The group is called Illinois Runs, and guess who is a board member?
(You have to scroll down a bit.)
Here in PDF form is the congratulatory letter from Governor Rod Blagojevich to Beth Onines, wishing the Illinois Runs executive director good luck with the new venture.
A similar post can be found on Marathon Pundit.
I like the White Sox. And while Ozzie Guillen is not the best coach and has made some questionable pitching changes in his career, he sure knows how to get the most out of his team on the field.
Still, there's no defense for his comments toward Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti, and after today's driveling interview with Mike Ditka in the Sun-Times, I have to agree with Moriotti's contention on Chicago Tonight (6/26) that the Sun-Times is not really backing it's staff up.
Is it news that Mike Ditka likes Ozzie Guillen? Only if it's news that Harry Caray liked Budweiser. What I did love was Ditka's defense of Guillen:"He's down-to-earth, he's blue-collar and he's also also a product of Venezuela who has spent his life playing baseball and that's just who he is. So he probably still doesn't understand a lot of things in our country as well as he understands baseball. And let's be honest, this is the same problem players from the Dominican Republic and other countries have when they don't speak perfect English. There will be misunderstandings."
It's an interesting defense. First, by definition, there are no blue collar professional baseball players; these are guys that hire other people to walk the picket line for them when they go on strike. And even most blue collar folks I know realize that you don't run around calling journalists "fag" when you're the coach of a major sporting team.
Secondly, Ozzie Guillen has lived in the U.S. for over twenty years. He may be an immigrant, but he's not a moron, and I'm sure he's learned what the word "fag" means now, if he didn't already know when he got here.
Third, this was no "misunderstanding." This is only the latest insult by Guillen over a journalist's perceived sexual orientation, which included a locker room incident where Guillen, then a player and buck-naked at the time, walked up behind a guy and pretended to sodomize him from behind.
Illinois has come along way in ending discrimination. Both gubernatorial candidates support our current anti-discrimination laws and marched in this year's Pride Parade. An effort to enshrine the anti-gay American agenda in our Constitution is about to go down in flames. And new research is shedding light on the link between biology and gayness.
Despite all that, Jay Mariotti is slowly being squeezed out of his profession because of Guillen's bigoted views about his perceived sexuality, and Ditka's redneck defense of Guillen's redneck remarks is that Latino immigrants are to stupid to know what they are saying.
There ought to be a Constitutional Ban Against Stupid People.
(Crain’s) — Alexis Giannoulias, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Broadway Bank, died suddenly while traveling in his native Greece over the weekend.Mr. Giannoulias, 69, suffered an apparent heart attack, according to a spokesman for his son, Alexi Giannoulias, who is the Democratic nominee for state treasurer... In addition to his three sons, Mr. Giannoulias is survived by his wife of 38 years, Anna.
Politics can be a rough and tumble business, and this is the type of story that should remind everybody of priorities and what's really important in life. My condolences to my friend Alexi, his terrific mom, and their whole family.
Read more...
Whether he had 14,000 signatures or not is unknown at this point, but Moderate Party candidate Bill Scheurer is listed as having filed for congress in the 8th congressional district on the State Board of Elections web site.
Scheurer can be accurately described as a "peace candidate."
Scheurer was the victim of a dirty trick last week in which a political consultant impersonator did not deliver the 18,000 signatures that he had promised.
Reached in his car, McHenry County Blog asked how many signatures he filed. His enigmatic answer:
The official public answer is, "We filed 10-12,000 less than the number we would have filed had we not been the victim of criminal fraud. We filed 10-12,000 more signatures than either of the corporate party candidates filed to get on the ballot themselves."Scheuer said he had
(Republican David McSweeney just emailed me that he filed "2,500-3,000 signatures." Do the math and you will see that Scheurer has precious few signatures over the 14,000 required or he is a bit short.)A copy of our filing was pulled with three minutes after it was filed.
We are pursuing several avenues of criminal investigation I have filed to be on the ballot to be on the ballot as a third party candidate. I have also filed with all three of the counties a declaration of candidacy for a write-in candidate.
