From the office of Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica…
Let’s not forget that even though the county board approved to cut back the sales tax by a .5 percent reduction , there is still more work to be done.
This was an important step forward for Cook County taxpayers, who are struggling to make ends meet amidst rising unemployment and a growing tax burden.
But it is only a first step.
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The Jobs’ Not Done Yet — Sales Tax Still Highest in Nation”
From the office of Cook County Commissinoer Tony Peraica…
I would like to offer my gratitude to Cook County and local municipal officials in the 16th District for their efforts in addressing the massive flooding which occurred over the past weekend.
I am pleased that everyone came together and worked to help county residents, especially the elderly. County employees from the Sheriff’s Department, Office of Homeland Security, and my own staff were on hand to survey damage and provide needed assistance. While this was certainly an unfortunate event, it was heartening to see local officials, neighbors and friends helping one another in this time of need.
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Tony Peraica: Local Flood Relief Assistance”
Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady takes on Accidental Governor Pat Quinn and his new role as Santa Claus giving his staffers raises as we “get the bill.”
From Adam Andrzejewski of For the Good of Illinois
One month ago, For the Good of Illinois returned to promote self-governance in Illinois by engaging, educating, and empowering citizens to demand limited, accountable, and transparent government of, by, and for the people.
As part of this mission, we launched For the Good of Illinois PAC to allow our members to support viable candidates at the state level who believe in the principles of limited, accountable, and transparent government.
One of our first candidates, Cedra Crenshaw, quickly became the target of the Chicago Machine. Cedra’s opponent, Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi (IL-43rd), unleashed top election lawyer, Michael Kasper, to unjustly knock Cedra off the ballot on a 2-1 party line vote by the Will County Board of Elections.
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Suburban Mom Beats Chicago Machine”
-By Frank Salvato
As I was reading about the proceedings in the trial of impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, it struck me as odd that the prosecution was relying so much on the profanity-laced wiretap audio and not going, instead, straight to the source of incriminating information in the many witnesses they could call. Why aren’t they calling Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, David Plouffe, David Axelrod, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Tony Rezko, their staff, relations, acquaintances and business partners to testify instead of relying on sensationalism? The answer could be that they don’t want a conviction and/or a thorough investigation.
The notion that the US Justice Department might opt not to prosecute crimes committed by powerful elected officials isn’t new. Favoritism, in one form or another – and at varying intensities – has existed throughout the history of the United States. The foible of misplaced political loyalty facilitates this weakness in human nature. Just ask anyone who went to prison for actions or inactions taken during Watergate.
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When Justice Serves an Ideology Instead of a Nation”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Oh, the games Cook County Board President little Todd Stroger plays. And they are always about sticking it to the taxpayers, aren’t they? Stroger and his Democrat co-conspirators have really proven that county Democrats are more like a criminal syndicate as opposed to proper representatives of the people with a recent move to stick it to suburban drivers in violation of what the suburban cities even want to have happen in their jurisdictions.
Little Toddie wanted to have county sponsored red-light cameras positioned throughout the Cook County suburbs so that the county could get more money in the form of mailed fines from drivers. But the suburban towns and cities didn’t want the county to intrude upon their roads with these onerous cameras and at least in the case of one city, Schaumburg, we have a town that already removed their own red-light cameras due to pressure from the voters. So the county board offered a compromise.
To mollify the suburban cities the board included an opt out clause in its red-light camera rules. If the cities didn’t want them, they could opt out and keep them out of their areas. Stroger and his extortionist buddies were shocked, though, when “nearly every Northwest Cook County town proceeded to opt out” of his grab for suburban driver’s wallets.
What to do, what to do? Stroger was losing his new revenue stream. How could they stop it?
Eureka! Toddie had an idea…
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Cook County Board to Extort Suburban Drivers”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Sun-Times reports that the next Cook County Board President might be yet another bought and paid for union stooge.
Democrat Party candidate Toni Preckwinkle raised $1.3 million for her campaign for county board president thus far and $220,000 of that came from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
So, what we are seeing is yet another Democrat candidate owned lock, stock and barrel by a public employees union. Gee, I wonder if she’ll be amenable to union demands once in office?
