Chicago: Dumped Mayor Candidate Gets Injunction to Stop Ballot Printing

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is an interesting little story in the Chicago Mayor race, one it seems that the Old Media is ignoring. It involves a candidate who was improperly thrown off the ballot getting awarded an injunction to stop the printing of the election ballots.

In December Chicago businessman Tom Hanson was kicked off the ballot by election officials because they claimed he never filed his Statement of Economic Interest. Hanson, however, has the receipt for that filing and the clerk that took his filing also claims she filed it. Apparently the filing was “lost.”

In Chicago, a lot of things that Democrats don’t like seem to get “lost.”

Hanson is a Chicago businessman and heads Hanson Commercial Real Estate company. He is also on the board of directors for numerous not-for-profit foundations that help inner city school children. Hanson ran against Rahm Emanuel for Congress in 2008.

Now a court has agreed that the printing of the election ballots should be halted until his filing can be cleared up and his status as a candidate can be properly decided.

Visit www.hansonformayor.com for more info on the candidate.
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Chicago: Dumped Mayor Candidate Gets Injunction to Stop Ballot Printing”


Our Out Of Control Courts: Bankruptcy Courts Now Deciding Cases on Feelings?

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the issues that many conservatives have focused on is our out of control court system and the constant judicial overreach that occurs therein. Here we have yet another case of a court insinuating itself into an area in which it previously never had purview and if this decision stands it will open our courts to a flood of court shopping that will turn our legal system further down the wrong road.

At least since the forced busing case of 1971 and the Roe v Wade abortion case, conservatives have been complaining about judges taking undue powers unto themselves. For decades these power mad judges have been expanding their reach to control our lives until even our state and federal legislatures have seemed to give up their rightful role as lawmakers. Once again we have a judge that has reached beyond his proper role.

The case in question is Marshall v. Marshall and, yes, once again Anna Nicole Smith is going before the U.S. Supreme Court — and from beyond the grave at that. The reason a Smith matter is again before the SCOTUS four years after her death is because one of her cases was decided by a federal bankruptcy court in California on reasons that had nothing at all to do with technical bankruptcy rules. The case before the SCOTUS would determine if the bankruptcy court acted properly.
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Our Out Of Control Courts: Bankruptcy Courts Now Deciding Cases on Feelings?”


Newspaper Ignores Facts in Teacher’s ‘Vagina Dance’ Song Controversy

-By Warner Todd Huston

It isn’t just national issues that the Old Media misreports. As we focus on the “big” stories of the day, we often overlook the local scene and the left-wing excuse for “reporting,” therefrom. This is a perfect example of that.

Imagine you are a sophomore in high school and your sex ed teacher forces you to prance about your classroom singing and dancing to “The Vagina Dance” in a puerile attempt to teach the parts and functions of the female sex organ. Worse, imagine you are a male student in a classroom of such an unhinged teacher? Well, we don’t have to imagine it too hard because this exact situation has happened in a classroom in the Chicago, Illinois suburbs. But don’t worry. Chicago’s Old Media is all about reporting this incident honestly. Well, if honestly means to ignore relevant facts and shore up support for the out of control teacher and smooth things over for the school, that is.

Early this month, parent Robert King, whose son goes to Crystal Lake’s Prairie Ridge High School, complained to school authorities over the inappropriate teaching methods of health teacher Jacqulyn Levin. As a teaching tool Levin used “The Vagina Dance,” a song replete with dance steps and arm movements, and required her entire co-ed class to participate in it – all to the tune of The Hokey Pokey, no less. As it happens King’s son was uncomfortable being required to prance about the room, arms emulating fallopian tubes, and singing about vaginas, so the parents complained.
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Newspaper Ignores Facts in Teacher’s ‘Vagina Dance’ Song Controversy”


Obama’s Labor Dept: If You Let Girl Scouts Sell Cookies, You HAVE to Let Unions Come in Too

-By Warner Todd Huston

Everyone loves Girl Scout cookies, right? What could be more American? It’s a right of passage for many young girls to set up a folding table in front of a local business and sell their little cookies and what American doesn’t get a warm feeling in their heart when they see those peppy little ones chirping out, “would you like to buy some cookies?” Who could be against that? Who would want to set up a situation where Girl Scouts would be turned away from their traditional cookie-selling outposts?

