Pretty brutal takedown on the Repubicans ‘plans’:
Meanwhile, Republicans vow to erase a deficit expected to reach nearly $12 billion next year simply by stimulating employment in the private sector and downsizing state government — a proposed remedy that may entice voters but affronts reality. Not allowing facts to intrude [...]
Rauschenberger endorses Dan Proft:
“The other candidates believe we have a management problem in state government. Proft correctly understands that it is a system problem.”
Rauschenberger, a well-respected former member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and lead budget negotiator for the Senate Republicans, cited Proft’s plans to cut taxes and impose [...]
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 [...]
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.
Update: From comments MrJM
Or is [...]
It’s been dying a thousand times over lately:
Click here to view the embedded video.
I believe at 44 seconds in they have a black helicopter.
Apparently, housing terrorists in Illinois will lead to the Sears Tower being targeted, seriously…
“If your Administration brings Al Qaeda terrorists to Illinois, our state and the Chicago Metropolitan Area will become ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization…As home to America’s tallest building, we should not invite [...]
Click here to view the embedded video.
BUTTARS: I meet with the gays here and there. They were in my house two weeks ago. I don’t mind gays. But I don’t want ‘em stuffing it down my throat all the time. Certainly not in my kid’s face.
Teabaggers who don’t understand the median vote theorem and refuse to face reality. Example number 1:
And despite the media attempting to paint Palin as a social conservative wacko the main take from her values is that she has rock-solid integrity–she allied herself with Democrats to toss out corrupt members [...]
That’s Rich’s quote regarding Kirk’s effort to get Palin’s endorsement.
He also has Alexi’s and Hoffman’s responses:
Alexi:
“Mark Kirk begging for Sarah Palin’s endorsement makes it clear that he’ll seek any endorsement, take up any political or policy position, and attempt any political maneuver that he thinks will get him more [...]
It’s hard to keep Mark Kirk straight:
In an interview of two of the 10th Congressional District candidates conducted by the Tribune editorial board, Kirk would not say whether he believed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had the qualifications to become president.
“Quite frankly, I don’t know,” said Kirk, 49, of [...]
Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) leads Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) by three points, 46-43, in an internal poll in their Senate race.
The Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll also shows former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman (D) trailing Kirk 48-39.
I’m sure more details will be [...]
In one of the better bits of right wing insanity, co-founders of the Saint Louis Tea Party asylum are called out Todd Akin and Roy Blunt for not publicly backing Hoffman (before the withdrawal) or they are going to come after them.
Loesch and Hennessy, as you [...]
Senior class president Fernando Cutz and the six black students who allege they were racially discriminated against by the Original Mothers bar in Chicago said at a news conference Wednesday that they will not be pressing charges against the establishment.
Cutz announced at the conference, held in the [...]
Before trying to tag Dan Hynes with not watching the budget closely enough, we might check the Illinois Constitution:
SECTION 17. COMPTROLLER – DUTIES The Comptroller, in accordance with law, shall maintain the [...]
“It’s time to lower the cost of health coverage. it’s time to restore accountability to the system. and it’s time to make sure every American has access to quality, affordable health care. public option will spur new innovations that will help us get there. that’s why [...]
Finally, the undersigned counsel appeals all aspects of this Court’s Order in Document #28, wherein the Court proved its pervasively extreme and outrageous (extrajudicial) prejudice and bias against the [...]
Well, that pretty much gives Fitzgerald a handy wrapped up investigation all ready to prosecute. I doubt Hassan is as loyal as Sorich.
What, does Brown think this is 1970?
I have to really hand it to Hassan for the I have no documents rant after being caught on tape [...]
I give you…Andy McKenna’s campaign video:
Click here to view the embedded video.
You could create a pretty solid drinking game out of the video and the cliches listed.
Dave Weigel, who you should be reading if you are not, finds a particular bit of indecipherable verbiage from Illinois’ fine junior Senator. I think Roland should put it on the mausoleum:
BURRIS: This has — being a constitutional and political science student, I mean, this is Political Science 101 [...]
The Trib’s story is generally good, but one of the key points gets ignored in there:
The black students offered to change clothes in their hotel, but the bar told them it wouldn’t matter, students said. They also said a white student traded pants with Murayi and got into [...]
Cheney thinks Obama is dithering on Afghanistan. Seriously. Obviously the only thing to do is attack a different country in an effort to…well..do something.
But the best analysis of two far more serious efforts at dealing with the budget deficits by the Democratic Candidates for Governor can be found at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy which suggests combining the two proposals to come up with a superior proposal.
Via Rich who is always the best way to get back to blogging, the Republican candidates were asked to come up with $1 Billion in spending cuts. Results are not promising:
Asked where each would make specific cuts to trim more than $1 billion from the state’s multi-billion dollar deficit, Dillard, [...]
