My Blog

Category: Politics

  • Mayor’s Friend Brings You the Speed Cameras

    When Rahm Emanuel was a first-time candidate for Congress, Greg Goldner was behind him, quietly marshaling the patronage troops that helped get him elected. When Emanuel ran for mayor, Goldner was there again, doling out campaign cash to elect Emanuel-friendly aldermen to City Council.

    And when the rookie mayor was looking for community support for his school reform agenda, there was Goldner, working behind the scenes with the ministers who backed Emanuel’s plan.

    Now, it turns out the longtime allies share another interest — the installation of automated speed cameras in Chicago.

    As consultant to the firm that already supplies Chicago its red-light cameras, Goldner is the architect of a nationwide campaign to promote his client’s expansion prospects. That client, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., is well-positioned to make tens of millions of dollars from Emanuel’s controversial plan to convert many of the red-light cameras into automated speed cameras.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    The rest of the article is the standard, ‘A has nothing to do with B.’

    Uh huh.  This is still Chicago after all.

  • John Boehner, Telling it Like it is.

    “People think I’ve got this job as a leader. They don’t realize that I have about 200 responsibilities and roles. I’ve gotta be the big brother, the father, I gotta be the disciplinarian, the dean of students, the principal, the spouse—you can’t believe all the roles that I have to play! But one of them is, you know, some problems you can nip early. I had three guys in here a few years ago, I said ‘Boys, you’re cruising down the wrong path.’ Two of them listened, one of them didn’t. He’s no longer here.”

    “We got 435 members. It’s just a slice of America, it really is. We got some of the smartest people in the country who serve here, and some of the dumbest. We got some of the best people you’d ever meet, and some of the raunchiest. We’ve got ’em all.”

    via WSJ.com.

    Sounds about right.

  • Downstate and Chicago, Brothers in Arms?

    It’s an Op-Ed, but it’s also propaganda:

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel was in Peoria earlier this week talking about how Chicago and Downstate politicians need to stop fighting so much.

    “The politics of the past where we used to play Chicago versus downstate is over. It doesn’t serve the people of Illinois,” Emanuel said, adding, “It’s not working anymore.”

    Note to Rahm: It never worked.

    …

    One of the biggest issues in downstate politics is guns. …

    The basic caricature is that Downstate politicians love guns and want one in every citizen’s hands, while Chicago politicians are afraid of guns and want to ban them entirely. …

    Emanuel got along great with Downstate legislators last year. … But then a few weeks ago the mayor announced that he wanted a new law to register all the handguns in Illinois. The mayor scored some routine political points with his gun-hating Chicago constituents, but he infuriated Downstaters, and the resulting explosion was cataclysmic.

    Downstaters who had worked with Emanuel just days before began publicly ripping into him as if he were some sort of evil dictator bent on grabbing all their guns. Most are now using their opposition to Emanuel in their campaigns. Ironically enough, Emanuel helped boost Downstate legislators politically while simultaneously alienating them from his legislative agenda.

    On the other side of the equation, though, is the Downstate ignorance about how deeply so many Chicagoans hate guns. Many Chicagoans are as insulted and infuriated by Downstate demands that people be able to legally carry loaded handguns on the city’s streets as downstaters are that they’ll have to pay $20 to register every handgun they own.

    So, if the mayor really wants to work toward peace, he’ll first have to find a way to get past these gun issues. And if he can do that, he’s a better man than most.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    Kudos to Rich Miller for pointing out how Rahm is causing the divide he claims he wants to repair.  Oh, wait… Miller didn’t do that, I just did.

    The bigger issue with Miller’s piece is his create choice of language; he choose his word carefully.  By saying, “the Downstate ignorance about how deeply so many Chicagoans hate guns” he doesn’t have to claim that a majority of people (or voters) hate guns but he can create the inference as such.

    The truth is that so many Chicagoans really really really want the right to own (most of those want to be able to carry) a handgun.  Perhaps if Mr. Miller would get outside of the liberal cocktail party set he would realize that many residents feel terrorized in their own homes.  A black minister once told me, “Many in my congregation don’t want to police harassing the folks in their neighborhood.  But they also want to keep a .38 under the pillow.”

    Most logical open minded people know that when seconds count the police are just minutes away.  A firearm is used in defense far more often than in offense.  Mr. Miller and his anti-gun friends just can’t get their heads around the facts.  They really should read John Lott’s More Guns, Less Crime.

