by Mark Rhoads
Under the normal old rules of politics of yesteryear, few Senate Majority Leaders would try to force members of the party caucus to sign a suicide pact to vote for a monstrously expensive and controversial bill on a straight party-line vote. This time, the Democrats could not even [...]
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) is very angry at her colleague from her state in the U.S. Senate, Joe Lieberman, due to his on again and off again oppostion to the Senate version of the Harry Ried health care bill. DeLauro told reporters for Politico web site yesterday, “No individual [...]
by Mark Rhoads
A few months ago I wrote that one of the defining attributes of socialists and others on the far left is that they are often unable to understand that there is any difference at all between the concept of "government" and the concept of "society." Tom Paine did [...]
By Mark Rhoads
No sooner had Al Gore finished telling an audience at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen that the "latest data" showed the Arctic Ocean could be completely free of ice in just five years, the scientist who did the research that Gore cited told the world he did not [...]
According to the Reuters News Service, United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-moon said this in New York on Dec. 8.
"Nothing that has come out in the public as a result of the recent email hackings has cast doubt on the basic scientific message" [...]
by Mark Rhoads
In a post on Sunday, I was critical of what I thought was the slow and incomplete coverage of The New York Times to the story of how hacked emails of top pro-human caused global warming scientists compared to overseas newspapers. Well here is one-half pat on the back [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Like many conservatives I have often criticized editors of The New York Times for the reason that, while they are entitled to their liberal editorial policy, they too often seem to let that ideology dictate what they will or will not cover as a news story and therefore [...]
By Mark Rhoads
The good news is that for the most part, President Obama has taken the advice of his chief commander on the gound in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal instead of the advice of wannabe Gen. Joe Biden and other White House political advisers who never even got close [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Penn State Univeristy announced today that man-made climate warming high priest Michael Mann is under investigation by his university in connnection with the Climategate scandal. Also today Phil Jones is stepping down from his post. Here is the AP story in part:
GA_googleFillSlot("news_story_left_sidebar"); LONDON (AP) - Britain's University [...]by Mark Rhoads
In normal times I could care less if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to spend $2,993 of her own money on flowers for her office in the summer months. Flowers are nice and pretty and full of fragrance to cheer up an office. But she did not spend her own [...]
by Mark Rhoads
The London Times reported on Nov. 29 that:
"SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based."
"It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to" [...]
By Mark Rhoads
Give dishnoest scientists enough rope, and they might hang themselves. Following the Climategate scandal at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the UK, on Wednesday came revelations of more fake global warming data at The New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. All [...]
by Mark Rhoads
According to NASA sources quoted by Investors Business Daily, The publisher of Al Gore's new book on climate change took a NASA image of the Earth for the book cover and Photoshopped it to fake a large image of four hurricanes at one time and accidentally deleted the [...]
by Mark Rhoads
A formerly sensible but still liberal Democratic U.S. Senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown, appeared on CNN over the weekend to imitate President Obama's recent rhetoric and ominously delcare that his moderate Democratic colleagues who don't want government-run health insurance shoud not want "to be on the wrong side of" [...]
by Mark Rhoads
President Obama, who was a mediocre and non-leadership state senator in Springfield, has labored to explain why its OK to throw people in jail if they don't buy health insurance the bureaucrats approve. He often points out that many states require people to buy auto collision insurance if' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Say what you will about Barack Obama, he's got chutzpah when it comes to reversing himself in public. According to Reuters, he told Fox News of all news groups (Yup, they're speaking to each other again) yesterday that "It is important though to recognize if we keep on" [...]
by Mark Rhoads
While almost all national polls show President Obama's approval rating slipping, not all polls are uniform in measuring how much approval he has lost or why. One very simple way to bias the results of any poll is to dramatically distort the sample. One year ago President Obama' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Various news organizations have revealed in recent days a series of deals made by the Obama White House in order to help Nancy Pelosi round up 220 votes and give political cover to some of her uncomfortable Democratic colleagues.
