Why is Judy Running?

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, the primary is over. The candidates are ready to start their race to the general election finish. Over the last week the GOP has firmed up its final slate and all the big office candidates met for a unity video and have gone out on the stump together a few times to rally and unify the Illinois GOP… all except Judy Baar-Topinka, ostensibly our GOP candidate for Comptroller.

Judy has not shown up to any of the unity meetings and was not in the unity video that the Illinois GOP was shopping around. She has been mysteriously absent from all of the campaigning thus far.
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Why is Judy Running?”


Dan Proft: We Cannot Afford Chicago Democrat Rule

-By Dan Proft

The most painful wounds are those that are self-inflicted.

Until recently this statement would have been followed with a discussion of Republican political and policy failures.

No longer. Chicago’s neo-feudalists have helped disaffected Republicans learn to love again and broken the hearts of hopeful Independents.
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Dan Proft: We Cannot Afford Chicago Democrat Rule”


Isaac Hayes for Congress: Pelosi’s Blitzkrieg to Government Medicine

From the Hays for Congress (2nd District) campaign…

CHICAGO: The following statement was released today by Rev. Isaac C. Hayes, GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2, in response to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s move to use the “self-executing rule”.

Speaker Pelosi has yet to secure the necessary votes in the House of Representative to pass the Senate’s version of health care reform. The Wall Street Journal reports the Speaker could ask the House Rules Committee to change the rules that would allow the House to vote on the reconciliation measures without voting on the actual Senate version.
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Isaac Hayes for Congress: Pelosi’s Blitzkrieg to Government Medicine”


Fact vs. Fiction: What You Should Know About Obamacare

From the Walsh for Congress (8th District) campaign…

Fiction: You can keep your existing coverage.

Fact: Wrong. If government insurance is less expensive to employers (who are already paying for it with their taxes) many will drop their current plans in favor of the less expensive, government-run plan. Private sector insurance will not be able to compete with the unlimited funding and will go under further increasing the states’ Medicaid burden.

Fiction: Care will not be rationed.

Fact: Wrong. The House version would establish a new tax on every health insurance policy to fund 111 new federal bureau­cracies including the Health Benefits Advisory Commit­tee that would be tasked with deciding which treatments are more cost-effective. The research findings would be used by the government to ration care.

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Fact vs. Fiction: What You Should Know About Obamacare”


Rep. Mike Quigley: Worst Big Government Record in Congress

From the Ratowitz for Congress campaign…

David Ratowitz, Republican Candidate for Illinois’ 5th Congressional Seat, Attacks Incumbent Mike Quigley (D IL-5) for Fiscal Irresponsibility

U. S. Congressional Candidate, David Ratowitz (IL – 5), asks, “Who does Mike Quigley think he is fooling with a toothless ‘Sense of the House’ resolution on fiscal controls? Obviously, Mike Quigley doesn’t care about us, otherwise he would offer real opposition to the big government programs that spend our money instead of faking reform.”
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Rep. Mike Quigley: Worst Big Government Record in Congress”


Publius Now on Chicago Tribune’s ChicagoNow blog Network

-By Warner Todd Huston

As of today, the Chicago Tribune has agreed to include my blogging among its growing network of Chicago area bloggers. It will be Publius Forum on ChicagoNow.com!

I know, I know, here I beat up on the Old Media nearly every day yet here is one of the nation’s biggest newspapers is adding me to its online news community!

Hilarious, I think!

So, look for Warner Todd Huston (that’s ME folks) on the Chicago Tribune’s ChicagoNow.com network.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/


Coffee Party Astroturf

-By Warner Todd Huston

What is it that the left and the Old Media said about the Tea Party movement? Didn’t they say it was not really filled with regular folks and didn’t they say it was not really a grass roots level effort because some nefarious “top-down” Republican groups were secretly behind the whole thing? That’s what Paul Krugman said in The New York Times. So did Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — after someone taught her was “astroturf” even was, that is. In fact, the whole left-wing Old Media establishment attacked the tea party movement as some fake, manufactured thing and claimed that it wasn’t peopled by regular folks like you and me. All you need do is put “astroturf” and “tea party” in a search engine and you’ll get thousands of hits revealing the left’s unhinged response to the tea parties.

