Nanny State Republican Upton Wants House Energy Committee Chair?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Light bulb banning Republican Fred Upton (R, Mich) is angling to become the new GOP chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee as the House begins to look to adjusting to reflect the Republican’s tidal wave election. Upton is a perfect example of the sort of representative that the new GOP congress needs to think about very carefully before elevating them to higher positions.

Upton has the seniority to take the position, it is true, but his past nanny state-styled votes for banning the light bulb in favor of CFLs makes his bid troubling taking into consideration the conservative direction voters went on November 2 — and Upton didn’t just vote for the bill, he co-sponsored it with the left leaning Dem. Jane Harmon of California.

Upton’s voting record is quite a mixed bag where it concerns proving his conservative credentials. Along with the nanny-state light bulb ban vote, Upton also voted against extending the Bush tax cuts, he was in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), as well as the first stimulus bill.
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Nanny State Republican Upton Wants House Energy Committee Chair?”


Unemployment Worsens: What Happened to 3.5 Million Workers, Mr. President?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge asks an interesting question about the latest jobs data that the Obama administration has released to the public — and to a mostly unquestioning Old Media. As Durden calculates it, 3.5 million workers have mysteriously disappeared from the work force. If this is true then the unemployment rate is a lot higher than that being bandied about by the administration.

According to Durden the data show that there is actually a workforce of 157.4 million workers as opposed to the 153.9 million that the administration has claimed. So, where did 3.5 million workers go?

Durden says, “labor force participation has now dropped to the lowest rate it has been since 1984, at 64.5%. Assuming a reversion to the long-term average participation rate of 66%, means that the civilian labor force is in reality 157.4 million as opposed to the disclosed 153.9 million, a delta of 3.5 million currently unaccounted for.”

After that, Durden had a question for President Obama. “Maybe someone can ask the president during his imminent press conference what happened to the unemployed population, which would have been 18.3 if this labor force delta was incorporated, resulting in an unemployment rate of 11.6%.”

Would it be a surprise if the Obama administration has fiddled with the numbers to present a false image of just how bad it is out there?
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Unemployment Worsens: What Happened to 3.5 Million Workers, Mr. President?”


Obama Said ‘Things Will Get Better,’ For This Woman They Didn’t

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last January, Jennifer Cline sent a letter to President Obama telling him of her woes. She had been diagnosed with two kinds of cancer, she lost her job and was about to lose her home. Surprisingly the president wrote her back and told her that “things will get better.”

Apparently they haven’t.

Cline has been forced to sell Obama’s letter to an historical autographs dealer for $7,000 to try and help her over the hump because things have gotten no better for the woman and her family in the nearly nine months since she sent her original letter.
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Obama Said ‘Things Will Get Better,’ For This Woman They Didn’t”


Unions Give More Campaign $$ To Dems Than Corporations To GOP

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left’s meme about campaign contributions since the Supreme Court beat down some of the McCain/Feingold Act has been that the Republicans are awash in illicit political donations from those eeevil corporations — and unfair donations at that — and this puts the poor Democrats at a disadvantage. Why all those evil rich corporate raiders are burying the Democrats, dontcha know?

The truth is a far different animal, however, as Democrats haven’t lost a step in fund raising due to the millions upon millions that their favorite special interest have given them. The fact is unions have donated far, far more to Democrat politicians than corporations have mustered for Republicans.
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Unions Give More Campaign $$ To Dems Than Corporations To GOP”


Dan Patlak’s Second Radio Spot Released‏

From the Patlak for Cook County Board of Review campaign (suburban Cook County)…

On Tuesday we released our second radio commercial which highlights the fact that Commissioner Brendan Houlihan has worked full time at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for his entire term in office and rarely appears at the Board of Review while collecting approximately $500,000 in salary and benefits in the past four years from county taxpayers. Taxpayers have a right to ask whether this abrogation of responsibility by Mr. Houlihan contributed to:

1. The record delay in issuing tax bills which will now arrive after the election and right before Thanksgiving.
2. His failure to fulfill his campaign promise to provide on-line appeals (for which he was roundly criticized by the Tribune Editorial Board).
3. Whether he could have prevented the scandal involving manipulation of Board decisions on behalf of contributors to a Schaumburg area Democratic state representative.