The pro-life lobby and some gullible Roman Catholic bishops were bought [...]
By Mark Rhoads
Many news pundits in MSM have said for a year that President Barack Obama knows more about how to make a great speech than any president since time began. It is true at a first hearing, they sound articulate and full of soaring rhetoric. But the odd thing is [...]
by Mark Rhoads
An article I posted on IR yesterday was condemned by the usual trolls for suggesting that the Obama Administration was deliberately trying to push the Hassan investigation into a "stress" story line and that might have a chilling effect on allowing FBI investigators to follow up leads that might connect Maj. [...]
In an effort to protect Muslims in uniform who are loyal Americans, The Secretary of the Army and other federal officials in and outside the Pentagon a few days ago cautioned the public against jumping to premature conclusions that the mass murder at Fort Hood was an act of terror directly [...]
by Mark Rhoads
If actions speak louder than words,the actions and attempted policies and of Barack Obama have shown him to be the most radical American president of all time in just his short time in office to date. According to Democratic members of Congress quoted in The New York Times today [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd District in southwest Cook County) often makes a great show of attending Sunday mass at St. John of The Cross Parish in Western Springs and also makes a great show of pretending to be a leader on pro-life issues. He thinks today he got [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Former State Sen. Cecil A. Partee (D-Chicago) was the first African American to lead any state legislative chamber in the 20th Century when he was elected State Senate President in 1971. Sen. Partee made famous a saying that is now part of political language everywhere when he often [...]
By Mark Rhoads
The strange cult of Barack Obama worship continues to surface. One or two videos of kids in schools singing praises for Obama could be dismissed as bizarre, but these videos are becoming an epidemic. Once exposed, schools and teachers are removing the videos from You Tube as fast as bloggers can find them. [...]
By Mark Rhoads
What is so unfair about making Congress live under the same laws it passes for the rest of America? Now comes the famous, or infamous as you like, Rep. Joe ("You lie") Wilson to offer a simple amendment to Nancy Pelosi's now 2,000 page health care bill. The' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Way back when, when Al "The Sky is Falling due to Global Warming" Gore was in college in the 1960s, the New Christy Minstrels had a popular folk song with these lyrics:
Green, green, it's green they say
On the far side of the hill
Green, green, I'm [...]
by Mark Rhoads
America's two political parties often seem to compete for the title of which can be the most foolish. House Democrats propose a bill that has never gone through any committee and runs 1,990 pages that no living soul has ever read and that may easily cost more than one' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Acording to a report in Editor and Publisher magazine today, national newspaper circulation again declined another 10.6 percent compared to one year ago at the end of September 2008. Both Chicago newspapers continue to lose home delivery and newsstand sales. The Tribune lost 9.72 percent and The Sun-Times [...]
by Mark Rhoads
There is a quote often attributed, whether correct or not is the subject of a debate, to the Italian poet -- Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) who wrote about the circles of Hell in The Divine Comedy. The quote is "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times" [...]
By Mark Rhoads
Earlier this week the special paymaster at the Treasurry Department ordered seven financial firms that received government bail outs to cut the salaries of their top executives in half. President Obaama said at The White House, "It does offend our values when executives of big financial firms that are" [...]
By Mark Rhoads
TV News reporters love to cover stories about their own profession. So much so that one might be forgiven for thinking that opinions of such "liberal" or "conservative" talking heads as Kieth Olbermann and Rachel Maddow at MSNBC or Bill O'Reilly at Fox or syndicated radio host Rush' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Reports from Oslo today say that a majority, three out of five, Nobel Peace Prize jurors started out objecting to a prize for President Barack Obama. They were worn down by the chair in the end. CLICK HERE TO SEE STORY.
