Ill. Rep. Hare Buying Stock in Wool Industry

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few days ago Rep. Phil Hare told some of his constituents that he didn’t care about the U.S. Constitution and that he was going to help push through Congress Obama’s un-Constitutional take over of our healthcare anyway. Unfortunately for Hare he was being video taped as he said it.

Today it has been revealed that Rep. Hare has invested heavily in the U.S. wool industry. To that end he’s made a nice little video for us where he addresses this whole Constitution thingie…

You are wondering about the “wool,” right? Well, obviously he’s invested heavily in wool because he’s trying to pull an awful lot of it over the people’s eyes with THIS little extravaganza of back peddling!

In his video Hare laments the “gotcha” form of politics that resulted in his first YouTube special. All I can say is they can’t have “gotcha” unless there was something to “got,” there Rep. Hare!

But ya gotta give the Hare credit. This was a quick like a bunny video posted to try and stem the tide of his plummeting reputation. And just before the Easter Bunny makes his rounds, Hare lays this egg on us!

Finally, I am thankful to Hare for his military service. But I am compelled to note that General Benedict Arnold served us well for several years, too.
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Ill. Rep. Hare Buying Stock in Wool Industry”


The Democrats ‘Mob Banker’ With $20 Million in Loans to Criminals

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is bad enough that current State Treasurer and Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias is now well-known as the mob’s favorite banker with revelations of his $20 million in bad loans to various mobsters and convicted felons — so much money that his family bank is now about to go belly up over it all. But what is worse is that the Illinois Democrat Party purposefully backed this shady operator as its 2010 candidate for Senate!

Illinois Democrats are so arrogant that they imagined that they could pick the dirtiest candidate they could find, one with a possible criminal history worse than that of their recently resigned knife wielding Lt. Gov. candidate Steve Cohen, and the voters would just mindlessly go to the polls and vote the party line. And perhaps they are right. We’ll see.

The Chicago Tribune recently reported that Giannoulias’ failing bank loaned the $20 million to Michael Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos even as they were about to be trundled off to serve federal prison sentences.
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The Democrats ‘Mob Banker’ With $20 Million in Loans to Criminals”


Tea Party Express Rolling Into A Town Near You

From Adam Andrzejewski’s For The Good Of Illinois

April 5 and 6, the Tea Party Express will be stopping in Illinois.

First stop, Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield at 6pm on Monday.

Second stop, Davis Park in Rockford at 2:30pm on Tuesday.

The Tea Party Express is a national bus tour, which hosts tea party rallies all across the nation. The bus launched from Sen. Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, NV on March 27th and will conclude in Washington, D.C. on Tax Day – April 15th.
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Tea Party Express Rolling Into A Town Near You”


Hayes on the Unemployment Report

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

CHICAGO – The Republican Nominee for Illinois 2nd Congressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement today:

“For the past year, Americans have suffered the collateral damage of unemployment due to a deaf ear from partisan ideologues who were more concerned with taking over the health care industry than putting people back to work. Still it appears Democrats haven’t gotten the message as they are now seeking to take over the energy industry. This administration’s number one priority should be jobs, jobs, jobs. Americans recognize this political power grab at their expense and they will deliver pink slips to Congressional Democrats in November.”

For more information on Isaac Hayes’ run, please go to: www.isaac4honesty.com


Illinois, Tell Speaker Madigan to Open the Books!‏

From Adam Andrzejewski’s For the Good of Illinois…

On March 24, House Leader Tom Cross joined me in calling for a forensic audit of state spending. House Resolution 1057 requires the Auditor General to begin a forensic audit of state spending covering the Blagojevich/Quinn administrations.

We introduced HR 1057 with four goals in mind:

  • Stop Governor Quinn’s Income Tax Hike
  • Cut Spending
  • Eliminate Waste
  • End Corruption

In 2007, Auditor General William Holland issued a report indicating that the State of Illinois “…does not have a comprehensive, consistent inventory of programs.” This report highlighted that state government is so cumbersome and disorganized it could not prepare a list of programs it funds and operates on a daily basis.

Speaker Madigan, Open The Books!
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Illinois, Tell Speaker Madigan to Open the Books!‏”


Ill. Policy Institute: Working for the man‏

A “First Step”
If you thought the passage of the expansive new health care bill was a pretty big deal, you might want to hold on to your hat. On the “Today” show, President Obama recently told Matt Lauer that it was simply a “first step.” You can watch by clicking here.

