Blagojevich Is Not a Cuckoo!

As you can plainly see from this cartoon drawn for my Libertarian Party campaign against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan in 2002, Blagojevich is not a cuckoo.

Mayor Richard Daley is only half right.

Blagojevich is a bird.
That bird is a chicken, however, not a cuckoo.

Here's the whole cartoon, drawn to point out that both Ryan and Blagojevich were chickens.
The two conspired to hold debates where they could dictate who was included.

And excluded.

The specific inspiration for this cartoon was when the two refused to take part in the Illinois League of Women Voters debate. The LVW rules said that any candidate who had received at least 5% in a non-candidate poll could take part.

I received just over 5% in the Daily Southtown poll, which was taken in early September, 2002.

Posted first at McHenry County Blog.

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Term Limits for Legislative Leaders

That, plus computerized redistricting of legislative seats are the main suggestions of Capitol Fax's Rich Miller in his latest syndicated newspaper column.

Term limits for legislative leaders.

Where have I heard that before? (See third issue link on the left.)

Oh, I know, I espoused the idea when I ran for governor as a Libertarian in 2002.

Here's what I pulled up from the Library of Congress archived web site:

Where does Cal Skinner stand on term limits?

Professional politicians are running our country and our state into the ground. They spend most of their time scheming to get re-elected. Then they pass porkbarrel legislation to please their biggest donors, to keep the donations rolling in.

And guess what keeps this corrupt system going? Your tax dollar.

The problem is especially bad in Illinois, where four legislative leaders — the House Speaker, the Senate President, and the House and Senate minority leaders — dictate nearly the entire legislative agenda. The founders of our country never meant for so much power to be in the hands of so few elected officials.

The solution?

Six-year term limits for legislative leaders. Don't give career politicians like Michael Madigan and Pate Philip time to build political empires that allow their power to go unchecked. Bring back the era of the citizen-politician, when the average citizen took an active role in governing his community.

Cal Skinner and the Libertarian Party support term limits as a sensible means of restoring order to the out-of-control power and money system at the highest levels of our government.

Well, infusing new ideas into the body politic is the primary role of third parties, isn't it?

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Urinals

These are not ordinary urinals.

They are urinals with a view.

First, the ones you might have seen in Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times in Zay N. Smith’s

QT ON THE BLOGS.

"They are at the headquarters (pun probably intended) of Frankfurt’s Commerzbank."

Smith starts his cut line with “Loo with a view.”

Second up are urinals closer to home.

About half of the patrons of Port Edward know what’s below this and another porthole on the north side of the building right off the parking spaces near the river.

Port Edward is the excellent restaurant at the intersection of Algonquin Road (Route 62) and Harrison Street, just west of the Fox River.

And why are there relieved men’s faces looking out across the parking lot at the Fox River?

Think any women ever wonder why?

It's the pause that refreshes.

In perhaps related news, McHenry County Board members are poised to relieve themselves on me in public at their board meeting tonight at 7 by banning flash photography and all cameras to the back two corners of the room where no decent pictures can be taken without a $3-5,000 camera with a huge lens. (Come to Woodstock at 6 if you want to hear how much overbudget the new Crystal Lake Animal Control Facility is.)

See "Skinner's a Pain, But Come On."

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RTA Gas Tax Will Make Someone's Day

I can hardly believe that George Ranney, one of the Regional Transportation Authority’s original promoters, is advocating the same RTA gas tax that was included in the original legislation.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," as George Santayana put it so well in 1905.

So, go ahead.

Re-enact the RTA gas tax.

Make it 5%.

Apply it to the state and federal Motor Fuel Tax portion of the price of gasoline, too.

15 cents or more a gallon.

And, why not suggest the repealed parking tax, too?

You will create another suburban Cal Skinner.

I hope he or she has as much fun killing a new RTA Gas Tax as I did the original one.

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After I wrote this article I remembered that Ranney was the designated spokesman for the RTA Citizens Committee for Better Transportation in the last radio debate on the subject. It occurred the Friday before the RTA referendum was barely (and maybe not) passed (no recount allowed in an entirely paper ballot and less than a 13,000 vote margin with obvious fraud). We were at a little FM station in some older Chicago high rise. By then I had my sound bites down pat.

As we reached the elevator after the recording, Ranney said, "If we had known we would have so much trouble with McHenry County, we would have left you out."

My response: "Now you tell me!"

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And, yes, that's a picture of one Cal Skinner, Jr., showing a bit of what the House Chambers looked like in the late 1970's. Huge stacks of bills, if you wanted to have a chance of being able to figure out what was going on beyond the Legislative Digest. And some of us were a lot thinner.

There is always more at McHenry County Blog, including news of a soon-to-be 500-employee company that could move out of Illinois to Wisconsin but is not--just out of Crystal Lake.

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