcoming tough votes on major tax increases that Jones seems determined to force through, he could be opening the door for a Republican revival and putting newly won suburban seats in play. But given the moribund state of the Illinois GOP, it’s unclear whether even Jones’ management of the Senate will be enough of a defibrillator.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” said state Sen. Dan Cronin of Elmhurst, the incoming DuPage County Republican chairman. “I hope people are watching.”

Me too... I'm not optimistic about the GOP doing much if the people are watching though.

I'm watching the Greens and so far they seem befuddled on what to do with the slim chance the electorate gave them.

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The beatings will stop when you tell us what we want to know

CPD's Officer Dubek to John Rossi from CBS's Davi Savni's look at how the CPD handles complaints of cops out of control.

It took real crust for Rahm Emanuel to utter nonsense like this a few days ago,

The Administration would like the press and public to believe all of this corruption and cronyism consists of isolated instances and one-offs.

We've got the battered Chicagoans on video and the lawsuits Taxpayers will have to pay off. The pattern of corruption here couldn't be clearer. It's time Federal hearings be held and it's only the cronyism stopping them.

Update: More charges added to Abbatte's case,

He now faces seven counts of official misconduct, one count of communicating with a witness, three counts of intimidation and three counts of conspiracy, the Cook County state's attorney's office announced Friday.

Prosecutors said details of the superseding indictment would be unveiled at Abbate's arraignment May 16.

However, a law enforcement official said the new indictment alleges that a woman working on behalf of Abbate relayed to the bar manager that Abbate or other officers would plant drugs on or arrest anyone who gave the videotape to higher authorities. The woman, according to the indictment, also said officers would arrest customers for drunken driving, the source said.

You have to wonder how often this has happened before.

xp Prairie State Blue

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Nostalgia from '93

Please enjoy this photo of a button from a private fund raiser for Jon Burge in 1993. The fund raiser was held at a Union Hall on Ashland Avenue. I'm told attendance was surprisingly high for the event and that tickets had cost $50 bucks a pop. Photo by Dan L.

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Blogger's Camera Bothers Officials

McHenry County Blog has some very imaginative readers.

More are beginning to make creative contributions.

This fake ad came yesterday and it was a good thing I was not in a school hallway in Prairie Grove, because I was laughing so hard. Note the small print: "flash not included."

It was inspired by the proposed, new "you can take pictures in our dark county board meeting room, but only from the back corners" rule.

First the wanted poster cracked me up, now this creation.

You can enlarge the images by clicking on them.

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Games With Numbers

One of the wonderful things about numbers is the games you can play with them. They can be presented in so many different ways that you can tell just about any story you want to and find numbers to back it up.

This is particularly true about percentages. Going from 2 to 4 is a 100% increase. Going from 2 to 6 is a 200% increase. Going from 4 to 6 is only a 50% increase. And going from 6 back to 4 is a 33% decrease. The game is simple. If you want a large percentage to make your point, find a low number to start your comparison. If you want a small percentage to make your point, find a high number. And you don’t have to make up any numbers.

Which brings us to the gross receipts tax that has been called the largest percentage tax increase in any state in the last 10 years.

That is probably true, but true because Illinois starts from a base that is lower than 46 of the other 49 states.

Illinois is a low state when it comes to public expenditures. The latest available data from the Census and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (FY 2004) shows that total state and local government “general revenue from own sources” (which includes taxes, fees and interest, etc.,) in Illinois comes to $14.20 per $100 of personal income, well below $16.08 the mid point of all the states.

If the gross receipts tax is passed, total taxes will increase approximately $1.41 per $100 of personal income, bringing Illinois to $15.71, still in the bottom half of all the states, and below all of our neighboring states except Missouri.

If one is looking at “tax burdens” it is the total in taxes and fees that are paid that makes Illinois more or less competitive with other states. It will be the total that is factored into costs, not just one tax, or two taxes. When all taxes and fees are taken into consideration, even with adoption of the gross receipts tax, Illinois will be competitive.

And what the money will be spent on, an improved education system and universal health care coverage, will make Illinois more attractive as a place to live, to work, and to run a business.

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Pay to Play Gets its Day

Just a few years ago, getting a bill like this called for a vote would have been an impossibility. Funny what a few years of headlines and scandal can do to help move reform forward in our state. The following is a press release sent out by Comptroller Dan Hynes.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- “This is the beginning of the end for play-to-play politics in Illinois,” Comptroller Dan Hynes said today, after the Illinois House of Representatives approved an ethics reform bill that will reduce the corrupting influence of campaign contributions on the awarding of state contracts.

House Bill 1, drafted by Hynes and sponsored by Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, prohibits business owners with more than $25,000 in state contracts from making campaign contributions to officeholders awarding those contracts, requires contractors to disclose previous contributions and prevents individuals with conflicts of interest from receiving fees from state bond sales.

“The House sent a very clear message today that Illinois government is not for sale and business-as-usual will not be tolerated,” Hynes said. “These reforms will act as a strong deterrent to backroom deals and quid pro quo governance. It is my hope that they will also help restore public faith in government.”

Fritchey said passage of the bill would allow the Legislature to focus on other important issues. “For too long, headlines have been dominated by corruption and pay-to-play politics, rather than key issues such as education funding reform, property taxes, and affordable health care. This legislation will not only put an end to this practice which has no place in state government, but will allow us to focus upon issues that are important to the people of Illinois.”

Cindi Canary, Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, called on the Illinois Senate to follow suit and pass House Bill 1. “The House, by this solid vote, has recognized the concerns of Illinois voters and has stood up and done the right thing. It is now squarely in the hands of the Senate to respond in kind.”

Jay Stewart, Executive Director of the Better Government Association, applauded House passage of the reform bill. “This will help establish a separation between campaign contributions and lucrative state contracts. Given the contracting scandals that have beset the State of Illinois in recent years, the reform is long overdue.”

###

To read or post comments, visit Open House

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Rep. Sacia and the GRT

One of the best things about the Legislature is that you have 177 men and women who bring a wide range of life experiences to the process, which is essential to the notion of a representative democracy.

If you know Rep. Jim Sacia, you may know that he is a former FBI agent, a man of integrity, and a man not prone to hyperbole. What you may not know, and I didn't know until speaking with him last night, is that he is also a business owner, selling farm equipment. The point of this is that he brings a unique first-hand perspective to the debate about the Governor's GRT proposal.

The following is a letter from Rep. Sacia to the Governor, which I believe is also going to be published by the Chicago Sun-Times. No rhetoric, no posturing, just one man's story, and one worth hearing.

April 12, 2007

Dear Governor:

In 1997 my wife, my son, and I started a farm equipment business against all logic in the world. “Ag is a faltering economy” I was told. We asked for no perks, we struggled and we made it go. Today we provide fourteen good jobs and each employee is making between $26,000 and $60,000 per year. Each get their health insurance paid and fifty percent of their dependent’s paid. Each has a 401K plan. Not a bad place to work.

Last year our sales were $5.2 million and our bottom line was $32,000 in the black. That makes me a “corporate fat cat” according to you Governor. Why do we do this when the GRT will take that bottom line plus thousands more?

Here’s a promise Governor, I won’t do it next year if this tax is imposed. (You just lost $200,000 in sales tax.) Northern Illinois Tractor and Equipment (NITE) will become Southern Wisconsin Tractor & Equipment.

Very truly yours,

Jim Sacia

State Representative

Discuss as you see fit.

To read or post comments, visit Open House

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Too Charitable to Obama?

When I wrote “Giving Obama His Due,” I based by story on this year’s income tax return.

A Tuesday story entitled, “For Obama, charity really began in the U.S. Senate,” by the Chicago Tribune’s Bob Secter today makes it clear that I may have offered too much credit.

Secter looked at income tax forms for both U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and Barack (note that I spelled it correctly this time without being reminded) Obama going back to 1997.

Obama’s contributions in 1997 appear to be a bit less than 1% of income, with $400 to his church. Durbin’s were a bit below 2%. Secter notes the national average is 2.2%.

The Biblical admonition is a minimum of 10%, the tithe.

Both politicians had increased their contributions to about 4½% by 2005.

Obama, as I calculated earlier, gave 6.1% to charities last year. Secter does note that Obama contributed just 4/10ths of one percent of his income--$1,050 as recently as 2002.

The recent ramp-up lets Obama avoid the 1998 ridicule of ridicule of Al Gore for contributing only $353.

Secter reports that Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ “encourages its members to donate 10 percent of their income…from 1997 through 2002, the Obamas reported devoting less than 1 percent of their household income to charity.”

While reporting the contributions and total income of President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the Tribune article left the calculations to the reader. Cheney was at 6.5%, while Bush gave 10.2%.

McHenry County Blog reported the 10.2% figure in a story comparing Bush’s percentage with Mayor Richard Daley’s.

More, of course, at McHenry County Blog.

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Thompson's pregnant pause

Sun Times today on KMPG's Marilyn Stitt's response to former Hollinger corporate counsel Mark Kipnis's lawyer about a $15 million paid Conrad Black and other executives,

Stitt said under cross-examination that KPMG brought up the $15 million in non-compete payments at a Feb. 25, 2002, Hollinger International audit committee meeting. She said she believed former Gov. James Thompson indicated that the committee he chaired had approved the payments.

Kipnis' lawyer, Michael Swartz, asked if Thompson told Stitt that he'd never heard of the payments.

"Gov. Thompson didn't say anything," Stitt testified. She said there was a "pregnant pause" before the committee moved on to other matters.

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Breaking: Lawsuit alleges vote fraud in last week's 49th Ward election

A huge, huge hat tip to Tom Mannis of Rogers Park Bench, one of those bloggers who are on their way to making Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhodd the capital of blogger-dom.

From a press release posted at RPB:

49th Ward Vote Fraud Release - April 24, 2007

For Immediate Release

Contact: Michael Harrington 773-262-9473

Mike Pilarz 312-943-9100

ROGERS PARK RESIDENTS CHARGE FLAGRANT
VOTE FRAUD IN 49TH WARD ALDERMANIC ELECTION

Voting Rights Hijacked In Aldermanic Election: Votes Cast for the Elderly,
Voters Registered At Abandoned Buildings, And Repeat Voters

CHICAGO, April 24, 2007 – “Vote fraud has taken away the voice of our community and it hurts us all,” a group of 49th Ward residents said today as they announced a lawsuit to contest the results of last week’s aldermanic election.

“As citizens we have a right to fair and clean elections. The violations that happened last week profoundly impact every one of us. We are outraged by the dirty tricks and illegal campaign tactics that occurred in many polling places in our ward,” said community activist Eva McCann. McCann is a plaintiff in the lawsuit along with community residents Blane Roberts, Eileen Foxman, and 49th Ward Aldermanic Candidate Don Gordon.

A lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court by the group on Monday cited numerous examples of vote fraud in the Tuesday, April 17, runoff election. They include elderly nursing home residents who were illegally assisted in voting, voters whose home addresses turned out to be vacant buildings, and voters who were issued two ballots instead of one. The group announced their lawsuit at 7724 N. Ashland Ave., an abandoned apartment building where a person identified as Delores Young claimed to be registered and was allowed to cast a ballot on April 17.

“We have confirmed multiple cases of votes cast by people whose addresses turned out to be vacant buildings and by people from outside the ward. We have an obligation to uphold the voting rights of the citizens of Chicago whose honest ballots were potentially negated by fraud,” said McCann. She noted that voters’ rights to a fair election were also “hijacked” when polling place election judges in numerous precincts denied requests to verify questionable voters and “systematically ignored” election laws.

Gordon, a 30-year community resident, said, “The mood in our ward has changed from concern over the outcome of the election to a more fundamental concern about getting a fair election in the first place. As a candidate, I didn’t sign up to lead a battle against violations of basic voting rights. But as a voter I will stand up for this.” He added: “Although an investigation will determine more facts about this election, we already know there is no doubt that its integrity is in question. I want to make sure that every voice is heard.”

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, Moore received 4,019 votes to Gordon’s 3,772, a 247-vote difference.

Co-plaintiff Roberts stated: “We have heard outrageous claims that our call to investigate vote fraud is racially motivated. That is simply not the case. Instead, the election has made us more aware than ever before of how race and class have been used to divide our community and keep us from focusing on real community issues.”

The plaintiffs called on Alderman Moore, government officials, and Chicago’s civil rights leaders to support the lawsuit and join in the call for an investigation.

“We expect people in public office to take a stand and help guarantee fair and clean elections. This is of far greater importance than a simple aldermanic election, and we call on everyone involved to join us in the investigation so that we can preserve basic voting rights for the future of all of Chicago,” Roberts said.

“We would not be here were this a simple matter of election error,” said McCann. “We have considerable evidence that points to a pattern of conspiracy, and more evidence will be presented as we move forward with this investigation.”

The residents, represented by Attorney Michael Lavelle, a former chairman of the Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners, are contesting the 49th Ward election results and seek an investigation into allegations of vote fraud violations and conspiracy to commit vote fraud.

SUMMARY OF 49th WARD ELECTION LAWSUIT CHARGES

1. Elderly nursing home residents who were “assisted” in voting without formally agreeing to be assisted as required by law (in Lake Shore and Sherwin Manor nursing homes)
2. Polling place judges who refused to obey Chicago Board of Elections guidelines requiring that questionable voters be given provisional ballots (in Precincts #11, 34, and more)
3. Votes cast by people registered to vote at vacant buildings and vacant lots
4. Polling place electioneering (at Arbour Health Care Center, 1512 W. Fargo Ave.)
5. Precincts where more votes were cast than there were voter applications (in Precinct #11 and others)
6. Precincts where voters were given two paper ballots instead of one (in Precinct #5)
7. Voters who cast ballots during the Early Voting period and again on the April 17 Election Day.

For additional information contact Citizens to Elect Don Gordon at 773-262-9473.

# # #

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Leftwing Hysteria Over Supreme Court Abortion Decision

Articles two days in a row on a national issue. First gun control and now abortion.

That’s got to be a new record for McHenry County Blog.

Don’t worry, it won’t happen often.

It’s just when I compared the rantings by Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg with what the Tribune’s Steve Chapman had to say Sunday, the interpretations were so great that I thought them worth noting.

Steinberg spends less space in his piece.

Comparing what Congress did to try to keep Terri Schiavo from being slowly starved to death and killed by dehydration, Steinberg says the Supreme Court has “popped up between the legs of the women of America and waved away any doctors who might want to perform certain late term abortions” which he says are “rare,” but “grisly.”

“…right-to-Lifers..(ha)ve lost trying to convince America to ban abortion, so instead they are nibbling away at the edges, on issues that give most decent folk pause, such as this procedure.”

I would note that such an incremental approach in the 1800’s was the way abortion was banned.

Chapman points out the problem that the decision presents abortion advocates:

It’s that it treats the fetus as more than a disposable inconvenience—as a living entity entitled to a measure of respect and protection. One you take that step, there is no telling where it might lead.

And let me share Chapman’s part describing the procedure itself:

The court cited one nurse’s account of this procedure:

The doctor, she said, “delivered the baby’s body and arms—everything but the hear.”

At that point, she said,

”The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his little feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out…The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening, and sucked the baby’s brains out."

The striking fact about the debate here is not that some people are appalled and revolted by what is done in these instances, but that some people are not. They don’t flinch from the violence visited on well-developer fetuses in the name of reproductive freedom. Any abortion, in their eyes, is a justifiable abortion.

Chapman then takes on the “health of the mother” bugaboo.

He hasn’t room to point out that the provision is not in Roe v. Wade, but in Doe v. Bolton, a companion decision handed down the same day. The exceptions for health is so broad that it includes, as the second, long ignored case states, not only physical risks,

“but all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age—relevant to )her) well-being.”

As Chapman points out,

”The exception cancels the rule.”

To abortion rights groups like Personal PAC, the group whose candidate Rosemary Kurtz took me out of the Illinois House, as Chapman says without citing any specific group,

”any limit on ‘the right to choose’ is intolerable..."

…even if it is barbaric.

More parochial articles also can be found at McHenry County Blog.

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Rambling Thoughts About Business Reaction to the GRT

As the opposition witness slips from business groups representing every sector of the Illinois economy were being read off at the Senate Committee hearing on the GRT last week, the thought crossed my mind, “This is the strength of the GRT. Because it is so broad and hits everybody, the rate can be low. Everybody pays a little bit and the burden is spread out.”

If an alternative tax is passed, pity the business sectors that aren’t able to scramble their way out of being hit with that tax, because the rate of any alternative will be much higher than the GRT. Each business sector shouldn’t be thinking how bad the GRT is, but how much worse an alternative might be when they are one of the few sectors being taxed.

In putting out their analysis this week of the economic effects of the GRT, the Realtors used the same assumptions as the Tax Foundation, every business that is part of the production chain passes the entire tax on. Nothing else changes for any business that is not at the end of the line. Then they point to the last business in line and say, wow, look at how much that business is paying! In the Tax Foundation example, one small firm ends up paying the entire tax for 30 larger firms. Not likely!

