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edited by: Douglas Welch,
Illinois Editor
The progressive Democrat who wants to keep the Bush tax cuts….
I support leaving the current tax rates in place until the recession ends because an increase may slow the rate of our economic recovery. Once our economy recovers, I would remove the tax cuts for individuals at upper-income levels [...]
Below are our daily picks from the Illinois blogosphere and media at large:
Handing The GOP A Problem
GOP gubernatorial candidate Andy McKenna
wants to cut the state's minimum wage. NBC's Steve Rhodes responds that
this blue state likely won't take kindly to such a proposal.
Overcoming Stigma
Tim
Klein at' [...]
The new slogan for Bill Kelly, Republican Candidate for Comptroller
Click here to view the embedded video.
The most intriguing question is who is he addressing at the very beginning? Someone named Rich?
Spending like a drunken sailor is almost certain to make it onto the direct mail.
Apart from declining to endorse either of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, the AFL-CIO threw its weight behind Alexi Giannoulias for U.S. Senate, Terry Link for lieutenant governor, and Robin Kelly for state treasurer.
The federation also did not endorse in the 10th Congressional District primary or the comptroller race.
You can [...]
The Sun-Times is reporting that the Illinois AFL-CIO, which held its endorsement session this morning, has declined to support either Gov. Pat Quinn or Democratic challenger Dan Hynes:
Tuesday’s weighted vote of Illinois AFL-CIO member unions was 58-42 for Hynes, short of the two-thirds majority needed for an endorsement. That means [...]
After wrangling over the details of a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) for months now, the House will finally take up legislation to create the consumer watchdog agency this week. As this bill (H.R. 3126) made its way through committee during the fall, it engendered a good deal [...]
GOP candidate and attorney Dan Sugrue of Green Oaks handily won the endorsement of the Vernon Township GOP organization last night.Coal ash is getting more scrutiny after the catastrophic spill in Tennessee. A coal combustion waste landfill proposed by an Ameren subsidiary in Southern Illinois is receiving some unwanted attention. A local TV station did a good report on a public hearing for the 23 acre landfill [...]
and as usual nonsense comes out of his mouth. He is still Hell Bent on bringing back the little Imam from the well. Now he is saying the US is blocking the Mahdi’s return because Iran will be the center of the saviour’s return.
Iranian President Mahmoud [...]
Justice thwarts Black Panther subpoenas: The Obama team is covering up voter-intimidation evidence. Washington Times.Press release:
Date: December 8, 2009
Released by: Alma Brown, Communications Manager, 494-8554
Subject: SOLID WASTE/YARD WASTE CARTS
Waste Management solid waste and yard waste carts will be exchanged during the week of December 14 – 18. In order to facilitate the exchange, we are asking that all carts be [...]
The Tiger and Barack deception. Lisa Schiffren, The American Thinker.Following the partial rollback of the Cook County sales tax, there's been plenty of action in the Democratic primary for board president. Here's the latest:
Veteran Chicago reporter Don Terry scored an interview with incumbent Todd Stroger shortly after the board overrode his veto last week. Stroger was quick to play the victim card,' [...]
Via the N-G ([www.news-gazette.com])
URBANA – Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz has concluded that the shooting of a Champaign teen by a police officer in October was an accident and that no criminal charges will be filed against Officer Daniel Norbits.
Rietz this morning released her own 13-page summary of [...]
Killing jobs, slashing growth, roaming your home threatening your privacy and liberty, stalking us, dripping deficit ribbons of red ink as far as the eye can see: Most pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act are trace compounds like ozone [...]
A reliable source tells me that GateHouse Media officials stunned the staff of the Pekin Daily Times this morning with an announcement that the afternoon newspaper is moving to morning-only.
This means every employee at the paper will have to adjust their work schedules. Also, deadlines for the morning paper [...]
Sarah Palin's latest stop in her book tour de force is at the Twin Cities' Mall of America. (AP video) Shocker polls: That Sarah Palin-Barack Obama gap melts to 1 point Andrew Malcolm, Top of the Ticket.