We believe that the Democratic Party is involved in a fraud against democracy itself. And the way they can wipe their hands clean of that is to welcome me into the race like the other party.
4 or 5-dozen volunteers in the streetsthis past weekend.
· Randall Stufflebeam of the Constitution PartyStufflebeam won the game of “chicken” and will be last on the ballot, if he withstands an expected ballot challenge from supporters of Judy Topinka. Stufflebeam is a social conservative who would not have participated in the Gay Pride Parade yesterday, as Topinka did.
· Rich Whitney of the Green Party and
· James Blaine of the Independence Party
Stufflebean told McHenry County Blog:"We ended up filing 4,382."The answer to the question about whom he expected to challenge his petitions:
"The Republicans."Stufflebeam said that the Democrats were there ready to contest (Green Party Whitney's petitions), but
"Apparently, the Republicans ran out of time because it was five o’clock."
The Green Party seems most confident in its having gathered the 25,000 necessary signatures, which, I hasten to add is 5 times the number required by the power party candidates."We exceeded the legal requirement by several thousand."The Independence Party candidate did not file a full slate of candidates, so will be disqualified, if anyone cares to challenge its petitions’ sufficiency. Read more...
Cross posted from ICPR's blog, The Race is On:
Today’s Supreme Court ruling in the Vermont campaign finance case shows strong legal support for reasonable campaign finance reform, and it points the way to enacting such reforms here in Illinois.
Vermont’s law, perhaps the toughest in the nation, is unlike any measure now pending in Illinois. Vermont’s law limited giving to as little as $200, which, the Court noted, “are the lowest in the Nation.” It applied the same limits to individuals, parties and PACs. Limits applied to all giving over a two-year period, rather than applying for each election. Although the law never took effect, the Court suggested that it would have applied to expenses incurred by volunteers even if not reimbursed by a campaign. And perhaps most importantly, it restricted total expenditures. Sizing up all of these restrictions, a plurality of the Court concluded that the Act was unconstitutional.
Showing how complicated this kind of law can be, however, the ruling was not a majority opinion. Four justices (Breyer, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy) agreed that, while some limits are allowable, these are not. Three others (Souter, Stevens, and Ginsburg) concluded not only that some limits are allowable, but that the appellate court should study this further; Justice Stevens suggested he would have upheld these limits. Only two justices, Scalia and Thomas, argued that the Vermont law and also every other restriction on campaign finances are unconstitutional. Even though they could not agree on a single reason, a majority of the justices agreed that Vermont’s laws went too far. As a result of this fracture, the practical impact of this case may be limited.
Illinois, without any limits, remains the Wild West of campaign finance in the USA. Donors can and do give six- and even seven-figure contributions to support a single candidate. The impact of these large contributions cannot be underestimated. Large donors continue to enjoy practical benefits and access unavailable to ordinary citizens. Illinois continues to need campaign finance reforms, and this ruling shows how to craft reforms that respect free speech.
Reform proposals here would likely not run afoul of today’s ruling. Limits legislation now pending in the state legislature, including HB 743 and SB 1822, set higher overall limits, apply limits per election rather than per biennium, allow larger contributions from PACs than from individuals, and higher still from parties; and do not touch overall spending limits. Indeed, Illinois’ current proposals would do nothing more than bring our state into the 20th Century of campaign finance laws.
For a copy of the Supreme Court ruling in Randall v Sorrell, click here (PDF)
Just about every weekend morning from about 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM I watch this slot on Chicago Access Network Channel 19. This slot has programming where often I would see programming hosted by blacks that are live call-in programs. Usually the topic of discussion is politics and issues as pertaining to blacks living in Chicago.
This weekend was interesting. On Saturday morning was a program called Daleyland. This is a somewhat frequent programs that might air maybe 4 or more times a year hosted by Eugene Mathews. He would have a co-host who on this day was a man named Boyse Edwards (I'll talk about him in a minute).