Yes, it’s a mindnumblingly stupid editorial, but you should remember the schlock of yester years like the breathless reporting of Satanic Worship coming to McLean County because a sheep was found bloodied and dead. After reporting that it must be a sacrifice from a Satanic Cult, turns out [...]
About 200 Washington University seniors were attending Mother’s Night Club Original bar on Saturday night as part of their class trip to Chicago, sponsored by the [...]
It’s also another way George Bush has dumbed down standards. You don’t start unnecessary wars as President of the United States and it’s now an accomplishment.
[...]You are an old racist who needs his family to take away his keyboard:
In 2008 it seemed to many that Obama was the embodiment of sweet reason on race: a highly cultured Sidney Poitier type who starred in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”-the 1967 soft-liberal rendition that showed us [...]
Imagine lots of caps and hysterical run on sentences with the build up to this from Dave Weigel:
Jonah Goldberg steps back from the “Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s memoir” conspiracy after catching an Oct. 3 writeup of an Ayers speech. It appeared in National Journal, behind a pay wall, [...]
Jim Ryan is a decent guy and wouldn’t make a bad Governor. He’s obviously on the other side on several issues, but he’s an adult and has seldom been tolerant of the crazy wing. That said, I remember 2002–I was blogging in 2002 and the only question about his campaign [...]
The weird gloating over Chicago losing the Olympics has been covered pretty well in general and while I was skeptical of the bid, I found the gloating about the loss kinda weird to say the least.
But what it really reminded me is that conservatives always ruin a good target. Take [...]
Then, unprompted he said–I wrote Dreams From My Father. I said, oh, so you admit it. He said–Michelle asked me [...]
Kirk $1.6 Million Raised $2.3 Million On Hand
Hoffman $405,00 raised $905,000 On Hand $500,000 Personal Funds
Giannoulias $1.1 Million Raised $2.4 Million On Hand
Hoffman will need to significantly increase the amount of money he raises. While he can throw a lot more of his own money into the race, fundraising on [...]
The other party points out what an idiot you are:
David Hoffman Plays Both Sides on SEIU
Today Hoffman blasted Alexi Giannoulias for accepting SEIU support…
…after being endorsed and introduced by an SEIU-backed legislator!
CHICAGO – The Illinois Republican Party today called on Illinois Senate candidate David Hoffman to renounce his endorsement [...]
Tom Roeser is reporting that Steele is withdrawing his endorsement of Kirk in the Republican Primary. Now, given the loopiness of Michael Steele, it’s hard to say if this means much, but I still contend, Mark Kirk may have a serious primary to face. I definitely think [...]
“Congressman Mark Kirk, who in the past has voted both for and against extending unemployment benefits, apparently could not decide between pandering to right wing Republican primary voters by voting against extending [...]
Telling one of the more important constituencies to go screw themselves and essentially lying about their role in the Blagojevich corruption is not generally the way I would advise a statewide candidate to go, but who knows, this Hoffman character might be on to something new:
The National GOP is [...]
Click here to view the embedded video.
His new haircut looks quite nice though it will probably trigger another outburst at Illinois Review.
[...]42 % of Republicans think Obama was not born in the United States
25 % of Dems are true Truthers thinking Bush actively allowed 9-11 to get the United States in a Middle East war.
19 % of Republicans think Obama is the Anti-Christ
14 % of Democrats think Bush is.
I discount [...]
Growing up in Central Illinois I ran into my share of John Bircher types–some in the family. This series on Glen Beck pretty much puts everything into focus.
What has Beck been pushing on his legions? “Leap,” first published in 1981, is a heavily illustrated and factually challenged [...]
I’m finding the defund ACORN Act to be a great idea. Why?
SEC. 2. PROHIBITIONS ON FEDERAL FUNDS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES WITH RESPECT TO CERTAIN INDICTED ORGANIZATIONS.
(a) Prohibitions- With respect to any covered organization, the following prohibitions apply:
(1) No Federal contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or any other form of agreement [...]
Click here to view the embedded video.
Of course, I don’t have a birth certificate from the hospital. I have one from Will County which is the legal one that is accorded full faith and credit by the Constitution. There’s a level of wingnuttery that continues to get into [...]
According to Tom Coburn’s COS:
SCHWARTZ: And one of the things that he said to me, that I think is an astonishingly insightful remark. He said, “all pornography is homosexual pornography because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards. Now think about that. And if you, if you tell an [...]
Greg Hinz runs a uncharacteristically negative story on Kirk for Kirk’s flip flop on climate change legislation. Kirk is a bit of a golden boy in the press even for very good political reporters like Hinz because he seems to be uniquely talented as a politicians. It certainly helps [...]