Of course, we could just tax the last business in line. It is called a sales tax. To match the revenue from the GRT, the state sales tax would have to be raised from 5% to nearly 11%, which would make the combined state and local sales tax rate in Cook County 15.75%. Haven’t heard anyone promoting that plan!

I was in the State of Washington in February. Looked around. Didn’t seem to be any businesses missing! The supermarkets were fantastic. Retail, wholesale, manufacturing, banking, lawyers, all seemed to be present and accounted for.

Costco Wholesale, Microsoft, Washington Mutual, Weyerhaeuser, Paccar, Amazon.com, Nordstrom, Starbucks, Safeco, and Expeditors, all growing their way into the Fortune 500 and all prospering. The Boeing manufacturing plants are still there. The Washington gross receipts tax, in place since 1935, didn’t seem to be chasing anybody away, or causing much of a problem. Jobs in Washington last year grew 62% faster than the national average.

Don’t know how the Tax Foundation explains this one after all the bad things they have said about the Governor’s proposal. Hawaii has had a gross receipts tax (no sales tax) for 30 odd years and also has a relatively high personal income tax and very low property taxes. In commenting on Hawaii’s tax structure in its 2007 report on state business tax climates, the Tax Foundation wrote, “Hawaii’s overall rank, 24th best, would be much higher if the state could reform its individual income tax without causing damage elsewhere in what is otherwise a good tax system.” Most of the “otherwise” part is a gross receipts tax.

My good friend Tom Johnson, of the Taxpayers Federation, twice last week at public forums quoted an article saying only 16% of state services benefit business, and wanted to know if it was fair to ask business to pay more than 16% of the taxes. I read the article and looked at how the author allocated benefits. I would ask Tom these questions: Does business really get no benefit at all from our community colleges or universities? Would a business locate in a state with no schools? Does business benefit from the state paying the heath care costs of low wage workers that don’t get health benefits from work? How much would highway costs go down if there were only cars and no fully loaded 18-wheelers pounding the concrete?

Probably the most useful thing I have learned in 30 years as a professional economist: if you want to understand the numbers that come out at the end of a study, look at the assumptions made at the beginning of the study.

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Legislators Are Hearing From Home -- And Reading The Bill

There are signs that some members of the Illinois General Assembly who might have followed the trial lawyers pleadings to vote “yes” on a bill described by opponents as “deep pockets” bill and by a popular Springfield blogger and columnist as a “grotesque boon for plaintiffs” (his words, not ours) are wavering.

There is no doubt that support for the bill (SB 1296) in the House is less today than it was the day it was sent from the Senate to the House.

There are two reasons for that:

First, legislators are hearing from constituents who are being urged to call/write/e-mail by a large and diverse coalition of opponents whose views mean a lot more to the voters than do the views -- and greed -- of the personal injury trial lawyers.

Second, legislators -some, at least - are actually reading the bill and wondering why they are being asked to do this?

They have seen the words of revered former Representative Alan J. Greiman, now a member of the Appellate Court in Cook County, who described the intent of the current law when it was written in 1986.

These were Greiman’s words on June 30, 1986 on the floor of the Illinois House:

[J]oint and several liability … means that if you are one percent negligent, you must pay the entire judgment ... We have changed that. We have heard from ... people all across the state that we are concerned that we are minimally liable, five, 10 percent liable, 15 percent liable, and we’re stuck for the whole thing. So we have said that there should be a threshold. If you are twenty-five percent liable, you are not so much involved with causing the accident … that you should respond in damages for the entire amount. But you are less than twenty-five percent, they you should pay only your share … The minimally liable are no longer liable for more than their share.

84th Ill. Gen. Assem., House Proceedings, June 30, 1986 at p. 8-9.

Then why, some legislators are asking, are the trial lawyers asking for such a radical change, a change that would allow them to focus on the most wealthy defendants, rather than the most responsible? Why go after the “minimally liable,” as former Rep. Greiman said 21 years ago?

The answer is obvious and that’s why many legislators who frequently give the trial lawyers the benefit of the doubt are shaking their heads and rolling their eyes.

There is no doubt there has been a lot of contact between constituents and legislators on this issue.

Much of it has been generated by the many organizations and interests - - such as the ICJL - that oppose the bill. When legislators hear from constituents - not from one or two but from 50 or 100 or 500, they usually pay some attention and will at least look at the bill in question.

And that is what has been turning the tide against SB 1296.

Legislators read it and realize that it does what the opponents say it does and they understand why it has been referred to as the “deep pockets” bill.

Trial lawyer allies still have the numbers to win in the Illinois House so this fight is still in its early stages -- the bill has not yet been sent to the House Judiciary Committee but that could happen this week and a hearing could be held next week.

Some trial lawyer allies have talked about possible amendments to reduce some of the opposition -- "carving out" some of the interests or institutions that are opposed right now because they are severely impacted.

They are using every available tactic to neutralize the growing opposition. Bloggers -- some obviously trial lawyer staff members or close allies -- have been planting lies on the internet, including on Rich Miller's popular Capitol Fax Blog.

The fate of SB 1296 will be played out over the next four to six weeks and opposition forces need to continue the fight -- but other dark clouds loom on the horizon as several other trial lawyer pet projects await in the wings. HB 1798, which creates a new category of non-economic damages for grief and suffering in wrongful death cases. HB 1798 is on final passage stage in the House and could be called at any time.

Opponents of SB 1296 need to look at this bill too. Unfortunately, there are a few others out there.

Cross-posted by Ed Murnane at Illinois Justice Blog.

Technorati Tags: SB 1296, Illinois legislature, trial lawyer, tort reform, Illinois Civil Justice League

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Utility Donations and the Forby Amendment

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

Friday's vote in the Illinois Senate to add Com Ed to a rate freeze bill, only to have the effect of that vote nullified by a parliamentary manuever, has gotten a lot of press.

Certainly Com Ed and Ameren have a lot at stake in the vote. And they've given a lot in campaign contributions to incumbent senators. Much of the money they gave would be illegal in most other states, either because it came directly from the corporation (most states ban direct corporate giving) or because of the size of the donation (most states limit giving from each donor). Certainly, neither Com Ed or Ameren could have given as much to leadership as they did, if Illinois had laws like most other states do.

Some Senators may have cast their vote because they think it was the right thing to do. But some other factors may also have been at play, to varying degrees with different Senators. Campaign giving by utilities and transfers from leadership PACs affect all of them.

ICPR has posted a spreadsheet on its blog listing each Senator, how they voted on the Forby amendment, if they were targeted in 2006, when their seat is next on the ballot, and how much they received in 2005-2006 from electric companies (and, if 2006 targets, from leadership.). No one explanation likely covers all 59 Senators. But the answers to most of the votes can likely be found in these factors.

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Protection Free Zones

I don’t usually comment on national issues, but this article from World Net Daily sent by a friend of McHenry County Blog is spot on and I've added an Illinois angle.

The very short article is entitled,

Death toll limited before campus gun ban
5 years ago, shooter subdued by armed students

It explains what happened January 16, 2002, when a student started shooting administrators at Appalachian School of Law.

A couple of students, one an off-duty police officer, got guns from their cars and subdued the gunman.

He was more than tackled by bystanders, as most press reports said.

Since then, the state legislature banned guns on college campuses last year in the interest of safety, the article says.

My gubernatorial campaign manager Ted Semon referred to areas where guns are banned as “protection free zones.”

Mayor Richard Daley’s reaction, of course, would have pleased the Virginia assemblymen who voted to ban guns on campus after the Appalachian School of Law murders.

ABC reported this Saturday:

The mayor's state legislative package includes laws that ban assault weapons and magazines that hold more than ten rounds.

"There just too many guns in our society," Mayor Daley said. "Too many guns leads to too many accidents, and you have too many victims."

He’s “pushing for what he calls ‘common-sense’ gun laws,” ABC says.

Common sense would suggest that what worked to limit deaths at the law school might have worked at Virginia Tech.

More at McHenry County Blog. I didn't spend the weekend in the yard.

= = = = =
And, Monday in the Chicago Sun-Times a Tom Toles cartoon appeared, the bottom of which said,

Also, if everyone on campus had been armed…it’s hard to imagine anything bad happening.

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Wal-Mart, Chicago, might compromise on "living wages"

Now that Chicago's municipal elections are over, it appears to be time for Wal-Mart and the City to revisit the big-box "living wage" debate.

Last year, in a bill sponsored by Alderman Joe Moore, the Chicago City Council passed a "living wage" ordinance that would've effected only "big box" stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot. Mayor Richard M. Daley vetoed that bill, and the Council failed to in its attempt to override.

From Crain's Chicago Business, free registration may be required:

Despite post-election chest thumping, the first signs of a potential compromise are emerging in the political war between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and union-led advocates of a big-box minimum wage bill.

Sources on both sides say they're willing to sit down and talk at length, and they raise the possibility of a deal in which Wal-Mart would get zoning approval needed for more Chicago stores in exchange for agreeing to support a wider minimum wage bill that applies to more than the super-sized retail outlets known as big boxes.

Wal-Mart recently backed a similar law in Maryland, and while such a proposal would stir intense opposition from some partisans on either side of the fray, it might also provide a starting point for substantive discussions, sources say.

But sometimes, as with Palestinian extremists, people prefer to fight. When responding to the possibility of adding other retailers to the "living wage" battle, Madeline Talbott of ACORN said:

I don't know if you want every Walgreens and CVS on your case," Ms. Talbott says. "Wal-Mart is a great political enemy to have.

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Happy Earth Day

OK, it's shocking enough that global warming is on the tip of everyone's tongue, that Republicans and Democrats alike are lining up behind clean energy and toxics cleanup bills that would never have seen the light of day in Springfield, but this takes the cake - a warm, sunny Earth Day.

Here in Illinois, Earth Day is generally all the forecast you need to hear to dress for cold, sleet, gray, and perhaps a few flurries for scenic effect. So I can't help but wonder if today's weather might be the latest star aligning for the forces of good.

Whatever you do today, make it fun and positive. We have the rest of the year to worry about the messes we've made. Today should be about the positive - celebrating what each of us can do to make a difference, or even celebrating the simple, yet essential gifts the Earth gives us.

If you're in Chicago, you're invited to join us at the art event below.

Whatever you do, enjoy!



inspiring change:
An art exhibition raising awareness for global warming and benefitting the Sierra Club.

Celebrate Earth Day on April 20 or 22 by attending an art exhibition with the goal of using art as a vehicle to inspire global change. Twenty-one Chicago artists have each prepared a work for this event, and each will be available for purchase, with the proceeds to benefit the Sierra Club.

There is no charge for admission to view the works, or to meet the artists and other local Sierra Club members. Wine, soft drinks, and nibbles provided.

When:
Two opening receptions only:
Friday, April 20: 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Sunday, April 22: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
(No walk-ins or appointments at other times)

Where:
Space 900
1040 W. Huron Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622
www.space900.com

Participating artists include:
Andrea Harris
Anne Hughes
Anni Holm
Barbara Schnell
Brooke Demos
Cheryl Holz
Clark Ellithorpe
David Mayhew
Doug McGoldrick
Gosia Koscielak
Hilary Norcliffe
Jean Poklop
Jeane McGrail
Joanna Pinsky
Holly Cahill
Laura Fatemi
Laura Lein-Svencner
Nancy Paul
Tania Blanco
Tom Berenz
Yelena Klairmont

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Internet Vote Reporting Confusion

It appears that McHenry County was not the only place where people depending on internet results after all the precincts were reported in where confusion occurred.

In St. Clair County, according to Respublica, the same thing happened with the Fairview Heights mayor’s race.

The confusion, Respublica writes,

stemmed from overlooking the new Illinois election law. This law, which went into effect in July, mandates that absentee and early voting ballots not be counted until after the polls closed.

The only results available on election night, at least early enough in the evening for newspaper/media deadlines, were those coming from voters who voted in person on Tuesday in their precincts.

St. Clair County chose to report the in person votes separate from the absentee and early voting which gave the impression that the election results were complete. This confused some when they read reports from the county which said, 29 of 29 precincts reporting, 100 percent. Give or take some precincts.

Madison County, on the other hand, did not report results until those ballots were included.

In McHenry County, results in the Huntley School Board race were posted. All precincts in.

Then, later in the night the numbers changed.

No explanation was posted on the web site, although the Clerk’s Office did explain to me what happened the next day when I figured out the people whom I thought had won probably did not.

Seems to me that the electronic posting should have columns listing how many votes in person, absentee and early and, then, the total so far.

Or follow Madison County’s example and wait until all the votes are counted.

Of course, that would still exclude the absentees that have not arrived by election day and are give 14 days to show up.

It’s really strange when the results change without an explanation.

Can you imagine the yo-yo of emotions when a candidate goes from victor to “also ran” in a matter of hours?

This is just one of the articles on McHenry County Blog this weekend, although goodness why you would be inside during daylight hours with the weather as good as it is.

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WorldNet Daily gets it wrong on my hometown

WorldNet Daily likes to jump in on stories quickly--sometimes too quickly. In response to the renewed debate on gun-control, WorldNet tried the tired high-school formula of "compare and contrast."

In 1981, years before I moved here, Morton Grove, Illinois enacted a handgun ban, the first in the nation. In response, the Cobb County, Georgia town of Kennesaw made it law that each household own a gun. Crime would go up in the "Wild West" atmosphere of the new Kennesaw, and go down in Morton Grove according to the "experts" at the time.

From WorldNet Daily:

The crime rate (in Kennesaw) initially plummeted for several years after the passage of the ordinance, with the 2005 per capita crime rate actually significantly lower than it was in 1981, the year before passage of the law.

Prior to enactment of the law, Kennesaw had a population of just 5,242 but a crime rate significantly higher (4,332 per 100,000) than the national average (3,899 per 100,000). The latest statistics available – for the year 2005 – show the rate at 2,027 per 100,000. Meanwhile, the population has skyrocketed to 28,189.

By comparison, the population of Morton Grove, the first city in Illinois to adopt a gun ban for anyone other than police officers, has actually dropped slightly and stands at 22,202, according to 2005 statistics. More significantly, perhaps, the city's crime rate increased by 15.7 percent immediately after the gun ban, even though the overall crime rate in Cook County rose only 3 percent. Today, by comparison, the township's crime rate stands at 2,268 per 100,000.

Kennesaw's population has soared for one simple reason--the town was overrun by the sprawl of Atlanta. The same thing happened to Morton Grove right after World War II, but as empty-nesters became prevalent in the 1980s among post-war suburban boom-towns, the population went down, as it did in hundreds of similar towns during that time.

I don't have the statistics in front of me, but crime in Morton Grove went up in the 1980s and 1990s largely because a seedy strip of motels on Waukegan Avenue became the residence of choice of drug dealers, prostitutes, and other no-goodnicks. The Village of Morton Grove, exercising its eminent domain powers, tore down the motels in 1999 so a renaissance of Waukegan Road could bloom. Crime went down a lot across Morton Grove (Gee, I wonder who committed all those offenses?) but the Waukegan Road commercial renewal is something we're still waiting for here.

But the new street lights are real pretty.

Since I moved here in 1999, I know of two murders in Morton Grove. The first one involved an Oklahoma drifter who somehow ended up dead in a forest preserve outhouse near the local running path. The other killing involved a businessman whose body was found around 2003, wrapped in concrete and placed on the roof of one of my favorite restaurants. Roofers working on a neighboring business noted something odd, and found the entombed victim, who was likely killed because of numerous bad business dealings. He was last seen alive in the mid 1990s.

I can't remember if the victims were shot to death, but even if there wasn't a handgun ban here, it probably wouldn't have made a difference for the two men.

The handgun ban is a stupid law, but to say crime is higher Morton Grove because of it is disingenuous. As with most middle class suburbs, Morton Grove crime largely consists of shoplifting, small-scale burglaries, domestic disputes, vandalism and incidents of drug possession. A local politician told me a couple of years ago that the only arrests he knows of involving violations of the handgun ban involve oblivious drivers being pulled over on a traffic offense--with the police discovering a gun inside the vehicle. Needless to say, although I'm not one of them, there are handgun owners living in Morton Grove

Do a little more research next time, WorldNet.

Oh, in late 2005, while running not too far from the spot where the drifter's body was found, a Cook County Forest Preserve policeman, on a bitterly cold day, confronted me about allegedly--and I want to reiterate, allegedly, urinating fairly deep inside a grove of trees. No one else was there, which says a lot about the law enforcement force derisively known at "the tree police."

I told him I was stretching, and he drove away.

That Morton Grove "crime" went unreported.

To comment on this post, please visit Marathon Pundit.