In any case this show usually laments the policies of Mayor Richard M. Daley and his control over city politics. On this day they didn't talk much about Daley for the most part they steered clear of Daley. The show revolved around President Bush, the shutdown of a federal courthouse in downtown Chicago, the recent incident involving a police officer involved with a drug ring, and then the issue of illegal immigration. In any case there is an indication that the show will return in August hopefully I'll be able to tune in.
On Sunday was a live call-in program produced by Jamm Right Productions called the B-Corner. This was hosted by the aforementioned Boyse Edwards who for the first half hour had as his guest, Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica. He talked about the current race for county board president mostly and the wrangling involved with figuring out what to do about the sickness of John Stroger.
Peraica says that the board has difficulty agreeing on anything let alone if Stroger should be removed and replaced. Even went so far as to saying that the Democrats on the County Board disregarding the advice of their fellow Democrat State's Attorney Dick Devine who suggested that John Stroger could be replaced temporarily.
He even talked about an impromptu press conference he had in city hall where according to him he was no where near the floor of the council but was in another room nearby. Apparently he was responding to a statement made in the city council by Ald. Todd Stroger with regards to his father's health. Saying that John Stroger was on a feeding tube to name one thing I recall correctly. Anyway eventually this conference was cut short when some police asked him to leave. Peraica even said he was almost about ready to box.
So anyway this segment ended with Peraica talking about why he should be elected. He didn't seem to make it clear that he wanted to be elected. Just said a line about vote for me for change or vote for the status quo. But he did say about one true statement, it's a shame that 24% of Cook County residents can vote while a much higher number of Iraqis can go out and vote in the middle of a war.
The programs that I see everynow and then, seem to have more black public official on then I'd see on more mainstream outlets. I think that on Beyond the Beltway one time Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was lamenting that the media never seems to talk to him about other issues other than black issues. They never talk to him about say economic issues and education and it's definitely not like he's educated (he does have a Bachelor's, a Master in Divinity, and a jurist doctorate). Either way watching Chicago Access Network seems to be the main why I can connect with the city's black officials.
Democratic Party fraud to keep Bill Scheurer from running against Melissa Bean?
That’s what today's article by Joshua Holland on AlterNet hints.
It seems that Bill Scheurer hired a guy whose day job is with U.S. Rep. Dan Lapinski to collect 18,000 signatures. Or, at least that's what he thought.
The story says,
In mid-May, a man claiming to be Anthony Constantine from AR Consulting got in touch with the Scheurer campaign and pitched the firm's services: for a fee, they'd help collect the needed signatures. They met, and Scheurer hired the firm.The firm was hired. Scheurer got a progress report every week. Early this week Scheurer was supposed to pay for and receive the signatures. The guy didn’t show up, sick relative and all that.
finally, Constantine returned a call after being threatened with legal action.One can say that Scheurer was naive to the ways of Illinois Democratic Party politics. That's for sure.
Constantine says it's the first he's heard of any of this. He never met with Scheurer, AR Consulting never cut a deal with his campaign and he definitely doesn't have the thousands of signatures that Scheurer needs to get on the ballot. It's a hard blow for the peace candidate's long-shot candidacy.
There's no evidence linking any of this directly to Bean, or to the Democratic leadership. But Illinois Dems have come out in force against Scheurer -- DCCC Chair Rahm Emmanuel has been particularly vocal.
The only thing that's certain is that Scheurer finds himself missing several thousand precious signatures just ten days before the filing deadline.
Friends,The deadline for filing is Monday. A Democratic Party challenge is a certainty.
This weekend is the final push to get our pro-peace, pro-working-family candidate on the ballot for the IL-8th Congressional District this November.
People are coming from far and wide (Washington DC, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois) to be part of this historic campaign. Please join them!
Also, bring others with you, spread the word, and have everyone do the same. We expect dozens of people in this celebration of our democracy.
______________________________________________________________________
We are going out on: June 24, Saturday, 10:00 AM; and June 25, Sunday, 12:00 Noon.
We are staging from the Lake Villa Public Library parking lot at 1001 E. Grand Ave., Lindenhurst, IL. Here is the link to a map of this location.