Apparently the Obama administration.

At least one sector of America isn’t so fond of the ability of Girl Scouts to sell their wares unhindered, it seems. When the Obama administration’s Department of Labor and his National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) look at Girl Scouts, they don’t see cute little children taking their first steps toward adulthood, they see opportunity for a union powergrab.
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Obama’s Labor Dept: If You Let Girl Scouts Sell Cookies, You HAVE to Let Unions Come in Too”


Education Reform – Teacher Union Style

-By Larry Sand

Union leaders have nothing to offer in matters of education reform.

In an absurd editorial, two Los Angeles Unified School District teachers last Friday — both United Teachers Los Angeles chapter chairs — wrote what was supposed to be, in part, a nastygram to LA’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The op-ed, entitled Pipe Down, Mr. Mayor (the name in the print version), takes the LA mayor to task for criticizing the union for which he used to organize. Referring to ed reform, he had called the union’s leadership “the most powerful defenders of the status quo” at a conference in Sacramento last month.

The two angry unionistas attempt to convince Times’ readers that the union is behind some really terrific “progressive” education reforms.

They start off with the usual whine about cuts in education funding, but in the next breath they state that Gompers Middle School “has spent thousands of dollars on classroom libraries for students who have limited access to quality books.” Hasn’t this always been the purpose of school libraries? And by the way, where are the cuts?
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Education Reform – Teacher Union Style”


Illinois Truth in Accounting Workshop Educates Legislators‏

From the Institute for Truth in Accounting…

Illinois Reps. Karen May & and Tom Morrison Support The Truth in Accounting Act

Illinois Rep. Karen May (D-58th District) and Rep. Tom Morrison (R-54th District) joined Sheila Weinberg, CEO and founder of Institute for Truth in Accounting at a December Legislative Workshop in Highwood. The group discussed the Illinois budget, governmental accounting rules and the use of ‘political math’ to balance the budget.

Weinberg highlighted how ‘political math’ is used to disguise Illinois’ true ‘Financial State of the State.’ ‘Over the years budget shenanigans have been used to hide more than over $120 billion of state employees’ retirement and other costs,’ Weinberg added.
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Illinois Truth in Accounting Workshop Educates Legislators‏”


Update on the Tax Increase

From the Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education Coalition…

Thanks to all of you who helped to send over 5,500 emails via our “No Taxation Without Education” campaign. Unfortunately, we got taxation without education and just a “promise” from our Governor to include $250 million for education in this year’s budget. Of course, we won’t believe that until it’s in writing. There was some support for increased money for education in the state senate, led by the Black Caucus, but we were told in Springfield that Mike Madigan and the House were not supporting additional money for education or anything else and wanted new revenue to go towards paying off our roughly $15 billion in debt and $8 billion in late bills, and that’s what we got. There was another opportunity for education money through the cigarette tax which would have generated $377 million for education but this was voted down in the House as well with only 51 legislators in support, and 60 votes needed to pass. While this isn’t the outcome we wanted, this $6 billion in new revenue to pay down our debt will likely result in fewer cuts to CPS next year. Clearly, we can’t be content with this and we need to continue to do everything we can to advocate for improved and sustainable funding for education in Illinois.