In what may well get me taken off their e-mail list, Roll Call runs one of the dumbest stories on the Illinois Senate race. They compare the 2010 U.S. Senate race to the 1992 Senate race in which Carol Moseley Braun beat incumbent Al Dixon and Al Hofeld. The [...]
In the world of stupid legislators, few outdo Representative Ron Stephens (R-Wingnuttia South). Ron decided that flouridation of the water was a bad idea and introducted a bill against flouridation. Seriously.
Stephens jumped on the bandwagon to cut off state funding to ACORN last week. Problem is—ACORN doesn’t receive state [...]
Schock went down to Quincy for a teabagger rally on 9-12 and he hung out with the other featured speakers like Andrew Breitbart, Glenn Reynolds, and, oh yeah, Jim Hoft, the Gateway Pundit. A guy who likes to link to the fine white supremacists at the Council of Conservative [...]
Really? The IL GOP is going to come back with him ?
I understand Murphy’s fundraising was subpar, but he was pretty much the only guy I saw as a serious threat given the screwed up nature of the Illinois GOP.
McKenna has serious base problems and isn’t particularly well liked in [...]
Tom Roeser’s family continues to allow him internet access no matter how delusional he becomes:
I have always regarded smug late-night TV comics with suspicion since it is clear they are driven to court social upscale wannabes who laugh at conservatives like me…but I am being educated to the fact [...]
Jeebus. Even for Rush this is pretty out there:
LIMBAUGH: I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it [...]
Burris insists on a public option.
In other stopped clock news, he was also, along with Dick Durbin, one of the few Senators to vote against the ACORN amendment. Now, if he’d shut up until he goes away.
[...]I’ve honestly had a hard time posting lately because the teabaggers are so over the top insane, it’s hard to comment on them. Today’s edition:
Paging Judd Apatow David Kurtz | September 17, 2009, 11:47AM
The politically charged Texas Board of Education has kicked off hearings today on whether school [...]
Tai(n)tz goes on off Judge Land:
In an interview with TPM just now, Birther evangelist Orly Taitz fired back at Clay Land, the U.S. district court judge who tore apart Birtherism and threatened Taitz with sanctions in an order today, saying that “somebody should consider trying [the judge] for [...]
Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.
Rep. Kevin Brady asked for an explanation of why the government-run subway system didn’t, [...]
When the first paragraph threatens sanctions if you bother the Court again, it’s pretty bad:
Furthermore, Plaintiff’s counsel is
hereby notified that the filing of any future actions in this Court,
which are similarly frivolous, shall subject counsel to sanctions.
See Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(c).
As a friend described [...]
Hoffman’s announcement launched a multi-city tour of the candidate via an RV clad in his campaign colors of yellow and black. The political newcomer goes to Springfield this afternoon and then will make weekend trips to Alton, Carbondale and Champaign to introduce himself to downstate reporters [...]
A good portion was spent following teabaggers around Saint Louis which was far more active than in Illinois–until the other day at least.
I do think Democrats will lose House seats in 2010–it’s both an off year election and the Dems have a lot of seats in marginal districts. How [...]
Click here to view the embedded video.
I can’t tell the difference anymore….
Click here to view the embedded video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
I was tentatively planning on coming back tomorrow after a very long month that I’ll fill you all in on later.
However, a story reminded me of an e-mail discussion with a friend a while ago. A politician was floating his name out for higher office seemed particularly unsuited and yet [...]
Who knew, Hannity sounds kind of like a Madigan worker…
Alexi responded over at Daily Kos
My favorite is:
Rod Blagojevich
Everyone in Illinois knows that I was never close to Blagojevich. He endorsed my primary opponent when I ran for treasurer in 2006. In fact, I was a major critic of Blagojevich [...]
Awesome—Durbin calls the loons exactly what they are–loons.
“It is a small fringe group,” Schumer told the Huffington Post, “and if we let a small group of people who want to monopolize the conversation and not listen to the facts win, you may as well hang it up.”
“These town hall [...]
Senate Guru covers Mark Kirk’s summer and despite an effective kick-off, it’s not been good to him:
And there you have the story of Mark Kirk and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Summer: personally undermining the U.S. economy; getting a divorce of which a wingnut primary opponent will [...]
Seriously–for as good as he is at staging events, he’s turning into Sarah Palin.
The Kaiser Foundation tracks the non-elderly uninsured population in Illinois as 15% of the non-elderly population which means about 1.7 million uninsured and another 1.6 million or so on public insurance already. By Mark Kirk’s [...]
You see, my official birth certificate from Will County is not actually a birth certificate, but a Certificate of Live Birth!
[...]
