Happy Graduation…You’re Doomed!
As if graduating in the midst of global economic turmoil wasn’t bad enough, the University of Tennessee decided to invite Al Gore to inflict even more pain on its new graduates. You can watch what has been aptly christened “The World’s Most Depressing Graduation Speech” here.
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Ill. Policy Institute: LeBron’s Choice”
From the Dold for Congress campaign (10th District)…
Our National unemployment rate rose to 9.9% last month and the unemployment rate in Illinois is even higher, now at 11.5%. There is some good news in these numbers as our country created 290,000 net new jobs in April, and there is evidence that workers who had given up seeking work reentered the search for employment.
There remain, however, an unacceptable number of people unemployed. We must not accept this as a “new normal” and herald an economy that leaves millions of people without work. Our Federal government deserves much of the blame for the slow recovery of our jobs market.
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10th District: GOP’s Bob Dold on Jobs”
Mickey Straub’s Tuesday Talking Points makes some good points, issues that we should highlight in this current election cycle.
Mickey says that for Brady-Plummer it’s J.E.T.S., or Jobs, Ethics, Taxes and Spending.
From the Palatine Tea Party…
(Palatine, Illinois) – The Palatine Tea Party will debate Melissa Bean on any of the Healthcare topics covered in her letter to constituents in district 8 dated April 16, 2010. Anytime and any place. If she has read the Healthcare bill and understands its parts then she should not have an issue with this open debate. It’s time for her to actually prove if she understands what she voted for and not hide behind talking points. It’s time to directly talk to the constituents in district 8.
Failing to accept this debate will clearly indication she voted YES on the Healthcare bill affecting all the people in district 8 without reading and understanding the Healthcare bill and can not even debate her own letter to the constituents in district 8 that she is to represent.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Political pundits and poll watchers all across the nation are abuzz with the “tea party win” of Rand Paul, winner of the Kentucky primary for U.S. Senator. Mr. Paul was not the party favored candidate but was supported by Kentucky’s Tea Party movement and this is being hailed as something of a first, an example that the incumbents are in trouble and the establishment is on the outs with voters. But the pundits seem to have entirely missed that this trend started in the nation’s first primary in Illinois back in February.
Three primary races in Illinois gave the first hint that the establishment candidates were going to find it hard sledding in 2010 because in the Illinois 14th, 10th and 8th Districts every party establishment candidate lost his or her primary and a tea party candidate or outsider won.
To be sure, the Illinois GOP is not much in favor with any of its voters, but the Illinois GOP has been nothing if not a power party that was always in the past able to force its own special picks down everyone’s throat in the Land of Lincoln. The 2010 primary, however, showed a chink in that armor.
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Pundits Missed that Illinois Started Tea Party/Anti-Establishment Primary Revolt”
Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-16) will introduce new ethics ordinance amendments to help curb the unethical and corrupt practices of county elected officials and employees. The measures will be introduced at today’s Cook County Board meeting.
“Cook County has long had problems with illegal hiring and patronage and we must set a new standard of behavior for all, starting with elected officials and all the way down to the front line workers,” said Peraica.
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Peraica Introduces New Ethics Ordinance Amendments”
From the Palatine Tea Party…
In response to the letter Melissa Bean wrote to the constituents in district 8 dated April 16, 2010. We will respond to each of her statements Melissa Bean made based on emotion with factual responses where she stated the following:
“Taxpayers expect accountability”
To that we must state 2 things:
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Melissa Bean’s Healthcare101 – Part 12 of 13″
Alexi is part of the problem, not part of any solution…
From Dan Proft, Urquhart Media…
(A Podcast of this commentary can be heard HERE)
I remember my grade school basketball coach telling me that “the graveyards are full of indispensable people.” It was his way of explaining that no individual is more important than the team.
A favorite refrain of my high school basketball coach was that “talent guarantees nothing” to remind us that we had to work for what we sought to achieve.
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Dan Proft: Highland Park H.S. Provides a Real Education with Girls Basketball Flap”
From the Palatine Tea Party…
Melissa Bean’s Healthcare101 – Part 11 of 13
From the Palatine Tea Party…
In response to the letter Melissa Bean wrote to the constituents in district 8 dated April 16, 2010. We will respond to each of her statements Melissa Bean made based on emotion with factual responses where she stated the following:
“When small business succeeds, America prospers”
How exactly does America prosper when John Deere, Boeing, Caterpillar, Prudential Life, 3M, Honeywell, AK Steel Holding Corp, ITW, Valero Energy and Allegheny Technologies have ALL announced that this new legislation will cost them hundreds of millions every year?
