A multi-part series from the Palatine Tea Party…
Congresswoman Melissa Bean is one of the Honorary Co-Chairs of the Third Way Foundation, formerly known as the Progressive Foundation.
What Third Way Believes:
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(Ill. Congresswoman) Bean’s Crime Inc: What Third Way Believes”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The website for the Illinois Reagan Centennial Commission seems to be about complete and running now. It can be seen here: http://www.illinoisreagancentennial.com/index.html.
The effort is being run out of Reagan’s boyhood home of Dixon, Illinois. Dixon is west of Chicago a few hours north of I-88 and is the town that Ronald Reagan lived in between 1920 and 1932.
The town has some great festivals, meetings, walking trails, and other events scheduled to celebrate Reagan’s life through 2011.
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Illinois Reagan Centennial Commission: Great Idea Horrible Logo”
From Kristina Rasmussen of the Illinois Policy Institute…
Talk of a soda tax is bubbling up again:
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Feel like you’re taxed enough already? More could be coming. There’s an early push to explore taxing soft drinks that are sweetened with sugars – all to get you to stop buying them. CBS 2’s Kristyn Hartman reports it’s all about obesity.
A coalition of groups is in the very early stages of mapping out a plan to fight fat in Illinois. Sugared beverage consumption has tracked with rising obesity rates – so it’s getting some attention.
Ill. Policy Institute: Soda Tax Talk Bubbling Up Again”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Homer Township is not a metropolis commonly in the news in Illinois. Situated to the south and west of Chicago about an hour or so, the small town is generally a quiet place. That may be about to change, at least for this week, because the township’s board of trustees just voted to support a new policy making English the official language for government business.
Granted this is not much of a change from what they are already doing. The resolution requires that all business that the government of the township does will all be in English only, something that is already the case. Minutes, notices, agendas, all printing, and all the records of the assessor’s office will be done only in English.
No one on the board, however, is saying that this is a big change. In fact, Township Clerk Steve Balich says that it is all symbolic and meant to start a dialog about illegal immigration.
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Small Illinois Town Makes English Official Language”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Calumet Park, Illinois is straight south of Chicago nearing the Indiana border. Illinoisans of the area call it Cal Park for short. Unfortunately, it seems to have earned a new nickname thanks to the lies over his military record told by its mayor, Joseph DuPar. Its new name should be Bull Park.
Easily fitting in with other serial military service liars such as Massachusetts District Attorney candidate Richard Blumenthal, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, Mr. John “did you know I served in Vietnam” Kerry, and even fellow Illinoisans Phil Hare and Mark Kirk, Mayor DuPar made a pretty outrageous claim on his bio during his recently successful election campaign.
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Ill. Mayor’s Lies About His Military Awards”
A multi-part series from the Palatine Tea Party…
Congresswoman Melissa Bean is one of the Honorary Co-Chairs of the Third Way Foundation, formerly known as the Progressive Foundation.
Third Way Foundation is the leading moderate think-tank of the progressive movement.*
Who is Third Way?
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(Ill. Congresswoman) Bean’s Crime Inc (Third Way)”
The folks at ChampionNews.net have a series of articles about the mess that Illinois public employees pensions is in that is must reading. The articles are penned by expert Bill Zetter.
Of course, the pension mess is the single biggest trouble that Illinois (and most other states) face today. It is a ticking time bomb…. heck its a bomb exploding already, albeit in slow motion.
Here is what they’ve posted thus far:
Back To the Pension Future: What Did We Actually Guarantee?
Illinois Pensions: Rob the Poor and Give It to the Rich
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Illinois Pension Problems and What to Do About Them, By Bill Zetter”
From the Office of Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner…
Earlier today, the County Board considered the newly proposed budget for the county health bureau.
Unfortunately, in terms of promoting transparency and truth in budgeting and taxation, the health bureau budget falls short.
You can read my statement on the budget here.
-By Warner Todd Huston
On the heels of news that the Obama administration is suing the state of Arizona over its new anti-illegal immigration law come news that the same treatment is being leveled at DuPage County, Illinois whose policies almost mirror the Arizona law…
Well, that is the headline that should be in the papers today if, that is, the Obama administration actually cared about law instead of only looking for a convenient political target which is all the administration’s focus on Arizona really is. It isn’t about immigration, illegals, the law, or any legitimate thing other than pure partisan politics. Obama thinks he has a great angle with which to pander to the Hispanic vote. That is all he cares about.
As the Chicago Tribune’s David Byrne notes, Obama is being wholly inconsistent with his attack on Arizona.
