-By Warner Todd Huston
We may have won a small victory in Wisconsin with the brave work of Governor Scott Walker and his state’s Republican leadership but there is a greater battle looming. There is a bigger crisis coming for the states as the major troubles of pensions/unfunded liabilities/debts come to a head and the unions are pushing hard to force us all to pay them off instead of reform it all.
Video courtesy of FreedomWorks.
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We Won Wisconsin – But the Fight Goes On”
From the office of Congressman Peter Roskam (R,IL)…
The American people gave House Republicans some very clear priorities last November, like focus on creating jobs, stop spending money we don’t have, and work to end the Democrats’ job-destroying health care law.
That is the message I heard from my district, and that is exactly what I am working on in Washington.
When the Democrats failed to pass a budget in the last Congress, House Republicans took the challenge of funding the government as an opportunity to begin our cost-cutting work. We voted to pass a long-term continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year – cutting $100 billion from the President’s budget request.
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Rep. Peter Roskam: Want a Fresh Start?”
From The Institute for Truth in Accounting…
(Chicago, March 17, 2011) – On every third Wednesday in March Illinois’ House and Senate are required to adopt a joint resolution that is equivalent to a family deciding how much it will have available to spend in next year’s budget. The day was yesterday, March 16, and just like the past three years the legislators blatantly ignored the law.
“This law is in place because only after understanding your funds available can you decide how much to spend,” asserted Sheila Weinberg, founder & CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting. “This is the first step in budgeting. Our legislators need to follow this law and take Budgeting 101.”
The Illinois Constitution provides that the general assembly can only spend the “funds estimated to be available” for the budget year. State statute 25ILCS 155/4 requires the Commission on Government Finance and Accountability (CGFA) to submit to the legislature an estimate of that amount. The House and Senate may debate the accuracy of the CGFA figure, but the legislators must adopt some estimate of the funds available to be spend in the fiscal year 2012.
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Illinois Legislative Leaders Fail To Obey Budget Law”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Wednesday morning the GOP led House of Representatives voted to end federal funding for National Public Radio. Saying it made good fiscal sense it is also safe to say that the GOP was catering to its base, a group that has been against funding for NPR for some time.
The bill passed in a 228-192 vote mostly along party lines and will prohibit local NPR stations from using federal funds as well as cut all current funding. This eliminates almost $5 million in federal funding that NPR receives. The bill would not prevent the use of federal funds for producing programs by private firms and individuals…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
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House Votes to Defund NPR”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Illinois Senate is currently debating SB1645 which would arbitrarily limit a citizen’s “right to know.” If a citizen asks more than fifteen questions per year under FOI rules (Freedom of Information Act Requests), the citizen’s requests would be characterized as a “vexatious” requests.
With this appellation applied, FOI requests can then be ignored.
Now, at first this may seem sensible in some way. After all, if Joe Blow from East Peoria keeps bombarding the state with FOI requests this might seem odd or troublesome. But what about journalists? What about public watchdog organizations? These folks are highly likely to be requesting many bits of public information. Are they to be shut down too?
Even still, so what if Joe Blow does ask for a bunch of FOIs? Isn’t it the right of a citizen to know what his government is doing?
So, what does the government have to hide? Further how arrogant of them to say that we, the people, are “vexing” them!
Please contact your legislator, click here and tell them to vote “NO” on SB1645.
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Citizen’s Right to Know Under Attack in Illinois!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It has been revealed that Illinois State Representative Robert Rita was a convicted felon before he ever ran for office for the fist time, a violation of state law. Being a convicted felon should have barred him from even running for office.
Lee Williams of the Illinois Policy Institute tells us that Rita, a Blue Island Democrat and a five-term state rep., has always been ineligible to seek elected office, absent a pardon.
Rita was convicted of DUI and attempted bribery in Nye County, Nevada in 1991. Lee Williams reports that this was confirmed by Jamie Kostiuk, a Nye County records clerk. Hard copies of the files, though, could not be located.
