Steve Rauschenberg (R, Elgin) is talking jobs for the Illinois economy. Rauschengerger says in his new video, “For Illinois to have a strong future we need strong job growth in Illinois and today we don’t have it.”
Steve Rauschenberger is running to regain his old Senate seat in the 22nd District which encompasses part of DuPage County and western Cook County.
(Cross posted at RedCounty.com)
From the Kirk Dillard camp:
(Chicago, IL) – Jobs, healthcare, education and the legacy of Abraham Lincoln highlighted Thursday’s debate among the Republican candidates for Illinois governor. The debate was sponsored by the Illinois State Republican Party and held in Chicago.
Senator Kirk Dillard championed his “Destination Economy” plan to attract new business to the state. “It will be the most ambitious job creation plan in state history,” he said, reminding the audience one out of every 10 Illinois workers is out of a job.
Dillard also suggested healthcare would be part of his budget reforms in Springfield if elected governor. “My first budget will have a bad dose of medicine for Medicaid,” said Dillard, talking about some of the places he will look for significant budget cuts. Other areas include the state pension system. “We need pension reform,” he said.
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Jobs, Education Highlight State GOP Debate”
-By Warner Todd Huston
There’s not much that union supporters and I can agree upon. But here is one incident where I can wholeheartedly support the aggrieved members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) who have found themselves victims of their own union.
The SEIU wanted to renegotiate a contract with officials of Sonoma County, California for its in-home healthcare workers supported by county funds. SEIU representatives met with and crafted a new contract with the assistance of County officials. This was all done behind closed doors without the general knowledge of or the assistance of the workers themselves.
But that isn’t the main problem here. It’s how the contract was approved that shows how little the SEIU cares for democracy, member’s rights, and the American way.
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Union Violates Free Speech, the Right to Vote and Smashes Common American Democracy”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Chicago News Bench gives us the skinny on a Tea Party event coming this weekend:
The next big Tea Party in the Windy City will be one mile away from Midway Airport, in the Wentworth Park neighborhood (map). It’s over by dere…
DETAILS:
On Saturday, November 7, Noon – 2:00 p.m.
Wentworth Park, 5700 S. Narragansett (map) (at W. 57th Street)
Hot coffee, hot chocolate and bottled water will be available.
Contact: Catherina Wojtowicz, (312) 662-8666,
ChicagoTeaPatriots@Gmail.com and ChicagoTeaPatriots website
Jim McMahon writes:
We have a great line up of speakers and entertainment. We will also host an open mic session so if you have something you would like to share, please feel welcome! We will be convening in the heartland of Congressman Dan Lipinski’s district — the ONLY democratic congressman in the state of Illinois who is poised to vote NO on socialized medicine!
Illinois Congressional District 5 challenger signs Tenth Amendment Center Pledge
David Ratowitz, candidate for U.S. Congress to represent Illinois’ 5th Congressional District, today signed the Tenth Amendment Center’s 10-point pledge for prospective and current federal officeholders. The pledge aims to bolster support for the 1791 Bill of Rights component that affirms the U.S. Constitution’s principle of federalism, stating that, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
“The reason that our founding fathers signed the Constitution and deliberately limited the power of the central government was to prevent just the sort of government-induced breakdown that we face today,” explains Ratowitz. “As a nation of free and independent citizens, we must choose elected officials who pledge to uphold the established laws of the land and honor local authority.”
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David Ratowitz Vows to Support State and Individual Sovereignty Rights”
**Now with Updates**
-By Warner Todd Huston
Only a few months ago, Representative Mark Kirk voted for Cap and Tax… er, I mean Cap and Trade. Conservatives and Republicans in general lit into Kirk with a vengeance. Then he started running for the Senate and at a subsequent September 5 campaign stop he reversed himself and decided he wouldn’t support Cap and Trade.
Kirk is not a strong pro-life supporter, he is bad on the Second Amendment, Kirk is only middling on free trade, and he has drifted back and forth on sometimes support for Obama’s left-wing, big spending agenda in Washington.. though he is sometimes good on national defense. In all, Kirk is not quite as bad as N.Y. 23’s Dede Scozzafava, but he is no Illinois Dough Hoffman if you want a current analogy.
Now comes a November 4 report by the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza that Kirk sent a memo to Fred Malek attempting to get Governor Sarah Palin’s endorsement for his (Kirk’s) Senate run. Cillizza claims that this Kirk request shows Palin’s power and Kirk’s worries for his campaign.