Her opponent, GOP candidate Roger Keats, has raised only $19,000 so far. Not that there IS a Republican Party in the county of Crook.
If you would like to help out the Keats campaign, here is his website: http://keatsforcook.org/. You can donate directly here: Keats For Cook, PayPal.
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Dem. Cook County Board Prez Candidate’s Big Union Haul”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Despite claims made earlier in his campaign, Democrat candidate for Senate Alexi Giannoulias has said that he’ll be quite happy to take campaign donations from lobbyists as he vies to take Barack Obama’s old Senate seat this year.
WGIL News reports that Giannoulias claimed earlier in the campaign that he wouldn’t take donations from lobbyists. However, Giannoulias limited the scope of that claim to encompass only federal lobbyists and political PACs. He has taken donations from state lobbyists.
The difference between a state lobbyist and a federal lobbyist seems vague with Giannoulias, but he claims there is a difference.
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WGIL: Giannoulias Says He’ll Take Lobbyist $$ for Campaign”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Daily Herald has an interesting story detailing the fundraising of the two candidates vying for the 22nd District State Senator seat in the Elgin, Illinois area. The story shows the anti-voter ideas in which Democrats wallow.
The piece reports that incumbent Democrat Mike Noland has raised $107,000 for his race for State Senate while his GOP challenger, Steve Rauscnehberger, has raised $71,000.
That seems like a horrible gap between incumbent Democrat and the resurgent Republican, doesn’t it? Dem. Noland sure sees it that way. “I just got more support, period, throughout,” Noland told reporters.
But does he have “more support”? Not from his actual voters he doesn’t. Tucked into the Herald story is this line…
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Mike Noland Thinks Outside Money Means ‘More Support’? Not From Voters it Isn’t!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Ed McClelland over at NBC Chicago’s Ward Room blog makes a good point about reports of the two gubernatorial candidate’s fundraising. Both seem to be claiming to have $2.3 million on hand going into this leg of the campaign. But, McClelland makes the point that so far Brady’s $2.3 million is “bigger” than Quinn’s.
How is that?
Well, Brady has gotten the benefit of money from the Republican Governors Association for ads and whatnot while Quinn has not benefitted much from the Democrat Governors Association. That means that Brady doesn’t have to spend as much of his $2.3 million to reach voters as Quinn does.
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Ill Gov Race: GOPs Brady Has Bigger Bang for Fundraising Bucks”
-By Warner Todd Huston
As the Obama economy tumbles farther and farther down into depression, as states begin to face the reality of a budget crunch that can only be solved by layoffs of public employees, and as teachers find they are open to those layoffs, we commonly hear teachers claim that they are perennially underpaid and don’t deserve layoffs. Yet the Chicago Tribune has found that nearly half the teachers in many of Chicago’s ritziest suburbs are making over $100,000 a year in salary.
The Tribune reviewed the salary information of 132,000 Illinois teachers and in Highland Park, Deerfield, Park Ridge, Hinsdale, and other Chicago area suburbs it found that in some cases half the teachers — and in other cases over 40% — make $100K yearly (not including benefits) even as the educational system in Illinois crying poor and cutting staff.
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For All Teachers’ Whining, Almost Half of Chicago Area Teachers Make $100K a Year”
At the end of June while walking a Chicago street, a Chicago musician heard the cries of a woman being assaulted and went to help. Matthew Leone, a bass player for a Chicago-based band named Madina Lake, found the woman being beaten by what turned out to be her abusive husband.
Like a good neighbor, Leone got between the two and stopped the beating. Unfortunately, when his back was turned, Leone was then assaulted by the much larger husband of the beaten woman. Leone was beaten pretty badly and ended up in the hospital with a swelling brain, a broken jaw, and many other injuries.
Leone is recovering, but his brain injuries have yet to heal. They even had to remove a large part of his skull so that the swelling would not damage his brain further.
You can see more of the details of Mr. Leone’s recovery and story at the Chicago Radio and Media website: Through the Pain — Coming to the Aid of a Chicago Hero.