So, since they seem to want us to believe that they hate “astroturf,” will the left-wing press get all upset that this “coffee party” effort really IS Astroturf? Will the Old Media explode in calls of “astroturf” as it did during the early phases of the tea party movement? Or will they pretend that this coffee party business is real grass roots and report on the effort based on that false assumption. Already it seems as though the coffee party effort is not meeting any real scrutiny and I just got an email that proves the essential “top-down” style upon which this effort is built.

Of course, we know the charge that the tea party movement is astroturf is untrue. While groups like Dick Armey’s Freedom Works, Americans for Prosperity, and a few others did rush to add their voices to the tea party events held all across the county last year (and continue to today) they neither originated the movement, nor did they invent the scope of events, nor did they control the message in any way. In fact they had to scramble to have any part in it at all. Even the big group’s efforts were ad hoc early on.
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Coffee Party Astroturf”


Roskam Praises Ban on Earmarks by House GOP

From Congressman Peter Roskam…

WASHINGTON, DC – Today the House Republican Conference adopted an immediate, unilateral moratorium on all earmarks, demonstrating House Republicans’ commitment to reducing the out of control federal spending that imperils America’s future.

“Adopting this year’s ban on earmarks is a significant first step toward reigning in a government that is spending, borrowing and taxing away a prosperous future for our children and grandchildren,” said Congressman Peter Roskam. “House Republicans proved today that we understand that strong leadership is required to address exploding federal deficits – which are running at $220 billion a month – and restore the fiscal stability of our country.”
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Roskam Praises Ban on Earmarks by House GOP”


This Chick Does Flicks: Alice In Wonderland

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

With all the feel of a 21st Century, living color, high tech reinterpretation of Arthur Rackham’s Alice In Wonderland illustrations with LSD flashbacks courtesy of Timothy Leary, Director Tim Burton’s masterpiece movie, Alice In Wonderland, furthers Alice’s adventure storyline in a manner that even her originator, Lewis Carroll, would find appealing…weird but appealing. However, a word of caution here: Burton’s Alice In Wonderland is a movie that needs time to take in because right from the very start you are bombarded with social commentary, prefigurative omens, an odd sense of lurking insanity, recurring childish nightmares, and that’s all before an adult Alice falls through the rabbit hole on her return trip to Wonderland!

Based on Lewis Carroll’s books with screenplay by Linda Woolverton, Alice In Wonderland starts off showing little Alice so haunted by her nightmare visions of Wonderland that she’s slightly off-kilter socially by the time she grows into womanhood. Now Alice is into questioning everything and making whimsical statements that batter the brain of her chinless-wonder admirer at what turns out to be her garden/engagement-party-from-hell.
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This Chick Does Flicks: Alice In Wonderland”


Just One More Scam

-By Dan Scott

While reading an article on low tax Texas vs. high tax California, it reminded me of the quickly dropped issue of the US Census. Last year’s scandal revolved around President Obama making some of his White House flunkies overseers of the Census.  We all understood the implications of a highly partisan administration attempting to influence the outcome of the count.  That being some states will be winners and others losers when it comes to the House of Representatives, along with federal funding.  Given the predilections of this politician, padding the count is the Chicago way.

I would like to draw everyone’s attention back to something we have lost sight of regarding the Census.  The counting that is done is without respect to citizenship.  When the Founding Fathers wrote the provision of the Census into the Constitution, the intent was to count people who were current citizens or becoming citizens by virtue of choice, i.e. voting with their feet to live here.  In today’s environment, we have some 13 to 20 million people illegally residing within the borders of our country who for the most part are economic sojourners with little desire for the responsibilities that come with citizenship.  Furthermore, most of these people are here due to the incompetence of our government in securing the borders and to add insult to injury recently those (DHS) who enforce the laws have intentionally turned a blind eye to their presence.  In all cases, local political officials have misused their positions of power to attract as many of these people as possible by refusing to and in most cases obstructing the enforcement of the law.
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Just One More Scam”


Quinn’s Wants 1% Income Tax Hike ‘For Education’

-By Warner Todd Huston

In his budget speech, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a one percent hike in the state income tax in order to”restore our education budget to current levels.” A one percent increase is like a 33% increase if the tax goes from a flat tax of 3% to one of 4%.