Workin’ For the Man…
Each year, the Tax Foundation releases the dates of Tax Freedom Day, which reveals how many days of the year we spend working to pay off state, federal, and local taxes. Here in Illinois, it falls on Sunday, April 11, meaning we work 101 out of 365 days just to pay taxes. Ouch.
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Ill. Policy Institute: Working for the man‏”


Sam Adams Alliance: 2010 Sammies Winners Announced‏

From the Sam Adams Alliance…

Sam Adams Alliance is excited to announce the winners of the 3rd annual Sammies award ceremony. The awards honor activism in six categories, and the awardees were chosen following a months-long contest and nationwide search.

The theme of this year’s Sammies, “We Are All Activists Now”, draws inspiration from the last year’s historic burst of political engagement, manifest in tea parties, town halls, and a surge of citizen leadership at the state and local levels.
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Sam Adams Alliance: 2010 Sammies Winners Announced‏”


Walsh: ‘I’m NOT A Career Politician’

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

With just 48 hours left before our quarterly filing deadline, I am asking you today to contribute $ 20.10 to our campaign for Congress to commemorate this historic year in which we take our country back.

We are going to take it back from those in Congress like my opponent, Melissa Bean, who have built their careers by serving special interests rather than their constituents’ interests.

We are going to take it back from those who seek to contract our personal freedoms and expand government’s control over our lives.
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Walsh: ‘I’m NOT A Career Politician’”


LAST CHANCE TO REFORM ILLINOIS: Put-Back Petition Deadline Extended to April 19th!‏

From the Putback Amendment effort…

For months, the campaign for true reform of Springfield has taken heart in every county in the State of Illinois. Voters on all sides of the political spectrum are fed up with the culture of corruption in Springfield. The Put-Back Amendment provides the only constitutional way to reform state government without waiting on entrenched political insiders to “permit” reform to take place.

The Put-Back Amendment is the only amendment which enacts term limits for legislators, ends gerrymandering (where politicians draw maps to ensure their reelection), ensures fair elections with crucial reforms to end political games in keeping people off the ballot, and decentralizes legislative power so no longer will the two legislative leaders have complete control of the legislature. More information on what the Put-Back Amendment does is available here.
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LAST CHANCE TO REFORM ILLINOIS: Put-Back Petition Deadline Extended to April 19th!‏”


PROillinois: New Pension Plan Idea Debuts

MADIGAN PENSION BRIDGE NOT FAR ENOUGH

PROillinois New Grassroots Campaign to Unshackle Local Governments From Unfunded State Pension Mandates

(March 30 – Northbrook, IL) Runaway government employee pension costs is the hot topic, with average taxpayers and the press starting to take notice of this looming public finance disaster. A more dramatic, yet simple pension reform effort known as “the PROillinois plan” is gaining momentum, and is being promoted by a grassroots group of Illinois residents and local government leaders who want to put an end, once and for all, to the unworkable Springfield practice of dictating to local governments the retirement benefits paid to local government employees.
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PROillinois: New Pension Plan Idea Debuts”


The New Dem. Lt. Gov. Candidate’s Anti-Catholic Song

-By Warner Todd Huston

On March 27, Jeff Finley of the Pioneer Press made an interesting discovery when looking up info on the Democrat’s new pick for Lt. Governor, Sheila Simon. Apparently Sheila’s 5-piece, all-girl band named the Loose Gravel Girls has an anti-Catholic, Pope bashing song in its play list.

The song titled “Pope Knop” (that’s pronounced Kuh-Nope) seems to be about a four-year-old girl that has somehow become a Pope that is “drawing with markers on the Vatican floor” so that “going to church will never be a bore.”

The song starts out with some pseudo Catholic liturgy type music and then segues into a piano driven, banjo plucking little tune that features a bouncy beat and a slide whistle apparently to denote that it is supposed to be “funny,” I guess.
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The New Dem. Lt. Gov. Candidate’s Anti-Catholic Song”


State Refuses to Pay for Blago Portrait

-By Warner Todd Huston

Indignity upon indignity has been heaped upon our one-time Governor, Rod “They’re Out To Get Me” Blagojevich. And now one more link has been added to his Marley chain burden. The state legislature is refusing to pay for the oil painting of Blago to hang in the hall of governors in Springfield.

SAY IT AIN’T SO!