As you all know, we are currently 49th in the nation in terms of state spending on education. Our state covers roughly 30% of the cost of educating a child, as compared to about 50% on average. Local municipalities are left to fund the rest through property taxes, resulting in unsustainable and inequitable funding.
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Update on the Tax Increase”


‘Historian’ Douglas Brinkley: Obama ‘Like’ Martin Luther King

-By Warner Todd Huston

Radio talker Rush Limbaugh got in dutch with Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer for saying that Obama supporters were “slobbering” over his address at the pep rally/memorial sponsored by the University of Arizona for those fallen in the Arizona shooting. But “slobbering” is nothing compared to historian Douglas Brinkley’s hyperbolic praise. Brinkley absurdly said that Obama was “Martin Luther King-like” in his efforts.

Brinkley’s blinkered assessment was originally reported by CNN’s Krsiti Keck immediately after the speech. His comments were coupled with those of several other commentators and published under the headline, “Obama’s Tucson speech: Inspirational, but tone surprised some.” Brinkley made himself look simply silly with his comments.

“I thought President Obama did a wonderful job this evening. I thought that he really brought people together. I mean, when he, in the middle of the speech, said, ‘Gabby opened her eyes, Gabby opened her eyes,’ & you could almost hear a Martin Luther King-like inflection — And he carried that throughout a lot of the speech.

“I was, like David Gergen earlier, a little put off by the atmospherics, 14,000 cheering people. But the president, I think, worked his way into that atmosphere. So, by the end of it, you could almost feel people hugging in the excitement, in the warmth & the love in the arena.”

There is little doubt that the atmosphere of this memorial cum pep rally was nearly as bad as that of the Wellstone funeral of 2002. The University of Arizona set the tone badly right at the beginning by treating the whole thing like an Obama campaign appearance. U of A President Richard Shelton’s introduction of Obama, for instance, was wholly inappropriate for a memorial.
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‘Historian’ Douglas Brinkley: Obama ‘Like’ Martin Luther King”


Ex-Black Panther, Current Politician Bobby Rush Uses MLK, Giffords to Call for Gun Control

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bobby Rush always did have a lot of stones. He went from being an outlaw and criminal member of the Black Panthers in Chicago to being a legitimate, elected Congressman from the self-same city. Now Rush is hiding behind both the crime in Arizona and Martin Luther Kin, Jr. in order to push his anti-constitutional gun grabbing agenda.

Yep, a lot of stones.

Rush’s office published a blog post on The Hill’s Congressional blog section for January 16. It isn’t likely that Rush himself wrote the thing, of course, but it is published under his name and carries his imprimatur, so it doesn’t matter who wrote it. What matters is that Rush is using MLK for cover for a gun grab. What matters is that he, like so many other left-wingers, is using Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting to serve his political agenda.
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Ex-Black Panther, Current Politician Bobby Rush Uses MLK, Giffords to Call for Gun Control”


Attacking the Family: Making the Terms ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ Passé

-By Selwyn Duke

It seems that our neutered, post-Christian culture just can’t do enough to vindicate Muslims’ accusation of Western decadence. And the latest affront to common sense and Truth is an attack upon the family: The State Department will remove the terms “father” and “mother” from passport applications and replace them with “gender neutral terminology.” Reporting on the story, Fox News writes:

“The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. “They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’”

A statement on the State Department website noted: “These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families [emphasis added].”

Improvements? A real improvement would be eliminating the Brenda Spragues from government.
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Attacking the Family: Making the Terms ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ Passé”


UPDATED: Ariz. Shooting Victim Issues Death Threat to Tea Party Chief

-By Warner Todd Huston

One would think that once you were the collateral damage of an assassination attempt, you’d be much less apt to be issuing death threats of your own to people. Sadly, shooting victim J. Eric Fuller was not so sensitive as one might think his experience would make him. At a townhall meeting Saturday, an incensed Fuller issued a death threat to local Tea Party leader Trent Humphries.

Fuller is a liberal that has been heard in interviews claiming that Sarah Palin and conservatives are at fault for the Arizona shooting.