Take the Tri-State Parkway (I-94) exit for "Lindenhurst, Route 132, Grand Avenue, West" and go a few miles west. The library is across the street from Deep Lake Rd.
Thanks to everyone. This is the culmination of all our hard work. See you this weekend.
petition_4bill@yahoo.com
Campaign@WinWithBill.com
hone: 847-543-1253 Mobile: 847-867-6631
After sleeping on the story about Jeff Ladd’s pending retirement below, I came to the conclusion that it was too negative. (Photo is of Ladd and McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler.)
That’s probably based on his 1970 political opposition to my family’s goal of locating McHenry County College in Crystal Lake when his family was trying to put it on their land behind McHenry West High School, plus his support of the 1974 RTA.
I imagine that the political broadside that I developed with the cover blast
The Ladd Sight Is a Bad Sitedidn’t help the relationship. (The referendum failed by 80%-20%.)
Vote No December 5th
de-centralization was good.Chicago would get to run the Chicago Transportation Authority--which, of course, it already did--while suburban interests would have control of suburban trains and buses, along with their political patronage.
Ladd fumed over delays for two consecutive rush hours to riders on Metra's BNSF commuter line, pronouncing the three-hour delays endured by some to be "unacceptable."And, Roberts continued,
He defended his territory vigorously, and that meant butting heads often, especially in recent years, with leaders of the Chicago area's other transit agencies.And, beyond.
They shouldn't (feel slighted). They have more service than anybody on the entire system,brought back one of the anomalies I found in 1974.
The operations were such when we came into being that I don't leave with anything but a sense of satisfaction and pride in what we have accomplished. We built the finest commuter rail operation in the country.I see no reason to argue with that conclusion.
(One of the reasons Senator Dick Klemm voted for George Ryan’s Illinois FIRST was that money from it would go to rehabilitation the railroad bridge over the Fox River. Jack Franks and I voted against Illinois FIRST, on the other hand, I because it stiffed Chicago area highways. Note well that 8 years later we still don’t have 4 lanes on · Route 47 through Huntley,From a more parochial viewpoint, Ladd had long desired a new McHenry County train station. His favored location was Ridgefield, nearer his almost Bull Valley home than the Downtown Crystal Lake station. Instead, we now have the station on Pingree Road, built to European standards. In other words, it allows people to get from one side of the track to the other without actually crossing the tracks, as is the typical situation at Chicagoland stations.
· Algonquin Road from Randall Road to Route 47 or
· 31 north from Crystal Lake to McHenry. )
Notice the third column for Race on the Clout List (pdf file)? It's W's, B's, H's, and a few O's.
My experience working with race indicators is the results are vastly different if Race is self reported versus someone else reporting. Self reported results yield far more blanks or unknowns. A few blanks on this list and not a single U from my scan.
I don't think they were using the data for affirmative action reports so it would be interesting to see what in the world they did do with it; and who was deciding what Race everyone belonged too.
I thought -if I was using this list- I would have been more interested in the person's precinct of residence, but that may have turned out to be as flakey as the flakey biology of race.
cross posted at Bill Baar's West Side.
via The Hill,
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) will step down from the House Democrats’ campaign operation after the November elections to spend more time with his family, he told The Hill yesterday.I think the sclerosis is winning. Read more...
[***]
He lamented a lack of effort from some of his colleagues.
“I’ve ruffled feathers with a purpose. There’s a sclerosis that’s set in. I’ve ruffled feathers of elder members of caucus with intention of recruiting younger members. I’ve ruffled of New Democrats and Blue Dogs. I’ve ruffled feathers, no doubt about it.”