“When small business succeeds, America prospers”
How exactly does America prosper when John Deere, Boeing, Caterpillar, Prudential Life, 3M, Honeywell, AK Steel Holding Corp, ITW, Valero Energy and Allegheny Technologies have ALL announced that this new legislation will cost them hundreds of millions every year?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Well, finally our Illinois governor did something I agree with. Pat Quinn abolished a state funded office. If only this wasn’t the first and likely the last time he’ll do such a thing.
On Sunday, Quinn signed an order to abolish the state office of education, a complete waste of money, an office from which former Superintendent Charles Flowers embezzled over $400,00 to fill his pockets.
The agency did nothing of use, really, at least nothing that other agencies couldn’t easily do instead and that is precisely what will now happen. Duties this useless office performed will go back where they belong.
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Quinn Abolishes Wasteful Office of Education”
From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…
Today’s subpoena of Congressman Jackson by disgraced ex-governor Rod Blagojevich is the latest development in the ongoing drama called Chicago Way politics. Mr. Jackson claims he will tell the truth, but the truth is that the day after he met with Rod Blagojevich, the former governor was arrested. The truth is that Mr. Jackson is ‘Senate Candidate 5’ in the criminal indictment and his representative ‘Individual P’ offered to raise $1.5 million in exchange for the Senate seat.
Illinois’ Second District deserves better than corrupt politicians who engage in pay-to-play schemes while unemployment in the 9th Ward is 30% and the poverty rate in Ford Heights is 53%. Our country needs citizen legislators who are not entrenched in the system of corruption and have the integrity to put their constituents first.
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Institute for Legal Reform has completed its 2010 rankings of the lawsuit climate in the various states and Illinois comes in at a dismal 45th place. If Obama needs some help, that would be 45 out of 50 states (not 57 or 58 states as he said during the campaign). This overly litigious lawsuit climate is yet another reason why Illinois has some of the highest unemployment stats in the country.
The rankings determine how reasonable a state’s tort liability culture is as perceived by U.S. Businesses and their legal counsel offices. In other words, do businesses feel that the legal system in a state is good for or detrimental to business interests?
According to the survey, Chicago/Cook County has the single worst tort climate in the country. The respondents felt that Cook County had the most biased judges, the most corruption, the highest most unfair damage awards, and a slow, unresponsive legal process.
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Illinois One of the Worst Legal Climates in the Country”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady was cornered by NBC Chicago News and asked his reaction to the shameful misuse of power by the Highland Park schools that last week announced that they were banning a girls basketball team from attending a tournament in Arizona.
His first comment was a good one, one I’d like to see more often from our politicians. “I certainly respect the school district’s right to make decisions, I believe in local control.” That is exactly right. He went on to say, “just hope they haven’t overstepped rationality in this case.”
And so, according to his logic, he is clearly saying that the locals are the ones that should go to their school board meeting and either approve of disapprove of the superintendent’s politically motivated decision.
“They’re punishing students for something they think is important and using them as a political pawn. I don’t think that’s right.” By “they” Brady meant the school administrators. and he’s right, here. These two Highland Park superintendents are using these poor kids as a political pawn. It really is disgusting.
Brady finished up with, “The whole immigration issue just drives to the problem we have at the federal level. Immigration is a federal issue. It’s not a state by state issue. And the failure of this administration, and arguably even past administrations, to come up with a long-term solution to this just drives wedges in our society that we don’t need at this time.”
Again, exactly right. Brady came off very well on this issue.
Gov. Candidate Brady on Highland Park School Arizona Boycott”
Here is Bill Brady’s first TV buy…
Press Release: Bill Brady shares his plan for growing jobs with a new commercial that begins airing today in the Chicago area.
The commercial will air through a significant buy on broadcast and cable television. Brady talks directly to voters about his plan to hold the line on taxes and pursue job-creating policies in the state. He also reiterates his commitment to term limits and contribution limits.
“I know voters in the Chicago area want to hear more about my vision,” Brady said. “I’m going to continue spending a great deal of time in the city and suburbs and will do everything I can to hear concerns of people here and talk about my goal to bring a clean break to the state.”