Dan has pledged to work full-time as a commissioner at the Board of Review and will resign his part-time position as Wheeling Township Assessor.

Please forward this e-mail to anyone you think might be interested in how one of our Cook County elected officials has been performing his duties over the past four years.

http://www.electpatlak.com
http://www.twitter.com/DanPatlak
http://www.facebook.com/DanPatlak


ACORN’s Get-Out-The-Vote Operative Under State Felony Charges

-By Warner Todd Huston

Contrary to popular perception, the criminal group ACORN (Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now) is not quite a’moulderin’ in the grave, folks. Many might recall that Congress turned off the spigot of federal funds flowing into the coffers of the organization responsible for federal election law crimes all across the country. Many might all recall that ACORN itself eventually said it would shutter its operations.

But even with all that recent history, ACORN’s Project Vote is still in operation and one of its main directors is a woman under a cloud of criminal charges in the state of Nevada.

Project Vote is supposed to be separate from ACORN, at least on paper. But as Matthew Vadum writes, “Although legally separate entities, in practice the two are the same, as the congressional testimony of former ACORN/Project Vote employee Anita MonCrief can attest. They share office space, employees, and budgets. Project Vote continues to operate out of ACORN’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.”
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ACORN’s Get-Out-The-Vote Operative Under State Felony Charges”


Former ACORN Worker Justifies Preventing Pledge of Allegiance at Illinois Candidate Debate

-By Warner Todd Huston

Thanks to Jeff Dunetz at Yid With Lid we have found out that a former ACORN worker turned director of the League of Women Voters has been heard justifying actions of the debate moderator who tried to prevent the audience at an 8th District candidate debate from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance last week.

As the debate began someone in the crowd yelled out asking if they were going to start the night’s activities with the pledge. The moderator of the debate nixed the idea saying “no we are not.” Then when the crowd expressed its shock and dismay she said “excuse me,” and “it has never been part of…” at which time she was interrupted by the entire crowd reciting the pledge anyway.

For days the controversy has raged since the October 20 debate where debate moderator Kathy Tate-Bradish tried to prevent the people from reciting the pledge. Then on Oct. 22, there was an outrageous story that Executive Director Jan Czarnik of the League of Women Voters was lambasting the pledge controversy as a stunt set up by GOP candidate Joe Walsh and an example of “phony patriotism.”

So the LWV thinks reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is “phony patriotism,” eh?

Disgusting.
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Former ACORN Worker Justifies Preventing Pledge of Allegiance at Illinois Candidate Debate”


Patlak for Cook County Board of Review: We Are On The Air‏

From the Patlak for Cook County Board of Review campaign…

Our campaign to bring professional competence and political balance to the Board of Review is firing on all cylinders. Today we unveil our radio spot which uses a Halloween theme to call out the Chicago Democrat Machine for preventing tax bills from coming out until after the election.

We have distributed our distinctive blue and gold yard signs throughout the district. If you don’t have one yet, click here to order a sign today. We still have large 4×4 signs for placement at heavily trafficked locations. Let us know if you can provide such a location.
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Patlak for Cook County Board of Review: We Are On The Air‏”


As The Chinese Laugh at America, the Failed Nation…

And now we sit in on a lecture by a Chinese Professor explaining why the United States of America has fallen…

Truly chilling.

Video sponsored by Citizens Against Government Waste.


Patlak for Cook County Board of Review: Two New Tax Facts Videos Released‏

From the campaign for Patlak for Cook County Board of Review …

I just released two new Tax Facts videos: What if I did not get an exemption I was entitled to? and How do I file an appeal at the County Assessors Office and the Board Of Review? Let me know if you have any questions about the answers or any other question in our Ask Dan section.