First of all, I know it looks impossible to even say, so let's clear up that last name. It's pronounced An-gee-ef-ski. I know, I know, that means here in Illinois we could possibly go from a Governor Blagojevich to an Andrzejewski. But the difficult last name should [...]
I have taken it upon myself to end the ridiculous notion that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is contemplating a run for the US Senate.
As of the end of 2008 Madigan had approximately $3.5 million in her Illinois campaign account, a total that is sure to grow on July 15 [...]
This past week the RNC approved a watered down version of an ill-advised resolution branding the Democrats as “socialists.” The adopted version called on Democrats to “stop pushing our country toward socialism.” While much improved from the original plan, the entire idea was flawed from the start.
While it may be [...]
by Mark Silva
Another national poll measuring a loss of majority support for the job that President Barack Obama is performing suggests that the president is "coming up short'' in his promise of unifying the nation.
The president's public job-approval stands at 46 percent in the Marist College Poll released" [...]
Front page Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune (bottom R), WSJ, NY Times.Facing the worst recession in a generation, U.S. Rep. Phil Hare isn't sitting around and waiting for the job market to rebound on its own. On Friday, we highlighted the Quad City Democrat's proposal to close what he's called the jobs deficit. On MSNBC's The Ed Show last night, he explained the' [...]
from the United Republican Fund
Following its Annual Meeting on December 1, 2009 the United Republican Fund of Illinois, Inc. announced the corporation’s 2010 officers:
Denis J. Healy, Chairman of Turtle Wax, Inc., was re-elected Chairman
The “Climategate” scandal, or hoax, has seriously damaged the standing of academic scientists and peer-reviewed science in general, as we have seen how a large group of prominent “scientists” actively engaged in a conspiracy, de facto if not de jure, to deceive the world via faked [...]
CWLP's quarterly Community Energy Forum is coming up this Thursday! This is your chance to find out about new energy efficiency programs being developed for Springfield residents and businesses. There will be updates on the new commercial lighting rebate program, a report on the strategic planning sessions in the [...]
Former State Senator Steve Rauschenberger endorsed Republican gubernatorial Dan Proft this morning on 890 AM WLS' Don and Roma show. Rauschenberger's endorsement gives a cold shoulder to Illinois Senate colleagues Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard, who are also running for governor.
Rauschenberger himself is struggling through one of this' [...]
by Mark Silva
In Washington, President Barack Obama said today, critics are "waxing political'' about curtailing the federal deficit after a decade of compounding it.
"One of the central goals of this administration is restoring fiscal responsibility,'' the president in a speech detailing his ideas for redirecting some of [...]
Einstein, disguised as Robin HoodTHE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
December 8, 2009
Remarks of President Barack Obama - As Prepared for Delivery
Job Creation and Economic Growth
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Brookings Institution
Washington, DC
Almost exactly one year ago, on a cold winter's day, I met with my new economic team at the [...]
As regular readers know all too well, ongoing mismanagement at Chicago's Public Health department is costing taxpayers a bundle. The agency's problems date back to 2007 when former director Dr. Terry Mason approved a plan to purchase a $16.1 million billing system from Cerner Corp. State officials warned early on that the system was [...]
All the news reports on the explosion at Belvidere’s NDK plant mentioned the fact that the building was designed so that in the event of an explosion, the exterior walls would detach and hurtle themselves away from the structure.
“The building was designed so that panels will fly away in an [...]
by Jim Tankersley
COPENHAGEN - After an opening day of pomp and hope-sowing, the largely behind-the-scenes negotiations for a new global climate treaty have begun in earnest here in Danish capital.
That means it's time for the bargaining-table leaks to begin, as veterans of past climate summits will tell you.
So, what have we, a surge, or what? President Obama is sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, 10,000 fewer than Gen. McChrystal requested, but when the 7,000 more troops to be supplied by our allies show up, the total is 37,000, close to what the general asked for. Soon [...]
by Mark Silva
It was inevitable.
Art immitates life.
Memorable memoirs are made of this.
The spoof of Sarah Palin's popular memoir, Going Rogue, is entitled Going Rouge.