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Giving Barack Obama His Due

Since I earlier reported the percentages given to church and charities by President George Bush and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, it seems only fitting that I do the same for U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The Sun-Times reports he and his wife Michelle earned $991,296 last year.

And, they gave $60,307 to charities, including $13,107 to the Congressional Black Caucus 501(c)(3) Foundation, $15,000 to CARE and $22,500 to his church, the Trinity United Church of Christ

The percentage of income given to church and charity?

6.1%.

As usual, McHenry County Blog is open this weekend with new content. And, if you missed my almost getting arrested for laughing too hard and taking pictures in the hallway outside a top secret, hush, hush meeting, you might want to look at a posts on Wednesday and Thursday.

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Hypothetically Speaking......

The Rock Island Argus/Dispatch prints one of the craziest, most rambling, incredulous editorials I've read in a long while, and that's saying something. Their jihad against pending legislation that would prevent the insurance industry from opening a loophole in Illinois' civil laws reads like a verbatim press release from the Illinois Civil Justice League from start to finish, and they probably should have charged them their standard advertising rates for it.

The most embarrassing passage from the entire piece is this:

Consider this scenario offered by the Illinois Justice League, which has launched a campaign, DeepPocketsIllinois.com, to oppose the measure:

"Imagine that while traveling home from Springfield you get hit by a drunk driver. Neither you nor the other driver is injured, but a passenger riding with the drunk driver is thrown from the vehicle and severely injured. To add insult to injury, the drunken driver has no insurance.

"Although you were minimally at fault, the lawyers for the injured passenger settle out of court with the drunk driver. Now they are suing you for the full amount of damage. It doesn't seem fair that you and your insurance company should be on the hook for the full amount of damages, when you were only minimally at fault. Unfortunately, if the trial lawyers successfully pass 1296, situations like these could become typical civil procedure in Illinois courts."

Hold it right there, guys.

First, when was the last time you saw an editorial board advertise the website address of an interest group in its editorial? Never, maybe?

When was the last time you saw an editorial board provide a 127 word verbatim quote (six direct quotes in all) of a registered special interest group in an editorial? Never, maybe?

Finally, the bogus hypothetic question. When in Illinois do they think that a jury of 12 people is going to award a penny to someone dumb enough to get into a car with a drunk, unlicensed driver, then ram another car, and blame the driver whose car they hit? How about a lawyer dumb enough to take that case, knowing they'll never get paid? Never, maybe?

The Illinois Civil Justice League's hypothetical question might as well have started out "Imagine while traveling home from Mars...."

I've got a better hypothetical question:

Imagine the Illinois Civil Justice League -- backed by the Insurance Industry -- has given $2 million to Republican candidates over the last decade.

Imagine that the biggest business in Rock Island, John Deere, has given $200,000 to Republican candidates over the last decade.

Imagine that one of the biggest purchasers of advertising in the Rock Island Argus/Dispatch is that region's largest employer, John Deere.

Finally, imagine that both John Deere and the Illinois Civil Justice League wanted to prevent Democrats from closing a legal loophole (being created by activist judges) that would benefit insurance companies and big businesses -- at the expense of injured every day citizens -- and maybe even help elect a few Republicans in the process.

Hmmm....I wonder who John Deere and the ICJL could call on?

Sadly, that's not to hard to imagine at all.

The phone numbers for the Rock Island Argus/Dispatch can be found here.

[Hat Tip, CapitolFax]

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Unsung Heroes Get Their Due

I was thinking about doing a story on some of the amazing people behind the amazing races we've seen in the last two years, but the Sun-Times' Steve Brown beat me to the punch, naming two of the most respected campaign managers in Illinois politics these days: Mike Noonan and Pat Botterman.

From Brown's column:

Steering [Alderman Bernie] Stone to victory was Mike Noonan, who emerged as one of the premiere local political consultants for Regular Democrats by piloting Lisa Madigan's first campaign for attorney general.

Directing Waguespack's historic upset of Ald. Ted Matlak was Patrick Botterman, who has made his mark in Illinois politics by running the campaigns of independent-minded candidates willing to take on the Democratic establishment.

In essence, Noonan is Mr. Inside in Cook County Democratic circles while Botterman is Mr. Outside.

What they share is a nuts-and bolts knowledge of winning elections, knowledge that each gained while working in the trenches.

You should read the whole thing. Brown provides good insight, although a couple of key points are overlooked. First he leaves out the race where Mike Noonan really first distinguished himself, helping elect a longshot Democrat in McHenry County in 1998, that no one thought could win: State Rep. Jack Franks. Franks remains an independent-minded, anti-machine tour de force in the statehouse, calling out Governor Blagojevich for his ethical lapses and supporting anti-machine candidates like alderman-elect Brendan Reilly.

More recently, Brown skips over Noonan's 2004 involvement in the U.S. Senate Primary, working on behalf of Dan Hynes and against Barack Obama. While Noonan wasn't brought into that race until very late, and certainly no one can fault him for Obama's victory, it's important to remember that as good as Noonan is at what he does, even he can't walk on water or stop bullets with his bare hands. I hear he makes one hell of a fajita though.

I'd be interested to hear other folks thoughts on who they think the really distinguished campaigners are out there in Illinois, Democratic and Republican.

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A moronic statement from Ald. Joe Moore

Back to Chicago's North Side: It appears that Ald. Joe Moore, barring a recount showing otherwise, has won reelection in the 49th Ward by 227 votes out of almost 8,000 cast.

Yesterday afternoon I watched WGN-TV's midday news, and Joe Moore made this comment about Tuesday's' election:

Whenever you fight for the common guy, people are going to fight back. My opponent was very well funded by some very powerful special interests, Republican interests....

Lies. Gordon did receive multiple contributions from the Illinois Restaurant Association, as well as the group Chicago Chefs for Choice. The last one must've had something to do with Moore's anti-foie gras legislation.

The former group is a big player in state politics, but seems to split its political spending money pretty evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Chicago Chefs for Choice? I'll see what I can find out, as I do know two conservative Chicago chefs.

Moore's campaign fund is dominated by contributions from the Service Employees International Union. And earlier this month, Moore received $10,000 from the Chicago Federation of Labor, and the same amount from AFSCME Council 31. That's big money for an aldermanic race

It's Moore's campaign that was dominated by special interests, but necessarily not Republican ones.

I haven't the time to add up Moore's and Gordon's contributions, but a quick look at the reports available at the Illinois State Board of Elections site clearly shows to the casual visitor that Moore easily raised more money than his challenger.

Joe Moore, liar.

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

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Columbine, Virgina Tech Threat at Crystal Lake High School

The email header at 4:21 PM read,

Massacre Threat at Central HS - slated for tomorrow.

I don’t know a lot of teens who go to Crystal Lake Central High School, but when this local mother wrote me she had heard that a threat of violence had been made today, I decided to follow up.

The email also said, "I understand that if the student does not attend, the day will be excused."

She also wrote that people calling the school were read a prepared statement.

I called the high school at 4:30 or maybe a minute afterward, but no one answered the phone.

A second mother, who has a child in my alma mater, told me:

My daughter just got home from track and in a boys’ bathroom there were sayings on the wall saying (something like)"If you think the Virginia Tech incident was bad, just think of the 4-20 thing, it will twice as bad (or maybe) much worse."

I asked, "What are you going to do?"

“I don’t know,” she replied.

A second mother of a child who attends the school had heard nothing. She asked if I’d like to talk to her son and handed him the phone.

I asked him what he had heard.

He turned the question around.

"What did you hear?"

I used the word "Massacre."

“It was probably taken out of context,” he told me

“Somebody wrote some s--ty thing on the wall saying something about combining Columbine and Virginia Tech.”

“Then you didn’t take it seriously?” I asked.

“No, I didn’t.”

It may not be being taken seriously by some students, but the Crystal Lake Police Department is taking the threat seriously.

Here is what Police Chief Dave Lindner said in a press release today:

The CLCHS has alerted the Police Department of the disturbing message found inside the school building. The unidentified author referred to both recent and past acts of school violence in the message. The police department has met with the school administration and the school district has determined that classes will be held tomorrow.

The pd takes threats of any kind seriously and as a result of the particular incident the police department will have an increased presence at all of the schools.

Any further inquires should be directed to the district 155 school office.

The press release was issued about 7 this evening.

= = = = =
This photograph of Crystal Lake Central High School teens was taken on that first 70 degree day--March 13, 2007. Click to enlarge the picture. More stories on less serious subjects on McHenry County Blog.

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Abstinence-only sex education programs don't work

A national study that followed 2,000 students from elementary or middle school to high school found that abstinence-only sex education does not prevent teens from having sex. Nor does it increase or decrease the odds of condom use if teenagers do have sex.

The much-anticipated study was authorized by Congress in 1997. Its release comes as questions are being raised as to the effectiveness of the programs. Currently, the federal government spends an annual $176 million on abstinence education, while millions more are spent each year through matching state and local grants. Eight states that used to receive federal abstinence money now decline to accept the funds. A bill introduced in Congress with bi-partisan support seeks to allocate money for sex education that teaches abstinence as well as contraception. In addition, federal abstinence funds are up for congressional renewal under the Title V grant.

The study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research Inc., surveyed children in four communities -- two urban, two rural. All participants received the family life services available in their community, and slightly more than half also received abstinence-only education. At the end of the study, when the average participant was almost 17, half of both groups had remained abstinent.

The average age of sexual debut for teens in both groups was 15. Of those who were sexually active, almost half said they used condoms only "sometimes" or "never." Less than a quarter of teens in both groups reported using a condom every time they had sex. Students in both groups were knowledgeable about the risks of having sex without using a condom or other means of protection. More than a third of all of the sexually active teens reported having had two or more partners.

The adolescents who participated in abstinence programs did not use condoms less than other kids, the study found. They did, however, show slightly higher knowledge about STD prevention.

To view the report online, visit: www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/PDFs/impactabstinence.pdf.

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Observations on Chicago's Runoffs

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


The voting ended barely 36 hours ago. While many pundits have declared the elections' meaning already, sometimes real conclusions take longer to come to the surface. Here, rather, are some observations on what happened last Tuesday.

Raising the most money
The candidate who reported raising the most since the February elections won 8 of 12 contests: Fiorretti, Dowell, Foulkes, Lane, Colon, Daley, Moore, and Stone. In the 21st, Howard Brookins was out-raised nearly 2:1 and still won the vote by 20 percentage points. In the 24th, Sharon Denise Dixon reported raising only $10K since the February elections; incumbent Michael Chandler reported twelve times that much, but Dixon appears to have won with a 128-vote margin. And in the 32nd, incumbent Ted Matlak reported raising $265K more than Scott Waguespack; outraised more than nine to one, Waguespack appears to have won with a 122-vote margin.

Ballot Position and vote margins
The candidate with first ballot position won 9 of the 12 contests. Interestingly, in two of the three races where the vote margin is less than 200 votes, the apparent winner had the second ballot position: in the 32nd, Scott Waguespack was 2nd on the ballot, and in the 24th, Sharon Denise Dixon was 2nd on the ballot. Though it its tempting to wonder if the results might have been clearer had the ballot positions been reversed, it also bears remembering that this was the only race on the ballot; all voters came to the polls with only one race, and two candidates, to consider.

Turnout
Turnout decided most of these races. Just one in four voters went to the polls. In losing to Bernie Stone, 50th Ward candidate Naisy Dolar's vote totals would have been enough to win in seven of the 11 other races (in the 3rd, 15th, 24th, 32nd, 35th, 43rd, and 49th Wards).

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OneMan and OneDaughter visit Springfield...

First and foremost, thanks to everyone who offered suggestions on what to see and do. We were not able to get all of them. But thanks it made my daughters experience much better.
Took OneDaughter to Springfield today, have to say it was quite the fun adventure for her (and a lesser extent dad). We got in a bit early so we stopped by Senator Lauzen's office he wasn't in yet but I got to take a picture of OneDaughter at his desk...

-- I can't seem to upload the pictures so I will try and flicker them tomorrow or something..

Then we swung by Sen. Rutherford's office, no he isn't my senator or anything however he got stuck sitting next to me a few times at events in Kane County and OneDaughter did a parade for him handing out emery boards so I figured we might as well say hi. One of my goals for the trip was to try and have my daughter see these people outside of doing the campaign thing.

He came out and talked to us, gave us a quick tour of his office and talked with me and OneDaughter for a few minutes and asked her some questions.

We then tried to see if Rich was at his desk in the press office, he wasn't so I left my card and talked to his office mates for a few minutes while my daughter enjoyed what was on the walls.

Then we walked around a bit and saw Senator Jones addressing a group of men at the back of hall where all of the governor paintings are. Someone then looks at me and says 'I know you', 'You went to Thornridge' which I did, it turns out Rep. William Q Davis graduated a year before me in high school and having not seen him in 20 years he was able to remember me. I was blown away, he was even nice enough to say I looked like I did in high school, considering the weight difference (significant, more) and the hair difference (not as significant, less) .

Next we headed over to the Howlett building to have lunch (chicken fried steak and the burger were both good) and for our first group event. We got to talk with Tom Cross for a few minutes before he addressed a larger group of students and answered some questions. He was rather funny, pointing out if you went to watch the session what to try and look for and explaining some of the basics as well as answering some questions from the students (OneDaughter wanted to ask about the GRT but I suggested she save that question for another time (she had seen the GRT buttons))

So then we headed back over to the statehouse as a larger group, went through security (you figure they would have had both medal detectors going with size of the crowd at each entrance) at this point I saw Rolland Burris and went over to shake his hand, so that was really more fun for dad...

Once inside a group went with me to speak to Senator Lauzen, so I got to do the give someone my card and have them give it to him. Yes I know to most of you this isn't a big deal, but I have to say standing in that side chamber and having him come out to meet me was cool. He came out into the rotunda area to talk to the kids and parents and shake hands and ask questions he was very gracious with his time. The kids seemed to get a kick out of meeting him and he recognized OneDaughter which made her day, she must have mentioned it to about 10 people later. He took time to speak to everyone posed for a bunch of pictures and was generally a big hit with everyone.

The we wanted to try and speak with Linda Chapa-LaVia as well, the scrum or whatever you want to call it in front of the doors to the house to hand your card to someone and see/wait for them to come out when a decent size crowd is there is something to behold. So I sent my card in (my Township GOP Vice-Chair card I should say) and waited, she came out go to the Speakers office so I able to corner her and she spoke to everyone for a couple of minutes and headed over to the Speakers office. She seemed rather busy so we were glad she could take a minute out for us.

So then we went into the gallery to listen to the debate on the concealed carry bill for judges, public defenders etc. the kids and the adults were both kind of getting into it. If nothing else when Rep. Black started talking about the margin needed for approval everyone was listening due to his volume if nothing else.

We had to go so we could do the Capitol tour, which was also a hit with the kids and the guide did a great job. During the tour I had at least two of the adults in our group ask if I had heard how the vote on the gun thing had turned out. We get to the last part of the tour, the house gallery just in time for the vote on the gun bill. So the kids were able to see a vote in action. Then Rep. Cross took a moment of privilege and recognized the kids in the gallery, that was also a big hit with the kids.

So as the rest of the group headed over Lincoln's house OneDaugher and I headed back over to the house doors to try and see if we could meet Rep. Fritchey since he said to say hi in my original post on Illinoize.

I was just about to hand my card in when he came out to talk to someone else so we walked over to where he was and waited, when he finished I introduced my self as OneMan. He stopped shook my hand and talked with OneDaughter for a good 5~10 minutes or so. Man, I was glad we decided to try and talk to him and thankful he was willing to spend that kind of time talking to my daughter. My daughter wanted to get over to our next stop so he got on one knee and listed to her talk about gifted education funding and thanked her for coming to see him. After our chat add me to the Rep. Fritchey fan club. Since I know you read Illinoize let me just say thanks, you were a big hit with OneDaughter.

Soon as we finished talking someone standing by us said, 'Oh your the guy with the post in CapitolFax about coming to Springfield' , 'Yeah', 'I gave you one of the cynical answers'... No worries.

After that we did the tour of Lincoln's home, which I have to say our tour guide did not seem to really be in to all that much (we were the last tour before quiting time). We then headed over the the Lincoln-Herndon law office and did that tour right before they were getting ready to close. Which was better, but I hope the state spiffs it up a little before the Lincoln bicentennial.

Groups we saw at the capitol today (partial list)
Homeless Advocates
Gifted Education (us, well my daughter as you can tell by my spelling and grammar)
Domestic Partners
Pro-GRT
Anti-GRT
Right to choose
School health clinics


OneMan

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Predictions on the Million Dollar question

Here we go. The two-week break is over. The death march begins.

As I pounce into the key stretch of my first ever Springfield session, I realize that I am confused and need help. Big-picture help.