In his speech (beginning on page 10) Quinn addresses the education budget. Sadly, Quinn’s proposal does nothing to address why the problem has arisen in the first place.

Quinn asks for no necessary cuts, he asks for no union concessions, he makes no effort to tighten our education belt in Illinois. Quinn should be slashing the unnecessarily lavish benefits that teachers unions force out of the state, hundreds of useless administrators should be fired and their positions eliminated. The whole education establishment needs to be assessed for it excess. Those imagining that the “fix” is just to pump more money into these failing schools are fooling themselves.

But Quinn is doing nothing but treading water with the state’s education establishment when he should be demanding a bottom to top review of the waste of public education in Illinois.
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Quinn’s Wants 1% Income Tax Hike ‘For Education’”


How will Bean Vote for The American Death Panel?

From the Palatine Tea Party…

(Palatine, Illinois) March 10, 2010 – We the People reject this government takeover of 1/6th of our United States economy to government run healthcare which Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are proposing. The government can not run anything successfully without running deficits. Saying the healthcare bill is deficit neutral is nonsense and the American people know it. Does Bean know the will of the people which live in her district and knows what is best for our families? If so, how was it measured and by whom?
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How will Bean Vote for The American Death Panel?”


150 Convicted County Officials in Obama’s Chicagoland Area

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Better Government Association (www.bettergov.org/), a beleaguered Chicago-based watchdog group that has its work cut out for it, recently released its “Hall of Shame” report that details the nearly 150 county officials that have gone to jail for corruption in Barack Obama’s home county of Cook. And that doesn’t even include the over 100 Chicago officials, a city also situated in Cook County, that has also gone to jail over the last few decades.

Because of the high amount of corruption and the large and ever growing roster of jailed county officials, in its press release, the BGA bitingly asks, “[I]s it any surprise this multi-billion dollar labyrinth of governmental entities is referred to disparagingly as ‘Crook County?'”

The scams took place over the past four decades in the courts; the offices of the Assessor, Sheriff and Treasurer; and the President’s Office of Employment and Training. They involve bribes, payoffs, rip-offs, padded contracts, ghost payrollers and the wholesale subversion of the judicial system. The perpetrators include elected officials at the highest and lowest levels of city, county and state government; judges, lawyers and lobbyists.

Sadly, the BGA finds that the corruption in Cook County government is widespread and “not confined to a single unit of government.” This corruption was found in such departments as the Cook County Board President’s office, the employment offices, the highway department, the sheriff’s offices, the assessor and the treasurer’s offices as well as the Clerk of the Circuit Court. In fact, the BGA found that corruption is endemic throughout the government and no one ever seems to be held accountable.
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150 Convicted County Officials in Obama’s Chicagoland Area”


A Mess of a Column, Cuz News papers are Raaaacist

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Laura Washington laments the degraded state of American newspapers. She says that “hard news” has been replaced by “fluff and titillating trash.” Washington also cries that real news is an “endangered species.” But if newspaper writing has been laid low, Laura Washington’s column is an example of that wretched state as opposed to an example of the opposite as this is one of the messiest columns I’ve seen in a while. And naturally it’s all because of raaaacism according to Washington.

Washington starts her piece scolding the news media for missing the Scott Lee Cohen story. Cohen, the winning Democrat Lt. Gov. candidate, had a strange history of violence and prostitution that no media operative seemed to ferret out before Illinois Democrats nominated him in February’s primary. Washington also laments all the many job cuts in the media landscape.