The Quaker Oats Man, Illinois Corporate Shill Tom Roeser had a great piece about the lad who set the table, Petey Fitzgerald, when George Ryan was convicted back in April. Old Roeser who delights in others' misfortune - especially local game that spit out the Oats Ball - is especially truculant concerning the "The Combine." My favorite is his sniffing about poor Phil Gramm - a world class piece of slime. The List, The Squealing, The Lincoln Library, Quaker Oats Corp., Halliburton, Enron, and the 'deep-thinkers' have some root in Old Tom's mentoring of Petey Fitzgerald. For those Progressive souls made swooning by politics by politicians, the cats pouring the cream to you might like to eat some mice. Exemplum Gratia!
http://tomroeser.com/default.asp?categoryID=83
'The first bad luck of the draw had been the election in 1998 (the same year that George Ryan won governor) of Peter Fitzgerald as U. S. Senator. Never were two Republicans farther apart in philosophy and practice than George Ryan and Peter Fitzgerald. Ryan has a blow-torch temper, stalking, angry and demonstrative; Fitzgerald is calm, studied, soft-spoken and to some even naïve. Ryan is an old-line pol to whom philosophy means nothing; Fitzgerald is the brilliant, reclusive philosophical conservative scion of a multi-millionaire banker-a graduate of Dartmouth and Harvard Law who studied in Greece and speaks the language fluently. He’s learned in the law, in business, in ethics and the classics (Latin and Greek) who disdains politics-as-usual. From the day Peter Fitzgerald served in Springfield as a reform state senator, he was at odds with the Republican secretary of state. As Senator, Fitzgerald blocked a lot of Governor Ryan’s initiatives and refused to act as a subsidies bearer for the state. He blocked Ryan’s plan to get federal funding for the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum because Ryan wanted to use the Library as a patronage dump for his favorites. Ryan never slept an untroubled night in the mansion as governor with the feds on his tail. He thought he could fix it with either Lazar or another Democratic prosecutor-and, friend of Daley as he was, he probably could. Nevertheless, he started to re-craft his image to appeal to a future jury pool. He switched from being a death penalty advocate to vigorous opponent who granted clemency to all prisoners on death row which gained him huge publicity from the liberal media (for which he sought the Nobel Prize). Since African Americans dominated death row, Ryan calculated he would make gains with any blacks on the jury. One large group remaining was Hispanic. Ryan became a darling of liberaldom nationally by going to Cuba, meeting with Fidel Castro in Cuba, urging the U. S. to change its views on the Communist dictator. To please Daley, he switched overnight from an opponent of O’Hare expansion to a firm supporter of it. A former pro-lifer, he vetoed a pro-life bill to win favor with pro-choicers, being totally a re-born liberal; he now supported gay rights, too. The Combine was happy with Republican Ryan. All that had to happen next was the election of a Democratic president in 2000. To ensure the Democrats would carry Illinois and further ingratiate himself with Daley, Gov. Ryan backed a man who was a long-shot candidate for the GOP nomination. A long-shot candidate but a very good man: Texas Senator Phil Gramm, superb on economic issues but afflicted with a cracker barrel Georgia-born accent and a neck that extended out of his collar like a turtle’s which marred his presentation (but there were those who liked him, including me). Even there, Ryan’s venality came through: he couldn’t resist scuttling around, talking to Gramm’s managers about being paid from Gramm’s campaign fund: this as governor, an incredible craven gesture, and seeing that some family members were paid, as well. This greed was another part of his un-doing. The records showed Ryan didn’t do anything whatever for the money he received and the sinecure ended up as part of the indictment. Gramm, a private citizen, came in to testify that he was amazed to find out later that Ryan was paid. In bold terms, Gramm said that there’s a difference between being truly in love or being paid for love, calling Ryan a “prostitute” off-stage following his testimony. Always exploding from the short-fuse, Ryan struck back with an ill-considered public denunciation before television, blasting Gramm in front of the Dirksen courthouse, trying to tie him and his wife Wendy to the Enron scandal since Wendy was on the board (although linkage of the Gramms is tenuous and today he is being mentioned as the next secretary of the treasury) while the ex-governor’s lawyers winced. The legendary Ryan blow-torch temper had to let off steam. When Ryan bellowed out against Gramm, I am