Thank you for your continued support through this campaign. We are down to the last two and a half weeks. Early voting started this past Monday and ends Thursday the 28th. Election day will follow on Tuesday November 2nd. Now is the time to act. Please encourage your friends and neighbors to get out and vote early, reminding them to vote for Dan Patlak on the down ballot race for Cook County Board Of Review. This is one of the most critical races this election season. Unfortunately, many voters stop filling out their ballots before they get to many of the down ballot races. This is where you can make a difference. Every vote counts for the Board Of Review, a board and property tax system that is completely controlled by the Chicago Machine.
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Patlak for Cook County Board of Review: Two New Tax Facts Videos Released‏”


Chile’s Miners Would Still Be Down There if They Were Democrats

-By Warner Todd Huston

The world is rejoicing that the miners trapped for over a month in the bowels of a mountain in Chile are finally rescued. As the rescue was ongoing President Barack Obama said of the worried families, “the tears they shed after so much time apart expressed not only their own relief, not only their own joy, but the joy of people everywhere.” Touching sentiments. These miners have to be joyful about one other thing: that they aren’t miners trapped in an American mine during Obama’s presidency. If they had been, they’d still be down there unable to wipe the tears from their loved one’s faces.

Chile’s President, Sebastián Piñera, famously set aside the bureaucracy of his country’s regulations and set to work rescuing these trapped men. He threw open his arms and accepted help from as many interested nations as possible allowing their experts and scientists to lend a helping hand. The Herculean task was accomplished and everyone came out alive.

But if we can use the British Petroleum disaster in Louisiana as any indication, if those Chilean miners had had the misfortune to have been in an American mine disaster, they’d still be down there wasting away as Obama twiddled his thumbs, quite unlike Chile’s president.
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Chile’s Miners Would Still Be Down There if They Were Democrats”


Office Seeking and the Illinois Recall Amendment

From John Bambenek…

Today is the first day of early voting. Illinois law allows for various days of early voting at locations throughout the state. You can find information on where to vote early at this website under “Early Voting”.

As you know, one of the questions you will see is whether to adopt a state constitutional amendment to allow voters to recall the Governor. I urge voters to vote no on this “worse than nothing” provision that only allows voters to recall the Governor when politicians decide it is ok. Before voters could circulate petitions to gather the one MILLION signatures necessary, they need to get a signed permission slip from 30 legislators, 15 from the Governor’s OWN PARTY, which means no recall would ever get off the ground.
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Office Seeking and the Illinois Recall Amendment”


Obama’s Healthcare Rules Will Shut Down Catholic Hospitals Nationwide

-By Warner Todd Huston

Some of Obamacare’s most destructive forces are quickly becoming common knowledge. We have, for instance, become painfully aware that Obama’s claim that we all could keep our plans and doctors “if you like them” is an outright falsehood as some people are already losing their coverage. It is also becoming clear that companies will be dropping plans all over the place making a lie of the idea that plans will be cheaper and easier to get once Obamacre comes into force. Another aspect of the destructive nature of this top down-style of “healthcare” is that once government takes over the system Democrats will assume they have the power to force religious-based healthcare providers to perform abortions and this will cause thousands of facilities to close down. This will, of course, make care even harder to get in many cities across the nation as hospital beds are lost in great numbers.

In fact, we are already seeing this disastrous situation of closing hospitals playing out in Scranton, Pennsylvania where three Catholic-operated hospitals are likely going to be shut down and/or sold off because of the negative affects Obamacare will have on these facilities.

Kevin Cook, the CEO of Mercy Health Partners, the company that operates these three hospitals, told WNEP TV News that Obamacare “absolutely” playing a role in the decision to sell off the facilities.
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Obama’s Healthcare Rules Will Shut Down Catholic Hospitals Nationwide”


Oops. Obama’s ‘Saved Job’ Was Just Lost

-By Warner Todd Huston

Oh, it was a thing to be celebrated when Obama’s payoff to the teachers unions back in August “saved” the job of Ohio school teacher Amanda VanNess. It was such a thing of wonder that the big guy flew the elementary school teacher all the way to D.C. for an Oval Office signing ceremony.

(Pictured: President Obama signed a bill in August aimed at saving teachers’ jobs, with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Council of Economic Advisers chief Christina Romer and teacher Amanda Van Ness on hand. Getty Images)

Happy days were here again… and it lasted less than three months because VanNess still lost her job this month anyway.