By Mark Rhoads
Evidence has been growing for some time that the wealthiest members of the US Senate are Democrats. But now an analysis of House districts shows that Democrats represent more affluent House districts than Republicans do. See [www.usatoday.com]
by Mark Rhoads
Many Americans on the political Left honestly cannot understand why conservatives get so annoyed at President Barack Obama when he apologizes for America in venues overseas. The Left accuses us of a false patriotism that hides the mistakes of American governments in the past.
They also often are critical [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Johannesburg, South Africa… A secret committee of three people of the 59th Miss World pageant, has shocked the beauty pageant world with an announcement that its judges have already chosen President Barack Obama of the United States to win the crown as Miss World 2009 [...]by Mark Rhoads
My pen pal, Alderman Vi Daley of the 43rd Ward, sends me an email with her helpful list of streets in the ward that will be closed off next Sunday morning. She writes "The Chicago Marathon takes place on Sunday, October 11, 2009.
The race begins at 7:30AM and 45,000 runners will" [...]
by Mark Rhoads
It does not matter if you are a wild fan or a severe critic of President Barack Obama, this might be the oddest story and most rigged election in recent memory. In 1895, the will of Alfred Nobel directed that a committee of five people elected by the Norwegian [...]
by Mark Rhoads
It seemed a little like Illinois Day today at the weekly meeting of national conservative coalition groups in Washington, DC. The prestigious meeting is hosted every Wednesday morning by Grover G. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).
Among the 60 speakers today were State Sen. Randy Hultgren, a candidate for the GOP [...]
by Mark Rhoads
The White House has announced that President Barack Obama will be the first President of the United States not to welcome the Dalai Lama to Washington since the Bhuddist spiritual leader of Tibet began his visits to America in 1991. Shame on the president for his careless disregard of human [...]
by Mark Rhoads
David Letterman is a well-paid and in some circles a popular late night talk show host and comedian, sometimes. That does not make him immune from common human temptations, or from making stupid mistakes. It also did not make him immune from the attempt of someone to extort money from him [...]
by Mark Rhoads
The collectivist elites of Europe finally managed to wear out the Irish voters by forcing them to vote twice in 18 months to adopt the European Union Constitution that now calls itself The Lisbon Treaty. Ireland finally approved the treaty yesterday after rejecting it in 2008 when Frace did [...]
by Mark Rhoads
From National Review at 2 PM Chicago time on Friday, Oct. 2.
10. Dead people can't vote at IOC meetings
9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal
8. Who cares if Obama couldn't talk the IOC into Chicago? He'll be able to talk Iran out of nukes.
7. The' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Not all GOP Members of Congress are dumb, but some are more dumb than others. The dumbest of the dumb are the ones who actually try to answer idiotic taunts from even dumber Democrats. The favorite taunt this week to US House Republicans from the dim-bulb Democrats is this, [...]
by Mark Rhoads
It is hard to think of an Illinois-specific angle to he story about the arrest of film director Roman Polanski in Switzerland and the request by Los Angeles prosecutors for Switzerland for extradite Polanski back to California to appear in court. Except for this angle and that is [...]
By Mark Rhoads
The Foreign Minister of Canada and his delegation to the United Nations General Assembly walked out on a speech by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who sparked new outrage just last week by again calling Nazi Germany’s murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust a “myth,” and then saying' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
A new poll says President Barack Obama's huge PR effort has only just barely moved the needle in favor of his health care bills by a few points but not by a margin that is statistically significant.