Worse, according to Washington, is that the reporters that are left are “being diverted to cover meaningless fluff and titillating trash.”
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A Mess of a Column, Cuz News papers are Raaaacist”


Roskam Calls for Incremental Health Reform Changes

Rep. Roskam participated in a live interview with WGN News’ Mark Suppelsa and discussed President Obama’s health reform proposal. Roskam urged the President to start over and work on a bill that focuses incrementally on cost as a way to increase access to health insurance.

From WGN Chicago, Channel 9


Innovative Environmental Program Launched Today‏

From Congressman Peter Roskam’s office (R, DuPage County, IL)…

I wanted to let you know about a new environmental initiative my campaign is launching today. We’re launching a household battery recycling program that will make it easier for constituents to personally be good stewards of our planet. It’s the latest in a long line of innovative energy and environmentally helpful ideas and initiatives we’ve created for the community.

The battery recycling program will be a chance for private citizens to work together in a spirit of environmental stewardship that protects basic needs like our air and water supply. By providing a place where household batteries with hazardous waste material can be properly disposed, we are doing a small part to leave our planet in better shape for our kids and our grandkids.
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Innovative Environmental Program Launched Today‏”


Walsh to Bean on Health Care Vote: Vote Your District Not Your Party

From the Joe Walsh for Congress campaign…

(Lake Zurich, Illinois) – 8th District Republican congressional nominee Joe Walsh today called on his liberal Democrat opponent Rep. Melissa Bean to swallow her pride and vote “No” on the Obamacare federal takeover of health care legislation nearing a vote in the House.

“For the first time in a long time Melissa Bean needs to listen to her constituents and vote her district,” said Walsh. “A government takeover of health care is absolutely the wrong approach to fix what ails with health care in America- and 8th district voters know it. Melissa Bean was not elected to represent public sector unions and march in lockstep with her party. She was elected to represent the interests of 8th district families and support policies that speak to their very real economic insecurities. This legislation will worsen the quality of care we have access to and increase unemployment,” Walsh said.
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Walsh to Bean on Health Care Vote: Vote Your District Not Your Party”


Rep. Lipinski Dem. of Illinois Says He’s a ‘No’ On Obamacare

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Congressman Daniel Lipinski has confirmed to John McCormack of the Weekly Standard that he is now a “no” vote on Obama’s healthcare debacle.

Lipinski is a pro-life Democrat that is associated with the block that Bart Stupak (D, Mich.) says will vote “no” over the fact that the Obamacare plan has public funding for abortion in it.

Add Congressman Dan Lipinski of Illinois to the coalition of pro-life Democrats standing firmly with Bart Stupak in the fight over taxpayer-funding of abortion in the health care bill. Asked if the congressman is “open to voting for a health care bill that lacks the Stupak amendment,” Lipinski’s spokesman Nathaniel Zimmer replied in an email to THE WEEKLY STANDARD: “No. Congressman Lipinski will not vote for a health care bill that provides federal funding for abortion.”

Lipinski represents the 3rd Congressional District which is situated in a south central part of Cook County.
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Rep. Lipinski Dem. of Illinois Says He’s a ‘No’ On Obamacare”


Dear Chicago Taxpayer, You Owe Us a Pension so Pay Up

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Civic Federation is reporting that every Chicago resident is on the hook for 444 percent more in unfunded retirement pension benefits to city workers than they were a decade ago.

The watchdog Civic Federation said Monday that the funding deficit for the 10 largest Chicago-area public pension funds soared from $3.4 billion in 1998 to $18.5 billion in 2008, the last year for which figures are available.

This is the fault of both politicians for spending the money instead of investing it as well as unions for “negotiating” ever higher and undeserved benefits with each new contract.

But no matter who is at fault, I’d guess that all the perpetrators imagine that the federal government should bail them out when the inevitable collapse arrives.

That way neither the unions nor the profligate democrat politicians will ever have to pay any substantive price.

Only one problem: the US government doesn’t have the cash or credit, either.

I foresee the collapse of pensions all across the county and millions of people that thought they had retirement available for them will find out that it doesn’t exist. A major mess will soon come to town and no one can prevent its arrival.