    Concealed Carry works.  Illinois is now the only state in the union without any sort of CCW.  I’m not a believer in the “if everyone jumped off a bridge logic” but it appears that our foot dragging is making us look foolish, childish.  States like Alaska and Vermont have no laws restricting carrying a concealed firearm at all.  Florida has a very open CCW policy (they even gave me a permit;) and yet Miami doesn’t have near the gun violence of Chicago.  Compare Dallas or Houston as well.

    The bottom line is that the Downstaters have it right and the political elites in Chicago have it wrong.

  • Bill To Regulate Men’s Reproductive Health

    Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way.

    via Dayton Daily News.

    The thinking here is more than a little logically challenged but I must admit that I enjoy the thinking.

  • FAA to Allow Unmanned Drones (to kill you)

    The Federal Aviation Administration has taken the first concrete step toward allowing drones to fly alongside passenger airplanes in the United States.

    As required by a law signed by President Obama in February, the FAA is moving forward with a plan to integrate unmanned aircraft into the national airspace by 2015.  …

    Proponents of the plan envision drones being used to help dust crops, fight forest fires, sell houses, shoot movies and assist local police in chasing suspects.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Now that Eric Holder and the FBI Chief are talking about how the U.S. Government has the right to take your life away from you without even giving you a trial, this is really just the next logical step.  What a better way to kill U.S. citizens than with UAVs?

    2012, meet 1984.

  • Limbaugh, Fluke, Maher, Romney, Obama + Allred

    The insanity continues:

    Rush Limbaugh has drawn the ire of celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who sent a letter to the Palm Beach County state attorney requesting an investigation into whether the popular radio host should be prosecuted for calling a law student a “slut” and “prostitute” last week. …

    In a letter dated March 8, Allred, writing on behalf of the Women’s Equal Rights Legal Defense and Education Fund, requested that Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe probe whether the conservative radio personality had violated Section 836.04 of the Florida Statutes by calling Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke the two derogatory words.

    via POLITICO.com.

    You see, the Left cannot bear to have this story fade away.  It’s critical to their efforts to lure women voters to Obama in November.  … At least, that’s what they think.

    And lest we think this is not newsworthy, this is the #1 top viewed story at Politico over the last 12 hours.

    — Back to the story:

    [Allread cites] Section 836.04 of the Florida Statutes. … The statue stipulates that anyone who “speaks of and concerning any woman, married or unmarried, falsely and maliciously imputing to her a want of chastity” is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.

    So my questions is, would it be a violation of this statute to call Allred a media whore?

  • Limbaugh, Fluke, Maher, Romney + Obama

    Will this ever end?

    Current and former White House aides on Thursday rejected demands by a conservative group that a Super PAC supporting President Obama refund a $1 million check from comedian and talk show host Bill Maher because of coarse comments he’s made about Sarah Palin and other Republican women.  …

    Carney said “language that denigrates women is inappropriate,” but it is not the President’s place to be the “arbiter” of every controversial statement.

    “He chooses to lead by example or tries to,” Carney said of the president, adding that “he chooses to try to practice that civility himself and he calls on everybody to do just that.”

    Earlier on Thursday, Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew charging Maher is a “serially vile misogynist” because of a list of nasty comments directed at conservative women.

    Nance noted that since Obama recently reversed his own opposition to Super PACs by giving his public blessing for Democrats to donate unlimited sums to Priorities USA Action, he should direct that the Maher contribution be rejected and tell top White House aides like David Plouffe to stop raising money for the group.

    via Fox News.

    Two odds things about the White House’s reaction to this:

    • If the president wanted to “lead by example” then shouldn’t he give back the money?  Or is Obama setting the example such that when someone goes on TV and calls women all the horrible things as Bill Maher has done, and then when that person donates $1 million to your Super PAC that you’re supposed to keep the money?
    • Wouldn’t a far better response by to say that, “Well, the law says that there cannot be any coordination between the campaign and the Super PAC.  As such, it’s not our decision — and would illegal for us to make such a decision — to return the money.  So the next questions is, did Obama just admit to illegal coordination between his campaign and the super PAC?

  • Bizarre News Day

    Here’s some of the stories on the home page at Fox News this evening:

    Targeted Killing in US? Mueller Mum: FBI Director Robert Mueller, when pressed at agency budget hearing, says he has to check with Justice Department whether Eric Holder’s criteria for targeted killing of Americans can be justified within US.

    Mueller Grilled on FBI’s Release of al-Awlaki in 2002

    ICE Says Some Detainees Can Get Tax-Funded Transgender Treatments

    Wind Farms in Northwest Paid to Not Produce: US agency offers to compensate wind farms for shutting down because it was producing too much energy

    Ex-Sheriff, County Clerk Plead Guilty to Voter Fraud: West Virginia officials admit to plot to steal 2010 Dem primary by stuffing boxes with illegal absentee ballots.