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Obama Suing DuPage County, Illinois For Enforcing Immigration Laws…”
-By Warner Todd Huston
If this isn’t the most perverse example of “reasoning” you’ve ever seen, then you haven’t seen any, yet. It seems the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is worried that the failure to pass an extension for unemployment insurance will deprive Illinois of “stimulus” money.
So, here is the perverse part… unemployment is for the unemployed, right? “Stimulus” is for economic growth (or at the very least economic water treading), right? So if we throw “stimulus” into the coffers of unemployment insurance, aren’t we “stimulating” unemployment and NOT stimulating economic activity?
Does this even make sense?
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Union Worries that Failure to Pass Unemployment Extension Means Lost ‘Stimulus’ $”
The National Republican Committee wants to know the answer to a few questions…
Once again the exculpatory memo issued by the President-elect’s lawyer, Greg Craig, in December of 2008 is finding itself in conflict with testimony coming out of the Blagojevich Trial in Chicago. First we learned through the testimony of SEIU boss Tom Balanoff that President Obama actually played an active role in promoting Valerie Jarrett as a candidate for his old seat, despite no mention of that in the memo. Now we are learning of another call, this time by Rahm Emanuel that violated Obama’s supposed neutrality policy and again failed to be reported by Craig. Here are a couple of questions for a White House that clearly wants to avoid this topic:
1) How do explain the inconsistencies between Craig’s memo, which said “the President-Elect had ruled out communicating a preference” and John Wyma’s testimony that he received a call from Rahm Emanuel with a message from the President-Elect?
2) How do you explain the reoccurring pattern of omitted or inaccurate information included in the memo, in this case the call from Emanuel to Wyma, and how does that reflect on the veracity of the document as a whole?
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What Did Obama Know of Blago’s Selling of Senate Seat And When Did He Know It?”
From the Isaac Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…
Republican nominee for Illinois 2nd Congressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement regarding the NAACP’s vote to condemn the Tea Party movement.
“Today’s vote by the NAACP to condemn the Tea Party movement highlights its ignorance of the history of the Tea Party movement and reminds us it has not changed its tactics in 100 years. A quick survey of American history will reveal the first American to shed blood in the American Revolution was both a Tea Partier and Black by the name of Crispus Attucks.
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(2nd District) Hayes Condemns NAACP”
The Sauk Valley News has a reader poll for folks to vote on for whom they’ll vote in the 14th District in the upcoming elections.
At the time I posted this Hultgren was in the lead over Democrat incumbent Bill Foster, the Green Party candidate Daniel Kairis, Libertarian Doug Marks and the ever popular “no opinion.”
I say we go hit up the poll and run up a good Hultgren total! Come on, folks. Go Randy Hultgren!
http://hultgrenforcongress.com/
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Illinois Democrat candidate for Senate, Alexi Giannoulias, wasn’t too keen of admitting it but he was in Vancouver, Canada over the weekend at a fund-raiser at a trial lawyer’s convention. Along with a dozen other Democrats, the candidate was in Canada to rake in thousands in donations from trial lawyers who know what side of their bread is buttered, for sure.
Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet has all the details at her Scoop blog. But suffice to say that the Giannoulias campaign did not report the whereabouts of their candidate until the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a press release urging reporters to grill the Giannoulias campaign.
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Ill. Dem. Senate Candidate Raising $$ From Trial Lawyers in Canada”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Sun-Times is Chicago’s left-wing, left-wing paper while the Chicago Tribune is but the city’s left-wing paper and pursuant to its agenda, the Sun-Times recently made to shore up support for Mayor “King” Daley’s attempt to eliminate the Second Amendment for his Chicago subjects with its headlined “More guns in city not a good thing.” Naturally most of what is contained in the piece is incorrect and deserves a good fisking.
So, here goes…
This won’t make the NRA happy. Twelve guns a year? How dare Chicago restrict a citizen’s right to buy 12 million guns a year.
My response here won’t make the Sun-Times happy: Newspapers? They have a constitutional right to be free of government interference, too. We call it the First Amendment. But here’s an idea for you, Sun-Times… how about we limit the public to one newspaper a month? After all, ideas are very, very dangerous, aren’t they? If, Sun-Times, you have no problem with our Second Amendment rights being restricted by the federal, the state or local governments, why should you be all upset that your First Amendment rights are restricted? Where is the intellectual honesty in agreeing to restrict the Second Amendment but not the First?