told that his lawyer Dan Webb decided the ex-governor could not be trusted to testify in his own behalf: he could only last at most 20 minutes before he’d blow a gasket. After Gramm’s campaign faded and George W. Bush won the nomination, Ryan insisted on running the Bush presidential campaign in Illinois in 2000 by virtue of his being governor-designing it, many believe, to lose. Certainly there was no Bush presence in Illinois. Indeed, Ryan did an extraordinary thing on election day itself: arranging a meeting during that day with Daley, pretending that it was on a policy matter…and prior to the polls closing, congratulating Daley lavishly for carrying Illinois for Gore. Now all Gore had to do was win the whole enchilada. Well, as we know, he won more popular votes but lost in the Supreme Court to Bush. And Bush’s election as president was the second bad luck of the draw for George Ryan. The third bad luck of the draw was the appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald as U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois because of the recommendation of Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (no relation). I well remember dining next to William Bauer, former chief judge of the local U. S. Court of Appeals. A gifted man, he is at turns witty and unfathomable. He started Jim Thompson on his career when Bauer was U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. He made Thompson his first assistant. Bauer convicted Otto Kerner with Thompson’s help. Then Bauer went to the District Court and Thompson took over the job. Why, asked Bauer with great emotion, did Peter Fitzgerald convince Bush to name an outsider, Patrick Fitzgerald, as U. S. Attorney here? An insult to the local bar. I asked him this: Did you know that the last local D. A., Scott Lazar, was planning to go to China on a vacation with Mayor Richard M. Daley when the trip was called off because of 9/11? Did the Judge think that was too cozy? Yes, Bauer said. He was astounded at the news. I believe him. Anyhow, Peter Fitzgerald believed an outsider was indispensable to get a clean sweep of corruption here. He was massively turned off by Ryan and the governor’s determination to be boss. Ryan was up to his old tricks with the aid of his friend Denny Hastert: he tried to cash in on the state’s Lincoln museum by filling it with patronage hires. Fitzgerald took to the Senate floor to filibuster against it. Hastert tried to interfere in the naming of a prosecutor only to be told to butt out by Peter Fitzgerald. Then Fitzgerald began to interview only prosecutors from outside Illinois, a fresh departure from the old home-town prosecutor game the Combine plays. After Patrick Fitzgerald was confirmed, it was only a matter of time. Whether it was that Senator Peter Fitzgerald wanted to stay home with his wife and son, it was also true that the Combine wouldn’t back him for reelection. Judy Baar Topinka became State GOP Chairman and incredibly declined to endorse him, an incumbent, scandal-free, highly regarded Republican Senator for reelection in 2004. Peter Fitzgerald then declined to run again: a great loss when this young man threw in the cards. But Peter Fitzgerald has won just the same. It took time: eight years of painstaking work for Patrick Fitzgerald to nail down the Ryan case, but he did it. Throughout those years Ryan’s relations with Daley blossomed and Ryan’s hope grew that John Kerry might win the presidency in 2004 and appoint a new prosecutor. No such luck. The conviction of George Ryan is more than of a man but of the old-line play-for- pay political alliance between Democrats and Republicans. To shore up the Combine’s defense, Jim Thompson, architect of the scandal-tarred alliance, devoted the resources of his law firm to Ryan’s defense for free. It didn’t work. Now the one who will begin to lose sleep is Richard M. Daley. Among others. The question as mentioned above is whether or not Patrick Fitzgerald wants to follow through with a total slam-dunk: for the stuff of future convictions is there. *************** In the meantime, a gubernatorial election is being waged this year and a mayoral election will be run in 2007. The legatee of the old days of the Combine is Judy Baar Topinka, who declined to endorse Peter Fitzgerald for reelection. If she wins the governorship, that office will be in play to continue the game and do what it can to forestall trouble for Daley. Daley is determined to run for reelection unless he gets the feeling that the feds are coming so close he should conserve his energies-but he can be reelected rather easily. The huge circle of business and industries close to Daley are close to Jim Thompson and a large coterie of Demi-publicans as well. There’s a central thread which if it gets pulled…well, look out. Thus , it turns