QC Examiner

Infighting Masks Illinois Legislature Accomplishments

I know you’re wondering what all these fabbalus “accomplishments” are, so here are a few according to the AP report:

1. Moment of silence in schools.

2. Primary moved up to February 5.

3. Smoking ban in public places.

4. Ban on horse slaughtering for human consumption.

5.  Teenagers get even more hurdles to getting a driver’s license.

etc.

What a hoot!

The schools are a mess, the infrastructure is crumbling and we’re at least 3 billion in the hole, so rather than tackle the big projects, we get feel-good Nanny-statism.

The AP report also included the “accomplishment” of more money for education, but $600 million isn’t even close to fixing the problems—-which money can’t fix anyway.

The article also mentioned Blago’s attempt to back door the legislature by ramming through his socialist healthcare scheme—-this has ended up in the courts, and is not a done deal.

Also mentioned was stem cell research. Why Illinois would want to give $15 million in state grants for a research project that the private sector is throwing money at, is beyond logic—-but it does feel good.

After listing all these “accomplishments”, I gotta say our state government is doing a heckuvajob!

Last year the Sunlight Foundation began a project called the Punch Clock Campaign.

The idea was to get incumbents and challengers of all parties to pledge to post their daily schedules on the internet, if elected.

As described by OpenCongress.org, “the idea being that members of Congress should be held accountable for their time on the job just like everyone else.  As taxpayers and voters, we (citizens) are our senators and representatives’s bosses, and the Punch Clock Campaign seeks to make members of Congress’s daily schedules available so that when election time comes, we will have the information we need to decide to keep them on board, or look for someone else who may work for us more effectively.”

I think the 110th Congress is a good example of how they are NOT working for us, and they don’t want us to know who they meet with, either. Only 8 congresspersons have signed up for this, and I know no one will be shocked by the fact that our specially selected congressman is NOT among the eight.

Considering how in-the-pocket Hare is for Big Labor, I’ll bet there would be some fascinating information if we knew who was meeting with him and where they were from.

So count Hare among those (s)elected who believe the taxpayers work for HIM, not the other way around.

PoliGazette has a comprehensive post up today concerning New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg’s threat to Dem and GOP leaders, that if they nominate extremists for POTUS (i.e. Edwards v. Huckabee), he will make a third party run.

Bloomberg will be meeting January 7 with moderates of both parties in conjunction with Unity08, to discuss how to represent the unrepresented moderates of both parties, who are ignored by politicians in favor of the extremist elements of both parties (i.e. religious right and MoveOn.org).

Be sure to read the linked post. There are links to the original David Broder article and a roundup of blogger opinion from left, right and middle.

As a moderate-conservative with strong libertarian leanings, I hope this happens—-for entertainment value, if nothing else.

Local blogger and history prof, Art Pitz, has a post up called Hillary v. Obama: Historical Reflections on the Upcoming Iowa Caucuses.

Until the end, this is a fine overview of how both blacks and women got the right to vote. Pitz says it wasn’t until 1964/l965 that “black men and all women would finally achieve equality.”

I certainly have no quibble with that. But unfortunately, the good professor wades into treacherous “progressive” identity politics with his final quote:

Political progressives face a choice this coming year similar to the one their forebears struggled with in 1870. Whose time is it? Is there any way it could be both?

A few observations here:

1. Does the Good Professor mean to say that “progressives” have struggled with the uterus v. melanin question for 130 years, and still haven’t figured it out?

2. Concerning the question: “Is there any way it could be both?”, the answer would be Condi Rice, but she isn’t exactly the darling of the “progressives”, is she?

3. If it’s true that “progressives” are faced with the choice between body parts and skin pigment, rather than actual policy positions, doesn’t that say something damning about “progressives”?

From Fred Thompson on Radio Iowa:

We don’t know the extent to which it’s warming. We don’t know whether or not it’s part of a cycle. We’ve had cooling periods in our country. We don’t know the extent to which man-made causes are contributing to it. We don’t know what the long-term effect of it is going to be and what we can do about it….If we unilaterally do things precipitously, not only will we damage our economy but we won’t be doing very much good at all unless countries like Russia, or mainly China and India, participate….Before we start rushing off and having United Nations countries, you know, big as a postage stamp telling us what to do and what we must do and so forth, let’s double-down and make sure we understand the ramifications and the significance of what we know and let’s improve on what we don’t know.

From Michelle Obama:

To me, it’s now or never…We’re not going to keep running and running and running, because at some point you do get the life beaten out of you. It hasn’t been beaten out of us yet. We need to be in there now, while we’re still fresh and open and fearless and bold. You lose some of that over time. Barack is not cautious yet; he’s ready to change the world, and we need that.

Hillary Clinton will give us the third Clinton administration, which was so cruelly denied Bill in 2000. Edwards will have Big Labor and trial lawyers running the government instead of Big Business.

The only change other Democrats offer is a change from GOP insiders to Democrat insiders.

If you really want change—-Obama’s the one.

None Of The Above.

The latest Rasmussen poll shows that we hate ‘em all. No surprise there. Hillary and Romney had the highest negatives, but the rest of the field didn’t do much better.

The ‘08 election will be radical—-let’s hope we get some real change.

Take this handy-dandy Politico’s Populist Pop Quiz and see if you can tell the difference between John Edwards’ populist rhetoric and that of Mike Huckabee.

1. No Country For Old Men:

mass murder - no justice.

2. Sweeney Todd:

mass murder - justice.

In what could be described as the true (neocon) meaning of Christmas, Sunni and Shiite clerics and tribal leaders attended Christmas mass at an Assyrian orthodox church in Bagdad.

After decades of persecution by Saddam Hussein and since the situation in Iraq has calmed down, Christians have been returning to Iraq in droves.

In a gesture of goodwill, the Christians invited the majority muslims to attend Christmas Day mass and both sects accepted.

A Shiite cleric offered this blessing:

May Iraq be safe every year, and may our Christian brothers be safe every year.

Or as others would say; peace on earth, goodwill to men.