Lee Williams, however, tracked down some other sources of the conviction.
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Criminal Element: Ill. Democrat Was Convicted Felon Before Being Elected”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Los Angeles Times has a disheartening report about the graft, corruption, and nest-feathering infesting the administration of California’s government employees pension fund, CalPers (California Public Employees’ Retirement System). It reports that subordinates were pressured into investing in to firms run by political buddies and that one of the former CalPERS administrators was “lucky” enough to have been handed a high paying new job in one of those politically connected firms after he left the government agency.
Some of these officials now under investigation are also accused of falsifying documents to further their schemes of self-enrichment at the expense of the people, accepting large gifts that went unreported, and earning millions in “placement agent fees.”
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Corruption and Political Intrigue in Government Employee Pensions”
From the Illinois chapter of Americans for Prosperity…
Your voices are being heard! After nearly 10 weeks on the taxpayer’s dime, the Senate Executive Appointment Committee will be voting on Careen Gordon “Pay to Play” appointment to an $85,000 a year spot on the Prisoner Review Board.
Now is the time to contact the Senate Executive Appointment Committee and tell them to vote “NO” on the appointment of Careen Gordon! We need to take action today as the scheduled hearing is tomorrow at 9am!
In case you missed it, last week AFP asked our members to contact the Senate Executive Appointments Committee and demand that they hold a hearing on the appointment of Careen Gordon to an $85,000 a year spot on the Prisoner Review Board.
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AFP Illinois: Stop ‘Pay to Play’ Appointment Now!”
From the Illinois Policy institute…
MARCH 23: Lessons in Leadership from “Governor Veto”
He vetoed 750 bills and thousands of line items to reduce wasteful spending, cut taxes 14 times during his two terms, and saw the state GDP increase by almost 30 percent during his tenure. When he left office, New Mexico had a balanced budget and $1 billion surplus. What lessons can Illinois learn from this? Join us as we host Gary Johnson for a cocktail hour discussion. Read More
Is Your Group A RepealTheTaxHike.com Coalition Partner?
On April 15th, at a rally at the Capitol, the Illinois Policy Institute will announce the results of our petition to repeal the historic 67% Illinois income tax hike. So far we have 7,300+ signatures on the petition, and 12 coalition partners.
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Join Us: Lessons in Leadership from ‘Governor Veto’ – March 23”
From the office of Cook County Commissioner Timothy O Schneider…
Forest Preserve – The Chicago Conservation Leadership Corps
This program for high school students is the result of a great partnership between Friends and The Student Conservation Association. In the program’s inaugural year of 2009, we received more than 600 applications and awarded 56 internships.
The internship is a 6-week program that includes a stipend. Students learn about local ecology and get their hands dirty working on conservation projects. See below to download the application and fact sheet. Applicants should have an interest in conservation and doing physically active work outdoors. Click here to apply.
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Cook County Board: It is almost Spring”
-By Warner Todd Huston
She was touted on Politics Daily as the “Capitol Hill Bureau Chief,” but Patricia Murphy doesn’t seem to know to which party the first Muslim member of Congress belongs. Amusingly enough, Politics Daily is one of those websites that Huffington Post has absorbed as a result of AOL’s $15 million buyout of the left-wing screeder.
Murphy starts off her coverage of Peter King’s hearings on radical Islam last week by saying that Rep. Keith Ellison is a Republican from Minnesota. This, of course, is wrong, wrong, wrong. Ellison is most decidedly a Democrat from Minneapolis, not a Republican…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
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HuffPo’s Politics Daily Called Muslim Democrat Congressman a Republican”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Wednesday afternoon I had a chance to talk to Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R, IL) about the budget and these continuing resolutions (CRs) that the House is laboring to pass and he reminded me of a point that we are not discussing quite enough. The fact is that these CRs have become necessary because the Democrats spent all of last year not proposing and passing a budget at all!
The Democrats fiddled around for the whole of last year never passing a full budget. Now the GOP led House is trying to play catch up with these few sort term CRs so that they can get the full budget written and passed.