Brady is pushing for campaign contribution limits, capping individual campaign contributions at $4,800 for a primary-general election cycle and prohibiting union and corporate contributions. He also is calling for term limits to ending control of the General Assembly by a powerful few.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Remember the toothless “Coffee Party USA” effort, the astroturf effort created by Obama operative Annabel Park? Remember that supposed “non-partisan” effort to get folks involved in the political debate that was created by Democrat operatives? Yeah, that one. Well, we have another example of that faux “independent” spirit popping up here in Chicago with the choice of a Lt. Gov. running mate made by independent Gubernatorial candidate Scott Lee Cohen.
On Monday, Cohen chose Baxter Swilley, his former campaign manager, as his running mate for Lt. Governor. Paradoxically, Cohen said of Swilley, “He wasn’t my first choice, but he’s the best choice.”
For his part, Swilley claims to be just as independent as Cohen (read outside the Democrat Party). But this couldn’t be farther from the truth as all his experience is inside the Democrat Party as a lobbyist and insider operator. Tom Mannis at Chicago News Bench had a pretty good summary of Swilley’s Chicago Democrat resume back in March. In fact, he was even the organizer of a Chicago “Coffee Party” event. From John Ruberrry reminded us all of Mannis post revealing Swilley’s coffee party connection. “It’s a ticket that is full of beans,” scoffed Ruberry.
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Illinois ‘Independent’ Lt. Gov. Candidate Full of Beans”
From the Illinois Policy Institute…
Hooray for Dysfunctional Health Care!
Meet Donald Berwick, President Obama’s nominee to run the nation’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Donald, it turns out, is a huge fan of the legendarily dysfunctional government-run British health care system. You can click the video above to find out why—and what he ultimately wants to bring to American shores.
In Case You Missed It
“I need money to move.” Years ago, our CEO John Tillman heard those words many times—and they taught him about the importance of school choice. You can read his piece on a potentially life-changing education reform in today’s Chicago Tribune. The Institute was also featured in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, which offered an update on the Illinois voucher bill. You can get an update.
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Ill. Policy Institute: ‘I need money to move’”
From the Palatine Tea Party…
In response to the letter Melissa Bean wrote to the constituents in district 8 dated April 16, 2010. We will respond to each of her statements Melissa Bean made based on emotion with factual responses where she stated the following:
“This law ensures that no insurance company or government bureaucrat interferes with doctor and patient decisions.”
The fact that this legislation contains more than $500 Billion in Medicare cuts is a PERFECT example of government bureaucrats INTERFERING with doctor and patient decisions. The 21% reduction in payments to physicians who accept Medicare will most certainly guarantee less doctors accepting Medicare. This will have a DIRECT affect on both the quality of care that our seniors enjoy now and the ABILITY to even OBTAIN care. Add to that the SWEEPING powers given to the Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius (an ATTORNEY NOT A PHYSICIAN) and we are GUARANTEED to see a reduction in services based on cost.
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Melissa Bean’s Healthcare101 – Part 10 of 13″
-By Dan Proft, originally posted by the Heartland Institute
Twenty-seven years have passed since A Nation at Risk, a seminal report on the state of education in America, famously concluded, “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”
The report cautioned the nation’s “once unchallenged pre-eminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world” as a result of faltering public schools and the failure to prepare children to compete in an increasingly global economy.
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America’s Old K-12 Model Keeps Us ‘A Nation At Risk’”
From the Institute for Truth in Accounting…
Those of us who suffer from triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number “13”, have nearly a trillion reasons to be afraid, very afraid in the next few days. During this period, the debt of the United States will exceed $13 trillion dollars for the first time in the nation’s history.
“Federal Debt” is the total of all debt instruments issued by the United States and consists of two basic categories. Debt owned by the public are the bills, notes and bonds in the hands of individuals, corporations, banks, state and local governments as well as these obligations held by foreign governments. This publicly held debt amounts to $8.4 trillion or about 65% of all federal debt. The other category includes intergovernmental holdings which are mostly non-marketable securities held by government trust funds, revolving funds, special funds and Federal Financing Bank securities. These obligations amount to about $4.5 trillion, or 35% of all federal debt.
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National Debt Closes In On $13 Trillion”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In the deep blue sea of the People’s Republic of Chicagoland, Sarah Palin shined like a light of liberty among the darkness of Mayor Richard “King” Daley’s perverse domain. Palin brought hope into the home of President Obama’s cynical “Chicago Way” style of politics, and I was there to witness the May 12 show.