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Mark Kirk’s Yo Yo Campaign (Plus Did He Ask for Palin’s Support or Not?)”
-By Warner Todd Huston
From the Mark Kirk Campaign:
On Thursday, I introduced the Medical Rights and Reform Act (H.R. 3970) – a centrist alternative for health care reform that lowers costs and expands coverage without raising taxes.
When Speaker Pelosi unveiled the final version of her government health care bill (H.R. 3962), she told us it cost less than $900 billion. Hours later, the Congressional Budget Office reported the bill would actually cost $1.05 trillion.
Take a look at the following list of tax increases we found inside Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990-page bill — nearly $730 billion in new taxes on individuals and small businesses.
Top Ten Tax Increases Included In H.R. 3962
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Pelosi Health Care Bill Raises Taxes $730 Billion”
-By Warner Todd Huston
(Passed on from my friend Eunice Conn)
It took 14 years to get the Parental Notification Bill of 1995 passed in August(of this year) in Illinois. Then, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation decided to enact a 90-day “grace period” to give abortionists time to prepare for the new policy.
That grace period should have ended today (Tuesday, Nov. 3) but….well you know our Illinois Gov’t. They approved another extension.
Tomorrow, they will decide how much time they need.
If you are so inclined contact Gov. Quinn and urge him to instruct the Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation to end the delay.
Govern Quinn, Springfield Office : 217-782-0244
Governor Quinn, Chicago Office: 312-814-2121
-By Warner Todd Huston
Here are the candidates as announced and filed running for Cook County Board President.
Republicans
John Garrido – Policeman and lawyer ( garrido2010.com/)
Roger Keats – Securities Industry (www.keatsforcook.com/)
Democrats
Dorothy Brown – Clerk of Circuit Court of Cook County (Friends of Dorothy Brown)
Danny Davis * – Congressman (www.davisforpresidentofcookcounty.com/)
Terrence O’Brien – President of Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (www.obrienforcookcounty.com/)
Toni Preckwinkle – Chicago Alderman (www.tonipreckwinkle.org/)
Todd Stroger – Cook County Board President (strogerforpresident.com/)
Green Party
Tom Tresser – Community organizer, arts activist (www.tom2010.us/)
Sean Burke – Research and development
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Cook County Board President Race: Who’s In, Anyway?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Chicago’s alderman are mad and they aren’t above letting director of Administrative Hearings Scott Bruner know about it. You would be too if you had to mix with the great, unwashed masses like these poor, put upon alderman have been forced to do. Why, it’s unseemly, don’t you know?
As it happens Chicago’s aldermen are being forced to go through the metal detectors to gain entrance to the central headquarters for administrative hearings. It’s a travesty of what’s good and decent, they say.
Last week during the City Council budget hearings, director Bruner was chastised by Alderman Howard Brookins (21st Ward) and several other aldermen for being forced to go through the detectors.
“Why am I searched as an alderman and as an attorney?…I don’t want to be searched going through a city building. There’s only 50 of us and we all have gold badges,” said Ald. Howard Brookins (21st).
… Budget Committee Chair Carrie Austin (34th) was so “offended,” she warned Bruner what might happen if he fails to “take another look at your policy.”
“It’s not a matter of giving anybody any preference. But us that are aldermen—we are the ones who set your budget. If we’re the ones setting your budget maybe we’ll take an adjustment” downward, if the policy is not rescinded, Austin warned.
The Sun-Times piece reminds us of another recent incident where aldermen thought they should be afforded premium service.
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Chicago Aldermen: We Are More Important Than You Lowly Citizens”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In one of our early postings we discovered how ACORN hides behind hundreds of different incorporated names and sets up dozens and dozens of LLCs and organizations that they hide behind in order to fool people into imagining they aren’t, indeed, doing business with ACORN. This is a story of one of those organizations, one politically active and actively attempting to undermine the trust voters have in the political system.
Some of you may have heard of the election in New York’s 23rd District where a liberal Democrat, a very liberal Republican, and a conservative Republican running on the New York conservative Party ticket all of whom are vying for the open Congressional seat there. Well, one of the organizations hip-deep in this election is a political group called the Working Families Party. Of course, the WFP is more-or-less a front for ACORN in New York and no political party at all.
The WFP is part and parcel to ACORN in New York. The “party” is run out of the ACORN offices at 88 Third Avenue in Brooklyn, its Co-chair is ACORN President Bertha Lewis, and one of its prime representatives is New York’s ACORN leader, Steven Kest. ACORN and the Working Families Party are inextricable. The two are one and the same.