Tonight the corner on National Review has highlights of the latest NBC' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
On Friday President Obama taped a round of network shows for Sunday morning broadcast and after months of saying his opponents are misrepresenting his polices, suddenly this weekend he has decided to present an image as the Voice of Moderation. No he says, severe racial animosity is NOT the primary [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Until this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi always said that protest and dissent were patriotic activities as long as demonstrators were against George W. Bush and carried pictures of him portrayed as Adolph Hitler with a short mustache. That was fine then, it was free speech to dis the [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion states that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
The Obama crusdade of 2008 was in many ways for its followers an idealistic and populist wave of reaction to ecomonic and foreign policy failings of the two Bush Administration terms' [...]
by Mark Q. Rhoads
On the night of September 12, 2009, I met some new friends in Virginia came to Washington, DC from all over the country for the Tea Party March on the Capitol. Many were surprised to see such massive crowds of tens of thousands of people who felt about [...]
by Mark Rhoads
While nothing should surprise us when it comes to Main Stream Media still shilling for President Obama no matter what, the degree of bias is getting so blatant that one is amazed that the network owners are not even embarrassed. A CNN quickie poll overnight showed that wonder of [...]
by Quentin Patrick
The demagoguery of President Barack Obama has almost no limits. It is the same pattern of childish behavior from him now that he so often displayed during his years in the Illinois State Senate. Tonight, he says passing some form of a government-run health plan or some hybrid [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Maybe most of you have seen this video already. Some Americans might have thought that the bizarre Obama cult of personality closed down its operation just after the Inauguration last January when President Obama was finally sworn in to his office.
But those people are wrong. The very strange personality cult [...]
by Mark Rhoads
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 scenes of the attacks on the World Trade Center were already on all network television feeds when President George W. Bush sat down after 9 am Eastern time to read to a second grade class at the Emma Booker [...]
by Mark Rhoads
"Documentary film maker" (translation: Ultra-Left Wing Minister of Propaganda) Michael Moore has told the Reuters News Service at some rinky dink film festival in Europe where he is hawking his new movie that "capitalism is evil." If so, then so are profits Michael. Will you pledge to turn [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Mayor Daley is defending the turnover of the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue from Wacker to Ohio for two days to the Ophrah Winfrey Show with a novel claim. He says this one PR stunt for Oprah's show will "create jobs." How many jobs and for how long? Daley' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
There were many comments a few weeks ago on a post I wrote concerning the need to stock up on old incandescent light bulbs before the government mandates everyone to use mercury-based compact flourescent light bulbs in 2012. Socialists [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Many Americans highly regard the privilege of burial at Arlington National Cemetery because it has always been considered a special place and home to military heroes, often medal winners and combat veterans with distinguished service in uniform. Sen. Ted Kennedy will be buried next week at Arlington and [...]
by Mark Rhoads
It might sound harsh but I think it is a true statement to observe that Americans who love liberty have much more to fear from some fuzzy-headed members in Congress who pretend to be "conservative Republicans" than they need to fear from all the socialist schemes of the Obama Administration and [...]
by Mark Rhoads
The old rule of etiquette that advised not to speak ill of the recently departed was quietly set aside by some on the Left a week ago after the dealth of columnist Robert Novak. But the rule is still a good one and in that light I am sure most [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Yesterday White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs replied to a question from a reporter who wanted confirmation that President Obama told a group of congressmen in Iowa that he was willing to be a "one-term" president if need be to make health care reform his legacy. There are two [...]
by Mark Rhoads
President Obama went on radio yesterday to blame Republicans for obstrucing his brand of health insurance reform. Duh?
Republicans are badly out-numbered in the House and Senate and the job of a minority oppostition party usually is to try to slow up the other party's legislation if they think it' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Every pundit in the main stream media scoffed when Sarah Palin referred to the end-of-life "counseling" panels in Democratic health care insurance bills as "death panels" She was accused of telling lies and using scare tactics and making things up that were not there. The Obama White House press [...]
On Sept.11, 2006 I posted the article below as part of my Illinois Hall of Fame series on Illinois Review. I post it again now to mark the death of Mr. Novak today.
Illinois Hall of Fame: Robert Novakby Mark Rhoads - Sept. 11, 2006
Chicago Sun-Times syndicated-columnist Robert Novak [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Remember how the left-wing pundits used to get so furious at President George W. Bush because they said he was too stubborn to admit his mistakes? Socialists and advocates of nanny-state regulations almost never admit they are wrong no matter how many of their plans fail nor how spectacular the [...]
by Mark Rhoads
In the book "1984" by George Orwell, the hero of the story is Winston Smith whose job at the Ministry of Truth is to change the past by deleting from the public record news stories about people or ideas who once existed but are now out of favor [...]