Sarah Palin was her usual effervescent self, upbeat and positive about this great country and happy to appear before us. She reveled in her “aw shucks” persona built from regular Americana, a style that has made her dear to the hearts of so many Americans from coast to coast.
The show started with a little patter between Big John Howell and Amy Jacobson, the morning radio talkers from Chicago’s WIND AM. One of John Howell’s musician buddies performed a few songs for us and I have to say he was pleasant to listen to. Finally, just before the Governor addressed us, the ever avuncular and impressive Guy Benson — who has a Sunday evening show on WIND — entertained us with some political humor.
Then, when the giant curtains parted to reveal the governor, the applause was almost deafening so the evening started with an electric jolt. She immediately asked all U.S. military veterans to stand for recognition to a huge round of applause for her recognition and for ours of our vets.
One of the early things that Governor Palin brought up was this idiotic business of Highland Park High School whose administrators suddenly canceled its girls basketball team trip to Arizona. The team had won the right to play in a tournament for the first time in 26 years. Why was it canceled? Only because the tournament is in Arizona and school administrators are mad at the state. Disgustingly, these school chiefs are using these girls to advance their own political agenda. Palin was amazed that this school was ignorant enough to say Arizona is not a worthy place for their girls to visit yet the school is still sponsoring a trip to China! “Do you know how girls are treated in China,” Palin asked. Then to great applause she suggested that those girls might have to “go rogue.”
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Report: May 12, 2010 Sarah Palin In Chicago”
From the Palatine Tea Party…
(Palatine, Illinois) – In response to the letter Melissa Bean wrote to the constituents in district 8 dated April 16, 2010. We will respond to each of her statements Melissa Bean made based on emotion with factual responses where she stated the following:
“Taxpayer expect accountability. Health Insurance reform is as important to America’s fiscal health as it is to our physical health. Currently the U.S. spends twice as much, as a percentage of GDP, than other industrialized nations on health care, while an estimated 45 million people are uncovered. At a time when our nation’s debt exceeds $12 trillion, H.R. 3950 provides the most significant deficit reduction in more than a decade. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, this bill cuts our federal deficit by $1.3 trillion over 20 years…”
Firstly, we know of no economist, actuary or accountant in the private sector that would ever attempt to score the cost of a piece of legislation (certainly one of this size) out over a 20 year period and we’ve already exposed the “fuzzy math” used by this administration to hide the REAL cost of this legislation. President Harry Truman’s famous words apply perfectly to the scoring of this legislation. He said : “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. In 1965 the Fed projected that costs for Medicare Part A would be $9 Billion. It ended up costing $67 BILLION! The Medicaid special hospital subsidy was supposed to cost $100 MILLION. Instead the real cost was $11 BILLION! That’s ONE HUNDRED TIMES GREATER!
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Melissa Bean’s Healthcare101 – Part 9 of 13″
Led by Carol Marin, the Chicago public television station conducted an interview with GOP Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady that is worth watching to gain some small measure of the man.
Chicago’s WTTW Interview With GOP Gov Candidate Bill Brady”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Over at Chicago’s NBC blog The Ward Room, Edward McClelland posits that the reason both Mark Kirk and Bill Brady are winning in current polls in the collar counties — those counties surrounding Cook, Chicago’s home — is because Quinn can’t balance a budget and Giannoulias was a failed banker. It’s about fiscal responsibility, says McClelland.
McClelland quotes a poll from the extremist left-winger website the Daily Kos that finds that Republican Kirk leads Democrat Giannoulias 41-38 in the hunt for Obama’s old Senate seat. Anecdotally interesting, yes. Proof of actual numbers, I’m not so sure. There is little of any worth to anything on the Daily Kos, but if even that wholly slanted website is showing Giannoulias down one might take that as a sign that it is true that Kirk is leading at this time.
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Why are the Collar Counties Going GOP? Fiscal Responsibility”
From Adam Andrzejewski of For the Good of Illinois…
When it comes to Illinois politics, something just doesn’t add up.
Last week, the Illinois House voted down landmark school choice legislation introduced by Sen. Meeks (D). This decision denies 22,000 children from Chicago’s worst-performing and most-overcrowded elementary schools the opportunity to transfer to private or parochial schools.
