-By Warner Todd Huston
The folks at the Palatine Tea Party has some good video and photos of the protest outside Representative Melissa Bean’s offices (D, 8th District).
The protest was held at noon on Monday, March 15.
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Palatine Tea Party: Healthcare Protest At Rep. Bean’s Offices”
-By Warner Todd Huston
So, thanks to a decision in the 1970s the Republican voters of Illinois are not allowed to vote for their representatives on the GOP State Central Committee (although Ill. Democrat voters DO have that right). The folks that fill the body that guides the agenda and creates and applies to rules of the state party are appointed to their important seats by the elected GOP committeemen throughout the state. Why is that a problem? Let’s look t Will County to answer that question.
On March 7 I wrote about how the Will County GOP Chairman, Dick Kavanagh engineered the defeat of Central Committee candidate Cory Singer. As it happened big cheese Kavanagh didn’t like Singer and wanted his own, handpicked choice to fill the Will County seat on the GOP State Central Committee.
Kavanagh had a major stumbling block to his desire to put his choice, Bobbie Peterson, back on the board. It was this little thing we call “votes.” You see, Cory Singer had about 9,000 of them while Kavanagh’s buddy Peterson nay had 4,000.
So, to get his way, Kavanagh simply decided to steal the election by voting himself for all the committeemen of Will County that didn’t show up to the Party Convention. Presto Chango, Peterson won the “election” to the State Central Committee.
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Will County GOP Chief ‘Doesn’t Care’ About the Voters”
Bill Brady – Governor
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bill-Brady/121898485564?ref=ts
Jason Plummer – Lieutenant Governor
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Plummer/132646891026?ref=ts
Dan Rutherford – Treasurer
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dan-Rutherford/104696265020?ref=ts
Judy Baar Topinka – Comptroller
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Judy-Baar-Topinka/153417423039?ref=ts
Robert Enriquez – Secretary of State
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150151784847&ref=ts
Steve Kim – Attorney General
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144297595818&ref=ts
-By Warner Todd Huston
OK, the primary is over. The candidates are ready to start their race to the general election finish. Over the last week the GOP has firmed up its final slate and all the big office candidates met for a unity video and have gone out on the stump together a few times to rally and unify the Illinois GOP… all except Judy Baar-Topinka, ostensibly our GOP candidate for Comptroller.
Judy has not shown up to any of the unity meetings and was not in the unity video that the Illinois GOP was shopping around. She has been mysteriously absent from all of the campaigning thus far.
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Why is Judy Running?”
-By Dan Proft
The most painful wounds are those that are self-inflicted.
Until recently this statement would have been followed with a discussion of Republican political and policy failures.
No longer. Chicago’s neo-feudalists have helped disaffected Republicans learn to love again and broken the hearts of hopeful Independents.
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Dan Proft: We Cannot Afford Chicago Democrat Rule”
From the Hays for Congress (2nd District) campaign…
CHICAGO: The following statement was released today by Rev. Isaac C. Hayes, GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2, in response to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s move to use the “self-executing rule”.
Speaker Pelosi has yet to secure the necessary votes in the House of Representative to pass the Senate’s version of health care reform. The Wall Street Journal reports the Speaker could ask the House Rules Committee to change the rules that would allow the House to vote on the reconciliation measures without voting on the actual Senate version.
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Isaac Hayes for Congress: Pelosi’s Blitzkrieg to Government Medicine”
From the Walsh for Congress (8th District) campaign…
Fiction: You can keep your existing coverage.
Fact: Wrong. If government insurance is less expensive to employers (who are already paying for it with their taxes) many will drop their current plans in favor of the less expensive, government-run plan. Private sector insurance will not be able to compete with the unlimited funding and will go under further increasing the states’ Medicaid burden.
Fiction: Care will not be rationed.
Fact: Wrong. The House version would establish a new tax on every health insurance policy to fund 111 new federal bureaucracies including the Health Benefits Advisory Committee that would be tasked with deciding which treatments are more cost-effective. The research findings would be used by the government to ration care.
Fact vs. Fiction: What You Should Know About Obamacare”
From the Ratowitz for Congress campaign…
David Ratowitz, Republican Candidate for Illinois’ 5th Congressional Seat, Attacks Incumbent Mike Quigley (D IL-5) for Fiscal Irresponsibility
U. S. Congressional Candidate, David Ratowitz (IL – 5), asks, “Who does Mike Quigley think he is fooling with a toothless ‘Sense of the House’ resolution on fiscal controls? Obviously, Mike Quigley doesn’t care about us, otherwise he would offer real opposition to the big government programs that spend our money instead of faking reform.”
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Rep. Mike Quigley: Worst Big Government Record in Congress”
So, now that State Senator Bill Brady is the affirmed GOP nominee for Governor, he’s officially launching his campaign. Here Brady appears with the GOP slate of candidates.