Basically, I’m wondering what the potential end-game scenarios are for this thing? And by ‘thing’ I mean the budget mêlée? And by ‘mêlée’ I mean the attempt at compromise. And by ‘compromise’ I mean the specific plan that appeases all the players who matter.

I suppose it all starts with the stage that G-Rod set. A quick, rough recap of the familiar place we are at now:

5 pieces:

-Tax Fairness: GRT (1.95% services, .85% goods,) 3% payroll

-Healthcare: about $4 billion to start

-Education: $1.5 billion now, $10 billion over 4 years

-Pensions: $26 billion total (10 from lottery, 16 from bonds)

-Property Tax Relief: $1 billion

That’s the easy part. So now what? Three big scenarios: This plan is adopted in its entirety, nothing happens/no new money, the plan is molded into something in the middle. Scenario three it is, right?

And this is where the confusion sets in, because I’ve not heard or read much more than this. Few people have been tossing out possible end-points. What is a feasible plan that could ultimately be the golden ticket? Ideas? Anyone?

Things I think we know:

-Blagojevich has said that education and healthcare are a package deal. The exact details aren’t inflexible, but the notion of money gains to both seems cemented.

-Blagojevich will reject any ‘tax increase,’ (err…besides the GRT)

-Jones supports the GRT, but has previously supported other revenue raising plans. His focus is education funding, but will probably agree to whatever brings in the most dough overall.

-Madigan is the swingman, but admits that a tax increase is necessary.

Hmmm…so where does that leave us? I’d be fascinated to hear some predictions. I’m certain that there are experts here at Illinoize who can piece together at least potential final agreements.

My gut right now: A GRT that is vastly scaled down, with a lower rate and more exemptions. Healthcare and education plans scaled back, but given attention. Lottery and bonds go through for pensions. Property relief scraped.

No one is talking about the big-picture. I need something to chew on.

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Live-Blogging from the Capitol

Richard is posting over on Wonkish.com a live-blog from the Capitol today. Check it out:

A former school-mate of mine is down in Springfield today. I asked him if he could “live-blog” a day in the life of Springfield policy-making. He agreed. Looks like he is going to try to visit some committee hearings, and will check out some of the rallies planned for today.

UPDATE 1 - 11:00 AM: “A beautiful day in Springfield - sunny and in the 50s. Let’s make some laws!.”

UPDATE 2 - 11:30 AM: “Stopped by what I believe was a Campaign for Better Healthcare rally this morning. Very passionate group. Several speakers and huge enthusiasm from the crowd.

I think it is very hard to stop the current healthcare ball from rolling. The momentum is huge, and the stories are almost too powerful to ignore. Even the Republicans I have talked to down here have only one response to the healthcare plan: It’s a federal issue!

I hope you enjoy the comedy of that, too.”

UPDATE 3 - 12:30 PM: “Stopped by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s Anti-GRT rally on the steps of the Capitol. Very disappointing turnout. All white men between the ages of 40 & 60 holding up pre-printed signs (no union bugs on them FYI). Pretty canned speeches reading from the talking points - it stood in stark contrast to the passionate speeches from earlier this morning. And they weren’t really applauding their fellow speakers. It was one of the strangest rallies I have ever seen.

Looks like the same group who came out for minimum wage last fall. And a guy next to me said he was with a bunch of the same people from the group that opposed the corporate loophole closings a few years ago.

Also - You would think that since their ads try and show minorities that they could have gotten some to the event. I’m not saying … but I’m just saying.”

Update 4 - 1:00 PM: “Overheard in the hallway from an unnamed Senator: ‘The thing about the GRT is that it has totally changed our debate. We are now arguing over what new revenue source is best, not whether new revenue is needed at all.’”

Update 5 - 3:00 PM: “The committee rooms for the hearings on the Governor’s healthcare and education bills are absolutely packed. There were so many lobbyists and $1,000 suits piled out the door that I couldn’t even get in.

This seems to be a lobbyist’s dream - people will be paying them hundreds of dollars an hour to sit in a room with 50 other people doing the same thing. I wonder if the ones who weren’t able to get into the room will be able to get paid.

So many fat cats that the ordinary people stuck out like a sore thumb. If I can get in I will report back. If not, I may just go get some ice cream.”

Update 6 - Wrap UP: “So, I went to get something to eat. Walked around a beautiful spring day in Springfield, and then came back to the Capitol. To my amazement, the education hearing was STILL GOING ON!

It must have lasted 7 or 8 hours. I poked my head in at one point, and heard someone testifying in opposition to the GRT by saying that the state can’t pay for the healthcare plan because it is spending too much on Medicaid. And he was SO adamant about that.

I guess you get all types at the table.

All in all, it was an interesting, and bustling, day at the Capitol. I will be down next week, too. Maybe I can do another live-blog then. I had fun.”

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Homeschoolers To School Board

Maybe homeschooling has really gone mainstream.

Homeschool Dad and McHenry County Republican precinct committeeman John Ryan of Algonquin knocked off the Carpentersville District 300 School Board President Mary Fioretti.

And up Route 31 in McHenry, Republican precinct committeeman John O’Neill, also from a homeschooling family, won enough votes to capture the third seat on that town’s grade school district.

Both candidates were attacked for not having their children in the public school system in whispering campaigns. O’Neill found this piece of poorly printed literature the weekend before the election. Ryan was under regular internet email attack by the District 300 tax hike committee, Advance 300.

Advance 300 had $42,200 left over from its one-year approximately $150,000 successful referendum effort, but announced it would not support candidates during the election.

There was no doubt from the group’s email blasts, however, that Ryan and his running mate, Monica Clark were not Advance 300 favorites. Ryan, especially, was savaged by Advance 300 spokesman Nancy Zettler in the comment sections below Northwest Herald articles.

Both homeschoolers are fiscal conservatives. Both won a year after their school districts passed large tax rate referendums.

District 300 Board President Fioretti, appointed GOP committeeman by McHenry County Party Chairman Bill LeFew (from the opposite end of the county), is closely aligned with Advance 300, which used about $150,000 in school vendor and developer money to pass both a 55-cent tax rate hike and a huge bond issue a year ago.

One can only guess what caused the backlash for Ryan and his running mate Monica Clark to place first and second.

Maybe it was

• District 300's use of hugely inflated student population projections.
• conducting school business—like deciding to move a high school graduation site to another location—behind closed doors.
• banishing from school premises Stan Gladbach, a citizens finance committee member and frequent filer of Freedom of Information requests.
• the continuing and penetrating coverage by Daily Herald reporter Jeff Gaunt and, more recently, by the Northwest Herald’s David Fitzgerald.
• good campaigning on the part of the two elected Republican precinct committeemen.
• their Irish names.

And, the assistance provided by Jack Roeser’s Family Taxpayers Network to Ryan and Clark certainly helped, too.

Ryan says his goal is to immediately begin the process of opening the district’s activities to the public. He said he believes the board needs to immediately make the process of delivering information to community members far easier and friendly.

“We should never have a standoff with our community members over the information available to them."

A third homeschool Dad, David Etling, lost his bid for the Prairie Grove School District 47 Board.

More local election coverage on McHenry County Blog.

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Disgusting, Juvenile Behavior

State lawmakers reached a new low engaging in disgusting, juvenile and belittling behavior mocking sex changes while debating a bill that would have made it easier to get a new birth certificate after switching genders in another country. For several decades state law has authorized the change of driver's licenses and state identification cards for persons who have completed gender reassignment therapy and in some cases surgery to change their gender identification under medical supervision.

The legislation was introduced by state Representative Sara Feigenholtz shortly after a debate about neutering deer to control their population.

Two respected members of the house engaged in a juvenile and disgusting diatribe which was an embarrasment to most members of and the majority of visitors to the House chamber.

Republican Rep. Chapin Rose joked that the state might start issuing sex-change documents to deer.

Republican Rep. Bill Black said he objects to recognizing non-surgical sexchanges even though this is currently state law and has been for decades. Black in his child-like diatribe stated "Maybe you went somewhere and a voodoo doctor said you were now a man, where you had been a woman," according to the transcript of debate. He further went on sharing his own sexual fantasies of eliminating facial hair so he would not have to shave and eliminate the hair under his armpits so that he would smell better.

If anything smells here is the disgusting, juvenile diatribe of two respected members of the Illinois general assembly who chose to roll in the gutter and demonstrate their gross insensitivity to individuals who have undergone tremendous medical issues and painful personal decisions and are only asking for help from their elected representatives.

A shamefull day and shamefull behavior. And, the comments are innately sexist in their assumptions and origins.

Representative Feigenholz is correct in her characterization of this unprofessional and disgusting personal behavior as an embarrasement to many members of the general assembly and the people these otherwise caring and compassionate legislators represent.

Shame on you.

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Updated Runoff Totals

Here's our count of how much each candidate in Chicago's runoffs has raised since the February elections. What's particularly striking is how money is plainly a factor in some races and for some candidates, and also how money is plainly not the most important resource for some other candidates. Including fundraising for the February elections, at least four of these races will spend a combined $1 million -- for a seat that's less than two-thirds the size of a state rep district.

Ward Candidate Raised for Runoff Ward Total
2 Fioretti $111K $169K
Haithcock $58K
3 Tillman $191K $518K
Dowell $327K
15 Foulkes $176K $236K
Simmons-Stoval $60K
16 Thompson $341K $421K
Coleman $80K
18 Lane $43K $51K
Stewart $8K
21 Brookins $127K $331K
Jones $204K
24 Chandler $82K $92K
Dixon $10K
32 Matlak $298K $331K
Waguespack $33K
35 Colon $149K $194K
Colom $45K
43 Daley $252K $405K
Smith $154K
49 Moore $381K $493K
Gordon $112K
50 Stone $179K $328K
Dolar $149K

A few observations on reports in the last day: JoAnn Thompson reported $20K from AFSCME and $28K from SEIU. Rey Colon reported $50K from SEIU. Don Gordon reported $1K from "Chicago Chefs for Choice" which is not (yet) a PAC but apparently shares an address with the Illinois Restaurant Association, which has previously given generously to Gordon. And there's still a lot of money on the sidelines. First CD Victory PAC reported another $48,750, but they're not appearing in anybody's receipts column. Yet. Look for a few more A1s to come in later this week, and then we'll have to wait for the Semis this summer.

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High-Dollar Puppeteers

Our researcher Shannon has a good post over at Wonkish on the forces behind the big businesses groups raising hell in the state right now over the Governor's Healthcare/Education/Gross Receipts Tax proposal. She posed a fundamental question: Who does the State Chamber of Commerce represent?

The answer: Big Business. Well, not just big business. Big Out Of State Business.

The Chamber’s wallet is filled by multi-billion dollar corporations from out of state that have financial interest in Illinois - the same type of corporations Blagojevich claims have been skirting paying their share of taxes for too long. Take a look below at the Chamber’s main contributors (those who contributed over $5,000), and you will see some notable characters - Ameren, Harrah’s. Who among these would be most affected by the Gross Receipts Tax, and how much money are they willing to put up to stop it?

Now, we won't know who is funding the state chamber's current radio ad blitz and promotional tour around the state, but it is sure to be a similar cast of characters. Obviously, from a policy perspective, these corporations have a definite interest in defeating any proposal that shifts more responsibility toward their businesses. Additionally, being out of state, they won't benefit from any of the other items in the budget.

But, by donating to the Illinois Chamber, do these businesses taint that operation? Any effort by the Chamber to claim the mantle of defending small business becomes woefully transparent.

I'll put my question simply: Does it hurt the Illinois Chamber's argument to be associated with devil incarnate... er... Ameren right now?

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Medical Negligence Insurer Posts Record Profits

Experts agree that Illinois' recent cap on medical negligence lawsuits has yet to have an impact on lawsuits, but that didn't stop the state's largest medical negligence insurer, ISMIE, from posting record profits, bolstering arguments that the cyclical nature of the insurance industry -- low profits from investment holdings and high premiums, followed by high profits from investment holdings and premium reductions (see graphic at left).

From Crain's Chicago Business:

The state's biggest malpractice insurer has posted its biggest profit since the 1980s, increasing pressure on the company to cut rates that have surged in the past five years.

Doctors who lobbied alongside ISMIE Mutual Insurance Co. two years ago to persuade Illinois lawmakers to limit jury payouts for malpractice victims are still awaiting a break from lofty premiums. ISMIE's $50-million profit and CEO Alexander Lerner's $1-million pay in 2006 puts the rate issue back in the spotlight.

"They're making a lot more money now, and we still haven't seen our rates go down," says Ellen Brull, a partner at a family practice in Niles who has seen her base insurance rate almost double since 2003 to $19,373 last year. "I would expect major reductions." [....]

The brightening financial picture for ISMIE mirrors a national trend: a drop in physician malpractice lawsuits, reflected in the insurers' bottom lines and reduced premiums. That has led critics of the Illinois malpractice caps to assert that the cyclical nature of the insurance business — not a spike in gratuitous jury payouts — were to blame for the rate crisis. In 2005, state lawmakers capped pain-and-suffering judgments against doctors at $500,000 a case and against hospitals at $1 million.

This article from a pro-business publication is yet another eye-opener for those doctors still gullible enough to believe that medical negligence costs have anything to do with rising premiums. The article notes, for example, that ISMIE CEO Mr. Lerner received a 2% raise this year, boosting his salary to a cool $1 million, and three other executives made at least $747,000. Doctors should remember that every time they look at their insurance bill.

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$3.3M Reported in Chicago Runoffs; $25M Total

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

On the eve of the Chicago City Council runoff election, a new analysis of campaign finance reports shows that total contributions to incumbents and challengers passed the $25 million mark in this election cycle.

The 24 candidates in the runoff for 12 seats on the City Council have collected $9 million of the $25.2 million total contributed to all of the candidates for the 50 seats between Jan. 1, 2005 and April 15, 2007, according to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR) and the Sunshine Project. Runoff candidates have raised at least $3.3 million since the February, 2007, elections.

The $1.8 million contributed by Illinois affiliiates of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) made the SEIU the highest single source of the total $25.2 million received by all City Council candidates in the past two years. The First C.D. Victory Fund, a political action committee funded by allies of Mayor Richard M. Daley, is a distant second on the list of top contributors. The First C.D. Victory Fund, founded just three months ago, has contributed $315,000 in this election cycle.

We'll be posting this to our website by the end of the day; in the meantime, here's the list of top donors to Aldermanic candidates since January 1 of this year.

$1,784,000 SEIU (IL Council PAC and Local 880)
$315,000 First CD Victory Fund
$275,000 UFCW (Local 881 and the Active Ballot Club)
$234,000 Chicago Federation of Labor
$208,000 Jesse Jackson Jr. for Congress
$205,000 Chicago Association of Realtors
$176,000 AFSCME Council 31
$156,000 Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce PAC
$89,000 Richard M Daley Campaign Committee
$82,000 IL Merchants PAC Team

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Diverse Coalition Opposes Trial Lawyer 'Deep Pockets' Bill

When organizations and interest groups whose goals and objectives seem totally divergent and unrelated join together to support or oppose an issue, chances are the reasons are good and the issue - for or against - is important.

It’s not usual for the Illinois Association of Park Districts and the Illinois Petroleum Council to be hand-in-hand in support or opposition.

Nor is it usual for the City of Chicago and the Illinois Municipal League to be highly alarmed and concerned with the same proposal that distresses the Midwest Truckers Association or the Illinois Railroad and Illinois Realtors Associations.

But that’s what is happening in Springfield this year as a wide range of interests, represented by trade groups and associations, have joined together to fight an obnoxious bill that has been dubbed the “deep pockets” bill.

There is, of course, some support for the bill. The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, the organization that represents the 2,000+ personal injury trial lawyers in Illinois, is mounting an aggressive campaign.

As they should. It is their proposal, it is their bill, and they stand to benefit if it is passed.

Unfortunately in the Illinois General Assembly this year, the personal injury trial lawyers have considerable influence - verging on control. When the sponsor of the bill (it’s SB 1296), Sen. John Cullerton of Chicago, wanted to seek a compromise or some middle ground and tried to bring the supporters and opponents together, the trial lawyers at first agreed but then decided they did not want to compromise and let Senate Democrats know that they expected the bill to be passed “as is.” And it was.

The personal injury trial lawyers in Illinois are in a strong enough position in the General Assembly this year that they can do that, and they got away with it in the Illinois Senate. The bill passed, 34-23, with only one Democrat - Sen. Mike Jacobs of Moline - voting against. Others wanted to but felt they couldn’t.

Now it moves to the House of Representatives where trial lawyer control has been even more pronounced in recent years. The personal injury trial lawyers and their allies in organized labor are THE big funders of Democratic legislators in Illinois and they expect some return on their investment. They haven’t gotten it lately - frankly, because most of their proposals have been over the edge and even their friends have realized that.