But friends of Sarah may be seeing [...]
by Mark Silva
The biggest borrowing in the history of Chicago's Water Reclamation District was supposed to be "fair and reasonable.''
Yet it cost taxpayers $8 million in unnecessary interest and spawned a "bonanza'' for bankers and investors, Bloomberg News reports.
Michael Quint and John McCormick, weighing in with a look at [...]
from the Vargas for Congress campaign
St. Charles, IL—Republican candidate for Congress Mark Vargas, in an attempt to unify the Republican Party, has decided to step aside, and instead, endorse fellow Republican Ethan Hastert in his bid to become the next Congressman from the 14th Congressional District.
“Politics [...]
Solution Near In High-Speed Rail Dispute
Springield leaders who had threatened a lawsuit to block a proposal to run a high-speed rail line through Sagamon County met with state officials yesterday to hash out a solution. The dispute threatens the state's ability to collect billions in federal [...]
Mayor Daley's nephew Robert Vanecko says he no longer has a financial stake in a real estate investment firm he co-founded that got deals to manage $68 million for five [...]
by Mark Silva
Credit Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for reading the White House schedule, the one that features President Barack Obama today proposing a new jobs-boosting program in the midst of pervasive high unemployment.
Obama, Steele says in a letter to the White House today, should be looking [...]
Federal prosecutors will present former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich with revised criminal charges. The reason? The US Supreme Court will hear another Chicago case, that of Conrad Black, the former CEO of the Hollinger media empire.
Rep. Bill Brady, Bloomington, and GOP candidate for governor, is out with a new, and upbeat, ad. Watch: [...]
I keep hearing that State's Attorney Julia Rietz will both meet with the Carrington family and release their report mid-morning today.
[...]Press release:
Date: December 8, 2009
Released by: Alma Brown, Communications Manager
Subject: SNOW STORM UPDATE
City crews are currently spreading a sand/salt mix on primary routes. As this storm progresses today, temperatures are expected to warm and snow will eventually mix with rain. As a result, primary intersections will be [...]
What left-wing loon wrote this ode to France’s socialist health care system?
For a dozen years now I’ve led a dual life, spending more than 90 percent of my time and money in the U.S. while receiving 90 percent of my health care in my wife’s native France. On a [...]
OBAMA GETS SURGE IN AFGHAN WAR APPROVAL,
QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY NATIONAL POLL FINDS;
BUT ONLY 26% OF U.S. VOTERS SAY HE DESERVES NOBEL PRIZE
Public support for the war in Afghanistan is up nine percentage points in the last three weeks, as American voters say 57 - 35 [...]
by Mark Silva
As President Barack Obama heads for Oslo this week to accept the Nobel Prize for Peace -- only the third sitting president to accept the award -- he is ramping up the U.S. military deployment in Afghanistan, an eight-year-old war, to nearly 100,000 troops.
The irony [...]
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2009
DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009
In the morning, the President and the Vice President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and the Economic Daily [...]
Please?The city's hunt to fill its cash-starved coffers has come to this: Some traffic-control aides -- those city employees in the fluorescent coats who help cars and pedestrians move' [...]
Hoffman Estates trustees Monday approved a $126 million budget for 2010 that cuts four police officer positions.
But the Village Board could amend the budget Dec. 14 if Village President William McLeod gets concessions, much as the firefighters'' [...]
It was with interest that I read the news item published Monday by the Chicago Tribune's website -- federal prosecutors are likely to come up with a new indictment against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to try to ensure that the "guilty" verdict they are desperately seeking [...]
from White House.gov...
President Barack Obama meets with former Vice President Al Gore in the Oval Office in advance of his Wednesday meeting with business and environmental leaders at the White House regarding the Copenhagen [...]
Federal prosecutors are promising to bring a new indictment against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to avoid issues connected to an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court on the scope of the federal "honest services" statute under which Blagojevich has been charged.
That would prevent the need to [...]
I was tired last week of hearing the name Tiger Woods. The guy can golf. I don’t care who he’s sleeping with.
Do I believe in fidelity in marriage? Yes, I do. Am I sad to hear that Tiger has allegedly strayed? Yes, I am. Is it any [...]