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ACORN’s Tangled Webs”
-By Warner Todd Huston
As we at SayNoToACORN.com are fighting to help inform you about what you can do to impress upon our local and federal officials to distance themselves from ACORN, the other side — those that support the actions of ACORN — are also organizing. This fact proves that we cannot just sit idly by and hope that things go our way. We must act to make sure our politicians listen to us and defund this criminal organization. We must speak because our opponents definitely are.
Once again, Byron York reports on this story and he finds a webpage trying to cajole our lawmakers into increasing ACORN’s federal funding instead of eliminating it. York finds a site called defoxamerica.com that serves to both attack Fox News and advocate for increased funding for ACORN.
With Congress getting ready to pass a continuing resolution that might — or might not — extend the ban on federal funds for ACORN, there’s a new campaign urging lawmakers to restore federal funding for the community organizing group. The website DeFOX America, which is devoted both to attacking Fox News and defending ACORN, is asking readers to sign a petition urging Congress “to stand up to [Fox’s] McCarthyite tactics by voting against any unconstitutional legislation that singles out specific organizations. This includes the continuing resolution that cuts off Federal support to the national anti-poverty group ACORN.”
This webpage is being funded by an extremist, left-wing Hollywood filmmaker named Robert Greenwald.
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ACORN’s Defenders Not Remaining Silent”
-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the reasons that Cook County is among the highest in sales taxes in the country is because Board President Todd Stroger has quite a bit of power in stopping his vetoes being easily overturned. Currently it takes four fifths of the County Board to override his veto and that executive power has for many years proven very hard to overcome. Now that long-time power might be coming to an end.
The Illinois House and Senate recently voted up a measure to repeal the four-fifths rule and replace it with a three-fifths rule.The bill currently sits on Governor Quinn’s desk awaiting his signature.
The County Board has 17 commissioners, and the legislation would reduce the number of commissioners needed to override a veto to 11, three lower than the current 14. County commissioners have previously mustered 13 votes to override Stroger.
Stroger visited the Capitol earlier this week to lobby the legislature to lobby against the bill.
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Cook County Board to Level Playing Field With Presidential Power”
“ThisNovember5th” mass fund-raiser boosts nationwide slate of limited government activists seeking elected office in 2010.
CHICAGO – October 28, 2009 – David Ratowitz, Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in Illinois’ 5th District, is among 19 conservative candidates taking part in a national donation drive on November 5. The candidates, hailing from points across the United States, are seeking office at local, state and federal levels, many for the first time. All have made formal platform commitments to cutting taxes, eliminating national debt and working for a more limited federal government.
“It is certainly an honor to have been selected to participate in this collaboration,” remarks Ratowitz. “Our campaign is enjoying a warm reception here in the Chicago area. It is encouraging to see similar enthusiasm from voters across the country.”
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5th District: Ratowitz Picked Nationwide ‘Freedom’ Fund-Raiser”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Mad at your job? Torked at your neighbor? Snoop around in their tax info and if you find something damning… REPORT THEM! And the kindly folks down at Chicago’s City Hall are happy to help with their new tax rat program.
The Sun-Times reported that Daley’s Rat Line program could be added to the 2010 budget.
Mayor Daley’s tough-times, 2010 budget includes a first-ever “Tax Whistleblower Program” expected to include cash bounties for informants who deliver the goods on unpaid business taxes.
The cash reward would be a percentage of the amount recovered, but specifics are still being worked out. The dreaded employee head tax and lease tax are just two of the most frequent targets for tax cheats.
What the heck, eh? It worked for the Soviets and the East Germans in keeping their citizens in line, didn’t it?
Daley is telling us in his own inimitable way that, “Vee haf vays of making zure you pays das taxes, zitizens.”
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Chicago’s Tax Informing Rats”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Earlier I noted that we need your voice to keep the pressure on our representatives to keep government funds out of the hands of the criminal organization ACORN. Today Byron York posted another reminder of this salient fact in his headlined, “Will Congress’ Defunding of ACORN Expire Saturday?”
York concludes that it is unlikely that ACORN funding will be restored on Saturday, but the simple fact of the matter is that it could be. Either this Saturday or during the very next budgeting process, ACORN funding can be easily slipped right back into a budget any time Congress feels like it’s safe to do so.