But there is good news. VanNess’s job only cost the American people $26 billion dollars. So we have that going for us, which is nice.
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Oops. Obama’s ‘Saved Job’ Was Just Lost”


Patlak: A Critical Moment

From the Patlak for Cook County Board of Review campaign…

As we approach early voting on October 11th and Election Day just 27 days from now, we are pulling out all the stops to secure a victory and win back the 1st District Board of Review seat for the Republican Party. For over a year I have put aside my normal life to pursue this office.

We now find our campaign at a critical moment. We have a winning message and just received the endorsement of the Chicago Tribune but need more funding to get that message out to the half million people who will cast ballots. In order to purchase the minimum amount of media time necessary to be effective, we need to raise $20,000 by Friday October 15th. I am making an urgent request for additional financial help to allow us to bring our message of ethical leadership and political balance on the Board of Review to the people of Cook County. I want to change business as usual at the Board and I need your help. Please join me in this battle by sending your maximum contribution.
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Patlak: A Critical Moment”


Postal Workers Union Election on Hold Over Ballots Lost in the Mail

-By Warner Todd Huston

The incompetence of public employee unions strikes again. The American Postal Workers Union has been forced to extend its election because too many mail-in ballots have yet to get to their final destination. That’s right, the postal workers election is on hold because the post office lost the ballots in the mail.

The union’s election committee was supposed to be counting those ballots this week in downtown Washington, D.C., following a tradition mail-in election. But the union announced that only about 39,000 ballots were turned in — and that “a large number of union members had not received their ballots.”

Government workers doing their normal substandard work, eh?

And these are the same people that want to takeover our healthcare?
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Postal Workers Union Election on Hold Over Ballots Lost in the Mail”


Feds Build $1 Billion Virginia Office Complex Without Parking Or Roads to Get To It

-By Warner Todd Huston

The federal government has built a one billion dollar office complex in Virginia to house some 6,400 Pentagon workers that are to be moved soon. It’s a beautiful new office complex that rises like a mountain next to Northern Virginia’s I-395. But there are a few little problems. There is no parking for one thing and for another, even if there was a parking lot for 6,400 workers, there are no roads to GET them there!

That’s right, there is no access that won’t cause tremendous traffic jams for the area. Worse, there aren’t any bus or Metro train stops anywhere near the building so workers cannot even take advantage of the Washington area’s extensive public transportation network to get to their new offices.

Since the problem was fully realized the state and the feds have been arguing back and forth about the traffic problem all to no avail. No ramp from the highway has been built because the plan offered put that ramp too close to a nature area and no local roads can handle the additional traffic for 6,000 some workers.
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Feds Build $1 Billion Virginia Office Complex Without Parking Or Roads to Get To It”


Chicago Tribune Endorses Dan Patlak‏

From the Patlak for Cook County Board of Review…

Today the Chicago Tribune endorsed our candidate Dan Patlak for Commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review. You can read the endorsement below or click here to read it on the Chicago Tribune website.

It would help Dan’s campaign immeasurably if you would forward this e-mail to all of your contacts. Thank you for your support.

From the Chicago Tribune:
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Chicago Tribune Endorses Dan Patlak‏”


Carl Segvich for Cook County Commissioner (11th District)

-By Warner Todd Huston

Republican Carl Segvich is running against John Daley, soon to be former Mayor Daley’s brother, for Cook County Board from the 11th District. http://www.segvich.com/.

Segvih’s goals are to enhance private sector job opportunities, balance the budget, and cut waste. Segvich wants to cut taxes to promote economic growth and will stand up for families & American values. He will get public transit working for everyone and end the red light camera program. Segvich will also enhance support for law enforcement.

