Sunday AM odds and ends

Ozinga closing in on cash gap from the SouthTown. Nice to see a candidate in the GOP understand how to run against Illinois Democrats. They're the party of Blagojevich and Rezko: all of them.

"It's clear that voters are responding to Marty's message of change," Ozinga campaign manager Andy Sere said in a statement. "In Marty Ozinga, working families have found someone who can bring real change - not the politics of Rod Blagojevich and Tony Rezko - to Washington."

The Pantagraph carries an interview with former Gov Dan Walker. Walker's “The Maverick and the Machine” with every chapter beginning with a paragraph on his prison experience is a must-read for every Illinois Office holder.

According to Walker’s book, reporters often called him a “confrontationist” because of his battles with then-Mayor Daley (the current Mayor Daley’s father). Walker’s response sounds much like what Blagojevich has said about his strife with Speaker of the House Michael Madigan: “Why don’t you ask Daley why he doesn’t accommodate me, instead of always asking why I don’t accommodate him?“

The Daily Herald writes Fighting over trains and profiles who's for and who's against the CN's buy of the J.

Congressional view

Here's a snapshot of where some local members of Congress stand on CN buying the EJ&E. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama oppose the plan.

Against
Peter Roskam, R-6th District
Melissa Bean, D-8th District
Judy Biggert, R-13th District
Bill Foster, D-14th District
Don Manzullo, R-16th District

Favors
Jesse Jackson Jr., D- 2nd District*
Danny Davis, D-7th District
Jan Schakowsky, D-9th District
Mark Kirk, R-10th District*

Uncommitted
Bobby Rush, D-1st District
*With provisos

I stop for trains to watch so I have a big bias on this one. Logistics and transportation are metro Chicago's life-blood though. Someone offers to invest in the network, I'll want to take them up on it. Too much at stack for our economy to turn down capital investment when capital investment something the public sector incapable of doing.

Bill Foster left me a voice mail that he would be at the Jewel (he's always at a Jewel? Is this a Union thing? No Mejers or Sams Club for Foster.....) in St Charles off Randall yesterday. I missed him, but if he would go to the Caputo's on Randall in South Elgin he'd see big posters attributing higher food prices to ethanol subsidies.

My question for Foster would have been if Bush was playing politics with telcom immunity last Feb, what's Obama playing with telcom immunity in July? Foster quoted in Open Left,

"The President and his allies in Congress are playing politics with national security, and that's wrong. Nobody is above the law and telecom companies who engaged in illegal surveillance should be held accountable, not given retroactive immunity. I flatly oppose giving these companies an out for cooperating with Alberto Gonzalez on short-circuiting the FISA courts and the rule of law."
Bill Foster, Democratic Candidate in IL-14 March 8th Special Election

Morgenthaler hits Roskam: Our Troops Aren't Children over at Progress Illinois

Earlier in the year, Rep. Peter Roskam signed on as a co-sponsor of the Military Honor and Decency Act, which restricts the sale of movies or printed materials featuring any nudity on Army bases worldwide. Today, the Sun-Times' Abdon Pallasch printed a response from Roskam's Democratic opponent, retired Col. Jill Morgenthaler:

"I find it offensive, having served with the young men and women in Iraq," said Morgenthaler, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. "Every day we trust them to make decisions. This bill says we don't trust them to choose their own magazines or movies."

I found the exchanges in the Green Zone and Ali Al Saleem no bargins and stocked only with basics. I suspect it's because most people get stuff on the internet instead, including what they read.

I suspect Colonel Morganthaler would agree too that we should be a little sensitive what we offer for sale among our Muslim allies.