You see, Congress works by writing continuing budget resolutions — or CRs — several times a year. These CRs delineate Congress’ budget and can be added to or subtracted from at each and every session. Currently the defunding of ACORN is an idea whose time has come. But there can easily come a day when Democrats think no one is watching any longer and slip the ACORN funding right back in to any future CR.
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Any Minute Congress Could Re-Fund ACORN”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrezejewski and several other key leaders joined Main Street Campaigns in endorsement of the Put Back Amendment ( www.PutBackAmendment.com) on Thursday, October 29, 2009.
“The people of Illinois have waited long enough for reform. Voters are tired of legislative loopholes and political practices that lead to unfair policies and corrupt our government,” said Main Street Campaigns Executive Director Will O’Brien, a Democrat.
“The time has come to give Illinoisans the chance to truly change and reform the infamously corrupt system we have had for far too long,” said John Bambenek, author of the amendment and Main Street Campaigns Political Director.
The amendment will feature four needed reforms to clean up state government, including:
View the amendment at www.PutBackAmendment.com.
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Efforts for Reform: The Put Back Amendment”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Well, he’s done it. Yesterday former State GOP Party Chairman Andy McKenna formally announced his bid to snare the GOP nomination for governor.
McKenna has launched his campaign with a video he is calling “Hair Today,” a slam on former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s well-known, finely-coiffed hair. The ad also highlights the governors that have ended up in prison for their corruption.
Yucking it up, for sure.
Ask me, McKenna is no solution to Illinois’ troubles. As the past GOP party chairman, McKenna presided over the loss to the party of every major state office and he led the party to a new level of irrelevancy in the Land of Lincoln. And the way he’s handled this campaign is already suspect.
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Former Ill. GOP Chair McKenna Announces Bid for Guv”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Fox News is reporting that two men from Chicago are being charged by the FBI for planning terror attacks against overseas targets.
David Coleman Headley, 49, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, were charged in separate complaints filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Headley told FBI agents that the initial plan called for an attack against the newspaper building in Copenhagen, but he later proposed just killing the paper’s cartoonist and former cultural editor, according to an FBI affidavit released Tuesday.
These charges came after an Islamic slaughterhouse operation in Kinsman, Illinois was raided by federal officials. The meat business is owned by Tahawwur Hussain Rana.
Headley was arrested at O’Hare airport where he was to meet with Pakistani terrorists. Headley has an extensive record of travels to Pakistan and told Joint Terror Task Force officials that he had received training from the terror group Lakshar-e-Taiba.
Rana is charged with funding Headley’s travels and plans.
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2 Chicago Men Charged With Terror Plot”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois’ senior Senator, Dick “Turbin” Durbin is sponsoring a poll on the so-called public option on his website this week.
Durbin, who made himself notorious for saying during the Bush years that our troops were just like Nazis, wants to know what you think about the “public option” socialistic government healthcare plans he and his pals in the left-wing, Euroized Senate want to force upon us all.
Ranking your feelings from “0” meaning no support, to “10” meaning greatest support, Durbin wants to know if you want a 50-State public option, an opt-out option, an opt-in option, a trigger plan, or no public option at all.
You can guess which one I chose (hint it’s the last one).
If you are an Illinois citizen, you need to go to this site and tell “Turbin” Durbin that you do NOT want any public option at all.
-By Warner Todd Huston
My friend Eunice Conn sent me a link to a resource that you gotta check out. It is a listing of all the Illinois candidates and their webpages.
Check it out at USElection.com.
Just about every candidate in the sate that has a webpage is on here. It is a very useful resource.
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Chicago Reader launched a very useful and interesting site with a map of Chicago’s city wards that links to each alderman’s bio and other information.
All you have to do is click on your ward and voila, you are taken to a page about your alderman.
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Chicago Alderman: The Dope Sheet”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois Review has some great news on the Gov. Quinn/ACORN/SEIU front. As we’ve discussed many times here, Gov. Quinn authored Executive Order 9-15 that tried to unionize in-home healthcare workers that get a stipend from the state to care for their own family members. I’ve been working with Americans for Tax Reform to sponsor an investigation into the millions of state dollars that end up with the unions and ACORN. Our effort can be seen at SayNoToACORN.com.
It looks like several state pols have finally taken notice of Gov. Quinn’s stealth sop to unions and ACORN and are sponsoring a resolution to begin the process to stop it. Illinois Review takes it from here….