WTF…
I believe one line (and it’s hard to tell) was “who cares what Ann Coulter thinks, she’s not an Israeli”
[...]Rich has Dan Hynes’ response to Governor Quinn and it’s decidedly un-Hynes like:
Statement from Dan Hynes’ Campaign Spokesman Mike Rendina on Governor Quinn’s Negative Attack
“Governor Quinn is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. After Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn spent 6 years in silence watching Rod [...]
Eric asks the GOP candidates if they are birthers:
As you know, there are some on the right who have serious concerns about whether President Barack Obama qualifies as a “natural-born citizen.” They question the validity of his birth records and therefore the legitimacy of his presidency. To what degree, [...]
The usual suspects are trying to claim Henry Louis Gates is at fault for not obeying the police in his arrest from his own home:
I’m saying ‘You need to send someone to fix my lock.’ All of a sudden, there was a policeman on my porch. And I thought, [...]
Or holy shit, my base hates me:
KIRK: If this comes back — and I don’t think it will, I think this bill has died in the Senate — I will be going through every detail and thinking about all of my constituents who got a hold of me on [...]
Most of the comments and questions were respectful, but disappointment, sense of betrayal and outright anger was apparent. Though the Congressman cited his many calls to c.e.o.’s as experts, he found [...]
Dear Friend,
Thank you for all of the kind letters, phone calls, and e-mails urging me to run for Congress. I am writing to tell you that today I am indeed announcing my candidacy to represent the people of the 10th district.
I am running to help the families of our [...]
I tend to find Rob Sherman a bit of a gadfly, but he’s also often correct. Eric Zorn has a round-up of funds going directly to religious institutions for what are not solely secular purposes:
Here are the three worst examples of blatantly unconstitutional expenditures that I’ve found, so far:
Unless there is a third serious contender on the right wing, Kirk is simply not pure enough for the Republican base.
He’s pro-choice, pro-gun control, not anti-gay at least, and doesn’t deny science. If McKenna primaries him one on one, McKenna takes that race. The only minor problem for McKenna is [...]
July 10, 2009, 4:18 p.m.
By Shira Toeplitz
Roll Call Staff
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is still considering running for Senate, despite a report Friday [...]
Update, 4:17 p.m.: Although Kirk has already told several national Republicans today that he will not run for the Senate, there is an ongoing effort now to convince him to re-think that decision, according to several sources close to the discussions. Pressure is now being brought to bear on [...]
“As you know, there have been many marquee names thrown out for this seat and so far they have all fizzled,”
[...]
For years, the traditional means of announcing a statewide political campaign in Illinois was the tried-and-true “fly-around” — an all-day (or multi-day) affair in which a candidate hops on a plane to do a series of press conferences and rallies in major cities around the state.
A fly-around has [...]
How stupid does he think we are?
“Right now, obviously, the plan is the plan,” Birkett said. “I didn’t formally announce, but I was indicating I would not be a candidate for governor and was looking at the attorney general’s race, and that’s the way it stands right now.
“Lisa Madigan’s [...]
Does John Kass have an editor? Because he needs one:
The FBI brought in a forensics team, some of whom had worked sifting through the mass graves in the Balkans, and it will take months to sort it out, and match bone to bone.
With Alvarez and Dart there, I thought [...]
Who could have predicted an industry largely devoid of oversight could produce such a disaster?
Dan Hynes actually. The unsexiest of statewide politicians took on a very unsexy subject when he became Comptroller in 1999. Loleta Didrickson before him vastly improved financial oversight of pre-sold products in the industry and [...]
On the Democratic side, Burris, who was appointed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the Senate, no longer has to worry about Madigan. But looming as a strong challenger is first-term Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. Other Democrats weighing a Senate bid include Cheryle Jackson, head of the Chicago Urban League [...]
Schillerstrom just issued an endorsement of Joe:
SCHILLERSTROM BACKS BIRKETT FOR AG
Bob: Joe Birkett brings integrity and passion to job
Reacting to the news that Lisa Madigan will seek re-election as Illinois
Attorney General, Gubernatorial candidate Bob Schillerstrom stated his support
for his fellow DuPage County elected official Joe Birkett for [...]
Proft attacks Dillard for not being pure enough:
I wonder what DuPage County State’s Attorney and recently announced GOP Attorney General candidate Joe Birkett thinks of Sen. Dillard’s endorsement of Lisa Madigan’s re-election.
Sen. Dillard is also incorrect on substance when it comes to AG Madigan. When AG Madigan ran in [...]
Joe Birkett still the loser of the day!
Quite a display of political bravery there.
I doubt McKenna gets in if Kirk is, but I do expect a well funded conservative challenger as I mentioned in April.
This may also mean Coulson takes a stab at 10 which would open [...]
archpundit@yahoo.com (Larry Handlin)