In attendance is:
Lt. Gov. Candidate Jason Plummer
Treasurer candidate Dan Rutherford
Secretary of State candidate Robert Rodriguez
Attorney General candidate Steven Kim
(Comptroller candidate Judy Baar-Topinka not in attendance)
From Congressman Peter Roskam…
WASHINGTON, DC – Today the House Republican Conference adopted an immediate, unilateral moratorium on all earmarks, demonstrating House Republicans’ commitment to reducing the out of control federal spending that imperils America’s future.
“Adopting this year’s ban on earmarks is a significant first step toward reigning in a government that is spending, borrowing and taxing away a prosperous future for our children and grandchildren,” said Congressman Peter Roskam. “House Republicans proved today that we understand that strong leadership is required to address exploding federal deficits – which are running at $220 billion a month – and restore the fiscal stability of our country.”
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Roskam Praises Ban on Earmarks by House GOP”
From the Isaac Hayes for Congress campaign…
Rev, Hayes Headed to Washington to Meet With RNC Chief Michael Steele
CHICAGO: The following statement was released today by Rev. Isaac C. Hayes, GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2, as he heads to Washington, D.C. to meet with Michael Steele.
Rev. Isaac Hayes has been personally invited to join Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael S. Steele and other senior staff of the RNC for an African-American Candidate’s meeting, Thursday, March 18, 2010. Mr. Steele has expressed to Rev. Hayes the importance of getting minorities elected into office and finding exactly what resources are needed to ensure victory.
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2nd District, Isaac Hayes: Meeting with RNC Chief”
From the Walsh for Congress campaign…
(LAKE ZURICH, IL)– With the Obamacare legislation nearing a vote, Rep. Melissa Bean (D-8) remains intent on representing the special interests that control her political party as opposed to voting the interests of 8th district families.
Bean, who received more than $31,000 in campaign contributions from trial lawyers during her 2008 re-election campaign, is set to vote for a federal government takeover of health care that, among other things, fails to meaningfully address increasing health care costs directly attributable to frivolous lawsuits and excessive jury awards.
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Bean Set to Vote Interests of Trial Lawyers Over Interest of Constituents”
From Truth in Accounting…
Institute for Truth in Accounting Issues Guide to Honest Budgeting
March 11, 2010 — To help citizens determine if Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget is truly balanced the Institute for Truth in Accounting has published “Are We Unbalanced? – A Guide to Reviewing Governments’ Budgets”.
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Truth in Accounting: Governor – You Can’t Balance Illinois’ Budget By Borrowing Money”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In his budget speech, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a one percent hike in the state income tax in order to”restore our education budget to current levels.” A one percent increase is like a 33% increase if the tax goes from a flat tax of 3% to one of 4%.
In his speech (beginning on page 10) Quinn addresses the education budget. Sadly, Quinn’s proposal does nothing to address why the problem has arisen in the first place.
Quinn asks for no necessary cuts, he asks for no union concessions, he makes no effort to tighten our education belt in Illinois. Quinn should be slashing the unnecessarily lavish benefits that teachers unions force out of the state, hundreds of useless administrators should be fired and their positions eliminated. The whole education establishment needs to be assessed for it excess. Those imagining that the “fix” is just to pump more money into these failing schools are fooling themselves.
But Quinn is doing nothing but treading water with the state’s education establishment when he should be demanding a bottom to top review of the waste of public education in Illinois.
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Quinn’s Wants 1% Income Tax Hike ‘For Education’”
From the Palatine Tea Party…
(Palatine, Illinois) March 10, 2010 – We the People reject this government takeover of 1/6th of our United States economy to government run healthcare which Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are proposing. The government can not run anything successfully without running deficits. Saying the healthcare bill is deficit neutral is nonsense and the American people know it. Does Bean know the will of the people which live in her district and knows what is best for our families? If so, how was it measured and by whom?
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How will Bean Vote for The American Death Panel?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Now that the voters are properly informed about who the Republicans have chosen to run for Illinois Governor, the polls show him leading incumbent Democrat Gov. Pat Quinn by 10%.
Rasmussen Reports finds Brady at 47% favorable to Quinn’s 37% in a phone poll of 500 likely voters.
Among women voters, Brady led Quinn by 17 points. Independent voters favored Quinn 59 percent to 18 percent, according to the poll.
The survey painted significant public discontent with Quinn, who has been pushing an income-tax increase to help the state cope with a $12.8 billion budget deficit.
The firm found that 56 percent of voters surveyed disapproved of Quinn’s job performance compared to 43 percent who approved.
Of course, this is likely Brady’s early bump after just being announced. Let us see if he can hold this rate. We have much time yet before any real decisions have to be made and both candidates have a race to run.