Fuller was one of those present in front of the grocery store in Tucson when crazed murderer Jared Loughner began indiscriminately shooting at people after his attempt to kill Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
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UPDATED: Ariz. Shooting Victim Issues Death Threat to Tea Party Chief”


Petty RI Gov. Bans Talk Radio Appearances for State Workers

-By Warner Todd Huston

Lincoln Chafee was the bane of conservative talk radio when he was the RINO Senator from Rhode Island. Now that he is a newly minted “independent” and has become the Governor of the Ocean State, Chafee is in a position to take his revenge on the medium. And boy has this petty man used his power to do just that by banning his state employees from talking to talk radio.

Chafee has revealed some pretty warped logic to sustain his ban on talk radio, too. Through his spokesman, Chaffe said that he won’t go on talk radio because the medium is “ratings-driven, for-profit programming,” and that he doesn’t want his employees going on for the same reason.
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Petty RI Gov. Bans Talk Radio Appearances for State Workers”


Happy New Years from Downtown Chicago Democrats

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

Majorities in 99 out of 102 counties voted for his opponent, however Governor Pat Quinn declares that he has a mandate to raise our taxes. If the State of Illinois spent what we currently sacrifice in taxes prudently and ethically, the Governor and his enablers in the Legislature might be able to make their case against my assessment that we are “taxed enough already”.

Illinois Medicaid eligibility levels substantially higher than averages, grants for favorite pork projects like Oswego Park District’s purchase and bulldozing of perfectly good and property-tax-paying homes, and unsustainable public employee pensions are all examples of cuts to unnecessary government spending that have not been made. It is no secret that public employee unions provided the money and manpower to get Quinn elected; now “to the victors to the spoils” . . . at your expense . . . during already difficult times for most taxpaying families in Illinois.

During the election, Pat Quinn claimed that he had cut state spending by $3 Billion. This is false – – some people would say it is a deliberate campaign lie. According to a report (that I would be happy to provide you) that his own Budget Office sent last summer to New York bankers and bond rating agencies, Quinn has actually increased spending $1 Billion. I would think that he would be embarrassed by a $4 B error, and that the Establishment Press would scold him every time he lied. Did you know that Quinn promised the state’s employee union that there will be no layoffs for them for the next two years? He did accept their endorsement and did cash their campaign contribution check.
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Happy New Years from Downtown Chicago Democrats”


Slate Plays Loose With Facts Over Concealed Carrier’s Arizona Actions

-By Warner Todd Huston

Contrary to Senator Moynihan’s proclamation, Slate’s William Saletan thinks he’s entitled to his own facts. If not his own facts, then his own version of history at any rate. Anti-Second Amendment Saletan dreamed up his own little set of incidents and actions in order to castigate pro-Second Amendment supporters by claiming that something that didn’t happen could have happened and that, ipso facto, because it could have the Second Amendment is bad — all this based on his dreamy little dream of an alternate history.

Saletan’s January 11 piece was written after he discovered that one of the citizens that responded once the shooting started in front of that grocery store in Tucson had a concealed pistol and was ready to draw it once he got to the scene. The citizen, Joe Zamudio, had arrived ready to use his firearm and initially thought that the man that actually wrested the gun from the shooter was the gunman. Zamudio, however, assessed the situation, realized that the man holding the gun wasn’t the shooter and did not fire his own gun.

Zamudio pronounced himself “really lucky” that he didn’t start shooting at the wrong person. This is where Saletan’s fantasies kicked in.
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Slate Plays Loose With Facts Over Concealed Carrier’s Arizona Actions”


Union Boss: Yeah We’ll Talk, But Go Our Way or You’re a ‘Human Rights Violator’

-By Warner Todd Huston

As President Obama clucks his tongue at America for “pointing fingers” and “assigning blame” in our political debate, and as his friends on the far left ignore him and point their fingers and assign blame to the Republicans, Tea Partiers, and Sarah Palin, at least one union chief in Detroit is doing his part to add to the political vitriol by charging anyone that disagrees with him with being a “human rights violator.”