A very talented movie maker and Illinois native has died of a heart attack at the age of 59. I wrote about John Hughes in the Illinois Hall of Fame series in 2003. Below is what I wrote then about John.
If you know where Shermer, Illinois [...]
By Mark Rhoads
In 1970, Richard Harris played England's Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell in a movie. At the end, Cromwell is so frustrated with his balky Parliament that he dismisses them to rule by decree. Cromwell is weary and frustrated by the democracy he once loved because Parliament cannot see things his' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Carefully read this lead by Raymond Colitt and Ana Isabel Martinez from Reuters - both for what it says and does not say:
CARACAS, Aug 1 (Reuters) - More than a dozen of 34 radio stations ordered shut by the Venezuelan government went off the air on Saturday, [...]
by Mark Rhoads
President Barack Obama is starting to realize that while he can still charm the birds out of the trees in the most left-wing faction of his own party, there are limits to his effectiveness as an advocate for perhaps well-intentioned spending programs when the money runs out. He [...]
by Mark Rhoads
A few weeks ago the Republican National Committee (RNC) started running one of its famous incredibly stupid commercials with a tag line that said, "Tell President Obama that you want him to work with Republicans." Now House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)is doing his best to channel Gerry [...]
by Mark Rhoads
President Barack Obama started to get on the right track duing a speech to the NAACP Convention in New York on July 16. Obama said. "It's because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child's'" [...]
As Ronald Reagan once said, 'there they go again." You might have noticed that some Illinois blogs and Springfield-based politicos now refer to the almost self-appointed members of a group that used to be the statutorily-created Republican State Central Committee as something called the'" [...]
by Mark Rhoads
In a previous post, I compared President Obama to the character of "Big Julie from Chicago" in the Tony-Award-winning Broadway musical Guys and Dolls by Damon Runyon. Mob tough guy Big Julie blows into the world of New York gamblers to join their crap game. Julie cheats blatantly but [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Today both the New York Times and LA Times are running in depth articles about why Sarah Palin "really" resigned from the office of governor of a small state. I cannot figure out this very eccentric fascination with the Palin resignation story which, while interestng or curious [...]
Charlie Windsor is an unemployed kid from a rich family who the Brits so amusingly call their "prince" just like in ancient times. "His Highness" as some Brits also insist on calling him in recent years is supposed to have only one role to play in [...]
by Mark Rhoads
The unfunded liability of public-employee pensions in DC and Illinois is a growing problem. Some local police departments in California pay more for pensions of retired officers than they do in salaries to currently serving officers. California cannot find banks to accept its IOUs. The New York Times reports today on pension debts [...]
by Mark Rhoads
It took the shocking June jobless report to do it, but finally serious media writers in DC are starting to ask, "Can we really afford all this Obama program money including a new national health program on top?" Here is what Mark Gerson said in the pro-Obama Washington [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Here is an item and comment emailed to me by Tom Sturrock, and economist in New York City who grew up in west Cook County suburbs and who graduated from the University of Illinois.
ScienceDaily (July 7, 2009) — Particulate air pollution during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Gloating begin and the chapagne corks pop in the editorial office of Vanity Fair and in Rockefeller Center network newsrooms and in the offices of Dave Letterman at The Ed Sullian Theater. Some on the left will jump for joy tonight that they ran Sarah out of town [...]