His opponent, Segvich says, has:
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Carl Segvich for Cook County Commissioner (11th District)”


The Chicago Machine Strikes Against Property Owners Again

From the Patlak for Cook County Board of Review Campaign…

Once again the Chicago Machine has pulled a fast one on Cook County property owners. They have conveniently arranged for property tax bills to be issued after the November 2nd election. In fact the bills will arrive just before Thanksgiving with payments due right before Christmas. How’s that for a happy holiday season? We can make a change in the culture of corruption that has enveloped Illinois, Cook County and Chicago by helping to elect reform candidates like Dan Patlak who are interested in empowering taxpayers instead of confusing them. Please visit Dan’s web site to volunteer or request a yard sign.

Dan has released the seventh in a series of Property Tax Facts videos. This one addresses the question of what grounds people use to appeal their assessments. Please take a look and forward it on to your friends who may need to appeal their assessment.
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The Chicago Machine Strikes Against Property Owners Again”


Eco-Fascists in England Want You Dead Unless You Agree With Them

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is an eco-nazi effort going on in England called the 10:10 Campaign and in a video meant to encourage people to join the green effort people that disagree with the eco-nazis are murdered for their skepticism. Apparently murdering those that disagree with you is supposed to be funny.

In a Telegraph article, James Delingpole says, “Eco-fascism jumps the shark.” It hink it’s done more than that. It’s revealed its fascist nature.

Dear Brittany, did you know your tax money went to pay for this disgusting, hateful, fascist eco-nonsense? So, if you don’t believe in Globaloney you should be murdered in the messiest of manners? Yep, that’s the Nazis on the left I know, for sure. If you don’t agree with them, why you should be “re-educated” or killed.

As Delingpole’s article notes, this garbage was not only sponsored by the British government it was also funded by a few private businesses: O2, Sony and Kyocera. You might want to let them know of your displeasure.

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Eco-Fascists in England Want You Dead Unless You Agree With Them”


U of Chicago Prof Says His $400,000 Salary Is Taxed Too Much

-By Warner Todd Huston

University professors so often get the reputation of being ivory tower pinheads sheltered from real life and out of touch with reality. Professor Todd Henderson of the University of Chicago sure didn’t help change that perception when he posted a blog post detailing how Obama’s tax hikes will hurt and that his combined family income of $400,000 annually still doesn’t prevent them from struggling to keep up with his bills.

The professor posted some of his family finances in order to show that even though many feel he is “rich” he has bills like everyone else and Obama’s tax hikes coming next year will hurt him badly. Interestingly, Henderson a neighbor of Obama in Chicago’s prestigious Hyde Park neighborhood.

“A quick look at our family budget, which I will gladly share with the White House, will show him that, like many Americans, we are just getting by despite seeming to be rich. We aren’t,” Henderson wrote on the blog post.
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U of Chicago Prof Says His $400,000 Salary Is Taxed Too Much”


Feds Making NYCity Spend $27M to Change Lettering on Street Signs

-By Warner Todd Huston

So you are a busy federal agency with lots and lots to do. You have roads to build, bridges to reinforce, and infrastructure to shore up, but there is something gnawing at your paper pushing soul. It’s those darn street signs in New York City and others. So, like a good, jackbooted government automaton, you storm down to that offending city and demand it spend $27million to change the lettering on those darn signs. I mean it’s not like you have anything else to do, right?

Well, it may seem like a joke but this is precisely what has happened. The Federal Highway Administration has demanded that New York City and other cities change street signs from all upper case to upper and lower (i.e. BROADWAY to Broadway) and it is going to cost an estimated $27 million of the taxpayer’s money to do it in New York City alone.

The city reports that 11,000 signs will have been changed by the end of this fiscal year and the rest will be done by 2018.
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Feds Making NYCity Spend $27M to Change Lettering on Street Signs”


Ill. Ranks Second After California for Worst Financial Shape in Country

-By Warner Todd Huston

According to Bloomberg News, “Meredith Whitney, the analyst who correctly predicted Citigroup Inc.’s dividend cut in 2008, will release a report rating California’s financial condition as the worst among the 15 largest U.S. states.” Illinois ranks second in the worst category.

After California, New Jersey, Illinois and Ohio tie as the second-worst, followed by Michigan, Georgia, New York and Florida, Fortune reported. Pennsylvania, Maryland and Massachusetts garnered neutral rankings. Her report ranks Texas, Virginia, Washington and North Carolina as the best states, according to Fortune.