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Durkin and Connelly move to overturn Quinn’s EO 09-15″
-By Warner Todd Huston
Not long ago I posted a piece with news that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had decided to cut off its association with the Association for Community Activists for Reform Now (ACORN). I also reported that the RIS and several other Federal agencies had stopped their dealings with ACORN, essentially defunding them of federal dollars.
But that was then…
On October 22 Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D, Calif) was sadly successful in getting an amendment passed in the House Financial Services Committee that would allow ACORN to become an official government actor in setting regulations for financial institutions.
You read that right. Rep. Waters thought it would be a great idea to give federal power to an organization that has repeatedly broken multiple state election laws in nearly every state in the union and an organization that has been guilty of covering up the embezzlement nearly five million dollars of its own funds by one of its highest ranking members.
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Why do We Need YOUR Voice Against ACORN? Because Gov’t Cannot Be Trusted!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Chicagoan Phil Collins, a candidate for the State Rep seat from the 17th District, is reporting that he’s garnered a few endosements for his candidacy.
A pretty good haul of endorsements for Phil. Good Luck with the race.
Collins’ FaceBook page
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Illinois Republican Assembly proudly announced today, October 27, that it is endorsing DuPage County resident Peter Breen in his race for the Illinois House seat in the 41st District.
Great.
One problem: Breen quit the race on October 6.
The IRA was enthused by Breen’s candidacy because he “has been involved in pro-life issues to enforce the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995.” I was also heartened to hear of Breen’s positions and with his role as the executive director of the Thomas Moore Law Society I also felt he was an attractive candidate.
Unfortunately, we won’t get a chance to vote for Mr. Breen… at least not this time. Breen announced on October 6 that he has decided not to give up his work with the Thomas Moore Law Society and is, therefore, abandoning his campaign for the 41st District House seat. He explained why on his campaign blog:
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Ill. Repub. Assembly Endorses Candidate That Quit Weeks Ago”
A message from John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute:
With Governor Quinn’s $3.2 billion tax hike now in the dustbin, everyone claims it was always headed for defeat. But last spring, it was a different story—legislators, activists and the media all said the tax hike was a “done deal.”
Not so fast. First, we issued our report, “Who will really pay for Governor Quinn’s tax hike?on television, on the radio and in the papers.
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Ill Policy Institute: Let’s Stop Gov. Quinn’s Massive Tax Hike”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Republican Candidate for the 11th District House seat Adam Kinzinger is still trying to find out how much Vice President Joe Biden’s August 20 appearance at a Democrat fundraiser for Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D) cost the taxpayers for police protection and city services.
Along with Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica (R), Kinzinger, a U.S. Air Force pilot, has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests with Chicago and Cook County to discover the costs of Biden’s fly-by visit at least to those two municipalities.
Police interrupted travel from the airport, cleared city streets, monitored protesters and helped the vice president’s motorcade of unmarked squads and the Secret Service snake through Chicago’s West Side and South Loop.
Biden took care of other business while here during the August 20 visit, but the chief reason he came was for the Halvorson fundraiser. Kinzinger wants to know how much Halvorson’s fundraiser cost the taxpayers?
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(11th District) Kinzinger Asks How Much VP Biden’s Visit for Halvorson Fundraiser Cost Taxpayers?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The work of the Medill Innocence Project has already led to the exoneration of 11 inmates in Illinois. In 2000 Governor George Ryan cited the Medill Innocence Project of Northwestern University as one of the reasons he suspended the death penalty in the Land of Lincoln. It has yet to be fully reinstated.
The Medill Innocence Project has recently set its sites on the case of Anthony McKinney, convicted of murdering a security officer in 1978. The students of the Project feel that they have successfully proved that McKinney was wrongly convicted and have also succeeded in getting a judge to review the case.
One might think that thanks and accolades should be the student’s reward for their efforts to repair justice in Illinois. But for some reason Cook County prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mails of the students of the Project. You heard that right. Prosecutors seem to be investigating the students!
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Why Is Cook County AG Looking Into Students Studying the Wrongly Convicted?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois Senator James Clayborne wants to raise the Illinois State Income tax a whopping 67 percent on the citizenry and 33 percent on businesses. It amounts to thievery by the state and has earned Clayborne the title of “Tax Villain” for the month of October from the watchdog group National Taxpayers United of Illinois.
In this day when Illinois is almost bankrupt from its profligate spending, Clayborne wants to give this irresponsible government even more of the taxpayer’s money to waste. Of course, the out-of-control spending isn;t Illinois’ only problem.
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Illinois Lawmaker Gets ‘Tax Villain’ Award”