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Fisking the Chgo Sun-Times Anti-2nd Amendment Article”
From Bill Brady for Governor and the Illinois GOP…
Pay hikes for state government executives during a fiscal crisis is outrageous, but Governor Quinn? He defends his executive pay hikes, telling viewers on Chicago Tonight, “… that’s how it works.”
If Pat Quinn is serious about controlling state spending, he should immediately enact a wage freeze on state government payroll, and reverse his pay hikes for his executive staff today.
From the Illinois Review YouTube Channel:
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock joined U.S. House candidates Joel Pollak and Isaac Hayes in pumping up a Chicago Young Republican VIP reception Friday night before joining over a thousand CYRs in the group’s 2010 Summer Membership bash at Chicago’s Cubby Bear, across from Wrigley Field.
From the Illinois Policy Institute…
Ooh, That’s Awkward
America is a great country, full of wonderful people…but we should probably beef up on history classes. Last weekend, Jay Leno took a quick walk to find out how much his fellow Americans really know about Independence Day. The results?
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Ill. Policy Institute: With Friends Like These…”
From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…
CHICAGO: Republican nominee for Illinois 2ndCongressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement following testimony from the Rod Blagojevich trial placing Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. at a meeting where cash in exchange for the U.S. Senate Seat was discussed,
“Today, we again heard damaging testimony belying Congressman Jackson’s claims of innocence in the Blagojevich Senate Seat scandal. We can now place Mr. Jackson at the head of the table when this conspiracy was first discussed. According to testimony by Rajinder Bedi, on October 27, 2008 he met with Congressman Jackson and his supporter Raghu Nayek at the 312 Restaurant in the loop. During this meeting at which Jackson was present, Nayek asked Bedi to send word to Blagojevich that he would raise a million dollars for Blagojevich if he would appoint Jackson to the Senate seat.
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(2nd District) GOPs Hayes: ‘Jackson at Head of Table When Blago Bribe Conspired”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Many businesses across Illinois are trying to stave off closing their doors by cutting salaries and hours for employees. Some aren’t so luck and are laying off thousands of workers. Add to that dismal outlook that the state’s budget is billions in the red and politicians are so at loggerheads on how to solve the crisis that no budget can be agreed upon.
Cue accidental Governor Pat Quinn whose job, as he sees it, has been to warn Illinois that we are broke, that we can’t afford the many programs we have, that the poorest of us are at risk and that taxes will have to be raised to “fix” it all.
It’s a very bleak picture, indeed. Bleak, that is, unless you are one of Quinn’s staffers. In that case you are living high off the hog and getting an up to 20 percent raise in salary thanks to the Governor’s generosity… oh, and at the taxpayers expense, of course.
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Gov. Says Ill. is Broke, but His Staffers/State Workers Get Big Raises”
-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the main reasons that little Todd Stroger lost his comfy job as president of the Cook County Board — the office left him by his deceased father — is because of the graft and payoffs to his friends and family members that he constantly perpetrated. It was so bad even Democrats were ashamed of him and voted him out of office in the last primary.
But thanks to the fact that Illinois Democrats moved the primary to February President Stroger has eight months to continue giving his friends and family members cushy jobs paid for by the County taxpayers. And this week he’s done it again.
This time Stroger has given a plum job to his former campaign manager, Vincent Williams. Williams now has a $38,000-a-year job on the Cook Zoning Board of Appeals thanks to his pal President Stroger.
Let us recall that Williams was the campaign manager of a losing campaign, shall we?
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County President Stroger: Lame Duck Still Rolling Out Gravy Train for Pals”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The GOPs Robert Dold just picked up a strong endorsement. Former Congressman John Edward Porter has announced his backing of Dold who is running for Porter’s old 10th District Congressional seat.
Porter initially backed Party favorite Beth Coulson in the primary and could have just taken a pass on this election, but he did chose to endorse Dold giving the first time candidate the seal of party approval.
Porter said of Dold: “Robert Dold is an independent Republican who mirrors the values of the 10th District. He will be a voice for common-sense, small-business thinking with a moderate stance on social issues such as choice and the environment.”
For more information on the Dold campaign, visit his website at: www.doldforcongress.com.
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Fmr Congressman Porter Endorses Dold for 10th District”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In shockingly quick order last month, Yorkville resident Robert Lea raised 5,000 signatures in only two weeks to challenge incumbent Kendall County Sheriff Richard Randall in the November general elections.
Randall did not dispute the petition, so it appears that Lea will be on the ballot in November.