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When Does 2 + 2 = 5? Illinois Doesn’t Add Up”
From the Palatine Tea Party…
(Palatine, Illinois) – In response to the letter Melissa Bean wrote to the constituents in district 8 dated April 16, 2010. We will respond to each of her statements Melissa Bean made based on emotion with factual responses where she stated the following:
“With this legislation, insurance companies will be banned from dropping coverage or increasing rates arbitrarily after a claim from an employee. Premium increases will be more predictable as they will need to be justified bases on paid claims.”
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Melissa Bean’s Healthcare101 – Part 7 of 13″
-By Warner Todd Huston
I think Bill Brady will be a fair governor if he wins office in November. But he’s never going to get there unless he stops making all these foolish mistakes on the way to election day. Already he’s made at least three faux pas that alone are not that bad but added together they make his campaign look hapless, un-tethered to common sense. So far it’s just not very effective campaigning.
Right out of the box, as soon as he won the primary, Brady pushed forward with a bill to re-open a mass puppy killing facility for a veterinarian from his district. Brady obviously felt that re-opening the puppy euthanasia facility would be an economic boon to his home district as well as sever to help a local constituent. But what ever the reason that Brady supported this bill, the fact that one of the first things he did after he won his party’s nomination for governor was to announce a bill for killing puppies en masse is just an inept move.
Should Brady have still been just a State Senator, few would have made too much of this bill but that he had become the nominee for his party that safe anonymity goes away. The Old Media was sure to pounce on such a tone deaf, misstep. And pounce they did. The result was that Brady backed off his support for re-opening the puppy gas chamber. This messy situation could have been avoided if his campaign was on its toes.
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Could Someone PLEASE Take Control of Bill Brady’s Campaign”
Special Media Panel Announced at May 15 Activist Training Featuring Sandy Rios and Guy Benson
Americans for Prosperity is thrilled to announce that conservative talk radio hosts Sandy Rios and Guy Benson will be featured speakers during our May 15 activist/candidate training class in Lake Zurich, Illinois.
Both radio hosts will participate in a panel titled, “Freedom Fighters or Angry Mob?: How the Main Stream Media Covers the Tea Party Movement.” The discussion will be followed by a short Q & A session.
It is imperative that all attendees pre-register to attend the May 15 activist/candidate training class, as seating is limited.
Please pre-register NOW and join Sandy Rios, Guy Benson, Americans for Prosperity and American Majority for a full day of training and lively discussion.
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Candidate & Activist Training — Special Media Panel With WIND’s Guy Benson/WYLL’s Sandy Rios”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Some of my colleagues on the web are saying that Fox News Chicago reporter Tera Williams “revealed her bias” about the relative efficacy of Chicago’s absurd gun buyback program.
In yet another TV report on this meaningless program, reporter Williams was interviewing a Chicago resident on his thoughts about the whole thing. The resident told her, “it’s a good way to start,” to which Williams said “Something’s better than nothing, right?”
Well, no it’s not, Ms Williams. This program has been a complete failure for making a dent in the violence and shootings in the City of Chicago. While other great cities of the nation have seen falling murder rates over the last decade, Chicago has seen its rate rise. Even as this waste of money and time of a program was started in 2006, the murder rate has not been positively affected by the program. In fact, this year the city has already experienced over 100 shooting deaths and we aren’t even at the half way point in the year yet.
But, I am not going to say that Williams’ empty-headed statement is proof of her bias in favor of the program. I’d say it is more like her utter cluelessness of how ineffective it has been.
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Chicago TV Reporter Clueless On Gun Buyback Program”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On May 6 the Bloomington Pantagraph took an odd swipe at GOP candidate for the 11th Congressional District Adam Kinzinger’s military service in a brief story that reported that he’d been called to active duty.
Kinzinger, a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, was called to active duty and the paper duly reported that fact in a short report. But an odd thing happened between the editor and printer. First of all the paper didn’t detail Kinzinger’s rank, bad enough I know. But the 6 short paragraph story ended with this line:
He often touts his military experience on the campaign trail in the once reliably Republican district.
Just what the heck is all that supposed to mean? Kinzinger “touts” his military experience? Does he not really have any such military experience, Pantagraph? Are you claim he is lying or making more of it than it is? Do you have any examples of Kinzinger making light of his service or using it unduly? Why the negative connotations here? Unless, of course, you have an ulterior motive of place doubt in the reader’s mind?
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Bloomington Paper Takes Odd Swipe At Kinzinger’s Military Service”