Generally, I encourage elected officials to make use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It’s a great way to communicate back and forth with constituents.
But there is such a thing as being too transparent. Consider this status update from State Sen. Emil Jones:
Two rules: 1. The boss [...]
Despite an intimidating, standing-room-only crowd of coin operator union members, local residents and concerned gambling opponents, the trustees of Orland Park voted 4 to 3 to ban video poker in their village Monday night.
Arguments made by Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association Executive Director Mike Pappas that the capital bill the [...]
Taken at Pearl Harbor, circa 1930, when my dad's brother was there. I never knew Burrhead, but he was a handsome man.
[...]
Not only do the Democrats want to cut Medicare funding, they want to expand coverage.From the Washington Examiner: "Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Diane Feinstein, D-Cal., offered an amendment to a new press shield law that provides legal protections only to professional journalists employed by established mainstream media -- a blatant attempt to curb independent, often blog-based reporting like" [...]
Of course all the people going to the Manbearpig shindig in Copenhagen would take the Free Public transportation. I mean come on, we only got 10 years or the Earth will melt and we all would die. At least, you would think they would arrive in Piouses, [...]
The Peoria City Council will give its stamp of approval to the city’s legislative wish list Tuesday. There are a lot of items on the list, one of them is legislation allowing cities to monitor traffic violations at red light intersections:
[Peoria Police Chief Steve] Settingsgaard also wants to see [...]
The Brady campaign is launching its first television commercial of this campaign beginning Tuesday. The 30-second ad (below) will run in cable markets in Cook County, the collar counties and Downstate, primarily on the Fox News Channel.
by John Brown's Ghost
You probably didn't know it, but you really are endangering my life. Yes, right now. About every 10 seconds or so. Unless you have held your breath the entire time you have read these four sentences, you have endangered my life.
How is that? [...]
From the Senate Republican Communications Center:This has nothing to do with news, the media or Peoria. But I thought I’d share with my readers.
Enjoy:
Original post by Billy Dennis
[...]Remember Wayne Rodgers, the guy who used to play Trapper John on MASH? He went into real estate and other businesses and made a fortune. If you think this makes him a smart guy, you would be right:
Politically, Rogers considers himself a “Jeffersonian democrat. The best government is the [...]
CU Citizens for Peace and Justice held a press conference Monday, December 7, 2009 at the Independent Media Center to address the ongoing debate over the police shooting of Kiwane Carrington. The press conference pre-empted the release of the report by the State’s Attorney [...]
CU Citizens for Peace and Justice held a press conference Monday, December 7, 2009 at the Independent Media Center to address the ongoing debate over the police shooting of Kiwane Carrington.
Below is video of the press conference.
[...]
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release December 7, 2009
PRESS BRIEFING
BY
PRESS SECRETARY ROBERT GIBBS
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:01 P.M. EST
MR. GIBBS: Good [...]
Via POLITICO:
[Sen. John] Ensign admitted to the affair with Cindy Hampton in June, more than a year after the Hamptons left the senator’s office. Doug Hampton claims that Ensign later aided him in lining up lobbying clients, including arranging a meeting for one of those clients with Transportation Secretary [...]
Just as in the gubernatorial race, the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate has seen a bunch of new endorsements in recent days. Along with their support of Gov. Pat Quinn, Citizen Action/Illinois threw its weight behind Alexi Giannoulias' candidacy over the weekend. From a press release:
"Alexi has a proven'" [...]
Congressional candidate Joel Pollak went straight to national news sources with a discovery he's made while researching his Democratic opponent in IL's 9th CD race -- that incumbent Jan Schakowsky and her felon husband Robert Creamer may have played an integral part in scheming Obama's government health care takeover.
Pollak points to' [...]
Just how many unemployed Illinoisans are facing the prospect of a winter without any income? Too many, according to new state-by-state figures (PDF) from the National Employment Law Project (NELP).
Between January and March of next year, the national policy organization says 66,271 Illinois workers will exhaust their regular 26 weeks of state-based benefits. [...]
As far as I can gather, Glenn Beck could have only found these quotes on my blog. 
[...]