Randall had no opposition in the GOP primary earlier this year but has faced increasing opposition among citizens of the county over a sexual harassment lawsuit between Deputy Sheriff Terry Tichava and his onetime assistant Lisa Easi which was recent settled for an undisclosed sum.
Sheriff Randall has come under increasing pressure for his decision to stand by Deputy Sheriff Tichava instead of firing him and/or disciplining him. This opposition obviously aided Lea in his whirlwind gathering of signatures.
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Robert Lea is IN: GOP Challenger to Kendall County Sheriff Randall Makes Ballot”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois is broke. So broke it can’t pay its bills. Yet on it goes stiffing its creditors and it’s making me wonder why I bother to pay my bills at all. If the state can get away with thumbing its nose at its bill collectors, why can’t I? Oh, yeah. I’m not a Democrat. Unlike them, I’m expected to pay my bills. I forgot for a moment there. Oh, and I’m not a union member, either.
According to the Times story Illinois owes its schools, rehab centers, and childcare obligations $5.01 billion. And there’s no payment in sight.
Then there is the state employees pension plan that is underfunded by 50 percent.
Also, as the state legislature left the Capitol last month for its summer break there was no budget settled upon.
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Illinois Has Stopped Paying Its Bills”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Daley’s temper tantrum against guns continues, but at a much subdued pace. With its recent McDonald v the City of Chicago ruling the Supreme Court of the United States essentially made Daley’s outright gun ban unconstitutional so the mayor has had to retrench and come up with new onerous rules to try and limit guns in his kingdom.
As always, the Chicago City Council rubber stamped Richard “King” Daley’s whims — why do we have a city council anyway?
The new rules do show the mayor’s defeated position, however, as they are much less stringent than his previous mandates. Daley also shied from insisting that there be a one-gun limit and also dropped the idea of expensive and onerous insurance requirements for gun owners, the latter an idea popular with many gun banners.
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Daley’s Newest Stab at a Gun Ban”
From Americans For Prosperity, Illinois…
Chicago, Illinois – The Illinois chapter of the grassroots free-market group Americans for Prosperity (AFP-IL) and it’s over 30,000 statewide members express great disappointment in Governor Quinn’s failure to VETO the states unbalanced budget.
“Over the last several weeks Americans for Prosperity and its members have written several hundreds of letters requesting the governor to Veto the budget forcing lawmakers to do their job. “Today, Governor Quinn had a chance to do just that. Unfortunately, Governor Quinn failed to do his job” said state director Joe Calomino.
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Governor Quinn Pretends to Cut State Spending, Quinn Passes on a Real Balanced Budget”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Doug Ibendahl has a very sad discovery at RepublicanNewsWatch.com. He looked up the amount of Republican committeeman positions in the state of Illinois and then added up the number of GOPers filling those positions and came up with a startling fact. 51% of those seats remain vacant.
Despite all the excitement for GOP politics across the country, it seems that Illinois Republicans aren’t nearly as excited.
Ibendahl, though, urges more citizen involvement in the political process and posts about a way you can get involved. Take a quick click over to RepublicanNewsWatch.com and learn how you can become involved.
From the office of Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica…
CHICAGO, IL — Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-16) issued the following statement regarding the .5 percent reduction in the Cook County sales tax, which goes into effect today:
“This is an important step forward for Cook County taxpayers, who are struggling to make ends meet amidst rising unemployment and a growing tax burden.
“But it is only a first step.
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Peraica Statement on County Sales Tax Decrease Going into Effect”
Joel Pollak, GOP candidate for the 9th District, has his first web ad for your approval.
From the Dan Patlak for Cook County Board of Review campaign…
Wheeling—Cook County Board of Review candidate Dan Patlak has announced the grand opening of his new “Education Center” located on his web site at www.ElectPatlak.com. The Education Center possesses an array of pages for taxpayers to explore that include links to county and state property tax related departments, an “Ask Dan” section where taxpayers can pose their own questions, a listing of townships currently open for appeal to the County Assessor, a description of property tax exemptions available to homeowners and a variety of other information about the property tax system in Cook County.
“This campaign is about empowering individual taxpayers,” said Patlak. “Our Education Center provides information to property owners so they will have the ability to determine whether they are paying an appropriate share of the overall tax burden. It also encourages them to think about where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent. An informed citizen is a good citizen and as a Commissioner at the Board of Review I plan to continue educating taxpayers about how the system works and how they can be sure they are paying no more than their fair share,” concluded Dan Patlak.
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Property Tax Education Center Now On-Line”