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Poll: GOP Guv Candidate Bill Brady Leading Dem Quinn”
From the Walsh for Congress campaign…
(LAKE ZURICH, IL)– Rep. Melissa Bean’s stubborn refusal to reject the federal government takeover of our health care system will cost the average 8th district resident $3,900, so says a study on the proposed Obamacare legislation by the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI). IPI Study
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A Vote for Melissa Bean Will Cost You $3,900″
Sunshine Review Names 39 “Sunny Award” Winners
Alexandria, VA—Four local Illinois government websites were named winners of the “Sunny Award” today, marking them as some of the best state and local government websites for transparency by Sunshine Review, a pro transparency organization. The winners included Carbondale, DuPage County, Evanston and Lake County.
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Illinois Government Websites Recognized As Among Best for Transparency”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Better Government Association (www.bettergov.org/), a beleaguered Chicago-based watchdog group that has its work cut out for it, recently released its “Hall of Shame” report that details the nearly 150 county officials that have gone to jail for corruption in Barack Obama’s home county of Cook. And that doesn’t even include the over 100 Chicago officials, a city also situated in Cook County, that has also gone to jail over the last few decades.
Because of the high amount of corruption and the large and ever growing roster of jailed county officials, in its press release, the BGA bitingly asks, “[I]s it any surprise this multi-billion dollar labyrinth of governmental entities is referred to disparagingly as ‘Crook County?'”
The scams took place over the past four decades in the courts; the offices of the Assessor, Sheriff and Treasurer; and the President’s Office of Employment and Training. They involve bribes, payoffs, rip-offs, padded contracts, ghost payrollers and the wholesale subversion of the judicial system. The perpetrators include elected officials at the highest and lowest levels of city, county and state government; judges, lawyers and lobbyists.
Sadly, the BGA finds that the corruption in Cook County government is widespread and “not confined to a single unit of government.” This corruption was found in such departments as the Cook County Board President’s office, the employment offices, the highway department, the sheriff’s offices, the assessor and the treasurer’s offices as well as the Clerk of the Circuit Court. In fact, the BGA found that corruption is endemic throughout the government and no one ever seems to be held accountable.
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150 Convicted County Officials in Obama’s Chicagoland Area”
From the Walsh for congress campaign…
(LAKE ZURICH, IL)– Today, Republican Congressional nominee Joe Walsh called on his opponent, three-term incumbent Melissa Bean, to learn from her Illinois Democrat colleague Dan Lipinski and vote “NO” on Obamacare.
Illinois U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, a Democrat who represents the 3rd district, has joined the ranks of other Congressional Democrats displaying the courage to vote with their conscience– not their party.
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8th District, Joe Walsh to Bean: Learn from Lipinski and vote NO”
Rep. Roskam participated in a live interview with WGN News’ Mark Suppelsa and discussed President Obama’s health reform proposal. Roskam urged the President to start over and work on a bill that focuses incrementally on cost as a way to increase access to health insurance.
From WGN Chicago, Channel 9
From Congressman Peter Roskam’s office (R, DuPage County, IL)…
I wanted to let you know about a new environmental initiative my campaign is launching today. We’re launching a household battery recycling program that will make it easier for constituents to personally be good stewards of our planet. It’s the latest in a long line of innovative energy and environmentally helpful ideas and initiatives we’ve created for the community.
The battery recycling program will be a chance for private citizens to work together in a spirit of environmental stewardship that protects basic needs like our air and water supply. By providing a place where household batteries with hazardous waste material can be properly disposed, we are doing a small part to leave our planet in better shape for our kids and our grandkids.
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Innovative Environmental Program Launched Today”
From the Joe Walsh for Congress campaign…
(Lake Zurich, Illinois) – 8th District Republican congressional nominee Joe Walsh today called on his liberal Democrat opponent Rep. Melissa Bean to swallow her pride and vote “No” on the Obamacare federal takeover of health care legislation nearing a vote in the House.
“For the first time in a long time Melissa Bean needs to listen to her constituents and vote her district,” said Walsh. “A government takeover of health care is absolutely the wrong approach to fix what ails with health care in America- and 8th district voters know it. Melissa Bean was not elected to represent public sector unions and march in lockstep with her party. She was elected to represent the interests of 8th district families and support policies that speak to their very real economic insecurities. This legislation will worsen the quality of care we have access to and increase unemployment,” Walsh said.
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Walsh to Bean on Health Care Vote: Vote Your District Not Your Party”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois Congressman Daniel Lipinski has confirmed to John McCormack of the Weekly Standard that he is now a “no” vote on Obama’s healthcare debacle.
Lipinski is a pro-life Democrat that is associated with the block that Bart Stupak (D, Mich.) says will vote “no” over the fact that the Obamacare plan has public funding for abortion in it.