Of course, Rod is certainly free to pay for the portrait himself, but the state’s politicos decided in an 85-23 vote last week that the state would not pay for the sitting.

The Senate-bound bill does not ban an ousted governor from bankrolling the project out of pocket, which could cost as much as $25,000, the bill’s top backer said.

Oh, the humanities. Poor Rod. The dude can’t catch a break… of course, there’s that whole he-deserves-it thing, too!


Bean The Progressive

From the Palatine Tea Party…

March 29, 2010 – Beans healthcare vote of “yes” is just another vote among other votes over the last year which the voters in her district continue to reject. Her voting record is that of a far left progressive. This is not a progressive district and she continues to follow the failed policies of the Obama administration and Nancy Pelosi.
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Bean The Progressive”


Loyola Republicans Present The “Truth” of Global Warming by Christopher Horner

Chris Horner will be on Loyola University Chicago’s Lake Shore Campus located in beautiful Rogers Park on April 28th to discuss the truth behind global warming and extreme environmentalism.

Chicago, IL– Mar 28, 2010 – The Loyola University Chicago College Republicans are proud to announce the selection of Christopher C. Horner as our honored year-end lecturer. Mr. Horner will be presenting “The ‘Truth’ Behind Global Warming.”
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Loyola Republicans Present The “Truth” of Global Warming by Christopher Horner”


Onion Skewers King Daley

-By Warner Todd Huston

This just in, The Onion News Service has just skewered Richie “King” Daley for his newest effort to “modernize Chicago’s outdated graft programs.”

The Onion did a masterful job satirizing the corruption of Chicago in this post, I have to say. The stuff they put in Mayor Daley’s mouth is classic.

“It’s been business as usual for too long in Chicago, and now it’s time to find more efficient ways to misuse authority for personal gain,” said Daley, who has served as Chicago’s mayor since 1989. “We must modernize our illegitimate activities right now, today, before it becomes impossible for public officials to act in my best self-interests.”

While this may be funny to folks outside of the Chicago area, it is all too easy to believe for those of us sentenced to dwell in “King” Daley’s corrupt little world.

Kudos to The Onion for its satire, but shame on Chicago for allowing the corruption that is so easy to satirize.
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Onion Skewers King Daley”


Bigger danger of healthcare bill: the arrogance of Congress

-By Eric O’Keefe

Health care supporters in Congress clearly defied the will of voters. Will we hold them accountable?

We may never fully know the damage that will be done by the massive health care bill Congress passed on Sunday, but one thing is certain: It will lead to lower-quality care at higher costs.

Dozens of new health boards will come on line in the next few years, as bureaucrats gradually take control of our health care system. Who knows how many bright college students will decide to avoid medical careers because they don’t want to follow orders from these bureaucrats?
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Bigger danger of healthcare bill: the arrogance of Congress”


Me on ChicagoNow Radio on Chicago’s WGN

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just got back from the big city, downtown Chicago. I appeared in studio at WGN Radio AM 720 this morning on the ChicagoNow Radio show with host Sarah Spain.

I appeared with Blake Dvorak who operates The Voting Booth on ChicagoNow. It was a great time. Take a listen, won’t you?

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I’ll Be on Chicago’s WGN Radio on Saturday Morning, 10AM

-By Warner Todd Huston

In connection with my ChicagoNow.com Publius Forum site, I have been asked to wing it on down to the WGN radio studios this weekend.

I’ll be in studio with host Sarah Spain on Chicago Now Radio starting around 10AM central time.
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I’ll Be on Chicago’s WGN Radio on Saturday Morning, 10AM”


Fox News Chicago Digging Deeper on Illinois Pension Mess

-By Warner Todd Huston

My friend Lennie Jarratt was featured on Fox News Chicago last night. The subject was the $85 billion dollar deficit that the Illinois finds its public employee pensions confronted with. Fox News reports that every Illinois citizen would have to fork over $6,600 to instantly solve the problem. And what has caused this problem? Unions.