Both rank and file Democrats and their unions and politicians deserve all the pain coming their way, too.
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Dear Chicago Taxpayer, You Owe Us a Pension so Pay Up”


Chicago Charter School’s 100% College Bound Senior Class

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is very good news, though I am a tad skeptical about a 100% stat… still the AP reports:

A Chicago school that claims to be the nation’s first all-boys public charter high school comprised entirely of black males has accomplished an uncommon feat.

Every member of Urban Prep’s first senior class has been accepted into a four-year college or university.

Urban Prep founder and CEO Tim King highlighted the accomplishment by telling an assembly that only four percent of Urban Prep’s freshman in 2006 were reading at grade level.

What good news. Like I said, I am a bit skeptical of any 100% stat, but even if it turns out its only 95% it doesn’t matter. This is a fantastic achievement.

Kudos to Urban Prep Academies!
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Chicago Charter School’s 100% College Bound Senior Class”


‘Unofficial Roster’ Of the New Slate of Ill. Republican State Central Committeemen

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Illinois GOP released a list of the presumed slate of State Central Committee Members for the 2010 election cycle. they are “unofficial” because all results have yet to be certified officially but these are the results as reported by the various counties.

For those unaware, the State Central Committee is the deliberative body that decides party goals, rules, and handles the day-to-day operations of the Illinois Republican Party. It is chaired by the Ill. GOP Chairman, currently Pat Brady. (See info at the Ill. GOP website.)

2010 State Central Committee County Conventions were conducted on March 3, 2010. Results for the State Central Committee positions were unofficially reported to the State Party and these may be viewed below. Individual counties will provide their results to the Illinois State Board of Elections for certification.
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‘Unofficial Roster’ Of the New Slate of Ill. Republican State Central Committeemen”


Illinois Dangerous ‘Presumed Consent’ Organ Donor Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois State Senator Dale Risinger (R, Peoria) has offered a bill in Springfield that drives our society further along the path of making parts of the human body a commodity, undercutting the sacred status of human life.

SB 3613, the Presumed Donor bill, amends the Illinois Anatomical Gift Act to define all Illinois patients as “presumed donors” unless they specifically avail themselves of the opt out clause. In other words, unless you tell the government that in the case of your presumed brain death you don’t want your body parts cut out and donated to other patients, they will be cut out and given to others.

As the law stands now a potential donor has to opt in to the organ donor program in order to allow the government to authorize usage of organs in case of brain death. One must inform the state ahead of time that one will agree to donate his organs. This bill would reverse that process of consent. If SB 3613 passes all patients will be assumed to be fodder for transplants unless they’ve specifically told the state that they do not want their body parts to be parceled out to other people.

As the synopsis of the bill states: This bill, “Provides that, on and after July 1, 2012, each resident of Illinois who is of sound mind and who has attained the age of 18 years is presumed, by operation of law, to have given all of his or her body for any organ donation purposes.”

Proponents of this bill say that it will help alleviate the desperate need for donor organs and will help hundreds of patients live that might otherwise die due to their disease and lack of donor organs.

It does sound like a great idea until one begins to look at it all with a bit more logical eye. Laws like a “presumed donor” law could easily cause doctors to care less for the injured when looking to harvest organs for patients waiting transplants. And since the criteria for a transplant includes the donor’s “brain death” one is struck with abuse that such a designation could lead to.
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Illinois Dangerous ‘Presumed Consent’ Organ Donor Bill”


Bean Defense for Refusing to Return Rangel Cash: “I spent it”

From the Palatine Tea Party…

(Palatine, Illinois) – March 5, 2010 – Melissa Bean has raised $1,004,549* and has $784,894* cash on hand as of Wednesday, January 13, 2010 and has to defend receiving $28,000 between 2005 and 2007 from the New York congressman Charlie Rangel. While other Democrats dump their cash, Melissa Bean’s spokesman Jonathan Lipman made this statement. “The money was given before Rangel was under investigation for ethics abuses. Plus, he says, the money has already been spent.”

