The Illinois Congressional Pork Report

by Cal Skinner

Taxpayers for Common Sense have totaled up the congressional earmarks in the budget bill being voted on this week.

I was reminded of that when I read an editorial cartoon sent to me by my Joplin, Missouri, brother-in-law. It was in the Saganaw News.

Scene: Husband and wife sitting at the breakfast table.

Husband: “Sez here they arrested a D.C. Madam for running a house of ill repute...”

Wife: “They arrested Polisi?”

Below is the list of who got what in this year's budget, which is due to be passed only about six months after the beginning of the fiscal year. They are listed in descending order from highest to lowest dollar amount of pork projects.

• Ray LaHood, 23 earmarks totaling $8,774,250

• Rahm Emanuel, 10 earmarks totaling $6,523,000

• Jerry Costello, 12 earmarks totaling $5,425,175

• Dan Lipinski, 12 projects totaling $4,451,172

• Melissa Bean, 10 earmarks totaling $3,687,314 (one in McHenry County)

• Bill Foster, 12 earmarks totaling $3,095,000

• Danny Davis, 10 earmarks totaling $3,066,014

• Tim Johnson, 8 earmarks totaling $2,806,100

• Jesse Jackson, Jr., 15 earmarks totaling $2,783,500

• Peter Roskam, 12 earmarks totaling $2,655,330

• John Shimkus, 13 earmarks totaling $2,421,750

• Bobby Rush, 8 earmarks totaling $2,073,375

• Don Manzullo, 6 earmarks totaling $2,070,500 (one in McHenry County)

• Phil Hare, 7 earmarks totaling $2,031,000

• Jan Schakowsky, 8 earmarks totaling $1,644,000

• Luis Gutierrez, 2 earmarks totaling $760,000

• Jerry Weller, 7 earmarks totaling $1,243,250

$47.8 million in total.

Eschewing pork were Republicans Judy Biggert and Mark Kirk.

Three retired members, Rahm Emanuel, Ray LaHood and Jerry Weller get credit for projects anyway.

Newly elected Congress folks Debbie Halvorson and Aaron Shock were not listed.

Previous Illinois pork reports on McHenry County Blog:

2-28-9 Illinois Pork in the Commerce, Justice and Science Budgets

3-1-9 Illinois Defense Department Pork

3-2-9 Homeland Security Pork in Illinois

3-2-9 Return of Planetarium Pork

3-3-9 Ray LaHood Tucks $90,000 Bandstand Renovation in Congressional Budget

3-3-9 Pork Where You Might Expect It – in the Agriculture Budget

3-4-9 Illinois Earmarks for Interior, Environment Bills

3-5-9 Illinois Comes Out on Short End of Military Pork

3-6-9 Illinois Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Congressional Earmarks – Part 1

3-7-9 Illinois Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Congressional Earmarks – Part 2 - Dick Durbin's

3-8-9 Illinois Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Congressional Earmarks – Part 3

3-9-9 Illinois Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Congressional Earmarks – Part 4

3-10-9 Illinois Corps of Engineers Pork

Tomorrow at McHenry County Blog the bacon our United States Senators brought home.
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Leave Taking

by Cal Skinner

Building bridges.

That's what it seemed to be about after Barack Obama was sworn in as president.

After Obama was sworn in, he and his wife Michelle took their leave with Laura and George W. Bush on the Capitol steps.
As the Bush entourage took off in their helicopter, the new president, vice president and their wives waved good-bye.

Obama's chosen hatchet man Rahm Emanuel smiled and shock hands with the fallen Republican standard bearer John McCain.

The Era of Good Will will continue until those of us on the losing side of the presidential election read of the Executive Orders that Obama will quickly sign.

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Rahm Emanuel's New Deal

Rahm Emanuel's A New Deal for a New Economy

Kane Democrats were telling me I was a sucker for finding something progressive about ideas like this below back in 2005.

Every Democrat running for Congress should be asked for thoughts on this.

The third plank of the New Deal is savings. In the past two years, America's personal savings rate reached its lowest level since the Great Depression, and fewer Americans can look forward to receiving a guaranteed pension when they retire.