They feel they were betrayed by many of their friends in 2005 when Illinois enacted a medical malpractice reform bill, establishing limits on non-economic damages. They are not giving up that fight yet, however, as they are working to nullify that over-due law in the court system.

This year, they seem to have put SB 1296 at the top of their “wish” list (maybe that should be their “demand” list). I write “seem to” because there are other equally offensive and dangerous proposals in the pipeline (HB 1798 is one) and these may be equally as important or more important to the trial lawyers. SB 1296 is in the spotlight now because it already has been passed by the Senate so it is half-way home. The others are not as far along.

According to the president of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel, SB 1296 “permits the truth-seeking process to be manipulated in the courtroom.” Steven M. Puisizis wrote that SB 1296 “goes to the very heart of our system’s fairness and drives a stake through the heart of fairness to defendants.”

Among other things, the proposed law would allow the plaintiffs’ lawyers (the personal injury lawyers) to manipulate which defendants in a personal injury case actually go to trial. They could settle with those who have few financial resources (but perhaps the most responsibility) and leave the large judgment at trial to fall on the shoulders of the defendant with the most resources, but perhaps only a small percentage of the actual responsibility. Thus it has been dubbed the “deep pockets” bill.

There have been two Illinois Appellate Court decisions that reject the approach proposed in SB 1296. One, in fact, is pending before the Illinois Supreme Court and there is no doubt the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association is trying to pre-empt the Supreme Court by changing the law.

In a letter to legislators last Friday, ITLA officials said the bill would “correct a technical interpretation of the legislative language by some Illinois Appellate Courts.”

In typical trial lawyer fashion, they know better than the Appellate Courts how the legislative language should be interpreted.

The real challenge to opponents of this legislation is getting the word to legislators and to the public. This year, very little information is coming out of Springfield unless it has something to do with the Governor’s proposed gross receipts tax or, in Southern Illinois, it involves electric power rate freeze proposals.

During several days of meetings with newspapers throughout Illinois, it became obvious that little is known about what the personal injury trial lawyers are trying to do - and that’s exactly the way they would like it.

Here are just a few of the entities that do oppose it, in addition to the Illinois Civil Justice League. They are listed in no particular order and it is only a partial list of many more:

• Illinois Railroad Association
• Illinois Association of Park Districts
• City of Chicago
• Illinois Business Roundtable
• Illinois Chamber of Commerce
• Illinois Petroleum Council
• Associated General Contractors
• Illinois Municipal League
• Homebuilders of Illinois
• Illinois Insurance Association
• Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel
• Northwest Mayors and Managers Association
• Park District Risk Management Association
• American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois
• Midwest Truckers Association
• Illinois Manufacturers Association
• Illinois Construction Industry Council
• Illinois Retail Merchants Association

Cross posted by Ed Murnane at Illinois Justice Blog.

Technorati Tags: SB 1296,Illinois legislature, trial lawyer, tort reform, Illinois Civil Justice League

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Fisk on Fink: Robert Fisk joins the Norman Finkelstein tenure debate as DePaul's "perfect storm" gathers strength

Robert Fisk, the fact-challenged journalist who inspired the blogging term "fisking," who is also one of the few Western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, and has the even more distinguished honor of having been invited to convert to Islam by the Sheikh himself, has joined in on the Norman G. Finkelstein tenure debate at Chicago's DePaul University.

Last week was a bad one at DePaul. As news reports today are dominated by another "Perfect Storm" clobbering New England, the Chicago Catholic college faces its own metaphorical one: The Thomas Klocek case, barring a settlement, is heading to trial, and DePaul's resident holocaust-minimizer, Norman G. Finkelstein, continues to fight for tenure at the school's Liberal Arts and Sciences department.

Finkelstein and Klocek are separate stories, but the urge not to tie them together is difficult: Finkelstein, a son of Holocaust survivors, minimizes the extent of the Shoah, and views Holocaust revelations as a racket to enrich Jews.

There we go again, Jews and money.

One time Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke admires Fink's work.

Klocek, a 15 year adjunct professor at DePaul and a Roman Catholic, was fired after engaging in discussion in which he defended Israel from spurious attacks from a few DePaul Muslim students. The students, with the help of CAIR, piled on the professor and hounded the man out of DePaul.

Robert Fisk's Independent column focuses on the simmering Alan Dershowitz-Norman Finkeltstein feud, and no surprise, Fisk, who has also had run-ins with Dershowitz, is very sympathetic to Finkelstein's situation.

Fisk did shed some well-needed light on the DePaul mantra of "Vincentian values." As a Catholic school, it would be natural of course to speak of "Catholic values" or "Christian values," but that might offend some students, such as the ones who forced Klocek at at DePaul. Vincentian values at DePaul are nothing more that secular-humanist feel-good values. There is nothing wrong with that, except that DePaul calls itself a Catholic school and takes pride in calling itself America's largest Catholic university. Just as there are RINOs, Republicans in Name Only, there are CINOs, Catholics in Name Only.

The dean of Finkelstein's college, Chuck Suchar, invoked "Vincentian values" in explaining his opposition to Finkelstein receiving tenure.

I loved too, that bit about "Vincentian values". That really does warrant a chortle or two. St Vincent de Paul - the real de Paul who lived from 1581 to 1660, not the de Paul of Chuck's soft imagination - was a no nonsense theologian who was captured by Muslim Turkish pirates and taken to Tunis as a slave. Here, however, he argued his religious values so well that he converted his owner to Christianity and earned his freedom. His charitable organizations - he also created a home for foundlings in Paris - became a legend which Chuck Suchar simply dishonors.

Meanwhile in Chicago, the dark clouds continue to roll in as DePaul's perfect storm gathers strength. And St. Vincent de Paul, picture above, can't be very happy about that.

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

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Stir the Soul

Faithfully Liberal on Chicago's bid for the Olympics.

...Barcelona used the occasion in 1992 to reinvent itself much like Chicago could do on a global scale.

Maybe Chicago will too, but the slogan will always be Ubi Est Mea? and it will be asked plenty.

How about appointing a Special IG for Audits now to start watching?

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The Duke of DuPage

The Daily Herald has a great in-depth interview with State Sen. Dan Cronin (a great guy*) who is taking over the reigns of DuPage County Republican Party Chairman from State Sen. Kirk Dillard (another great guy*).

The article starts off talking about Cronin's evolution from 'renegade outsider' to party leader (gotta like that), but then gets into a number of interesting tidbits.

As DuPage Chairman, bashing Governor Blagojevich is essentially obligatory, and Cronin doesn't disappoint:

I think what's happening now with Governor Blagojevich and the gross receipts tax is a gift. I hope that everybody realizes that this is what happens when you elect Democrats. I gotta say the people who are out there talking about change and the need, I don't know why...

I guess to people who believe government provides all the answers, Rod Blagojevich is probably their hero. But for those who understand that it's the individual's ability and work ethic and it's commerce and it's business and it's jobs and it's raising taxes through a robust economy, people who understand that view of this world are probably really disillusioned with this governor.

When asked about potential Republican gubernatorial candidates, Cronin added:

We've got some bright young people coming up. I think that a (Sen.) Chris Radogno or a (Sen.) Bill Brady or (House GOP leader) Tommy Cross, a lot of these guys offer really attractive candidacies...Sometimes I think it's somebody from the business community. I know we saw Ron Gidwitz make a run at it, but maybe the timing wasn't right or maybe his presentation wasn't exactly right. But I think somebody like a Mike Koldyke kind of guy...Maybe a Grant DePorter from Harry Caray's. If he didn't want to be outed as a Republican, and I'm not even suggesting he is. I'm just saying that someone who has taken an unconventional route ought to be considered along with the people that are already in the business of politics.

I grew up with Grant, and count him as a very good friend to this day. But I'm guessing that nobody is more surprised to hear his name thrown into the ring than Grant is.

In any event, the interview is pretty interesting and worth a read. Congrats Dan.

*for a Republican :)

To read or post comments, visit Open House

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RTA Universal Fare Card - Again

Here we go again.

Of course, a universal fare card was first promised in 1974 by the RTA Citizens Committee for Better Transporation.

And on December 18, 2005, Steve Schlickman, RTA Executive Director said
the RTA’s “goal” is to have the “universal fare card available to Metra riders in six months.”

It’s a bit past June, 2006, but no one should be surprised.

What's another year?

That universal fare card idea was trotted out 33 years ago during spring of 1974 during the referendum campaign.

That's when Steve's father Gene and I were fighting the referendum by appearing on Milton Rosenberg's Extension 720, among other places.

The universal fare card pledge wasn’t as outrageous as

Transportation, when and where you need it, throughout the region.

But, it is no wonder the “kNOw RTA” campaign committee’s name and campaign resonated with the public.

The more people learned about RTA, the more likely they were to vote against the referendum.

The RTA tax hikers’ pollster, Roger Stanley, is reported to have found the opponents were picking up one percentage point a day as election day approached.

The referendum passed by less than 13,000 votes with paper ballots.

No recount was allowed.

McHenry County Blog is loaded with articles about local politics this weekend.

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Lord of the Rings

You have to give credit to Mayor Daley - when he puts his mind to something, he doesn't mess around. The latest example is Chicago's selection as the USOC candidate for the 2016 Olympics.

When the idea was first floated months ago, several people thought that it was simply a means of taking attention away from other, less favorable, items competing for media attention. But as time moved on, and the presentation team and ideas coalesced, the seriousness of the Mayor's intentions became more evident.

Now whether or not Chicago actually getting the games is a good thing is a legitimate subject for debate. On one hand, it could be not only a spectacular experience for Chicagoans and visitors alike, but a catalyst for developing lagging areas of the City in an exponential version of what the Democratic Convention did for portions of the West Loop and surrounding environs.

The flip side is that it could be a budget-buster leaving taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars (see London and Beijing).

Conventional wisdom is stating that the odds of Chicago getting the games are a long shot, to say the least, with Rio de Janeiro and Madrid appearing to be the leading contenders. But as the old axiom goes, 'make no small plans'.

One thing is essential - the drive toward getting the games must be done with an openness not usually seen in Chicago projects. Red flags have already been raised for many watchdogs with the late disclosure that the City (read 'Chicago taxpayers') was going to have to act as a surety in the event the games lost money. Even though this fact had been know for quite a while, it was not made public until City Council action was necessary to ratify the reality.

The stakes are too high, and the potential for public exposure too great, for any attempts at playing hide the ball with any material aspects of the bid.

But if things are done right, (and looking at the semblage of people put together to prepare the City's proposal, the talent is there is do things right), win or lose, Chicago can further solidify its standing as a true world-class city.

To read or post comments, visit Open House

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Charitable Giving – Daley, Bush and Us

Back when all those rich Republicans were running for the senatorial nomination, I tried to do a story on what percentage each was giving to charity.

From what I remember, current GOP state chairman Andy McKenna was the highest, closing in on the Biblical 10%.

Today I saw stories on Mayor Richard Daley’s and President George Bush’s income tax returns.

The Daley’s reported $13,690 out of $363,647 went to charities (and churches, I would presume, but the story does not say).

The Bush’s reported $78,100 to churches and charities out of their $765,801 income.

The percentages are

3.8% for the Daley family and 10.2% for the Bush family.

Both are less than what Methodist Church founder John Wesley recommended:

Gain all you can.

Save all you can.

Give all you can.

Wesley died with very little, having given away what he got as it came to him.

A Korean Methodist bishop recommended willing about one-third of one’s life’s assets to one’s children and giving the rest to charity.

High standards indeed that few can live up to in this materialistic world.

And the Skinners' favorite charity this year, besides our church, is Rise International, which builds schools in rural Angola for $12,500.

And, with local elections coming up Tuesday, there is and has been a lot more on McHenry County Blog about them.

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Madigan and taxes; Rep. Monique Davis and HB232; and the Olympics

Sat AM odds and ends:

Daily Herald on our lawmakers' appetites,

Current state taxes can no longer satisfy lawmakers’ spending appetites, all but ensuring a tax increase is coming this spring, House Speaker Michael Madigan recently told a suburban audience.

“Before we finish the budget in May or June, Illinois is going to need a tax increase,” said Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, during an appearance this week at the College of Lake County’s Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan. “You’ve heard it many, many times: We need more and better education. That takes money.”

Collin Hitt on one lawmaker's efforts to make sure technology not part of better education,

Amidst efforts by the Chicago Teachers Union to shut down the Chicago Virtual Charter school,State Rep. Monique Davis (D - Chicago) has introduced legislation designed to stop public schools from funding a form of distance learning called"virtual schooling."

Illinois traditionally has been supportive of greater student access to learning technologies. The state board of education has funded and maintained the Illinois Virtual High School for ten years. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn recently has begun promoting his I-Connect Initiative to provide every seventh grader with a laptop computer.

Introduced in January, Davis' legislation to prohibit virtual schools (HB232) working its way through committee would ban the Illinois State Board of Education and local school boards from, "establishing, maintaining, or in any way supporting any virtual schools or virtual classes for elementary or secondary students in [Illinois]."

The legislation has subsequently allowed for "virtual classes" in public school, yet still denies charter schools funding for virtual learning of any kind, even with privately-raised funds.

And the Gov wants to use some of the money Illinois doesn't have to underwrite Chicago's bid for the Olympics,

Like their counterparts in California, Illinois taxpayers could be on the hook to help bankroll Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

On Saturday, the U.S. Olympic Committee will decide whether Chicago or Los Angeles will represent the United States in the international competition to host the summer games.

If Chicago gets the nod, Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he will commit $150 million in state funds as a safety net in the event the games lose money.

Great, just great....

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No, no - they really liked the stone age.

I've been in a mild mental block lately. It happens from time to time. It's not like there hasn't been plenty of things local or otherwise to blog about:

Old news, but my homey K-Rova put his first track to wax just before being threatened a return to jail. Seriously, I'm wondering when they're going to get Karl Rove for offing Big E Smallz and Tupac. Suge Knight ain't got nothin' on K-Rova.



The Cubs 2007 season seems to be something akin to the 2006 season. Excuses from incompetent management and bizarre weenie injuries so early in the season means we're going to get to see a lot of lunacy. I'm just waiting for the Cubs to announce that Zambrano will miss a start as he sees a shrink for his 'mental wellness'. That might happen - I can only hope. But one things for certain, some fans will attempt to organize a boycott not realizing that the transplant Wrigleyvillers who show up at the games aren't actually there for baseball, rather they're there to pay a large cover and over pay for crappy beer.

Jill Stanek probably said the dumbest thing she's ever said the other day - that really means something, coming from her. She actually repeated a long standing urban legend about the Chinese eating babies, was told about it by multiple people, and then told us she believe it anyway, and then at tells us that it's a Chinese conspiracy to hack her internet and further abortion to have a fresh supply of food (12:16). Jill - I've got a friend in Nigeria who's got a request of you. He just needs you to let him deposit some money in your checking account and.......

With it's strangle hold on the blogosphere the Imus incident seems to be the big deal these days. I'm not sure why. Same old story: something is found racially offensive or insensitive, Jesse Jackson shows up to beef about it, and every NASCAR watcher in America goes in to White Guy Argument(TM) mode about how it's ok for black people to use the word "ho" and it's not ok for them to use it as they kick back and lament the good ol' days when they could call black people whatever they wanted. Yeah. Hold it up to the light. It's the Cheif Illiniwik discussion all over again.

Since most of the discussion is rinse, wash, repeat I haven't been giving it much thought, save for this article by Roland S. Martin which is probably the most insightful thing on the whole Imus incident by saying: It is not racism, it is sexism. There's an interesting thing that goes on when you add women to any 'ism'. "Rosie Odonnel is a fat obnoxious dyke"is not so much about homophobia as it is about disliking a woman who are loud and opinionated. It could be "Rosie Odonnel is a fat obnoxious b*tch" and it would have the same contextual meaning. The homophobia that's contained within the first version is a mode of attack in that case - not a motive for attack. You'll see similar occurrences of this phenomena often - but that's another post for another time. Why I really want to talk about it is because when dealing with your average wingnut you can always dig a little deeper into the rhetoric and find out that they're not just crazy on one issue, but they're really crazy on a lot of issues and if you tweak their noses even a little bit - they'll prove it to you. In other words, hateful rhetoric often has been decorated to appear complex and nuanced, but when you reduce it to the most basic levels by looking at their own language, you'll often find yourself arriving at a very simple lowest common denominator. It is what it is.

I assume, at this point, that everyone is aware of the HPV dustup mainly spearheaded by Stank and Co. Their stated fear is that kids will be engaging in premarital sex which is also the subtle reasoning behind their hate for all things interweb like chatrooms in the early 90's and Myspace in modern day. It's not really premarital sex that concerns them, as we've shown time and time again, it's the idea of sex period that bugs the hell out of them. Sex is an issue of empowerment. Always has been.

