My Blog

Category: Politics

  • What Quinn Didn’t Say

    For The Good of Illinois logo

    “Yes, we are going to continue
    milking Illinois taxpayers like a dairy cow…”
    what Gov. Quinn didn’t tell you
    State of State Address
    February 6, 2013


    Word cloud of State of State Address (what we heard)

    Yesterday, Gov. Quinn gave the “State of the State”. Here’s the rest of the story…

    The growth of state payroll is exploding. In 2012, the State of Illinois payroll went from 79,451 (2011) to 115,388 employees. We questioned the numbers, Quinn’s administration defended them. See chart here.

    No stopping salary abuse, even from state officers. The Chief Investment Officer at Teachers Retirement System (TRS) salary spiked from $209,697 (2008) to $357,500 (2011). See salary history.

    The College & University payroll is padded with patronage. In 2000, the Illinois College and University system employed 51,439. Today, the system employs 90,213; but, student enrollment is up only 7%. Taxpayers and students are stuck with the bill- that’s called “generational theft”.
    In 2011, the 7th highest salary went to the president of Moraine Valley Community College: $674,210. The junior college chief out-earned the Chancellor at the University of Illinois. See Top 8 Illinois College/University Salaries here.
    Governor, the taxpayer is abused at every level of Illinois government…

    In 2011, a DuPage County engineer cleaned off $340,147, tops among 197,000 local- municipal employees across the state. Click here.

    In 2011, 57 village/city managers out-earned all governors of the 50 states. The village manager of small Grayslake topped them all- $259,252. Click here.

    Where are the Republicans? Milking the same dairy cow…

    Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno just doled out six $20,649 “perks” for “leadership” – those cashing in include Sen. Kirk Dillard and Sen. Bill Brady. Now they make $87,000 plus. In Texas, legislators make a salary of $7,200! Read Alton Telegraph Editorial.

  • 15 y/o Arrested 19th Time After Armed Robbery

    A 15-year-old boy with nearly 20 arrests on his record has been charged with armed robbery after he held up a man near his home, police said.It was Jesus Castaneda’s 19th arrest, according to police, and his second gun-related charge. He was last arrested in August 2012 for unlawful use of a weapon, police said.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Where’s Anita Alvarez on this?  Where’s the court system on this?

    Why has the Tribune disabled the comments for this story?

  • Quinn’s Motto: Move Your Business Out

    Today’s Local Bad News:

    Illinois companies warned in January that they may lay off as many as 1,200 workers in the next two months, according to filings with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

    viaChicago Tribune.

    The economy sucks and the media doesn’t want to talk about it.  Manufacturing in Illinois is on life support.  It’s questionable if it can be revived.

    To this mess we add:

    Quinn wants Illinois’ minimum wage to increase from $8.25 to $10 an hour, according to a source familiar with the planned remarks. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but Illinois’ rate has been higher for years.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    That will not help growth.  It will not help poor communities.  It will not help high school drop-outs or college professors.  It’s an inflation creator and job killer.  We don’t need the cost of fast food going up.  We don’t need the cost of goods at Target going up.  We’re taxed to death already.  The state is $100+ billion in the red and he’s upset that some kid’s making $8.75/hr making pizza’s.

    Illinois is dying.  The Machine is driving full speed off the edge of the cliff.

     

  • Lincoln Quote

    You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
    You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
    You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
    You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
    You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
    You cannot build character and courage by taking
    away people’s initiative     and independence.
    You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what
    they could and should do for themselves.

    — Abraham Lincoln

    Amen.

  • UNO Charter Schools Engaging in Graft & Corruption

    Kudos for the Sun-Times for shedding light on this.

    Business as usual.  The friends of the friends get rich on the backs of the taxpayer.

  • Feds investigating finances of former Ald. Sandi Jackson: sources – Chicago Sun-Times

    A federal financial probe of the once-politically powerful Jesse and Sandi Jackson has evolved into two separate investigations, with federal authorities taking an independent look at former Ald. Sandi Jackson, sources close to the probe told the Chicago Sun-Times.Included in the scrutiny of Sandi Jackson, who resigned from her 7th Ward aldermanic position last month, is her access and use of her husband’s congressional campaign money, including credit card charges, as well as the movement of money from one account to another, sources say.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    Anyone surprised?