I think we can increase savings and improve retirement security by creating Universal Savings Accounts. Like 401(k) plans, the account would supplement, not supplant, Social Security. Employers and employees would contribute 1 percent of paychecks on a tax-deductible basis and workers could make additional contributions if they chose to do so. These accounts would encourage savings, give workers more control over their economic future and provide more peace of mind when it comes to their own retirement.

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University of Illinois military scholarships scandal update

Here are my prior posts on the University of Illinois military scholarships scandal.

Broken promises: How "jarheads" got shunted aside at the University of Illinois: A Marathon Pundit series

Marathon Pundit Exclusive: What happened behind the scenes of the University of Illinois veteran scholarship scandal

University of Illinois: "Hookers are Praised as Soldiers" –Marathon Pundit's Third Investigative Report

On September 12, in the basement of the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago, the Court of Claims, which consists of seven "judges" who are actually attorneys appointed by Governor Rod Blagojevich.

The Court of Claims is the arena where certain types of lawsuits against the state, or state universities, are heard.

I am going to try and attend.

Robert van der Hooning, the former Assistant Dean for the University of Illinois College of Business was the man in charge of the program whose goal was to offer 110 full-ride scholarships the Urbana-Champaign campus' Executive MBA program in Chicago last year.

Many of those scholarships were later rescinded by senior University of Illinois College of Business administrators.

To me, actually to most people, "a deal is a deal," but fearing under-funding of the each scholarship's funding source, the Illinois Veterans Grant, the administrators quietly began pressing the delete button on many of those scholarship offers.

After getting the good news, shortly after Memorial Day, some veterans got the bad news. The scholarships they thought they had were pulled. After Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Lt. Governor Pat Quinn got involved, many of those scholarships were offered again, only to be re-rescinded, and then offered again.

Van der Hooning is suing the University of Illinois, charging his dismissal from the school was in retaliation for his whistleblowing activity as he tried to right the scholarship wrongs.

Despite what I see as a very strong case, van der Hooning may be facing a tough audience next month. Governor Blagojevich hasn't done much if anything to increase funding for the constantly underfunded Illinois Veterans Grant program. By law, what the Illinois Veteran's Grant doesn't pay, state universities have to cover out of their own pockets.

"Blago" was sworn in to office for his first term two months before the invasion of Iraq. As for as the military, and their needs, things have obviously changed since January, 2003.

And as I stated above, the Court of Claims "judges" are Blagojevich appointees.

The University of Illinois is run by its board of trustees, who are appointed by, you guessed it, the governor.

The state's fiscal 2008 budget, which was due at the end of May, still hasn't been approved. There's a chance, albeit a slim one, that the Illinois Veteran's Grant will be remembered before a budget is approved.

I don't expect much from Blagojevich, however. As Diane from Respublica reports, "Governor Elvis" has signed just 31 of 700 bills that have been sent to his desk this year.

And Illinois War on Terror vets keep coming home, looking to get on with the rest of their lives and continue to contribute to society.

If van der Hooning loses, so do the veterans, since a signal will have been sent that it's okay to screw them over.

This case is not just about one guy.

Related Marathon Pundit post:

Univ. of Illinois College of Business Dean on "partial leave of absence without pay"

To comment on this or any other Marathon Pundit post, click here.

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Crains: County prez must fix hospital system, Sen. Durbin warns

Something to chew on for those here who say our elected Federal reps have no business getting involved with CPD on Police Brutality. Crain's on Durbin, Emanuel, and Schakowsky's chit chat with Stroger about Cook County Hospital. They had no problem chewing out Stroger behind closed doors I guess. Wonder what happened to the rest of Cook County's delegation to Congress.

The meeting in Sen. Durbin's office "raised the expectation that Mr. Stroger show leadership and get a handle on the problems facing the health system," a spokesman for the senator says.

Among other key lawmakers present were U.S. Reps. Rahm Emanuel of Chicago and Jan Schakowsky of Evanston. Neither they nor Sen. Durbin could be reached for comment.

Update: Proviso Probe looked at the story and asked,

Is Stroger part of the problem because he wants to keep the perks of political power?

Is Stroger the victim, thrust into a situation where he has to commit "murder by spreadsheet" to deal with financial constraints he can't control?

I vote victim Carl 'cause I have a hard time seeing Stroger as a player but maybe that's just my old man's perspective of a Toddler.

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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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