“No one wants to vote on short term CRs,” Roskam told me, “but this is where the Senate Democrats must come up with a plan. We’ve done our part and it’s their turn. But they have offered nothing.”
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Rep. Roskam: Remember We’re Still Cleaning Up the Dems Failure to Pass Last Year’s Budget!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Once in a while a story of the sort of arrogance in government that should make every fair-minded American sick at heart comes out to show how Democrats act when have a lock on power and when they think no one is looking. This time we find an amazing amount of arrogance in Nevada, one that is obviously a violation of Thomas Jefferson’s axiom that men are not born to be ridden “booted and spurred” by government but are free men. This government arrogance is truly as un-American as can be.
There are many instances of Democrat arrogance, of course. Like when North Carolina Democrat Congressman Bob Etheridge Democrat Al Green hectored a Washington Times reporter about the KKK (when it was Democrats that created the terror group in the first place), or when Congressman Charlie Rangel stormed out of an ethics hearing after being convicted on 11 counts because, well, he was incensed that anyone had the temerity to call him on his perfidy. Well, there are just too many to cover fully.
Chuck Muth of Citizen Outreach has the outrageous story of a lowly legislative aide fired for no reason whatever because a public record email was released to the public. Imagine the people thinking that they have a right to see the official emails of their own government officials! The gall of those voters!
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Nevada Democrats Avoiding Voters, Hiding Actions From Public, Firing People Without Cause”
-By Warner Todd Huston
… no really. Roll Call is reporting that the Democrats have finally figured out how to use Twitter and now they think it will win them the 2012 elections. I guess Al Gore, the inventor of the Internet, gave the DNC a call and let them in on that whole Internet tubes and when they went there they discovered this Twitter thingamajiggie. Crying eureka, the DNC then ran to the press to trumpet its new discovery.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Twitter will lead the Donkey Party to legislative majority once again.
Twitter.
That is their big solution, their grand plan, their hot item for the day.
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Democrats Discover How to Beat GOP… it’s… Twitter”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Chicago blogger Rebel Patriot took his video camera to Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago to film a few of the leftist protesters infesting the place last week. He talked to a commie for a few minutes as seen below.
But before you see it I just want to point out, though, that THIS guy is the quintessential Democrat/left-winger/union protester that you see at every pro-union, pro-Democrat rally. Not merely some of them. ALL of them.
At every protest you will find these sort of nuts lurking about. The murder-loving Che Guevara supporters, the socialists hawking their newspapers, the communists in the fist-shirts, the anti-Americans droning on and on about how evil America is… you see them everywhere at every single left of center protest.
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Just a Video Reminder: Lefty Protesters Hate America”
Here is the latest video shown to Republican senators on Tuesday. It highlights how our enormous national debt is one of the greatest threats facing our country and highlights the need for swift, serious action to address it. Republicans are urging the president to match his actions to his rhetoric and work with Republicans to develop long-term solutions to our nation’s debt crisis.
From the office of Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL, 11th District)…
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-11) today issued the following statement on the House passage of the three-week Continuing Resolution (CR) that will cut additional spending, while keeping the federal government running:
“Last November, the American people sent a clear message to Washington — cut spending. I came to Washington to do exactly that.
“House Republicans passed a long-term CR with $100 billion in cuts. The Senate rejected this proposal, refusing to side with the taxpayers to get our fiscal house in order – leaving Congress to pass a short-term CR with another $4 billion in cuts over two weeks. Today, we passed an additional $6 billion in cuts over the next three weeks. If the Senate passes this short-term CR, it will be a total of $10 billion in spending cuts. This achievement of permanently cutting $10 billion is a good start, but the cuts will not stop here.
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Kinzinger Statement on Three-Week Continuing Resolution Vote”
From the office of Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (KY)…
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell introduced an amendment Tuesday to the pending small business bill that would stop the Environmental Protection Agency’s back-door national energy tax from taking effect.