And if you want to help, here’s how:
Helping a Chicago Hero”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Chicago’s Representative Luis Gutierrez has been finding few takers for his pro-illegal immigrant policies of late. But he and several Democrat lawmakers think they’ve found a way to increase support for their pro-illegal alien bill: add gay issues to it.
Once again it’s an Orwellian named bill, too. The pro-illegal alien supporters are calling this abomination the “Uniting American Families Act.”
The bill would allow gay couples from foreign countries to automatically bring in their gay partners and all their immediate family members into the United States when one of the pair has the fortune to make it across the border.
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New Dem Idea: Can’t Win on Immigration? Then Stick Gay Issues in The Bill, Too!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Hill is reporting that Democrat Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias is having trouble raising money, which is amusing because as a failed banker he gave away millions to a pair of mobsters that never paid back the “loan”
The Hill reports that Giannoulias “struggled to raise money in the aftermath of his family bank’s collapse in April.”
Giannoulias has raised only some $900,000 since March 31 — the bulk of it in June. His Republican opponent, Mark Kirk, collected close to $1 million that same month. And Kirk was dealing with his own scandal — the fallout from inaccuracies in reporting his Navy service record at the time.
Giannoulias raised less than half of Kirk’s total, and the Republican now has almost a four-to-one cash on hand advantage.
If you’ll recall — and the Hill notes — that VP Biden recently ambled into town to raise finds for the Democrats “mob banker” but apparently even “no body messes with” Joe Biden isn’t able to help Giannoulias.
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Illinois ‘Mob Banker’ Can’t Raise Money?”
-By Dan Scott
There comes a point in time when the cumulative actions of an individual or regime has become so outrageous that not only do they need to be called out but removed from a position of power. Over the past 19 months the country has endured a litany of embarrassment, missteps and outright criminality. The Obama regime has finally if not inevitably gone too far.
Among the many questionable actions of the Obama regime the country has been forced to endure is the continuing failure in regards to the oil spill clean up. Not only was the regime inept in its handling of the clean up by refusing help from foreign countries with the proper equipment, continually impeded clean up efforts via it’s numerous bureaucracies and then attempted to politicize one of the largest environment disasters in US history for Obama’s pet agenda item, namely Cap & Trade. To rub salt into the wound, Obama’s legal team has repeatedly attempted to put tens of thousands more people out of work via an oil-drilling moratorium. So far the Courts have struck down two attempts and Obama is trying again a third time. The effect of this latest behavior has just sent one oil-drilling rig off to Egypt with others sure to follow. To sum up Obama’s actions regarding the oil spill is incompetence. We are not talking about simple straightforward incompetence mind you, but stubbornly willful incompetence since Obama has yet to demonstrate he has actually “learned” anything from this experience. As you can see the use of the word “Administration” is a joke when recounting Obama’s actions and therefore the word regime is a far better descriptor.
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The Final Straw”
The folks at ChampionNews.net have a series of articles about the mess that Illinois public employees pensions is in that is must reading. The articles are penned by expert Bill Zetter.
Of course, the pension mess is the single biggest trouble that Illinois (and most other states) face today. It is a ticking time bomb…. heck its a bomb exploding already, albeit in slow motion.
Here is what they’ve posted thus far:
Back To the Pension Future: What Did We Actually Guarantee?
Illinois Pensions: Rob the Poor and Give It to the Rich
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Illinois Pension Problems and What to Do About Them, By Bill Zetter”
From the Office of Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner…
Earlier today, the County Board considered the newly proposed budget for the county health bureau.
Unfortunately, in terms of promoting transparency and truth in budgeting and taxation, the health bureau budget falls short.
You can read my statement on the budget here.
The National Republican Committee wants to know the answer to a few questions…
Once again the exculpatory memo issued by the President-elect’s lawyer, Greg Craig, in December of 2008 is finding itself in conflict with testimony coming out of the Blagojevich Trial in Chicago. First we learned through the testimony of SEIU boss Tom Balanoff that President Obama actually played an active role in promoting Valerie Jarrett as a candidate for his old seat, despite no mention of that in the memo. Now we are learning of another call, this time by Rahm Emanuel that violated Obama’s supposed neutrality policy and again failed to be reported by Craig. Here are a couple of questions for a White House that clearly wants to avoid this topic:
1) How do explain the inconsistencies between Craig’s memo, which said “the President-Elect had ruled out communicating a preference” and John Wyma’s testimony that he received a call from Rahm Emanuel with a message from the President-Elect?