Eric Zorn managed to use his usual pointless snickery to successfully troll Illinois Family Institute into saying something stupid asking them where they stand in regards to 101.9's Is Love Blind? schtick in which the radio is running a sponsorship/ad camp/contest thingy with 2 strangers getting married without having not met each other.

The IFI Response was handled by Known Freeper IFI/AFA/Porno Pete Labarbera man friend Daniel T. Zanoza. It's important that you read it, if only because it essentially proves that Christocons don't really give a shit about marriage or the family, what they do care about is hating the homos - and for that matter anybody who has sex at a time they don't like. I've said the American Taliban types are incompatible with modern living - they're not just happy living in their own private stone age, they expect average Americans to retrofit our lives to fit their views.

The Mix's gag marriage is as much a mockery of the institution of marriage as the "who wants to marry a millionaire" early reality era TV stuff. It's really a divorce statistic waiting to happen. You've got 2 people being coached to a marriage without ever having really met or worked through challenges with each other and not having gone through anything resembling modern courtship. By all rights, this McDonalds Marriage ought be on the front page of every 'pro-marriage' site on the net decrying on how this is a threat to the ol' sacred institution.

But you won't see that from IFI. Instead you get a absolutely silly response from IFI which basically says "Eric Zorn is gay and a liberal therefor you can't trust him", "Arranged marriages, even if as a stunt are ok - as long as it's not between two people of the same sex" and "we blame the youngins' music". I'm not kidding.

Moreover, Zorn shows his hypocrisy by supporting marriage between individuals of the same sex. Now I ask you, what is more problematic to the institution of marriage ... an arranged legal union between one man and one woman or homosexual so-called "marriage"? The answer to this question is simple to any rationally thinking American. But Zorn's agenda had nothing to do with defending marriage as an institution. The Tribune columnist felt he had a "gotcha" moment and it was too tempting for the flaming liberal to pass up.

Dave Smith, IFI's Executive Director, even goes so far to suggest that some of the music the station plays every day may be more of a negative for the institution of marriage then the "Is love blind?" stunt. For example the song "Promiscuous" which includes the lyrics "Promiscuous girl -- You're teasing me -- You know what I want -- And I got what you need." Or how about Christina Aguilera's popular song titled "Genie in a bottle" in which she tells us that "If you wanna be with me, baby, there's a price you pay. I'm a genie in a bottle, you gotta rub me the right way..." These immoral messages certainly don't promote marriage.

But the real money shots are here:

The practice of arranging marriages has gone on for thousands of years. In fact, some cultures still continue the tradition. A vast majority of these unions have been successful since ancient times. I guess WTMX could be considered a modern day "Match Maker" -- as disturbing as that thought may be.

And I am still waiting for individuals like Zorn to tell us why homosexual "marriage" would not open the door to other corruptions of marriage. Under this mindset, why couldn't three individuals claim the right to marry? Or how about incestual relationships, etc., etc.? But liberals like Zorn are trapped in their flawed thinking which is steeped in moral relativism and driven by situational ethics.

What Zanoza is saying here is that since arranged marriages are, in some cultures, a tradition they must be ok. That's funny, because polygamy and polyamory which are considered the great threats of the Homosexual HomoFacist Agenda (TM) both have strong levels of cultural acceptability, normality, and historical precedent which are equal to - if not greater than in some cases - arranged marriages - which according to Zanoza is a-ok - so long as their are no queer folk involved.

On a side note, gay predates Christianity according to the bible. So if we're talking historical longevity here.....

Zanoza can't have it both ways. If one outdated tradition like arranged marriage is ok then another outdated tradition like polygamous marriage must be ok too. If that's the case, then why is polygamy always one of the grand evil results of allowing queer folk to get married? And if they really care about marriage, why aren't they out there writing press releases to each other? The answer is simple. 'Protecting Marriage' is a method of attacking the queer folk that they hate. It's not the motive. The motive has always been hate. The threat to marriage has always just been a figment of their imagination and a clever tool to get suburbanite housewives on board with their crap.

Your weekend watching assignment: Watch this video of other crazy moonbat jeebus freaks talking about dolphins getting married. I'm not going to be around for the weekend, so comment with care.

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Daley Dough

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

Mayor Daley won the February election by a landslide. So why is he still collecting campaign funds? Since the election, Daley has accepted $460K in contributions from individuals and businesses. The only reason we know this is because he's giving to active candidates, forcing him to report his receipts in real time. To date, he's transferred out only $93K to candidates and ward committees. That’s about a fifth of the money he’s raised.

To put that in perspective, Senate President Emil Jones is also giving to active candidates ($2K to Ald. Tillman), and so he also has to report receipts until next Tuesday. And yet, he reports no receipts since the February elections. Daley may be Da Mare, but people don't just throw money at him for that reason; usually, it's because somebody asks. So why is he raising so much?

His post-victory money comes from a variety of sources. Miles D White, CEO of Abbott Labs, is the top donor with $100K. Gibson’s Steakhouse co-owners Stephen Lombardo and Hugo Ralli combined to donate $25K; J.W. Higgins of Higgins Development Partners also gave $25K, as did something called "UP PAC." UP PAC is not listed with the State Board of Elections, though the address reported by the Daley Campaign is the same as that for the Rosemont-based Builders Association PAC.

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Everyone stop exhaling, Please.

Yes, if we all stopped exhaling, it would reduce the level of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. Fortunately, putting the brakes on the global climate crisis won't require that level of self-sacrifice. In fact, helping to save the planet has never been so painless.

Newsweek offers a special series on the environment, in the lead-up to Earth Day, and buried in there are some good, common sense nuggets that we can apply in Illinois:

Switch all stop lights from incandescent to LED. "One of the easiest measures is one of the most effective. That's converting stoplights from incandescent bulbs to LEDs...the conversion demands a major investment upfront...But since LEDs use 80 percent less energy than standard lights - and last six to ten times longer - they pay for themselves in several years...The Big Apple - which has replaced 80,000 incandescent bulbs in 12,000 intersections - will realize savings of $6.3 million a year once the initial investment of $28 million is paid off." (Did you hear that, Mayor Daley?)

Switch your household from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents. "If every household in America switched out one compact fluorescent bulb, it would reduce energy consumption as much as taking a million cars off the road." There are only 4.7 million households in Illinois, but luckily for us, compact fluorescents are sold in five-packs. If everyone in Illinois buys a pack, it will be the equivalent of taking 200,000 cars off the road. You can join global efforts and pledge to switch your bulbs through Project Switch here.

Bonus! Last time I checked, the Citizen's Utility Board was distributing compact fluorescent bulbs for free.

Unplug your chargers. I know this sounds crazy, but when your cell phone charger, I-Pod charger, laptop charger, or whatever-charger are plugged in, they continue to draw electricity and just bleed it out into the ozone, even when not charging anything. The average household draws 10 watts an hour through their chargers, which adds 87.6 Kilowatt hours per year to your electric bill. Illinoisans are spending a combined $70 million a year and burning an unnecessary 412 million Kilowatt hours of electricity just to leave their chargers plugged in all of the time.

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Police to citizens: Shut up, smile, and be good little serfs

Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard held a press conference to address the story broken by C.J. Summers about police arresting a local business owner after he annoyed a police officer by not hading back a confiscated fake ID quick enough to suit the officer's tastes. I'm seeing the WEEK coverage, but I didn't see it on the PJS Website.

Frankly, I'm surprised that Settingsaard decided to back the officer so completely. I've usually found Settingsgaard to more sensitive to the public when dealing with officers who behave badly. But Settingsgaard this time decided that Terry Beachler -- businessman and taxpayer -- was rude and thus deserved to get handcuffed like a common criminal. After all, he made a police officer show his badge for more than a slit second, thereby making the officer wait a whole whopping 20 seconds as he wrote the badge number down. Good heavens.

Apparently, Mr. Beachler didn't get the memo that says whenever a member of a law enforcement agency sends someone in disguise into your store to deliberately try to trick you into breaking a law, you are supposed to smile like a fool and thank them for stopping by for coffee. In the real world, people resent police officers looking at them like nothing more than potential criminals. It happens so much these days that law-abiding citizens begin to feel like sheep being herded by the very wolves who want to feed on them. So if they are going to conduct these stings, the last thing officers need to do act thugs for no reason at all.

I've heard the tape. Was the officer a tad agitated? You bet. If any private citizen exploded like that, the clerk would have been justified in calling a cop and having the guy removed. Did the officer have the right to feel agitated. Perhaps. But is his job to deal with citizens in a polite and courteous manner regardless of whether or not he's agitated at them. Absolutely, positively yes. In the private sector, employees are required to deal with rude and cantankerous customers without losing their cool. I once worked in a small town that fired an officer because he thought he was too good to shake the hand of a citizen in a bar. But this Peoria officer did more than lose his cool. He abused the power of his badge and placed the source of his agitation under arrest. Why? Because he had the power to do so (the theft charge was bogus and wasn't prosecuted), and apparently no one in a position of authority to tell him he was wrong thinks what he did was wrong. That frightens the Hell out of me. I'm wondering how many other people in Peoria have been placed under arrest not because they committed a real crime, but because a Peoria Police officer was sick of dealing with him.

And I'm concerned that if this problem of angry cops exploding at citizens isn't addressed, how long before some police officer feels justified in beating the crap out of someone for making a sarcastic comment, or heaven forbid, making the officer wait for a few seconds. Were I a member of the Peoria City Council, I'd be worried enough to instruct the city manager to take steps to ensure it is addressed, regardless of the police chief's opinion.

If Settingsgaard addressed the issue of whether or not Beachler had the right to confiscate the ID, it isn't mentioned in the article. Do shopkeepers have the right to hold onto fake IDs or not? Does the police department want shopkeepers to hand back these fake IDs or not. If Beachler committed theft by holding onto ID used in the sting, then he must also be committing theft when he holds onto fake IDs used by other teenagers. If so, that means every other shopkeeper is doing the same thing. But then, every other shop keeper didn't commit the ultimate sin of making an officer wait for 20 seconds.

Well, which is it, Chief? All or nothing. Do you want shop keepers to help stop illegal cigarette and alcohol sales or do you want them handing back the fake IDs to try again somewhere else? Pick one. It can't be both.

Cross posted to Peoria Pundit.

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Bollywood Friday - "Sajaya set the world on faya!"

Since I am convinced that American Idol's Sanjaya Malakar is the next Bollywood superstar in the making, here is a hilarious tribute to him by a YouTube comedian.

Sanjaya, set the world on faya!


Love,
Bridget

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Chicago Database, Updated

ICPR and the Sunshine Project have updated the Chicago Sunshine Database for next Tuesday's runoff elections. Now, data for the 24 candidates on next week's ballot is updated with receipts since the February 27th contests. Want to see who's giving to whom, and where your candidates are getting most of their money? Go here and find out.

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Tax Deductible Campagin Contributions

Here it is less than a week before the election and, as of Wednesday, nothing had arrived in the mail from the McHenry County Citizens for Clean Water and Open Space.

There's $44,500 available to be spent.

A whopping 94.5% of it has come from one tax exempt group, the McHenry County Conservation Foundation.

Will we receive direct mail pieces Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday?

How far will $44,500 go when one is making mailings at, say, 16,000 pieces a pop?

Or will we see expensive inserts in every daily newspaper circulating in McHenry County?

Or will there be big ads in those newspapers?

Endorsement ads with the names of the people listed yesterday, most of whom are using "other people's money" to finance their committee's campaign.

Or will there be saturation radio advertising?

Or will there be robo-calls urging us to vote for open space?

Some will be spent on a web site. I found that I was the 209th visitor late Wednesday afternoon. Not too cost-beneficial so far.

Or, maybe we should take a page from The Conservation Campaign (TCC, for short).

The Illinois MCCD political action committee lists itself as a project of The Conservation Campaign on the State Board of Elections web site. You can see its "Campaign Services" page above. Click on it and you'll have print big enough to read.

If you’re finally starting to pay attention to this effort to hike your MCCD taxes by 27%, you might find the following articles of interest:

• McHenry County Citizens for Clean Water and Open Space Re-Forms
  
  
• $25,000 Kicks Off McHenry County Conservation District Referendum Campaign
  
  
• The Origin and, Maybe, the Main Purpose of the McHenry County Conservation Foundation
  
  
• The Deluge Begins
  
  
• McHenry County Conservation Foundation Hides Its Payment of Tax Hike Mailing

Here's where you can read Part 1, complete with those who are lending their good names to the tax hike effort. And, remember, by clicking on the images, you can make them larger.
= = = = =
The sunrise is over Crystal Lake's Dole Mansion. It could be part of the Conservation District right now, but MCCD refused to help save it, even though it had the legal authority to do so.

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Ethics and State Employees

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

The 2003 Ethics Act was crafted to make government ethics a regular part of state employment. In reaction to Operation Safe Road, with proven tales of political work on taxpayer time, the 2003 Act not only set out clear guidelines for what was acceptable and what wasn't, it also created an apparatus for enforcing the rules, including a complaint process and regular training to ensure that all state employees understood.

The Act was passed four years ago. How's it going now? A new survey conducted by the Executive Ethics Commission finds many bumps in the road. Among the findings:

• Over 87% identify one or more elements in their workplace that indicate an unhealthy ethical climate.
• Only 35.5% perceive no problem of retaliation against those who bring complaints.
• Over 45% believe that senior officials are held to different ethical standards than other employees.
  

The news wasn't all gloomy. Most employees say they're getting the training they should and are familiar with the requirements of the 2003 Act. But employees aren't sure the Act is being followed as stringently as it should be. And the Commission suggests more hands-on training, rather than the computer-based system that's in place now.

The Commission has made copies of the report available, and soon we'll get it posted on ICPR's homepage. Bernie Schoenberg has the story, and the report, in today's SJ-R.

The 2003 Act was a giant leap for Illinois, the most significant move by the state in years. But if it isn't updated, modified, tweaked, and refreshed, it won't do what it created to do. The Commission supports SB 157 as one necessary tweak and we agree. But there's a lot more work to be done to ensure that government is an ethical place to work.

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When E.F. Hutton Speaks...

I am swamped today, so I can't elaborate on this one as much as I would like, but...I can't believe that this story isn't getting more play.

(Unlike me), Speaker Madigan is a man of few words - but when he speaks, watch out. Leaving little to no room for equivocation, he laid it out yesterday for all to hear:

House Speaker Michael J. Madigan said Wednesday education in Illinois will not improve without a tax increase.

“Before we finish the budget in May or June, Illinois is going to need a tax increase,” Madigan said. “You’ve heard it many, many times — we need more and better education. That takes money.” (emphasis added)

Madigan held an open forum for about 100 students, faculty and the general public Wednesday at the College of Lake County’s Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan.

Wish I could delve into this more, maybe I can in the next day or so, but in the interim, feel free to weigh in.

To read or post comments, visit Open House

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Be Wary of New Friends

It is somewhat amusing to listen to groups representing multi-national corporations attack the gross receipts tax because it will hurt small businesses, discourage individual entrepreneurs, and be paid eventually by working families.

It reminds me of the debate on the inheritance tax when I was a member of the House of Representatives. My memory may not have the numbers exactly right but the argument being made against the tax went something like this: widows who didn’t know how they were going to pay for their next meal needed protection from a tax that exempted the first $650,000.

It is kind of the big guys to be so protective of the little guys, but one wonders what the facts are. Here are some to keep in mind.

The purpose of Governor Blagovejich’s proposal is to reduce the reliance of schools on the property tax and to extend health care coverage to working families that aren’t being covered by their employers and can’t afford to pay for it out of their wages. Without new revenue those goals will not be achieved.

Without question, the property tax is the most difficult tax for new and small businesses to pay.

Under any set of assumptions, working families will pay a smaller share of the gross receipts tax than any other alternative proposal that is being made.

The broad base and the low rate of the gross receipts tax, compared to other taxes, means that it will be spread more evenly and more fairly across all business sectors. The gross receipts tax is also simple and straightforward so it is not as subject to accounting manipulations as the corporate income tax, and is more difficult for multi-national corporations to avoid.

The Tax Foundation, out of Washington, DC, and aligned with big business, has expressed grave concern over the Illinois gross receipts tax. It has a marvelous example of a “hypothetical” small manufacturing company that somehow has its profits reduced by $10,000 as a result of the gross receipts tax even though it is too small to be subject to the tax. It seems that this small company has 30 suppliers all of whom are large enough to be subject to the tax, but none of whom pay any of the tax. Neither the sales or the profits of the 30 large companies are reduced by the tax, because they all pass the tax on to the one small company at the end of the production chain that ends up in the “hypothetical” example paying the tax for all 31 companies.


The small company is put out front like the poor widow, both to divert our attention and draw our sympathy. But even in the Tax Foundation’s fictional account the one small company has a problem only because 30 large companies pass all their tax liabilities onto its narrow shoulders. How real is that “example”? We are supposed to believe that 30 companies large enough to be subject to the tax, don’t pay anything, while one small company, small enough to be exempt from the tax, has to pay the tax for all of them.