Oh, he’s all about sitting down at the table and talking, he claims. Yet, United Auto Workers President Bob King is ready to finger point and accuse people of a vile abuse of basic human rights if they don’t bend over and take it up the tailpipe courtesy of those greedy, profligate unions.

For Crain’s Detroit David Barkholz reports that the UAW chief is all prepared for negotiations with the Big Three auto makers this year, but his tone makes it pretty clear that his idea of negotiations is his way or the highway. His vitriol is already flowing before the first negotiation session begins.
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Union Boss: Yeah We’ll Talk, But Go Our Way or You’re a ‘Human Rights Violator’”


Crook County, Illinois: Fake State Rep Casts Deciding Vote to Raise Our Taxes

-By Warner Todd Huston

She didn’t know anything about the bill. She never read it. She hadn’t been given any cheat sheets, facts sheets, talking points, or mass emails on the bill. But in true, corrupt Chicago fashion, she voted “yes” on it just as she was told to do by her corrupt party bosses.

Even worse, she was only a “state rep” because someone told her to drive to the state capitol for a week to “be” one. As Andy Shaw joked, Williams became the “somebody that somebody sent.”*

It is business as usual for Illinois, the most corrupt state in the Union.

You see, fake State Rep Kathy Moore of Lincoln Park was drafted by Illinois Democratic Party bosses to fill out the last week of elected State Rep John Fritchey’s term in office. Fritchey was elected to a spot on the Crook County Board and left his state rep seat to take that chair last November. So, Democrats fretted that Fritchey’s 11th District seat would be empty during this important vote to wildly raise everyone’s taxes.
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Crook County, Illinois: Fake State Rep Casts Deciding Vote to Raise Our Taxes”


Illinois: Death by Taxes

-By Dan Proft

During the Illinois General Assembly’s lame duck session, Democrat leaders have moved to abolish the death penalty at the same time as signing the economic death warrant for state’s economy.

In Illinois, it is law-abiding, working families who have been condemned.

Despite lllinois’ leading exports being its residents and businesses, the General Assembly has proposed raising the state income and corporate income taxes by 75% each. If this tax monster passes, at least two things are certain: one, Illinois businesses would pay the highest corporate income taxes in the free world; two, Illinois would see the largest mass exodus of productive people since the Israelites fled Egypt.

The data points about Illinois’ economic death spiral have been repeated so often as to have been stripped of their shock value. Bottom line: Illinois is a bigger default risk than Bernie Madoff and has created fewer jobs in the last decade than record stores.
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Illinois: Death by Taxes”


Truth in Accounting Issues: Louisiana’s ‘Financial State of the State’ – True Tax Burden $24.7 Billion

From the Institute for Truth in Accounting…

Chicago (November 29, 2010) Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting released Louisiana’s “Financial State of the State.” After an intensive review of the State’s 2010 audited financial report the Institute determined the State is in a precarious financial position because it does not have the funds available to pay more than $24.7 billion of the State’s commitments as they come due. Each taxpayer’s share of this financial burden equals $19,800.

Louisiana state law requires a balanced budget. “If governors and legislatures had truly balanced the state’s budget, no taxpayer’s financial burden would exist,” said Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA). She continued, “A state budget is not balanced if past costs, including those for employees’ retirement benefits, are pushed into the future.”

While Louisiana reported total assets of $45.4 billion, the Institute’s review of the state’s 2010 financial report revealed that there is more than $16.9 billion of off-balance sheet retirement liabilities. More than $30.8 billion of the State’s assets cannot be easily converted to cash to pay State bills of $39.4 billion as they come due. These assets consist of capital assets, including infrastructure, buildings and land, and assets the use of which is restricted by law or contract. The State does not have the funds needed to pay for more than $24.7 billion of state obligations.
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Truth in Accounting Issues: Louisiana’s ‘Financial State of the State’ – True Tax Burden $24.7 Billion”


Grayslake: Insider Deal Gets Plum Job for Retiring School Board Member

-By Warner Todd Huston

It must be nice to be School Board Member Michael Linder of Grayslake, Illinois. He seems awfully lucky to have landed a plum new job, paid for by the taxpayers of Lake County. Awfully lucky, indeed. In fact, he’s so lucky that one suspects an insider deal was made to get him that plum job.