    Of course not.

    Jesse Jr. and Sandi are getting exactly what they deserve.  For years they made themselves wealthy on the backs of the people they were suppose to serve.  They are the worst kind of people.

    Maybe someday some enterprising prosecutor will open the books on the old man.  He’s not done a single good thing for the black community in 30 years.

    Good riddance.

  • Obama Admin Claims it can Kill Americans

    Think about this for just a second.

    A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” — even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.

    via NBC News.

    It’s official.  Well, as official as NBC News.  Your government thinks that it has the right to murder you without any criminal (or any judicial) proceeding whatsoever.

    What the #%&%!

    So what they’re saying here is that the executive branch of the government can unilaterally decide without any hearing in any court, without any authorization from congress, without a jury of peers, without any due process, the Obama administration can label someone, anyone, for death.

    That there is not rebellion to this means that America has lost her soul.

    We’re doomed.

  • Immigrant Knows More About US than Most Citizens

    Kudos to this guy!!

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY2JR92Scmk]

  • Gun Laws and Common Sense

    Karl Marx summed up Communism as “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This is a good, pithy saying, which, in practice, has succeeded in bringing, upon those under its sway, misery, poverty, rape, torture, slavery, and death.

    For the saying implies but does not name the effective agency of its supposed utopia. The agency is called “The State,” and the motto, fleshed out, for the benefit of the easily confused must read “The State will take from each according to his ability: the State will give to each according to his needs.” “Needs and abilities” are, of course, subjective. So the operative statement may be reduced to “the State shall take, the State shall give.”via The Daily Beast.

    This is an amazing piece.  If you have not read you should.

    Two more quotes:

    Rule by bureaucrats and functionaries is an example of the first part of the Marxist equation: that the Government shall determine the individual’s abilities.

    As rules by the Government are one-size-fits-all, any governmental determination of an individual’s abilities must be based on a bureaucratic assessment of the lowest possible denominator.

    and…

    The Left loves a phantom statistic that a firearm in the hands of a citizen is X times more likely to cause accidental damage than to be used in the prevention of crime, but what is there about criminals that ensures that their gun use is accident-free? If, indeed, a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors, would it not make sense for the government to arm all criminals, and let them accidentally shoot themselves? Is this absurd? Yes, and yet the government, of course, is arming criminals.

    Violence by firearms is most prevalent in big cities with the strictest gun laws. In Chicago and Washington, D.C., for example, it is only the criminals who have guns, the law-abiding populace having been disarmed, and so crime runs riot.

    I wish I wrote that first paragraph there.

    Thank you David Mamet.

  • Quinn Balks at Illinois’ Fresh Interest Rate

    Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration delayed Wednesday’s planned sale of $500 million in construction bonds, saying a recent credit downgrade because of inaction on government worker pension reform left the market “unsettled.”

    The decision was made after officials with the governor’s budget office spoke with potential bidders who indicated they would seek interest rates higher than what the state wanted to pay.”

    In a bond market when there is uncertainly, you pay an extra premium, which we decided was imprudent to pay,” said John Sinsheimer, director of capital markets for the state. “So we pulled them, and will bring the back at a future date when everything has settled down.”

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Pathetic.

    The first thing to do when you’re in a hole is stop digging.  Quinn has the right idea… now may not be the best time to issue more bonds.  But because the finances are so bad pretty soon he will not have a choice.  More debt — at higher interest rates — is our future.

    More troubling however is note how the Gov’s office is not waiting until they actually fix anything.  He’s not going to defuse the pension time-bomb.  He and The Machine are not going to balance the budget or develop a long term spending plan to correct the state’s deficit.  The plan is to merely wait until “everything has settled down.”

    We deserve so much better than that.

    So alas… people don’t like to hear bad news and will continue to vote for Santa Claus.  We need not be real.  Just keep voting for the guy who tells you it’s somebody else’s problem.

    We’re so screwed.