    That pretty much sums it all up doesn’t it?

    The head of our national police force doesn’t even know if it’s allowed to execute U.S. citizens on U.S. soil without a trial.  Of course, this is the same law enforcement organization that once released an accused terrorist and American citizen from custody despite an outstanding warrant only so the same man could later be killed by U.S. forces in a targeted attack.

    While taxpayers money is going to fund the killing of U.S. citizens (apparently including on U.S. soil now) non-citizens get provided gender reassignment treatment at taxpayer expense.

    And while gas passes $5.00 a gallon the taxpayers are subsidizing the building of dubious wind turbines all over the country and then, when the wind turbines actually create energy, the taxpayers pay them not to.

    If anyone has doubts how we got here, we need only to consider that our elected officials, including law enforcement officials, will lie, cheat, and steal in order to keep their phoney baloney taxpayer funded jobs.

    I think it’s safe to say that we’ve reached the event horizon.

  • Limbaugh, Fluke, Maher… now + Romney

    While slamming Mitt Romney for not standing up to the “strident voices” on his side, a top Obama advisor is planning to spend some quality time with one on his own, The Daily has learned.

    David Axelrod, President Obama’s senior campaign strategist, is scheduled to appear on Bill Maher’s late-night talk show within the next few weeks, according to Kelley Carville, an HBO spokesman.

    As the controversy over Rush Limbaugh’s comments about Sandra Fluke continued, a former Obama White House official today joined Republicans in pointing out that Maher, who recently donated $1 million to a pro-Obama super PAC, has a history of his misogynistic slurs.

    Last year, he was rebuked by the National Organization for Women for calling Sarah Palin a “dumb tw*t.”

    via The Daily.

    Hello pot, meet kettle.

  • Limbaugh, Fluke, Maher, & the Media

    Much has been written about the recent dust-up between Limbaugh & Fluke and the former’s inappropriate comments about the latter.  Today Rush spent some time on his show perhaps grandstanding, perhaps clearing the air about the status of his advertisers.

    And judging from the reaction of my own brother, who sends me a note last night, “You really lost 28 sponsors?”  No, we have not lost 28 sponsors.  “Well, how can they say it?”  Because they lie and because they don’t understand how it works, and that’s what I want to try and explain.  In fact, folks, we have three brand-new sponsors that will be starting in the next two weeks.  Now, obviously, I’m not gonna tell you who they are today, but we’ve got three brand-new, full-fledged sponsors starting in the next two weeks.  …

    Nobody is losing money here, including us, in all this. And that is key for you to understand. They are not canceling the business on our stations. They’re just saying they don’t want their spots to appear in my show. We don’t get any revenue from ’em anyway. The whole effort is to dispirit you. It’s to make you think the left is being successful in its campaign when it isn’t. In fact, the left is so fed up, they can’t see straight. They thought they had me. They thought I would be off the air by now. They can’t understand why I still am on the air. There is also another rumor going around that I am going to be suspended for a week. It is utter BS.

    via: Rush Limbaugh.

    It’s easy to dismiss Rush’s monologue as self-serving propaganda.  Consider this however, as I write this the 3rd most popular story at CBS News is “Will Limbaugh’s Show Outlast the Firestorm?”  Over at the Chicago Tribune Clarence Page wonders, “Could This be the End of Limbaugh?” So maybe, just maybe, Rush is exactly on point; the Left is trying to keep this issue alive in an effort to drive him off the airwaves.

    Perhaps the greatest evidence to the contrary — that Rush may actually be in some real trouble here — is that none other than Bill Maher is coming to his defense.  Maher tweeted:

    Hate to defend #RushLimbaugh but he apologized, liberals looking bad not accepting. Also hate intimidation by sponsor pullout

    Maher’s tweet is covered at CBS News, the same outlet curious about the continued viability of Rush’s show.  Maher is naturally concerned that his mouth could get the rest of him in trouble.  After having called Sarah Palin several vile things, Maher might consider himself lucky that he’s not already been regulated to Mel Gibson type of treatment.  Self preservation might be driving Maher to come to Limbaugh’s defense.

    What also is interesting is the way that the Left and the Right treat each other.

    Limbaugh’s comments have ignited a firestorm of fury online, sparking “Stop Rush” websites, a “Boycott Rush” Twitter hashtag, an anti-Rush twitter handle and a petition signed by more than 400,000 people calling on advertisers to abandon the show.

    via: ABC News.

    When Bill Maher was calling Sarah Palin a C^#! did 400,000 people call for HBO to drop his show?

    It appears that all freedom of speech may not be equal.