Could it be? An insider political deal in Illinois?

As it happens, Linder was an elected member of the Grayslake School Board, District 46. But he suddenly found that he could no longer serve in that capacity. He resigned his term on November 10 of last year in the middle of a meeting. Then he up and left mumbling something about not wanting to be a lame duck.
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Grayslake: Insider Deal Gets Plum Job for Retiring School Board Member”


Pseudoephedrine Restrictions Nothing To Sneeze At

-By Frederick Meekins

Each winter without fail, the flu sends millions to the local pharmacy in search of some kind of relief. However, it won’t be this pesky virus that will give you a headache and make your stomach churn.

In order to purchase pseudoephedrine, consumers must now produce a photo ID (something that is apparently an outrage to require illegal aliens to do when accused of a crime) with these details added into a computer database tracking how much and often you purchase this perfectly legal substance. It is claimed that this procedure is necessary as a result of the meth epidemic sweeping across the country since pseudoephedrine is an ingredient used to make this drug.

While methamphetamine might be illegal, pseudoephedrine is not and is available over the counter in smaller doses. If the nanny state wants to restrict access to this substance, why not make it unavailable in its entirety without a prescription or enact an outright prohibition all together.
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Pseudoephedrine Restrictions Nothing To Sneeze At”


90 Democrats – and No Republicans – Voted to Raise Your Taxes

From the Illinois GOP…

In the remaining hours of the lame duck Illinois General Assembly last night and early this morning, ninety (90) Democratic State Legislators – and NO REPUBLICANS – voted for the largest tax increase in Illinois history, including a 67% income tax increase.

The tax hike now goes to Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, who, despite having promised in his recent campaign to veto any increase above 1%, will sign it into law.

Below is a list of the 90 Democratic State Legislators who voted to raise your taxes and their legislative office phone numbers.

State Representatives
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90 Democrats – and No Republicans – Voted to Raise Your Taxes”


Repealing and Eliminating the Tax Hike‏

From the Illinois Policy Institute…

On the same day the General Assembly abolished the death penalty for capital crimes in Illinois, lawmakers also implemented the death penalty on Illinois’s economy and taxpayers by passing a 67 percent income tax hike in the face of overwhelming public opposition. The good news is that the citizens of Illinois have the power to overturn this effort during the 2012 elections, now just over a year away.

This tax hike tells the working and middle class voters of Illinois where they stand with the Democratically controlled state government – on the outside looking in. At the front of the line are the public employee unions, their leaders and all who benefit from state government spending at the expense of average citizens (who pay for state government with their private sector jobs).

Today’s study on taxpayer migration shows that the negative Illinois environment is not just driving out job creators and workers, but also the income and tax revenue they represent. Between 1991 and 2009, one Illinois citizen left the state every 10 minutes – that’s 1.2 million residents in all. But these folk didn’t just take their friendships with them; they took $163.6 billion in income and $16.9 billion in state and local tax revenue – gone forever.
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Repealing and Eliminating the Tax Hike‏”


Democrats approve massive bail out of state government‏

From Americans for Prosperity, Illinois…

6% tax hike passes, goes to governor for signature

Democratic Illinois lawmakers beat a looming deadline during the last hours of the lame-duck session and approved a 66 percent income-tax increase. Corporate taxes will also be raised 46 percent.

The proposal passed the House on Tuesday night 60-57, the bare minimum. No Republicans backed the measure there or in the Senate, where the measure passed 30-29.

The budget plan is coupled with strict 2 percent limit on spending growth. Allegedly, if officials spend above those limits, the tax increase will automatically be canceled. The new tax money will balance the state’s annual budget and let officials begin chipping away at the backlog of unpaid bills.
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Democrats approve massive bail out of state government‏”


Will Governor Quinn’s Inaugural Dance Be With the Trial Lawyers?