Lennie has some great lines in this piece and he’s right on. He is right that education in America has become “legalized theft.” Here are some of his main points:

  • Getting a public sector job is like hitting the lottery
  • The way schools levy is legal theft
  • We have the highest property taxes in the Midwest
  • Nearly all of the top 50 public sector pensions in IL are educators
  • Killing jobs and forcing people to leave the state further cutting state revenue
  • Within 4-6 years most public sector retirees are making more than when working

Illinois isn’t the only state in this union-made morass. Nearly every state in the union is in this mess.
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Fox News Chicago Digging Deeper on Illinois Pension Mess”


Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar

From Congressman Peter Roskam’s Office (6th District)…

Roskam: “When two pillars of the Illinois business community, Caterpillar and John Deere, are forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in new costs for next year alone thanks to the health bill, it sends an ominous message about Illinois’ economic future.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter Roskam released the following statement today following the John Deere company’s announcement that the new healthcare legislation signed by President Obama this week will increase their taxes by $150 million in the first year, after Caterpillar announced it would cost them $100 million in their first year:
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Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar”


Hayes: Open Letter to Jesse Jr. ‘No Leadership, No Integrity’

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

CHICAGO: The following is an open letter released today by Isaac C. Hayes, GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2, in response to Jr.’s “moment of truth” on news radio WLS 890am.

Yesterday morning, Mr. Congressman, you told Dan Proft and Bruce Wolf, who were guest-hosting the Don Wade and Roma Show on WLS, “There’s probably going to have to be a significant reform of other social programs as the Federal Government assumes more responsibility for health care for the nation’s people, there are other social programs that are probably going to undermine some elements of social cohesion, there’s no doubt about that.”
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Hayes: Open Letter to Jesse Jr. ‘No Leadership, No Integrity’”


Illinois: Landmark School Choice Bill Could Get Vote Soon

From the Illinois Policy Institute…

SB 2494 passed out of committee just moments ago. This bill, sponsored by the Rev. Sen. James Meeks, would create a pilot school voucher program for students in struggling Chicago public schools.

This new power for parents promises that many children can enroll in schools that are better able to meet their needs. It promises that surrounding public schools will improve, and it promises that everyone in Illinois, as taxpayers, will benefit.

This is landmark school choice policy in the making.
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Illinois: Landmark School Choice Bill Could Get Vote Soon”


New Jersey Legislators Should Know the FACTS Before Budget Vote

From Truth In Accounting…

Truth In Accounting Issues New Jersey’s “Financial State of the State”

Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting released New Jersey’s “Financial State of the State.” The numbers are not good and they are getting worse every day. The state’s bills as of June 30, 2009 were $143 billion and the state had already used $33 billion of assets that were supposed to be set aside to met established legal and contractual obligations. To pay bills and obligations past legislators should have already covered current and future, taxpayers will have to come up with $176 billion—$66,200 per family.

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New Jersey Legislators Should Know the FACTS Before Budget Vote”


Obama Supporter’s Racism Cop Out

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you want to see the ignorance of the left, below is a good video to see it in. In it a woman that supports Obamacare makes all sorts of accusations that everyone is a racist in a confrontation at a small protest outside of Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky’s Chicago-area offices. Another portly woman whines about the fact that she might be expected pay for her own healthcare and her equally portly boyfriend calls people names and asks what’s wrong with “a little socialism?”

The video shows that the only people filled with hate, the only ones resorting to name-calling and ignorance are the Obamacare supporters. But the you’re-all-racists lady is the most typical example of the left’s empty-headed line of attack against anyone that dares to nay-say their communist ideas.

One of the ignorant things this woman did was dismiss the Holocaust. It is infuriating, of course, that this chubby chider in purple was so dismissive of the Holocaust because there once was slavery. To her, slavery was worse than the Holocaust. A disgusting display of ignorance, of course. It is also a sad display of ignorance that this woman really thought that her “ancestors” were brought to Evanston, Illinois to work a “plantation.” This foolish woman doesn’t appear to know the history of her own people. There WERE no slave plantations in Evanston, Illinois so it is impossible that her ancestors were brought to Evanston to work plantations for white folks.
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Obama Supporter’s Racism Cop Out”


Illinois Ranks At Bottom of Best Business Climates in America

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois ranks a dismal 45th place in state rankings for the best business climates in the country according to a new study by the Institute for Legal Reform.

The study finds Illinois trailing the rest of the country in legal fairness with a litigation climate that is bad for businesses. Two Illinois counties, Cook County and Madison County, were also found to be the most unfair litigation climate in the nation.

In the press release, ILR says that Illinois is a “jackpot” state.