“Imposing a backdoor national energy tax through the EPA is a strange way to respond to rising gas prices,” McConnell said. “Fourteen million Americans are looking for work. Gas prices are approaching $4 a gallon. And the Obama administration wants unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats to impose new regulations that will destroy even more jobs – and drive gas prices even higher.”
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Senate News: McConnell Introduces Amendment To Stop EPA’s Back-Door National Energy Tax”
From the office of Congressman Peter Roskam (Ill, 6th District)…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter Roskam (R-IL), Chief Deputy Whip, previewed tomorrow’s Forum on Job Creation at today’s House Republican Leadership Stakeout. The video and transcript are below:
Roskam Previews Tomorrow’s Forum on Job Creation at House GOP Stakeout”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Ann Althouse has been one of the leading bloggers chronicling the union thugs that have infested Wisconsin over the last few weeks and yesterday she did it again. With her trusty video camera in hand, Althouse found some Wisconsin “teachers” leading little children in protest chants at the State Capitol at Madison.
I just want to ask a question here before we see the video, though. Imagine the screams of agony we’d hear if a group of conservatives had taken children out of school, bussed them to a state capitol, then trained them like good little robots to chant a conservative protest chant. Such a video would be all over the news, wouldn’t it? Such a group if a conservative one would be excoriated from coast to coast by every newspaper and every TV station in existence. If conservatives had done this, the entire Democrat Party would be rising up as one to say that conservatives were child abusers, without a doubt.
… and yet…
Althouse asks if it is a good idea to teach children to mindlessly protest authority when they haven’t the slightest intellectual grasp of why they are protesting! That is certainly a good question, don’t you think?
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Indoctrination U: Union Thugs Using Kids As Shields in Wisconsin”
-By Warner Todd Huston
For some strange reason the left-wing Internet site Slate.com thinks that the City of Detroit needs a statue erected to an anti-Christian, anti-American pop icon. That’s right, Slate thinks that Detroit needs to diss Jesus, slam capitalism, and attack the United States of America as an evil, violent nation. Strange recommendation for a city that literally drove America’s capitalist success story, isn’t it?
Well that is precisely what Slate is suggesting in an entertainment feature about raising a Motor City statue to the Hollywood sci fi movie character Robocop. After all, the Robocop movie was a purposeful slam on the United States and Christianity, not some celebration of her genius. This is exactly what the film’s director has said numerous times. Strange that Slate wants to use a character that presents what it claims is bad about America as something worthy enough to which to build a memorial.
For Slate Patrick Cassels, a 20-something actor, “Internet enthusiast,” and entertainment writer, announced his support of the statue to the violence-soaked movie icon mostly because it is an attack on “Regonomics” and corporations. But, as if supporting a paean to Marxism isn’t grating enough for building a statue in an American city, he spends no time at all on the anti-Christian theme of the movie.
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Slate Says Detroit ‘Needs’ Anti-Christian, America-Slamming Statue”
-By Warner Todd Huston
And now a word from one of our “scientists” at the University of California…
You happy goofballs die young. That’s right, you heard me. A new study has determined that I will live forever because I am a grump and you smiling fools will die young. Take THAT! And get off my lawn while you are at it.
Much as I hate these pseudo scientific, time-wasting “studies” — all of them being a waste of my tax money at so-called universities that neither deserve the title nor the power — but this one suits my disposition, so I’m going to say that it must be true!
UPI is reporting that a study conducted under the auspices of some pointy-headed, tweed jacket-wearing, communist at the University of California, Riverside has shown that people with a cheery disposition die younger than us realistic, more sensible folks….
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
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Grumpy Bloggers Will Live Forever!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Newly minted Republican Representative Bobby Schilling from Illinois’ 17th district recently voted in favor of two pro-union amendments in Congress and the votes have caused some folks to go scratching their heads in trying to figure out why he did it.
Schilling ran as the business-oriented candidate against long-time Democrat incumbent Phil Hare, so his two pro-union votes are odd in light of his late campaign rhetoric. So, the Quad-City Times contacted Schilling’s office to find out what was going on.