From the Illinois Civil Justice League…

Email Gov. Quinn Today to Demand Lawsuit Reform in 2011

Gov. Pat Quinn’s inauguration this week will be the highlight of Springfield’s new governing year, but many Illinois residents are left asking if much will change.

Especially when it comes to Illinois’ abusive lawsuit climate.

As Gov. Quinn takes to the dance floor to celebrate, Illinoisans across the state are still under the cloak of an unjust legal system, and many wonder — will Gov. Quinn’s first dance be with the trial lawyers?
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Will Governor Quinn’s Inaugural Dance Be With the Trial Lawyers?”


Video: Saving Social Security with Personal Retirement Accounts

A new mini-documentary By Dan Mitchell of the CATO Institute explaining why personal accounts are the only way of dealing with Social Security’s huge, long-run, unfunded liability while also giving workers a chance to enjoy a safer and more secure retirement.

The take away: You’ll have to live to over 100-years-old to make your contributions into Social Security worthwhile!


Chicago Sun-Times Giddy for Giant Illinois Tax Hike

-By Warner Todd Huston

Dear Chicago Sun-Times readers,

Your paper of wreck-ord wants you to know that it is pleased as punch that your Illinois state legislature is ripping you off, bleeding you for over 60% more in income tax. The Sun-Times is giddy that your dwindling salaries are to be raided even further by profligate government.

The Sun-Times editorial department placed its fingers, trembling with joy, to a keyboard to celebrate their glee. They are “cheering for a tax hike,” they admit. They are “embracing” the raising of the income and corporate income tax. The Sun-Times is slobbering all over itself that “Wednesday’s tax hike marked an important victory…”

So, if you got a raise this year, guess what? The Chicago Sun-Times is happy that your state government is going to steal it away from you with a massive tax hike.

So, if you got your salary cut this or last year, the Chicago Sun-Times is orgasmic that you will lose even more of your family’s vital sustenance to the government.

So, if your company is on the verge of fiscal collapse due to this bad economy, the Chicago Sun-Times is happy to note that your company will face even harder economic times with a massive corporate tax hike, silly over the fact that your jobs are put further at risk.

That’s right Illinois. The Chicago Sun-Times couldn’t be happier that you, the voters and citizens of Illinois, are going to lose more money than ever to a state legislature that wastes money hand over fist and refuses to cut back on its wild spending and union kickbacks and payoffs.

But remember Sun-Times readers. The Chicago Sun-Times is looking out or your interests.

Riiiiiiiight.

Perhaps, though, there is one place where Chicagoans can save some money. That would be by NOT buying the Chicago Sun-Times.
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Chicago Sun-Times Giddy for Giant Illinois Tax Hike”


Union Boss With History of Violence Decries Vitriolic Rhetoric of Right

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, it’s the old “glass houses” story, isn’t it? AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka weighed in on the criminal shooting in Arizona and naturally he blamed the whole incident on “too much vitriolic, hate-filled rhetoric that we hear on radio and television.” This from a guy who has many times used worse rhetoric to incite violence in his unionizing past. Glass houses indeed.

On the AFL-CIO blog, Trumka wrote:

We must find ways to passionately debate and even disagree with each other without using words that can give unstable individuals an incitement to engage in violent acts.

…We do not know why the shooter targeted Rep. Giffords, or if he was influenced—directly or indirectly—by the outrageous rhetoric that’s become all-too-common in our politics.

But “too much vitriolic, hate-filled rhetoric that we hear on radio and television has demonized public servants and candidates as “enemies” and has made them sounds less than human. In the short run, it may inspire passions and votes. But in the long run, it’s toxic to the survival of rational discussion in our democracy. And it’s not worthy of our great nation.