“Home to two of the most notorious jackpot jurisdictions in America and known for imposing expansive liability, Illinois has rolled out an ‘unwelcome mat’ to business,” said Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. “Illinois needs more jobs, not more lawsuits. Yet, even with an unemployment rate higher than the national average, the state’s anti-business legal climate discourages economic growth at a time when it needs it most.”

This ease at filing and constant upholding of frivolous lawsuits is reprehensible and decimates Illinois jobs just at a time when we need more jobs because of this bad economy.
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Illinois Ranks At Bottom of Best Business Climates in America”


Randy Hultgren: Bill Foster’s Vote Betrays the Trust of the 14th District

From the Hultgren for Congress campaign (14th District)…

Tonight, Bill Foster dealt the 14th Congressional District a devastating blow!

Foster’s vote to takeover health care doesn’t only run contrary to the wishes of his constituents, it delivers on the commitment he made to HIS real boss, Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union.

In the Washington Post this week, Stern boasted of the debt owed to SEIU by Foster saying that “Foster, who we ran a significant independent expenditure for, we’re telling him what it is our workers thought they were working for him for” in reference to the Pelosi/Reid health care bill.
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Randy Hultgren: Bill Foster’s Vote Betrays the Trust of the 14th District”


What the Fed’s Mission Ought To Be

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Congress should revise its directives to the Fed and abandon liberal-progressives’ secular religious faith that ivory-tower intellectuals are capable of managing the entire economy.

Senator Christopher Dodd’s just released proposals for changing the regulatory role of the Federal Reserve and for reducing the eleven regional Fed banks outside New York City to small, relatively powerless statistical research units revives the question of what the Fed should be doing.

The import of the Senator’s proposals is to remove whatever independence the Fed enjoys and to make it just an office boy for any administration that happens to be in power. We already suffer too much inflation from the Fed’s profligate money expansion. Senator Dodd’s proposals will guarantee even more inflation by making resistance to presidential and Congressional political pressure impossible.
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What the Fed’s Mission Ought To Be”


GOP Chairman Elected to Full Term

-By Warner Todd Huston

GOP Party Chairman Pat Brady was elected to a full term as chairman at the State Central Committee meeting this weekend.

Brady was appointed to the position by the state GOP after former Chairman Andy McKenna stepped down in an unsuccessful attempt to run for Governor last year. Brady served the final months of McKenna’s term and now begins his own full four-year term.

Congratulations to Chairman Brady and let’s hope that he can do more for the party long-term than the failed former chairman, McKenna. Brady would be smart to heed the conservative groundswell in this nation and stop the habit of past Illinois GOP powermongers of isolating, ignoring, and working against Illinois conservatives.


Lauzen’s Legislative Top Ten

From the office of State Senator Chris Lauzen, 25th District…

Until Governor Quinn and Ruling Majorities in the House and Senate reduce Medicaid eligibility to the national average, dramatically reform and fund public employee pensions for future and current employees, secure spending flexibility on billions of federal so-called stimulus dollars, and conduct a hard scrubbing for efficiency of every agency and program in state government, Illinois will continue the budget “death spiral” that is causing employers to evacuate with their jobs, senior citizens with assets to relocate to other states, and bond rating companies to double-downgrade the financial prospects of 12.9 million Illinoisans.

To avoid wearing out my welcome by replaying budget and job-creation solutions that I have repeatedly proposed here and in Springfield, I will devote this article to “Lauzen’s Top 10” legislative initiatives that I am proposing this Spring on your behalf:
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Lauzen’s Legislative Top Ten”


Election Poll: Walsh, Kinzinger, Hultgren in the Lead

-By Warner Todd Huston

We Ask America recently posted the results of a head-to-head pollIn the other two races, Dold (10th) and Schilling (17th) are down with Dold down by less than three percent.

All the candidates, though, have a bit of convincing to do as the undecideds were in the 20 percent range in four of the five races.

Interestingly, Bob Dold (10th) is practically an unknown compared to Democrat Dan Seals who has been before the voters several times in the past. Dold stands at 37.36% to Seals’ 40.09% in the poll. This race did not have an undecided report.

Adam Kinzinger (11th) is really swamping incumbent Democrat Debbie Halvorson according to the poll. Kinzinger stands at 42.04% to Halvorson’s dismal 30.22%.

Randy Hultgren (14th) holds a slight lead over incumbent Democrat Bill Foster with 37.82% to Foster’s 36.47%.

Still, with up to 26% undecided none of the leaders can rest easy.

See the details HERE