Everyone should have a friend like the Tax Foundation looking out for them!

What are the alternatives to the gross receipts tax being suggested by those who want to protect working families? A 5 percent tax on among other things, hair cuts, funerals, doing the laundry, and home repairs, and an increase in the personal income tax from 3% to 5%. Somehow those taxes are “better” for working families than the gross receipts tax.

Be wary of new “friends”.

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Chicago Cash

Chicago's runoff elections are next week and the campaign disclosure reports are showing lots of contributions. ICPR, working with Prof. Kent Redfield of the Sunshine Project, have tabulated the largest donors to candidates in next Tuesday's runoff. We'll have more data posted later today on donors to particular candidates in the runoffs, but here are the largest donors to all Chicago aldermanic candidates, as of Wednesday evening:

$1,713,000 SEIU IL Council PAC & Local 800
$275,000 UFCW Local 881 & Active Ballot Club
$228,000 Chicago Federation of Labor
$218,000 First CD Victory Fund
$213,000 Chicago Association of Realtors
$167,000 AFSCME Council 31
$142,000 Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce PAC
$106,000 Herro David
$105,000 Meier Helen
$92,000 Construction & Gen Laborers Dist Council Chicago

There's also a lot of money on the sidelines -- that First CD Victory Fund has about a quarter million in the bank, and Mayor Daley has more than a million in his fund, not counting the $89K he's already transferred to runoff candidates. This last weekend could see significant spending in many of the runoffs.

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Marathon Pundit exclusive: Judge upholds 6 of 8 counts in Klocek case

Last summer, in a stinging rebuke of Chicago's DePaul University, Cook County Court Judge Stuart Nudelman ruled that fired DePaul Professor Thomas Klocek's claims of defamation have merit--Klocek's case should on to the next step: trial by jury.

But Nudelman, who was described by my lawyer friends as a "very good and fair judge," retired last year.

So some of the same arguments were presented to the case's new judge, Daniel J. Kelley. Yesterday, in a seventeen page decision--a copy of which has been obtained by Marathon Pundit--Kelley ruled that six of the eight counts against DePaul have merit. The ones that didn't involved privacy concerns and have been dismissed.

In short, barring a settlement, the Thomas Klocek defamation case against DePaul University will be going to trial.

As always in these types of cases, there is CAIR involvement.

DePaul, in the words of attorney John Mauck, "hung a Scarlet 'R' of racism" of Klocek.

The top link below takes you to an extended explanation of the Klocek affair. The short version is this: Klocek, pictured above, was an adjunct professor at DePaul's School of New Learing for fifteen years. In 2004, Klocek questioned some outrageous statements made by two campus Muslim groups involving Israel and the occupied territories. The students, unaccustomed to having their beliefs challeged, complained to the school administration, and Klocek was out of a job.

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

Related posts:

Sept 15: Second anniversary of the beginning of the Thomas Klocek affair

Sign the Reinstate Thomas Klocek at DePaul Petition

The Thomas Klocek legal defense fund

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Big Early Vote in 50th Ward

As I pointed out on CapitolFax awhile back, it's a common misperception that run-off elections have significantly lower turn-out than citywide municipal elections. In fact, in 2003 the average aldermanic run-off saw a drop in turn-out of only 3%, and one race actually saw turn-out increase.

I also predicted that the 50th Ward would be one of the races this time around where turn-out would increase, and a new report from the Daily Southtown on early voting turn-out sure makes it seem that way:

After sounding an alarm about the lack of early voters in February, Chicago election officials said they're seeing a big spike in the number of people heading to the polls before Election Day.

With only 11 aldermanic races up for election April 17, the Chicago Board of Elections recorded 5,324 early votes through Sunday, officials said.

That's 443 voters per ward, as compared with 214 per ward at this point in February's early voting. Early voting ends Thursday....

....The heated 50th Ward race between veteran Bernie Stone and challenger Naisy Dolar in the city's Rogers Park community had drawn 1,002 votes as of Sunday, 300 more than any other race. (emphasis added)

Conventional wisdom tells us that high turn-out benefits challengers, but in the Stone-Dolar race, it really depends on whether those early votes are coming from Stone's base or Dolar's base.

According to the Board of Elections, in February, Stone got 55% or more of the vote in 21 of the 45 precincts. However, he got less than 45% of the vote in 17 precincts. To underscore just how polarized the vote is in this ward, Stone broke 75% in six precincts, but there are seven precincts where he got less than 25% of the vote. Where those early votes are coming matters very much indeed. Too bad the Southtown didn't provide us with that level of analysis.

Consider this a municipal run-off open thread. Try to keep the shilling to a respectable minimum.

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The Mighty Quinn

Over the last several years, I have had countless conversations with people asking me about the dynamic between Gov. Blagojevich and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. As anybody familiar with Illinois politics can tell you, Pat Quinn is a populist's populist. He historically was never one to shy away from taking on a fight on behalf of the citizens.

And at the same time, over the last four+ years, there have been countless issues emanating from the Governor's office that one would think would have Quinn champing at the bit to comment on.

Which is exactly why some folks have been at a loss figuring out how and why he had been relatively quiet since becoming Lt. Gov. Was he cajoled, brainwashed, drugged? Worse yet, had he just lost the fight in him?

Now don't get me wrong, I am hardly saying that Quinn has not been active. Quite to the contrary. Illinois veterans do not have a more sincere friend in our state than Pat Quinn, who has solemnly, and unfortunately, attended countless funerals for fallen soldiers - without fanfare or grandstanding.

Furthermore, he is always one ready to weigh in on a panoply of issues. Some have argued that God invented Sundays to give Quinn a day for his press conferences :)

But on the big ticket stuff, Pat just hasn't been, well, Pat.

That's definitely been changing of late, and people are taking notice. Chris Wills from the AP has a story out about the resurgence of the Old Pat.

After four years of playing down any disagreements with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Quinn is suddenly speaking out, resurrecting the populist approach that originally brought him political success.

"If you overemphasize being on the inside, then when something is just haywire you don't speak out enough," Quinn said in an interview last week with The Associated Press. "My view is that it's time to speak out because there are a couple of things that are haywire."

He called Blagojevich's proposed $7.6 billion business tax "the absolute worst way" to increase state revenues. He accused the governor of standing by while skyrocketing electric rates hit working people.

And he said Blagojevich should be doing more to fight government corruption, especially now that he has won a second term.

This is the stuff that people want to see when they elect Quinn into office. A guy with an opinion, a guy ready to take on the powers that be. Well, most people at least.

But in a recent interview with WBBM-AM, Blagojevich didn't seem to take Quinn seriously. He insisted Quinn isn't part of his administration, although the governor and lieutenant governor are elected as a team.

"Lieutenant Governor Quinn is known as a gadfly. That's one of his charming qualities," Blagojevich said.

I wouldn't be so dismissive of Quinn if I was the Governor. Pat has an uncanny ability to connect with the public and if I had to pick having the approval numbers of one of the two of them, I know whose numbers I'm taking.

Furthermore, as I was quoted saying in the article:

"It's a welcome re-entry to the political arena," Fritchey said. "Media, pundits, politicians alike often look at Pat's agendas as being somewhat quixotic, but I think history has shown that much more often than not, he has been on the right side of the issues."

Hell, just last week a Tribune commentary proffered Quinn as a guy to help end the game of Springfield Roulette between Blagojevich, Jones and Madigan. Not sure that I see that happening, but it would seem to reinforce the notion that Quinn is seen as a guy capable of being above the fray.

We independently elect our Gov. and Lt. Gov. candidates, and in so doing, we are entitled to expect independent leaders with unique perspectives. Good to see we're starting to get what we bargained for. Welcome back Pat.

To read or post comments, visit Open House

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Sort of off subject but...

OneMan and OneDaughter (the third grader) are going to be in Springfield next week on Wed for an educational/lobby event (they are not calling it a lobby event, but I know that is part of it). They have some stuff planned for us including talking to a legislator or two along with some of the classic Lincoln stuff.

Since we have family down in Springfield she has seen the Lincoln stuff before, I am open to suggestions on what we can see/do that will give her a better idea of the legislative process without gaining the cynical edge that her dad has at times.

Thanks

OneMan

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AFSCME endorses GRT, is AFL-CIO next?

From the Governor's Office:

CHICAGO – Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today welcomed the support of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for his ambitious proposal to reform Illinois’ tax system, which closes corporate loopholes and brings greater stability to the state’s fiscal future. The Governor’s plan to establish a Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) on commercial activity has been embraced by many economists because of its broad base and low rates....


....“We believe it is critically important to ensure that the Illinois tax system is fair, stable and produces adequate revenues,” said Henry Bayer, Executive Director of Council 31. “Governor Blagojevich’s proposal for a Gross Receipts Tax meets that test on every count. Contrary to the claims of some in the business community,” Bayer said, “we believe this plan has the potential to provide a real boost for the Illinois economy. We intend to do all we can to help enact it.”

As CapitolFax reported earlier, AFSCME's lukewarm reception to the GRT was standing in the way of an AFL-CIO endorsement of the GRT. That obstacle appears to have been removed now. I doubt an all-out push from the AFL-CIO is all that far behind, especially since former AFL-CIO head Margaret Blackshere chairs the committee paying for all of the Governor's t.v. ads.

What does the AFSCME endorsement mean?

Although it's a small step, the AFSCME endorsement could result in a giant leap if the leash comes off the AFL-CIO. Full engagement of the AFL-CIO means it will be difficult for Speaker Madigan to act as the lone stopper for the Governor's plan, sans a viable alternative.

The ball is now solidly in the court of the business community, represented by the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Manufacturer's Association, Illinois Retail Merchant's Association, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and the Civic Federation.

If Illinois, Inc. truly believes that the GRT is as devastating as they say, they need to offer an alternative route for all of the public pressure in favor of funding education, property tax relief, and to a lesser degree, health and human services.

Madigan can only dam up public demand for so long. Illinois, Inc. needs to stop merely sticking their finger in the dike, stonewalling, and offering up red herring arguments (like the one that says we shouldn't do anything without rolling back pension benefits, which, by the way guys, I'm sure helped Rod get AFSCME on board. Way to go.)

If Illinois, Inc. can't get behind HB 750, or some compromise version thereof, they need to offer up their own reasonable, politically viable, compromise solution to the budget challenges facing the state. Otherwise, GRT is coming.

From The American President:

Lewis (Michael J Fox): People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

President Shephard (Michael Douglas):Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.

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Sun-Tzu and the GRT in Illinois: Part II

A commenter asked an interesting question in my earlier post:

"I'd be curious what Sun Tsu has to say about disloyal lieutenents.[sic]"

Sun-Tzu has some very interesting things to say about loyalty. First, he makes it clear that loyalty is something that is continually earned by leaders, not foisted upon them.

There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:--

(1) By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the army.

(2) By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the soldier's minds.

(3) By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers.

But when the army is restless and distrustful, trouble is sure to come from the other feudal princes. This is simply bringing anarchy into the army, and flinging victory away.

To put this in political context in Illinois:

(1) Adopt an unwinnable political strategy, and your political troops cannot deliver for you, no matter how good they are.

(2) Ignore the fact that a political operation can't be run like a state bureaucracy (and visa versa), and your political troops will lose morale.

(3) Try to run the next political battle like you ran the last one, ignoring reality, and the folks on the ground -- who can see it isn't working -- will lose faith in your leadership.

Lose enough unwinnable wars, crush the morale of your supporters, and squander their faith, and you have created a political vacuum; politics, like all of nature, abhors a vacuum, and those most likely to step into that vacuum are those who have stood close to you and watched you do 1, 2 and 3.

And what advice does Sun-Tzu give to field commanders who's rulers insist on doing 1, 2 or 3?

VIII. VARIATION IN TACTICS

Sun Tzu said: In war, the general receives his commands from the sovereign, collects his army and concentrates his forces.

When in difficult country, do not encamp. In country where high roads intersect, join hands with your allies. Do not linger in dangerously isolated positions. In hemmed-in situations, you must resort to stratagem. In desperate position, you must fight.

There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must be not attacked, towns which must be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed. (emphasis added)

There is a time and place for discipline and obedience, but show me a campaign manager who follows the direction of her/his candidates -- or even supervisors -- without question, and I'll show you a campaign manager who loses alot of campaigns.

I've found that the best political leaders (or leaders of all sorts) are the ones who create an atmosphere for decision-making that encompasses the input of their lieutenants on the ground; once the best course of action is reached through consensus, then, and only then, does the campaign move forward with monolithic and awe-inspiring certainty of victory. But that is a future discussion from another book.

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A Fitting Farewell For Judge Byron

Madison County Judge Nicholas Byron will be recognized for what he is -- an activist judge -- by an organization that describes itself accurately: Citizen Action/Illinois is:

the state's largest public interest organization and a progressive political coalition committed to creating social change both in Illinois and across the nation.

It is a fitting honor for Byron -- maybe his crowning honor -- and it would be even more fitting if his acceptance speech ended with the words, "and so I have decided that it's time (at 77) to put the gavel away and hang my robe up for the last time. I am retiring as of tonight."

Or at least, "I will not seek retention in 2008." (Actually, Byron will be too old to seek retention in 2008 but he can seek another term through an open election. He'd have to run in the Democratic Primary in February, win, and defeat a likely Republican candidate in November.)

If he got through the Democratic Primary, he would be the likely winner in the General Election.

It's our guess at this early state that his Madison County judicial colleagues would prefer that he retire, perhaps sooner, rather than later, but they won't call for that.

And, alas, it probably won't happen.

Voters in Madison County had a chance to remove Byron and two of his colleagues in 2002 when they sought retention but the three incumbents spent a ton of money (most of it raised from personal injury trial lawyers) and were retained easily. Byron received 78% favorable votes.

It was at that point that many observers looked at Madison County's judiciary -- and looked at Madison County's voting population -- and wondered, "What are you thinking?"

An election offered the opportunity to make changes -- improvements -- in a judicial system that attracted national scorn and was causing serious local problems but the voters passed up that chance.

It wasn't until the intense focus shifted from class action lawsuits and out-of-state plaintiffs and asbestos lawsuits ... to lawsuits against local doctors and hospitals and declining access to medical care that local voters seemed to take an interest and began making changes.

The first change, of course, was the election of Justice Lloyd Karmeier to the Illinois Supreme Court. The second was the removal of ex-Justice Gordon Maag from the Appellate Court. The third was not voter-mandated (as the elections were ) but voter-inspired when new Madison County Chief Judge Ann Callis determined that the judicial system in Madison County (and neighboring Bond County) needed to be improved.

One of Callis' first steps was to remove Byron from control of Madison County's asbestos docket. It was while in that role that Byron announced that former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell and his Atlanta-based firm could no longer practice in his courtroom because Bell had called for a federal investigation of the judiciary in Madison County.

Former Attorney General Bell, who served in the Jimmy Carter Administration, wasn't the only one to express concern -- even outrage -- with the judicial system in Madison County. And much of the wrath was directed at Byron.

Byron was the judge who single-handedly leveled a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris -- a verdict that ultimately was overturned by a Democrat-leaning Illinois Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal.

Byron also was the judge who awarded $250 million in damages to a steelworker who claimed U.S. Steel exposed him to asbestos and caused his lung cancer. The plaintiff's attorney was Madison County trial lawyer (and former judge) Randy Bono. (This reward was later reduced.)

Byron, in fact, has been as much a symbol of what's been wrong in Madison County and any other individual. There have been bad judges, bad lawyers, bad cases, bad outcomes

The award Byron is scheduled to receive later this month in Chicago is being presented by "Citizen Action/Illinois" and "USAction," two ultra-liberal organizations that consistently support personal injury trial lawyers' causes and oppose any kind of limitations on lawsuits or awards.

They are -- admittedly -- "activists. And that's fine. So are we.

But Judge Byron also has been an "activist." And that's not fine.

Judges should not -- can not -- be "activists" because the role of proposing law, writing law and enacting law belongs to the legislative and executive branches of the government.

Judge Nicholas Byron doesn't understand that role and while he dutifully and legally holds his Madison County seat until December, 2008, the presentation of this award by organizations that obviously mean much to him provide a great opportunity for him to retire.

If he retired now, the vacancy would be filled by appointment by the Illinois Supreme Court, upon the recommendation of Justice Karmeier.

Perhaps Justice Karmeier could ask Judge Callis and her colleagues in Madison County to make the recommendation for a replacement for Judge Byron.

And maybe we can find an organization to make awards to a few other Madison County judges -- with a caveat that their acceptance speech includes the word "retirement."

News Story Concerning Judge Byron's Award.

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

Technorati Tags: Nicholas Byron,Citizen Action, trial lawyer, tort reform, Illinois Civil Justice League

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Being the Party of Business

Being the party of business doesn’t have a lot of advantages.