out that leaders of both parties are considering that it wouldn’t be fatal if the opposite side were to win the governorship. Here’s how some Democrats think: If Topinka were to win, she would likely ask for and get a general income tax hike which would stunt her popularity for the remainder of her term. In four years, when she would be age 66, she would decline to run again. That’s when a revitalized Democratic party could return with, let us say, a Lisa Madigan, the apple of Speaker Mike’s eye. So some Democrats reason: it would not be too bad to have Topinka win. You get rid of Rod who drives the party nuts, you get a social liberal and then get rid of her for a full-blooming liberal in four years. At the same time, there are some Republicans who reason that it is not entirely crazy to hope that Rod Blagojevich wins a second term. Topinka’s win would shut out conservatives for four years, even those non-conservatives like Ron Gidwitz who want fiscal reform. The GOP would be open to new ideas. In that way at least one party-the Republican-could conceivably be open to reconstruction along traditional lines. They reason: one more term for Blagojevich might be short-range salutary. He doesn’t seem to have many friends in his own party. After a term during which he either is forced to raise taxes or go out in ignominy with the state in terrible shape, maybe even, in a strange calibration, to a vice presidential nomination in 2008 (stranger things have happened), the public will have had such a belly-full of liberal Democrats, the state would be ready for Republicans and reform. In a sense, the galloping leather-lunged Senator-Minister James Meeks who uses his church as a political launching pad with no fear that the IRS will come, evidently, could decide everything. I doubt he’ll run-but if he does, he takes automatically a huge number of votes from Blagojevich. African Americans are not noted to stand by idly or vote for a white when one of their number-especially the dynamic kind that Meeks is-runs for a major office. Forget that many Republican social conservatives will support him because pro-life to him is different than pro-life to them. All the same, Meeks has it within his power to elect Topinka. You can bet your third to the last bottom dollar that Topinka’s people are dealing with him. Mike Madigan wants his little girl to be governor after one term: You can bet your second to the last bottom dollar that Topinka’s people are cutting a deal with Papa Madigan for his covert support for one Topinka term only. The Jim Thompson-Richard Daley combine would accept Topinka as governor. You can now bet your bottom dollar that somebody from the Combine is talking to Meeks. On the other hand, young Jesse wants to be mayor but wants more concessions from Blagojevich for the Abraham Lincoln airport in Peotone; they wouldn’t be discouraged if Meeks delivers and decides not to run for governor. A demonstrative black ally of the Jackson’s who causes the Democrats to lose the governorship doesn’t help Young Jesse’s reputation as a mayoral candidate in 2007, All of these things can’t interest George Ryan very much. You’ve heard of the old axiom “from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” In one generation-his-Ryan will have moved from the posture of extending his royal ring for caressing because he granted prestige license plates for power-brokers to actually getting down to the business of making license plates in a prison factory.Is this a great country or what?"
Getting Greater all the time Tommy! ( No thanks to Corporate Shills. ) And it ain't going anywhere! A Rat has whiskers and so does a cat, but that don't make them brothers.
N.B. - Sorry about the Cyber language glitch in the paste-up of Tom Roeser's musings. Looks like it came right outta Commie Russia.
10:11 AM
Today, the Illinois Family Institute defends Robert J. Smith, who was fired from his post on the D.C. Metro Board for refering to gay Americans as "persons of sexual deviancy." The IFI webpost goes on to argue that the word "deviant" merely means "differing from the norm or from the accepted standard of society."
Nothing pejorative about "deviant," eh? Fine.
Let's add these folks to the list of "deviants":
-Anyone who stands along a parade route with a bullhorn, chastising paraders while quoting the Bible. Definitely not a behavior your average American engages in.
-Anyone who moves from Maryland to Illinois to run for the U.S. Senate.
-Anyone who flies over stadiums in helicopters alluding to rounding up immigrants, or spends millions of dollars on losing statewide races more than once.
-Anyone who calls themselves a social conservative but takes their wife to a sex club.
-Left-handed people like Pat Robertson.
-Smokers.
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