Schilling’s office replied that one of the votes was simply a mistake. But the second vote Schilling stands up for unapologetically.
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Why Did 17th District’s Schilling Vote For 2 Pro-Union Amendments?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In her March 11 column, Peggy Noonan (a former special assistant to Ronald Reagan) savaged Donald Rumsfeld as “The Defense Secretary Who Let Bin Laden Get Away .” Noonan also ripped his new book, “Known and Unknown,” as a tome whose “stupid little spine” she wanted to break in anger. I’d like to suggest that while she was “flinging” books, she did so while jumping the shark.*
Noonan (did you know she once worked for Ronald Reagan?) simply hated Rummy’s book. In fact, it seems that she was particularly incensed that the book made her buddy and TV show comrade, Bob Woodward, out to be a liar. Victoria Coates reports the crux of the matter in her latest posting and handily eviscerates Noonan’s (who once worked for Ronald Reagan) shallow article.
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Nany, Nany Noo Noo: Peggy Noonan Jumps the Shark Over Donald Rumsfeld Memoir”
-By Warner Todd Huston
A few stories around the web concerning the union thugs in Wisconsin.
In Fond Du Lac, Wis. (just north of Milwaukee) a few GOP lawmakers had to skip the Saint Paddy’s Day parade because of death threats issued by union scumbags.
So much for the Democrat’s “new tone.”
“We’ve taken them all seriously and we’re happy to say that none of them have panned out yet here in Fond du Lac, so we’re still vigilant,” Deputy Chief Kevin Lemke said.
Meanwhile, the Washington Examiner pegs the situation exactly right in its Saturday editorial:
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Union Violence and Death Threats Continue”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Traitors to the right of them, traitors to the left of them, traitors in front of them… behind them, around them within them… in the they-just-can’t-win department, unions held a soiree for the traitor Republicans that voted in favor of some of the pro-union provisions in last week’s temporary budget and their pals in the donkey party were heehawing in rage to beat the band over the whole thing. The news is quite revealing in a number of ways, really.
On March 10 Politico reported that 15 labor groups held a little “thank you” party on Capitol Hill for those Republicans that voted in favor of the few pro-union amendments to the CR. Only those Republicans that voted in favor of the unions were invited.
Of the pro-union amendments, one would have repealed the Davis Bacon prevailing wage law and the second would have prohibited the federal government from observing project labor agreements (PLAs). The latter failed by a 210 to 210 tie vote. Some Republicans claimed that they voted in favor of the PLA amendment by accident due to the flurry of amendments offered in a short space of time before the votes came due.
Democrats on the Hill were not amused by the union’s reaching out to the GOP, though.
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Just Can’t Win Dept: Unions Honor Traitor Republicans, Dems Call Unions Traitors”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Recently I was part of a conference call with Senator Ron Johnson (R, Wis). Johnson is a member of the GOP wave that over took Washington in the 2010 midterms. In a surprise to many, Johnson defeated long-time Wisconsin Senator, Democrat Russ Feingold.
My first question was one that I have also asked Chief Deputy Whip of the House Peter Roskam. I wondered what Johnson’s position was on the idea of states declaring bankruptcy.
Johnson said that he agrees with Roskam that state should not be allowed to declare bankruptcy. “I totally agree with Peter Roskam. There’s no way the federal government should be called upon to bail out states that have been irresponsible in terms of their spending, that haven’t made the tough choices in their jurisdictions… I would definitely oppose the bailing out of any states”
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Senator Ron Johnson on The Budget and the Debate in Wisconsin”
From the campaign of Becky Rheintgen for City Council…
Three weeks left until the election – but you can start voting today!
Early voting for the April 5 Election begins Monday, March 14, 2011 and continues through Thursday, March 31, 2011. Our Village Hall, 801 Burlington Ave., is an early voting site – it’s really easy, takes just a couple minutes and is super convenient.
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Downers Grove Municipal Elections: Early Voting Begins!”