So if we understand from Melissa Bean that as long as you spent the money, it’s okay?
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Bean Defense for Refusing to Return Rangel Cash: “I spent it””


It’s Over, Dillard Endorses Bill Brady for Governor

Well, it looks like Dillard is officially not going to pursue a recount. He’s just endorsed Bill Brady for Governor. From the Dillard camp…

Dillard Endorses Brady for Governor Calls for Party to Unite Behind GOP Nominee

(Chicago) – State Senator Kirk Dillard today threw his support behind State Senator Bill Brady in the race for Governor, saying it was “close,” but that Brady had won the Illinois Republican Primary. “I will help Senator Brady in any way I can to ensure the Republican Party wins back the Governor’s office in November,” Dillard said.

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It’s Over, Dillard Endorses Bill Brady for Governor”


Service Employees Inat’l Union Gives $1.7 Mil to Ill. Gov. Quinn

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Service Employees International Union wants YOU to pay more taxes, Illinois. And, in order to get their wish, they’ve donated $1.7 million to the one candidate that has since the beginning promised to raise everyone’s taxes, Governor Pat “Mighty Taximo” Quinn.

Oh, it’s a cozy arrangement, of course. The SEIU represents many of Illinois public employees. These greedy folks want YOU to pay their way in life, you see? So, big cash goes to Quinn the Mighty Taximo so that he’ll force higher taxes so that, in turn, these public employees will get even greater pay and even more undeserved benefits that other, private sector citizens don’t get. It’s a Faustian bargain, but it is a fact, nonetheless.

As everyone else in the state is losing his job, these trough-feeders want you to pay more taxes for their comfort. Nice work if you can get it, right?
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Service Employees Inat’l Union Gives $1.7 Mil to Ill. Gov. Quinn”


Illinois Rep. Halvorson’s $60,000 of Dirty Rangel Money

-By Warner Todd Huston

First-term Democratic Congressman Debbie Halvorson (Ill., 14th District) was the recipient of $60,000 in political donations from the ethically compromised New York Representative Charlie Rangel, recently deposed Chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel was found guilty of multiple violations of House ethics rules that have gone on for decades and because of the mess he’s made of his ethical standing the long-time New York Rep. was forced to “agree” to step aside as Ways and Means Chairman this week. But even as Rangel was busy feathering his nest the congressman was also shoveling money to other representatives in a likely bid to bribe them to look the other way from his troubled ethics.

The Washington Examiner has a great list of pols that accepted Rangel’s tainted money that it is calling the “Dirty Money Watch.” But the Examiner is missing at least one person on that list: Illinois’ Debbie Halvorson.

Halvorson took $60,000 from Charlie Rangel and her Republican challenger has called for her to return that tainted money or at least donate it to worthy charities. GOP nominee Adam Kinzinger has been calling for Halvorson to relinquish this money all week.
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Illinois Rep. Halvorson’s $60,000 of Dirty Rangel Money”


2nd District, Isaac Hayes: New Health Bill a Bait and Switch

From the Isaac Hayes for Congress campaign…

CHICAGO: After spending more than a year to pass a major overhaul of the American health insurance industry, the White House released its latest in a series of new health reform bills.

“This administration’s push to jam a bill that the majority of Americans oppose through reconciliation begs the question, who does this country belong to,” said Republican Nominee for Illinois 2nd District Isaac Hayes, “the people or politicians in Washington D.C.? The White House can try and use focus group words to deceive the American people, but putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t stop it from being a pig”.

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2nd District, Isaac Hayes: New Health Bill a Bait and Switch”


Anti-Gay Activist Makes Bid For GOP Central Committee

Well, it is sure to cause the Gay Lobby fits, but Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, is making a bid to become the representative for the 13th District on the Illinois Republican State Central Committee.

The 13th District encompasses the Naperville area where LaBarbera is an elected precinct committeeman. He is running against Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar, a long-time machine pol.

LaBarbera pattens himself after “Illinois’ own Ronald Reagan,” and says that the state party needs reform.
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Anti-Gay Activist Makes Bid For GOP Central Committee”