Add Congressman Dan Lipinski of Illinois to the coalition of pro-life Democrats standing firmly with Bart Stupak in the fight over taxpayer-funding of abortion in the health care bill. Asked if the congressman is “open to voting for a health care bill that lacks the Stupak amendment,” Lipinski’s spokesman Nathaniel Zimmer replied in an email to THE WEEKLY STANDARD: “No. Congressman Lipinski will not vote for a health care bill that provides federal funding for abortion.”
Lipinski represents the 3rd Congressional District which is situated in a south central part of Cook County.
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Rep. Lipinski Dem. of Illinois Says He’s a ‘No’ On Obamacare”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Civic Federation is reporting that every Chicago resident is on the hook for 444 percent more in unfunded retirement pension benefits to city workers than they were a decade ago.
The watchdog Civic Federation said Monday that the funding deficit for the 10 largest Chicago-area public pension funds soared from $3.4 billion in 1998 to $18.5 billion in 2008, the last year for which figures are available.
This is the fault of both politicians for spending the money instead of investing it as well as unions for “negotiating” ever higher and undeserved benefits with each new contract.
But no matter who is at fault, I’d guess that all the perpetrators imagine that the federal government should bail them out when the inevitable collapse arrives.
That way neither the unions nor the profligate democrat politicians will ever have to pay any substantive price.
Only one problem: the US government doesn’t have the cash or credit, either.
I foresee the collapse of pensions all across the county and millions of people that thought they had retirement available for them will find out that it doesn’t exist. A major mess will soon come to town and no one can prevent its arrival.
Both rank and file Democrats and their unions and politicians deserve all the pain coming their way, too.
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Dear Chicago Taxpayer, You Owe Us a Pension so Pay Up”
-By Warner Todd Huston
This is very good news, though I am a tad skeptical about a 100% stat… still the AP reports:
A Chicago school that claims to be the nation’s first all-boys public charter high school comprised entirely of black males has accomplished an uncommon feat.
Every member of Urban Prep’s first senior class has been accepted into a four-year college or university.
Urban Prep founder and CEO Tim King highlighted the accomplishment by telling an assembly that only four percent of Urban Prep’s freshman in 2006 were reading at grade level.
What good news. Like I said, I am a bit skeptical of any 100% stat, but even if it turns out its only 95% it doesn’t matter. This is a fantastic achievement.
Kudos to Urban Prep Academies!
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Chicago Charter School’s 100% College Bound Senior Class”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois State Senator Dale Risinger (R, Peoria) has offered a bill in Springfield that drives our society further along the path of making parts of the human body a commodity, undercutting the sacred status of human life.
SB 3613, the Presumed Donor bill, amends the Illinois Anatomical Gift Act to define all Illinois patients as “presumed donors” unless they specifically avail themselves of the opt out clause. In other words, unless you tell the government that in the case of your presumed brain death you don’t want your body parts cut out and donated to other patients, they will be cut out and given to others.
As the law stands now a potential donor has to opt in to the organ donor program in order to allow the government to authorize usage of organs in case of brain death. One must inform the state ahead of time that one will agree to donate his organs. This bill would reverse that process of consent. If SB 3613 passes all patients will be assumed to be fodder for transplants unless they’ve specifically told the state that they do not want their body parts to be parceled out to other people.
As the synopsis of the bill states: This bill, “Provides that, on and after July 1, 2012, each resident of Illinois who is of sound mind and who has attained the age of 18 years is presumed, by operation of law, to have given all of his or her body for any organ donation purposes.”
Proponents of this bill say that it will help alleviate the desperate need for donor organs and will help hundreds of patients live that might otherwise die due to their disease and lack of donor organs.
It does sound like a great idea until one begins to look at it all with a bit more logical eye. Laws like a “presumed donor” law could easily cause doctors to care less for the injured when looking to harvest organs for patients waiting transplants. And since the criteria for a transplant includes the donor’s “brain death” one is struck with abuse that such a designation could lead to.
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Illinois Dangerous ‘Presumed Consent’ Organ Donor Bill”
With just under 200 votes to spare, the Republicans can now move forward with a Bill Brady for Governor campaign. And so, here is Bill’s latest TV commercial…
From the Walsh for Congress campaign…
(Lake Zurich, Illinois) – Apparently, ‘I already spent it’ is a good enough reason for keeping dirty money, at least for Rep. Melissa Bean.
Bean is refusing to give back or to charity the $28,000 she received from Rep. Charlie Rangel who is under investigation from the House Ethics Committee for accepting lavish vacations from special interest groups with business before the powerful House Ways and Means committee while serving as chairman. He is also being investigated for failing to report assets, including his interest in a Dominican Republican guest unit, according to the Daily Herald.
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8th District Walsh: Dirty Rangel Money Should Go to Charity Not Bean for Congress”