2) How do you explain the reoccurring pattern of omitted or inaccurate information included in the memo, in this case the call from Emanuel to Wyma, and how does that reflect on the veracity of the document as a whole?
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What Did Obama Know of Blago’s Selling of Senate Seat And When Did He Know It?”
From the Isaac Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…
Republican nominee for Illinois 2nd Congressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement regarding the NAACP’s vote to condemn the Tea Party movement.
“Today’s vote by the NAACP to condemn the Tea Party movement highlights its ignorance of the history of the Tea Party movement and reminds us it has not changed its tactics in 100 years. A quick survey of American history will reveal the first American to shed blood in the American Revolution was both a Tea Partier and Black by the name of Crispus Attucks.
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(2nd District) Hayes Condemns NAACP”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Illinois Democrat candidate for Senate, Alexi Giannoulias, wasn’t too keen of admitting it but he was in Vancouver, Canada over the weekend at a fund-raiser at a trial lawyer’s convention. Along with a dozen other Democrats, the candidate was in Canada to rake in thousands in donations from trial lawyers who know what side of their bread is buttered, for sure.
Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet has all the details at her Scoop blog. But suffice to say that the Giannoulias campaign did not report the whereabouts of their candidate until the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a press release urging reporters to grill the Giannoulias campaign.
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Ill. Dem. Senate Candidate Raising $$ From Trial Lawyers in Canada”
From the Hayes for congress campaign (2nd District)…
The campaign committee for Republican nominee in Illinois 2ndCongressional District Isaac Hayes released the following video today challenging Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to tell the truth.
In the video, Jackson is heard saying he is not “aware” that he is Senate Candidate 5 in the Rod Blagojevich indictment. The very next day the Chicago Sun-Times confirms he is.
The second half of the video shows Jackson at a press conference where he said, “I did not initiate or authorize anyone at anytime to promise anything to Governor Blagojevich on my behalf.” But on July 7, 2010 the Chicago Tribune reported testimony from the Blagojevich corruption trial that placed Jackson at a meeting where Indian businessman Raghuveer Nayak told Jackson, “I will raise a million if he appoints you to the Senate seat.”
.
This statement appears on the Citizens for Isaac Hayes website at:
www.isaac4honesty.com.
From the Illinois Review YouTube Channel:
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock joined U.S. House candidates Joel Pollak and Isaac Hayes in pumping up a Chicago Young Republican VIP reception Friday night before joining over a thousand CYRs in the group’s 2010 Summer Membership bash at Chicago’s Cubby Bear, across from Wrigley Field.
-By Warner Todd Huston
In connection with my ChicagoNow.com Publius Forum site, I have once again been asked to appear at the WGN radio studios in beeeoootiful downtown Chicago tomorrow morning.
Hitting the airwaves at about 11AM, Saturday morning I’ll be again meeting hosts Alex Quigley and Amy Guth for a half hour of politics talk.
If you aren’t in the Midwest where the WGN 720 AM blowtorch can reach, you can always listen live on the Internet tubuals at: http://www.wgnradio.com/.
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I’ll Be on Chicago’s WGN Radio on Saturday Morning, 11AM”
From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…
CHICAGO: Republican nominee for Illinois 2ndCongressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign after failure to prosecute the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation during the 2008 election.
“The Justice Department’s refusal to prosecute the terrorist actions of the New Black Panther Party for its 2008 intimidation and threatening vitriol outside a Philadelphia polling place is criminal affirmative action. This selective justice paradigm was exposed during the testimony of J. Christian Adams – a former U.S. Prosecutor assigned to the Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission – who testified he was told ‘cases are not going to be brought against Black defendants for the benefit of White victims.’
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Hayes Calls for A.G. Holder to Step Down”
From the Illinois Policy Institute…
Ooh, That’s Awkward
America is a great country, full of wonderful people…but we should probably beef up on history classes. Last weekend, Jay Leno took a quick walk to find out how much his fellow Americans really know about Independence Day. The results?