As Pete List of LaborUnionReports.com reminds us, Trumka’s rhetoric helped inspire stabbings and other criminal actions in his days as a young union organizer. In fact, Trumka was involved in the murder of one Eddie York back in 1993.
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Union Boss With History of Violence Decries Vitriolic Rhetoric of Right”


Walking Short: The Life and Lies of Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

-By Selwyn Duke

The obvious villain in the Gabrielle Giffords tragedy is the man who caused it, the very disturbed Jared Lee Loughner. Sadly, though, there have been villains in the response to it, too – many villains. And while it’s hard to make a pick for this Black Hat Award, one man who has certainly distinguished himself is Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.

As you may know, Dupnik has been busy warning of how speech has consequences while in the same breath blaming conservatives for the actions of Loughner. Now, I don’t blame the sheriff for asking why. It is fine to look for reasons. It is not fine to be reckless and wrong. And it’s a sin when it’s born of indifference to Truth.

To be precise, Dupnik implicates right-wing talk radio – he mentioned Rush Limbaugh – and cable news in the Giffords shooting. Yet a number of obvious things seem to have eluded this man, this supposed professional investigator. For starters, if we’re actually going to analyze the politics of Loughner, we should note that one of his former classmates, Caitie Parker, describes him as a “left wing” “political radical” and “pot head”; moreover, Parker — who had been in a band with Loughner — states that he was a fan of the radical leftist punk-rock band Anti-Flag. Note here that Loughner did, in fact, echo that band’s ideas on his YouTube page. Also note that on that page Loughner had listed as one of his favorite works The Communist Manifesto.
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Walking Short: The Life and Lies of Sheriff Clarence Dupnik”


The Barack Obama Presidency: When being unbelievable is the best defense

Paul A. Ibbetson

As we step into a new year I take a moment to reflect on what has been attempted and what has been accomplished in the struggle to preserve traditional conservative values in this country. This is a struggle to which I have committed myself for the long haul. Through my radio program “Conscience of Kansas” I have had the opportunity to bring to the radio-listening public some of the country’s most renowned conservative minds. The topic they have all addressed in their own unique fashion is sections of Barack Obama’s life and his effect on the country in his position as President of the United States.

Speaking about their books, articles and lectures, these individuals boldly stepped to the radio microphone to share their investigations of Barack Obama and their concerns for the future of the United States. Jerome Corsi submitted the question that has still today to be answered on the absence of candidate vetting in the years preceding the 2008 election that would place into power a politician that could not or would not proffer simple qualifying documents such as a long-form birth certificate. David Freddoso outlined the hypocrisy and arrogance of Obama before the country would see it full-blown from the White House steps. Tim Carney, with his sharp mind and energetic zeal, walked listeners through the economic disasters that would befall the country under the Obama agenda. Brad O’Leary gave credence to the attack on Christianity that has become part of the administration’s operating procedure. David Limbaugh, when talking with me about the totality of the damage inflicted on the country to date in combination with Obama’s nonchalant indifference to voices of opposition, showed his frustration with a strength of emotion that cannot be questioned. The concern that came to mind when listening to Limbaugh as well as these other voices of reason is, “will people believe them?”
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The Barack Obama Presidency: When being unbelievable is the best defense”


Truth in Accounting Issues: North Carolina’s ‘Financial State of the State’

From the Institute for Truth in Accounting…

Chicago (November 29, 2010) Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting released North Carolina’s “Financial State of the State.” After an intensive review of the State’s 2010 audited financial report the Institute determined the State is in a precarious financial position because it does not have the funds available to pay $43.4 billion of the State’s commitments as they come due. Each taxpayer’s share of this financial burden equals $16,300.

North Carolina state law requires a balanced budget. “If governors and legislatures had truly balanced the state’s budget, no taxpayer’s financial burden would exist,” said Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA). She continued, “A state budget is not balanced if past costs, including those for employees’ retirement benefits, are pushed into the future.”
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Truth in Accounting Issues: North Carolina’s ‘Financial State of the State’”