The final report was the result of two years of work made more difficult by the fact that few states are very transparent in their budgeting, said Whitney.
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Ill. Ranks Second After California for Worst Financial Shape in Country”


Video: Spending Just Got Personal

This is a pretty inventive way to relate polling figures, I have to say. This one was made by BankruptingAmerica.org.

Seven out of ten voters say government spending is too high and 68 percent say spending is affecting them personally, according to a bipartisan ten-state poll we sponsored. Our fans told us they love the infographics we made to visualize the poll’s key findings. So we made a video taking the graphics to the next level.

Hundreds from our online community have taken the poll themselves. See how their views match up with them and the rest of the country. Click here to weigh in now.


The Coming Staples Mausoleum/Stadium

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even as supporters claim they won’t need subsidies, it is more likely that L.A. is about to plunge itself forever into debt with a new stadium, the Staples Center. A look at just about any other convention center, or stadium in the country easily shows that these projects seldom pay for themselves as builders insist that they will do. Yet, every time you turn around another city is falling for this false hope.

Unfortunately it is almost impossible for the average citizen to track where the budget money is going in any particular city budget. As we learned from Bell, California people have even been duped into making city politicians millionaires and millions have been misspent.

Cities shift funds from one department to another with such regularity that tracking it is difficult. If the City of Bell is any lesson we need far more transparency in city budgeting.

But it shouldn’t be any surprise to the city fathers of LA that the Staples Center will never pay for itself. After all, the Convention Center has lost millions every year, too, and now they intend to tear down part of that losing venture to build yet another losing venture. According to the L.A. Almanac, in 2005 the convention center brought in $9,130,000. Appropriations for the convention center, however, were 21,608,518. That is an operating loss.
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The Coming Staples Mausoleum/Stadium”


A Case of Influence Peddling by a Dem. Member of the Cook County Board of Review?

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few weeks ago Chicago Magazine published a story that revealed what sure looks like an influence peddling scandal perpetrated by Democrat Cook County Board of Review member Joseph Berrios. The story is filled with the maddeningly typical Chicago corruption. It also seems to implicate his other two fellow board members, Brendan Houlihan and Larry Rogers, Jr — both Democrats. To date Houlihan has yet to answer to these charges.

The Cook County Board of Review is the office responsible for handling property tax complaints and is responsible for lowering the tax rate if a property merits a reduction. As it happens Berrios, a Board of Review member since 1988, has been rather free with tax reductions for campaign contributors. He also seems to have ignored or skirted multiple rules and regulations by meeting with contributors behind closed doors and illegally filing requests for review. It appears that Berrios initiated a pay to play operation where commercial property owners got reductions in property taxes for campaign contributions to his campaign.

One Berrios associate in particular had some very favorable tax reductions given to him and his clients. Paul Froehlich and a political associate who once worked for Berrios found the Board of Review quite amenable to reductions for several Schaumburg properties the pair represented.

Now a property cannot have its taxes reduced unless at least one other commissioner agrees to the reduction. Meetings arranging the reductions, though, appear to be little else but a rubber stamp affair of the member’s recommendations. It is rare that any of the other two board members ever deny a fellow their recommendation. Again, all three board members are Democrats.

After the Chicago Magazine story at least four property tax reductions were suddenly reversed by the board, reductions that were called into question by the story. Fellow board member Brendan Houlihan, who represents suburban Cook County, attempted to distance himself from the corruption by claiming that he had investigated himself and all was well with the world.

Houlihan claimed that he had conducted an “internal investigation” and his findings had been turned over to the state’s attorney’s office that is investigating the scandal. He refused any further comment because of the ongoing investigation of possible criminal activity.

Houlihan has quite a few questions to answer to and just sitting back and saying “no comment” is not good enough as he presents himself for reelection by the very people he may have helped defraud of tax receipts to help Berrios gain campaign donations.