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Ill. Policy Institute: With Friends Like These…”
From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…
CHICAGO: Republican nominee for Illinois 2ndCongressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement following testimony from the Rod Blagojevich trial placing Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. at a meeting where cash in exchange for the U.S. Senate Seat was discussed,
“Today, we again heard damaging testimony belying Congressman Jackson’s claims of innocence in the Blagojevich Senate Seat scandal. We can now place Mr. Jackson at the head of the table when this conspiracy was first discussed. According to testimony by Rajinder Bedi, on October 27, 2008 he met with Congressman Jackson and his supporter Raghu Nayek at the 312 Restaurant in the loop. During this meeting at which Jackson was present, Nayek asked Bedi to send word to Blagojevich that he would raise a million dollars for Blagojevich if he would appoint Jackson to the Senate seat.
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(2nd District) GOPs Hayes: ‘Jackson at Head of Table When Blago Bribe Conspired”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Many businesses across Illinois are trying to stave off closing their doors by cutting salaries and hours for employees. Some aren’t so luck and are laying off thousands of workers. Add to that dismal outlook that the state’s budget is billions in the red and politicians are so at loggerheads on how to solve the crisis that no budget can be agreed upon.
Cue accidental Governor Pat Quinn whose job, as he sees it, has been to warn Illinois that we are broke, that we can’t afford the many programs we have, that the poorest of us are at risk and that taxes will have to be raised to “fix” it all.
It’s a very bleak picture, indeed. Bleak, that is, unless you are one of Quinn’s staffers. In that case you are living high off the hog and getting an up to 20 percent raise in salary thanks to the Governor’s generosity… oh, and at the taxpayers expense, of course.
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Gov. Says Ill. is Broke, but His Staffers/State Workers Get Big Raises”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The sniping between Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias is beginning to get to full steam these days and Democrat Giannoulias isn’t handling it all very well. As a bank executive, he’s gone from dissembling about his efforts to loan mobsters $20 million that his bank then lost, to now as a candidate lying about his desires to raise taxes.
The latest Giannoulias gaffe comes as a result of his announcement of his tax returns. It seems that he declared a personal business loss that negated his entire tax bill and so Giannoulias paid no federal tax in 2009. Yet, as Mark Kirk says, even as Giannoulias wants to raise all our taxes, he skates by himself without paying any at all!
For his part, the Ginnoulias campaign says that the candidate never said he wants to raise our taxes. They say that Kirk is lying about it. This newest claim makes Giannoulias himself to be a “flat out” liar as far as Illinois political watchdog Rich Miller is concerned. After all, Miller has the video to prove that Giannoulias has said that he wants to raise taxes.
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Ill. Dem Senate Candidate Giannoulias a ‘Mob Banker,’ Now ‘Flat Out’ Liar”
-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the main reasons that little Todd Stroger lost his comfy job as president of the Cook County Board — the office left him by his deceased father — is because of the graft and payoffs to his friends and family members that he constantly perpetrated. It was so bad even Democrats were ashamed of him and voted him out of office in the last primary.
But thanks to the fact that Illinois Democrats moved the primary to February President Stroger has eight months to continue giving his friends and family members cushy jobs paid for by the County taxpayers. And this week he’s done it again.
This time Stroger has given a plum job to his former campaign manager, Vincent Williams. Williams now has a $38,000-a-year job on the Cook Zoning Board of Appeals thanks to his pal President Stroger.
Let us recall that Williams was the campaign manager of a losing campaign, shall we?
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County President Stroger: Lame Duck Still Rolling Out Gravy Train for Pals”
Last year (well, not even a whole year ago, it was Nov. of 2009) Publius Forum was the 13th most visited Illinois blog according to Alexa rankings. And now, not even a year later, Publius Forum stands at the 11th most visited blog in Illinois. We moved up a few slots, folks.
Cao’s Blog has all the details in her Top Illinois Blogs Survey Updated post.
Thanks to all you readers for helping Publius Forum expand.
Another interesting thing about the rankings is how many dropped out of the top twenty to be replaced by new entrants in only so few short months. The world wide web is volatile, apparently!