Republicans have to defend the free enterprise system to people who have little, if any academic preparation.

Republican are subject to attacks from demagogues fronting for union leaders seeking only more dues-paying members.

But, you would think Republicans could manage better than Democrats.

After all, they have access to all those business managers.

A Monday Chicago Tribune editorial a few week's ago makes it clear that our recently departed Republican State Treasurer did not get the best deal for the taxpayers in the college investment program called “Bright Start.”

Oh, it paid excellent political dividends to Judy Baar Topinka.

It was the kids and their parents’ investments (141,000 accounts) that got short-changed.

Over one percent had to be paid in management fees each year, according to the Chicago Tribune’s editorial Monday.

Last year, savingforcollege.com ranked Bright Start 48th of 49 plans studied.

To her credit, Topinka paved the way for improvement.

The next deal, consummated by her successor, with her permission, will cut average fees by 40%. Mutual fund choices will no longer be dogs. They rank in the top 25% of their respective categories.

But a better deal could have been cut.

Democratic Party State Representative Alexi Giannoulias couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get Oppenheimer to “toss in $3.5 million in scholarship over the seven-year life of its contract.”

That will be a lot of press releases for Giannoulias.

What even happened to the concept of maximizing the return on the money under a treasurer’s purview?

More at McHenry County Blog, where local politics is tasted almost daily.

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Easter Slasher

Friend of McHenry County Blog Rick Voorhees got ripped on Good Friday night.

It was between 9:30 PM and Saturday morning at 8:30 AM.

Not him personally, but his inflated Snoopy, which wished neighbors,

"Happy Easter."

Since he lives in Lake in the Hills, he called that village’s police.

Since Voorhees is a Christian and the Snoopy was conveying a Christian message, he tried to report the vandalism as a “hate crime.”

The police wouldn’t do it.

The police report reads,

"Property Damage,"

Voorhees told me.

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Donuts and theology

Wonder what Blagojevich's recent invocation of God and Moral Imperatives for Illinois's Budget means for Donuts on the Tollway.

An Illinois doughnut mogul forged ties last year to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, through campaign donations and a real-estate deal involving the governor's wife, while seeking to expand his Dunkin' Donuts business into the state's tollway oases, according to a Tribune investigation.

As federal investigations into influence peddling swirl around the Blagojevich administration, the developments raise new questions about the governor accepting money—personally or politically—from those seeking favor with the government he leads.

Amrit J. Patel, 60, one of the largest and most influential Dunkin' Donuts owners in the Chicago area, says he was not trying to curry favor by hosting a fundraiser for the governor at his Northbrook home or through his family connections to a private property deal that paid Blagojevich's wife more than $30,000 in real estate commissions.

Blagojevich must have looked out at all those Illinois faces on that bus tourer and just seen a sea of chumps.

H.L. Menken not my favorite guy, but you have to wonder if what Lew Rockwell quoted below isn't true of Illinois,

The purpose of government is to allow those who run it to plunder those who don’t. As the great H.L. Mencken sagely observed, "[I]f experience teaches us anything at all it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. His very existence, indeed, is a standing subversion of the public good in every rational sense. He is not one who serves the common weal; he is simply one who preys upon the commonwealth" (from "The Politician" in Prejudices: A Selection, edited by James T. Farrell).

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More stats on the Pattern at CPD

Chris Hack at the Daily Southtown writes,

Seizing on recent scandals rocking the Chicago Police Department, a group of lawyers and activists called Thursday for the creation of an independent civilian board to investigate complaints of police misconduct.

Hack quotes U of C's Craig Futterman who,

...said an analysis of police records show that from 2002 to 2004, more than 10,000 complaints -- ranging from excessive force to bogus arrests to racial profiling -- were lodged against Chicago officers. Of those, only 124 were found to have merit by police officials -- and just 19 of those cases resulted in punishments of suspensions or harsher, according to Futterman's research.

Futterman and the group sent the call for an independent to all 50 alderman. Seems like a more important issue than a big box ordinace or duck livers.

Pat Camden, a guy I admit to having grown fond of over the years watching on TV, is quoted responding to the study and the concept of a independent board over at Medill Reports,

The police department’s oversight body allows officers with “criminal tendencies to operate with impunity,” the study charges, because it does not adequately monitor or discipline police behavior. The study, expected to be released this summer, says that body, the Office of Professional Standards, operates at the department’s discretion rather than serving the public’s interest.

Patrick Camden, the department's deputy director of news affairs, declined to comment on the concept of an independent civilian review board or the study’s findings.

“We don't respond to studies,” Camden said.

Let's hope for a new superintendent from the outside with enough backing from those fifty alderman and plenty of others to clean this up. Somebody's gotta respond her Pat. Sorry

xp Prairie State Blue

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A Kennedy is on the board of the Chicago Climate Exchange

Do you see that graphic? It comes from the Chicago Climate Exchange's web site. Yes, those are photoshopped windmills. The Chicago Climate Exchange is one of those carbon-offset groups where supposedly, and I say supposedly, the CCX can "offset" their greenhouse gas emissions by allowing member firms that have achieved lowered their emissions to sell credits to businesses that haven't decreased them. Or something like that. They plant some trees, too, and the CCX is of course a supporter of renewable energy.

Dan Curry of Reverse Spin e-mailed me this bit of information after he read my post about the opposition from Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy family's house environmentalist, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound near the Kennedy family's famed compound at Hyannis Port.

Cape Wind, as you probably guessed, is a wind farm.

Meanwhile in Chicago, as Curry discovered, Joseph Kennedy II, Robert's brother, sits on the advisory board of the Chicago Climate Exchange. Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley is the honorary chairman of that board, former WBBM-TV anchorman sits along Kennedy as another advisory board member.

This Kennedy is the former congressman who forced his ex-wife--she says--to accept an annulment so Joe II could remarry in the Catholic Church.

A just God would tattoo "Phony" on the forehead of every member of the Kennedy family.

As for wind mills, the Kennedys are for them. But they want the wind farms where you and I live, not where they live.

To comment on this or my latest Obama post or to vote in the Pajamas Media presidential straw poll, please visit Marathon Pundit.

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GRT and The Art of War in Illinois

There are three books I consider required reading for all policymakers, political activists, and political junkies. The Art of War is first on the list (I'll talk about the other two soon). First not because it takes pre-eminence over the other two, but because it's the most venerable, and because so many folks make reference to it without ever actually having read it. And this is a book that bears re-reading.

I was reminded of Sun Tzu today by CapitolFax. Those of you who subscribe to CapitolFax (if you don't subscribe, you really should pony up the $30 a month) know that CapitolFax founder/political reporter par excellence just spent several intimate days with Governor Blagojevich on his statewide bus tour. Based on his time spent with the Governor, Rich Miller offered up his analysis of the Governor's persona as someone who is always itching for a fight. [Editor's note: if you want to read what Rich Miller says, you need to subscribe]

Sun Tzu would not be impressed with the Governor's gladiator mentality. The ancient strategist, mandatory reading in all military officer courses through out the world (Hitler allegedly based his Blitzkrieg attack on the writings of Sun Tzu), offers us this surprising pearl of wisdom:

"To win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest excellence; the highest excellence is to subdue the enemy's army without fighting at all."

The Governor has also made it clear in many statements to the press that he's willing to drag out this fight over the GRT as long as necessary, and expend great resources -- political capital, state staff time and resources, even his own political funds and those of his allies. Sun Tzu warns against this exhaustively, but the clearest passage is this:

"When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.

Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.

Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare."

We see this happening now. While Blagojevich's hopes of passing his original GRT have passed, and his dream of passing any form of the GRT grows dimmer every day. Meanwhile, he's been weakened politically, and his top ally Senate President Emil Jones becomes increasingly weakened by the lack of progress on electric rates and fractures within his caucus over the GRT. At the same time, Speaker Madigan and Lt. Governor Pat Quinn are growing in strength, without actually expending any of their original resources at all.

The top beneficiary of the Governor's extended anti-business campaign, ironically, is the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce. While the State Chamber is spending money and resources on organizing opposition and t.v. ads, I'm betting that their fundraising is far outpacing their expenditures. GRT has also giving them a new-found relevancy in state politics, after a period of dormancy. A new tool for organizing local businesses and expanding their base. And a key ally in the Illinois Press Association.

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RIP Steve Reynolds

Kristen McQueary writes the obit in the Daily South Town.

Is it wrong to say I kind of liked the guy?

I don't know the answer. We sure seem to have more then are share of them in Cook and Illinois.

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The Conrad Black Trial

PJ Media notes our Marathon Pundit among the few following trial of Conrad Black in Chicago.

The Black trial is a huge story up in Canada, very big in Great Britain, but it's getting just a fraction of the coverage from the Chicago media that the trial of ex-Illinois Governor received in 2005 and 2006.

I found Black's bio on FDR impossible to wade through. It's surprizing such a colorful figure alledged to have looted millions gets so little notice. John does link a blog Mark Steyn is keeping on the trial and writes in today's post,

What’s gone wrong with this prosecution? I think it has a lot to do with the nature of justice at the federal level. I’m filing this post by cell phone from a couple of floors above the court house, just to find a quiet corner. You can’t help noticing that this 30 story building is full of quiet corners. They’re called the court. Almost every other court apart from Judge St Eve’s has been empty since I got here. If you need to find an empty room, an unoccupied court is your best bet. My sense is that the prosecution thought this would be a regular corporate fraud case. They would lean on a couple of folks at the bottom, and then run the domino of plea bargains all the way up the chain to the top. Whatever one thinks of Conrad Black, he’s not the type to cop a plea. And nor, it turns out, were the other three defendants. So the government wound up having to take the case to court, and so far they’re not very good at it.

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The "Regressive" Gross Receipts Tax and Its Alternatives

One of the arguments being made against the gross receipts tax is that it is regressive – that is, the tax will fall disproportionately more heavily on people with lower incomes.

The argument has several forms. Business groups simply say the tax will just be passed on in higher prices, and consumers will take the hit. More academically minded, liberal groups like the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy say that the gross receipts tax is another form of a sales tax; sales taxes are by their nature regressive; therefore the gross receipts tax is bad; consumers will take the hit.

The analysis is far too simplistic.

The first question that needs to be asked is: Regressive compared to what?

Even assuming, for sake of the argument, that the gross receipts tax is completely passed on to consumers, how regressive is it? Will it take a larger percentage of income out of the pockets of the poor, than the pockets of the rich?

The regressivity of any tax that falls on consumption depends on the particular items subject to the tax and how those items fit into the budgets of families at different income levels.

For example, a consumption tax that falls on food and clothing is more regressive than a consumption tax that falls on laptop computers which in turn is more regressive than a consumption tax that falls on tickets to the opera. How regressive a consumption tax is depends, not on the nature of the tax, but on the nature of the items covered. Not all consumption taxes are equal.

A sales tax that falls only on tangible goods, like our current Illinois sales tax, is more regressive than a sales tax that also covers services purchased by consumers. Which is why many have argued, like the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, that the sales tax should be broadened. The addition of consumer services will not make the sales tax progressive, it will simply make it less regressive than it is now.

I make the same argument for the gross receipts tax. Because it falls on all economic activity, it will – even if completely passed on – include all consumption, making it less regressive than any sales tax.

The incidence of a tax that falls on all consumption will be similar in effect to a flat rate income tax – except at the highest income levels – because most people at every income level spend all their incomes.

(To whatever extent a gross receipts tax is not passed on to consumers in higher prices, the regressivity will be reduced – because some of the tax will be borne by the owners of capital.)

So, a gross receipts tax is less regressive than any sales tax, is similar in incidence to a flat rate income tax, but would be more regressive than a progressive income tax.

Which brings us to the second question: what are the alternatives being suggested by those who are attacking the gross receipts tax as being regressive, and therefore harmful to working families?

Bingo. You guessed it. They want to extend the 5 % state sales tax to cover consumer services, like haircuts, laundry, and funerals, and they want to increase the flat rate income tax that falls directly on individuals. How they can with straight faces say that a 5% sales tax on haircuts hurts the poor less than a 1.95% gross receipts tax on lawyers’ fees is something I haven’t yet figured out.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy avoids making any hard choices by suggesting that Illinois go to a graduated income tax and exempt food from the sales tax. It is probably unfair of me to point out that the Illinois constitution forbids a graduated income tax and food is already exempt from the sales tax. Imaginary solutions are always easier to propose. No one takes them seriously.

In the real world where actual budgets are made, the gross receipts tax is a better option than the alternatives.

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More on the pattern of abuse with CPD

From today's Trib on Emmanuel Lopez's shooting. Terry Ekl, the Lopez family lawyer said,

"It's an absolutely clear statement that the entire story concocted by the police was false," Ekl said. "There is no explanation to explain how Rovanno's bullet got into the back of this kid, other than their story is completely false."

Joseph Roddy, a lawyer for the officers, declined comment, saying he would defend the case in court rather than the media.

The police report concludes that four police officers—three on duty and one off-duty—fired 42 shots at Lopez as he sat in the driver's seat of his car because Lopez was using the vehicle as a weapon to run over Rovanno.

The Sun Times writes on the Abbate brother who got into a fight with the Washington DC cop.

Terry Gainer explains the delay in filing the compliant Gainer refused to identify the Washington cop, who was in Chicago for a wedding rehearsal. But Gainer acknowledged he encouraged the officer -- through a union representative -- to file a report with the Office of Professional Standards.

Asked why the Washington cop waited 10 days to file a report, Gainer said, "He didn't know what to do. He tried to report it out there and was rebuffed that evening by the responding sergeant.

He added: "We just can't tolerate police brutality. [Abbate] sucker-punched the guy. We have an obligation to make sure people like that aren't police officers."

It's the alleged cover ups that's far bigger problem then the incidents of abuse. And Chicagoans need assurance CPD is doing everything to make sure people like that aren't police.

Finally the Sun Times on Ms Obrycka,

Obrycka talks openly about the taped attack at Jesse's ShortStop Inn. If some who viewed the video images saw a tiny woman bravely confronting a much larger tyrant, she doesn't see it that way.

"I was just protecting my job and myself because I didn't want to get fired for allowing him behind the bar," she said, adding that she still gets sharp pains in her neck.

I remember a time when the women's movement would have visibly and militantly rallied to her cause.

I remember when Congressman Ralph Metcalf held hearings on Chicago Police abuse and corruption.

I can't imagine a Congressman Rostenkowski keeping quiet on a beating of a Polish immigrant woman.

So I wonder why Rep. Rahm Emanuel can't bring a Fed investigation if the Department has lost our trust and the Mayor has taken a rambling leave of his senses with yesterday's lecture to relax.

xp Prairie State Blue

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Sun Times: Todd spends big on another assistant

Today's Sun Times:

"How many high-paid PR people does [Stroger] need who don't talk to the press?" Commissioner Forrest Claypool, a frequent opponent, asked.

Stroger has been under fire for loading up on high-paid management jobs while frontline workers are being laid off by the thousands.

No kidding... I heard Tony Perica comment on TV last night. Where did the rest of the GOP go?

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ICJL touts new study by Big Tobacco, Oil and Drug Companies

Earlier this week on Illinoize, the Illinois Civil Justice League's Ed Murnane was touting a new study by the Pacific Research Institute, which he says backs up his claim that we need to restrict citizen access to the courts.

Not surprisingly, the Pacific Research Institute's work is funded by Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and Big Drug Companies.

According to SourceWatch, the Pacific Research Institute's major financiers include:

Altria (Parent company of Phillip Morris)
Chevron Texaco
ExxonMobile Corporation
Pfizer
PhRMA (umbrella group for the pharmaceutical industry)

The PRI's donors includes another group that I'd never heard of until now: White House Writer's Group.

Again, from SourceWatch:

The White House Writers Group (WHWG) was founded in 1993 by "five former White House speechwriters", many colleagues from the George H.W. Bush Administration. [1][2]

Media Transparency calls WHWG "an umbrella firm of former ghostwriters for Republican presidents and bureaucrats now at the service of anyone willing to pay." [3]

Gee, anyone wanna bet that the WHWG's client list includes Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Drug Companies, or all three?

As for the study itself

You've got to give style points, but no credibility points, to a study that includes a foreword from Haley Barbour. For those of you who've forgotten the pre-Katrina past of Mississippi's current GOP Governor, he's grateful. You see, Haley Barbour isn't just the former chair of the RNC and a defender of the old ways of the South, he also posed for a widely disseminated photo with modern era segregationists. That lapse in political judgment (and Barbour's subsequent defense of it) left such a stain on Barbour's political career, most folks plum forgot that before he became RNC chair, Barbour was a DC lobbyist who's firm made millions lobbying for big tobacco.

Barbour is so deep in the pocket of the tobacco industry that he vetoed a