Here is what Houlihan is accused of doing: The Board of Review frequently goes out among private citizens with seminars and similar events and at these events tax reduction requests are accepted from the general public. The law states that regular homeowners are allowed to file reductions in person but commercial property owners must file via an attorney. The accusation is that Houlihan was allowing the cases from Berrios’s pals to be added illegally to private homeowner cases, all of which were then rubber stamped by the board with the reductions passed on illicitly to Berrios’s commercial property campaign supporters.

Worse, Houlihan claims that he was unaware that Joe Berrios was running one of these citizen outreach seminars right in Houlihan’s own suburban Cook district. It was at this outreach session that Berrios slipped in the commercial cases among the private citizen’s requests.

There are several vexing questions that Houlihan has yet to answer to in this scandal. Chief of which is what did Houlihan know and when did he know it?

  • Was Houlihan personally aware that these commercial cases were slipped in with the private homeowner’s tax reduction requests?
  • If Commissioner Houlihan wasn’t aware of it is one of his staffers complicit with the illegal activity?
  • Did Houlihan review and approve of the tax reductions for Berrios’s pals?
  • If not, isn’t that a dereliction of his duty as a board member?
  • Why did Houlihan not even know what was going on in his own district?

There also seem to have been three closed-door hearings by the Board of Review on this whole scandal. Despite that these violations occurred in Houlihan’s very own district transcripts show that he asked no questions during the hearings. In fact, he failed to even attend one of them.

Just what the heck does Brendan Houlihan do in his elected position on the Cook County Board of Review? He skips meetings, refuses to ask questions about a scandal perpetrated in his own district, rubber stamps illegal tax reductions, and then won’t answer to the voters for his lack of alacrity for doing his job.

I called Houlihan’s office and was granted a meeting… at first. The next day, via email, spokesman Mark Volpe told me that meeting was canceled. After a follow up phone call I was told that Houlihan had no comment on the matter.

Clearly Houlihan doesn’t feel he has to answer to the voters of suburban Cook County. Will they return him to office in November?
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.


WOW, Democrat Jokes That Seniors Should Be Denied End-Of-Life Healthcare

-By Warner Todd Huston


Democrat Gary McDowell is running to replace Bart Stupak (D, MI) in Michigan’s First District and while he may be hoping he might get the votes of seniors coming to the end of their time here on this mortal coil, he sure seems reticent to give them the medical care they’ll need to be around much longer after the election!

At a campaign appearance, McDowell agreed with those Obamacare supporters that think giving lifesaving medical care to seniors at end of life is a “resource” that needs to be rationed.

McDowell even makes a joke of the issue by saying that those that say end-of-life care should be rationed must be “from a safe district” because the “inconvenient truth” as he sees it is a tough pill to swallow.

Death panels, anyone?

Like a true Democrat McDowell thinks that setting up death panels should be swathed in less alarming language but that they should still be set up. “I was more diplomatic in not mentioning the end of life,” he said to those gathered. Yet he still meant to talk about how we need to ration healthcare at the end of life because “as adults” we need to accept McDowell’s “truth” that it’s just too expensive to save grandma’s life.

Let’s hope that Michiganders vote for Doctor Dan Benishek instead of McDowell for Michigan’s First.

http://www.benishekforcongress.com/
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WOW, Democrat Jokes That Seniors Should Be Denied End-Of-Life Healthcare”


Vadum: A Reminder, ACORN Funding NOT Permanently Cut Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Matthew Vadum, ever vigilant on the evils perpetrated by ACORN, reminds us that the criminal community organizer has not had its federal funding cut off permanently. The temporary cut off is soon to expire and Vadum reports that there doesn’t seem to be anyone in Congress taking up a reinstatement of the ban.

In his Sept. 28 piece at the American Spectator, Vadum says that many people are confused about the funding ban imagining it was permanent.

This confusion about ACORN can probably be blamed in part on the quirks of parliamentary procedure and the complexity of the appropriations process. The legal language prohibiting the funding is contained in spending legislation that covers only the federal government’s current fiscal year which ends this Sept. 30.

The current funding ban is due to run out soon.

So is Congress making to fix this lack of attention on ACORN?
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Vadum: A Reminder, ACORN Funding NOT Permanently Cut Off”