by Mark Rhoads
For many decades,far too many members of Congresss from both parties have routinely abused the perk of travel overseas at taxpayer expense for dubious reasons or no reason at all. The Wall Street Journal reports that the cost is up ten times from 1995 and up 50 percent since [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Socialists around the world always love to turn more and more power over to government because they insist it is always for your own good and they will keep helping you until it kills you. Now the FDA is considering removing Tylenol and Excedrin from your store shelf because [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Federal courts are already burdened with many drug cases that should have been heard in state courts. But the U.S. Supreme Court can choose for itself what cases it wants to hear. In theory, the high court is not supposed to re-try issues of fact but only review [...]
by Mark Rhoads
"Do you think the federal government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans, or isn't this the responsibility of the federal government?" Sixty percent of the sample say "yes" to that question in a June 16-18 CBSNews/New York Times poll. Only 30 percent of those polled replied that' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
What do Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama have in common? None of them liked the traditional role of the First Lady and would rather be working on "substance." The problem is that no member of the Electoral College ever voted for any of them [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Since the close of World War II in 1945, American politics has been largely defined by the tension between two competing philosophical views of the proper role of government in our lives. The short-hand term has been "conservative" for those who think when any government takes on too much [...]
by Mark Rhoads
I am not really sure why exactly, but many of my liberal (sorry, aka "progressive") friends seem caught up this last week in following and actually rooting for good guys-the democtratic opposition in Iran. This is not only spectator sport on Twitter for them, they really want to [...]
by Mark Rhoads
A very few readers of IR might be old enough to remember Richard Morrison, "The Babbling Burglar" whose shocking revelations of police corruption started the Summderdale scandal in the 1960s that led to the arrest and conviction of some corrupt police officers. Now we have the Babbling Vice [...]
by Mark Rhoads
While I have previously often been critical of the way that some Illinois news oranizations do their jobs when covering state politics in Springfield, I hav e to admit now that on their worst day the Illinois news media at our state capitol in will never match the poor performance of some of their [...]
By Mark Rhoads
"I have a very tough schedule and I would love nothing more than to have a leisurely week in Paris, stroll down the Seine, take my wife out to a nice meal, have a picnic in Luxembourg Gardens," Obama said, pointing out that he was caught [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Remember how some left-wing news pundits said last fall that Barack Obama's serious lack of experience in security and international affairs (Joe Biden agreed)would not be a problem because he could hire staff who had more experience to help him? But now the naive blunders of BOTH Obama AND his dim-bulb staff are' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Dictionaries define sacrilege as the profanation or violation of matters that are held to be sacred by large numbers of people. For Christians in America, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ is the central sacred event in the Christian faith.
This [...]
By Mark Rhoads
The headline above is not intended to provoke a debate on exactly where or when President Barack Obama was born. My question is prompted in part by an article written by Tom Roeser on April 24. Suppose we assume for the sake of argument that, as his web site says, Obama was born at [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Bill McGurn is a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and National Review and he was a White House speech writer. He is also a graduate of Notre Dame.
He spoke on the campus on Thursday, April 23 at an event sponsored by the Notre Dame Center for Ethics [...]
by Mark Rhoads
During the Cold War, an Illinois congressman used to say that he feared the agenda of domestic home-grown American socialists as a greater threat to freedom in this country than the Communist Party then ruling the Soviet Union. His point was that while Communism was the most virulent [...]
by Mark Rhoads
There has been so much news coverage of Susan Boyle, the singer from Scotland, that there is little new that can be said of her media fame after only ten days. But I kept wondering what was familiar about her? Why did I think she reminded me of someone?
Then [...]
by Mark Rhoads
Communist dictator Fidel Castro siezed power by force fifty years ago and never faced the voters in an honest election since. He now likes to pretend to be "retired" so that little brother Raul can call himself "El Presidente" de Cuba.
Yet that didn't stop Fidel from recently receiving a delegation of' [...]
by Mark Rhoads
A large number of left-of center liberals--or "progressives" as they liked to be called; and even an uncomortably high number of conservatives, seem to place excessive trust in new laws as the solution to all the economic, social, or cultural ills that face the states and nation that they would like to [...]
