My Blog

Tag: The Machine

  • Alderman Ervin’s Maywood ‘Drug House’

    For Ald. Jason Ervin, who represents a large swath of Chicago’s troubled West Side, drug activity in the area hits particularly close to home.

    That’s because until recently, Ervin owned what police and others portray as a “drug house” in nearby Maywood.

    During the decade or so that Ervin owned the three-flat at 1600 W. Madison in the Near West suburb, police were called to the property or the immediate vicinity roughly 150 times, often for drug-related incidents, but also for gunshots, assaults, trespassing and thefts, among other matters, according to records from the Village of Maywood.via Chicago Sun-Times.

    Those looking for another reason to not vote for Ald. Self Serving Jason Ervin.

    Welcome to The Machine.  The Machine like Mr. Ervin because he will do whatever they tell him to do.  He could never find a job in the private sector making $120,000 per year like he makes as Alderman.  So he will do absolutely anything to keep his job.

    We need to cleanse people like this from the system.

  • Feds Investigate Jesse Jackson Jr.

    We all knew this was coming:

    Federal prosecutors and FBI agents in Washington have launched a new criminal investigation of Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. involving financial improprieties, including possible misuse of funds monitored by Congress, law enforcement sources tell NBC News.The probe prompted lawyers for Jackson to meet with federal prosecutors this week in an attempt to persuade them not to indict the congressman.

    via NBC Chicago.

    This couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

  • $2M in Unemployment to Inmates

    More than 1,100 people have collected nearly $2 million in unemployment benefits while they were in county jails or state prisons, including $43,000 that went to a person in the Cook County Jail, a state agency said Tuesday.

    Now they may face state or federal criminal fraud charges as well as having to repay what they shouldn’t have taken in the first place, said Greg Rivara, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

    In Cook County alone, there were 296 inmates tied to $722,689 in wrongful payments. In Will County, 21 inmates collected $85,159. Lake County was another leader with 20 inmates collecting $84,533, the agency said.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    WT…?!  You couldn’t make this stuff up.

    #1. Where are the two wonder-twins of justice in this?  Nothing from Lisa Madigan or Anita Alvarez?  Why?  Where have they been?
    #2.  Who the hell is running this agency?  Jail and prison records are actually a matter of public record.  You’re telling me no one ever bothered to cross-check the payouts against another public record?

    #3.  It kinda makes you wonder how much fraud is really going on in the system.  After all, The Machine has their corrupt friends running all these agencies there is really no limit to how much might be missing.

    Certainly not last… This is just another fine example as to why any service run by the government is doomed to ultimately doomed to fail.  People are incentivized to cheat the system.  But government employees are also incentivized to get as many people as possible into the system so they can justify their jobs and get more jobs and thus become more politically powerful.  As such, no one is watching the money.
    The government that works the least is most often the government that works best.

  • Jimmy John’s Leaving Illinois, Florida Bound

    Jimmy John Liautaud is moving part of the sandwich chain that bears his name to Florida next year, making good on a threat issued in 2011 after Illinois hiked its corporate tax rate.

    The founder of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches said during a Sept. 18 panel discussion in Chicago that he will relocate the company’s licensing division to Florida, where he plans to move in early 2013. Mr. Liautaud said in January 2011 that he applied for residency in Florida out of anger when Gov. Pat Quinn raised the corporate tax rate to 5 percent from 3 percent.

    via Crain’s Chicago Business.

    Ya see!!  This is what happens when you raise taxes.  It’s called the Laffer Curve and it’s a real phenomenon.  Illinois is in the down portion of the curve where when you raise taxes you get less income.  Can someone explain that to Gov. Quinn, Michael Madigan, John Cullerton, Rahm, and the rest of The Machine?

    Raising taxes — especially on “the rich” — only shifts the actual tax burden further down into the middle class.

    What we need is a wholesale rewrite of the tax code.  But that’s a much, much longer post.

  • Legislative Change Means $670 million More for Teachers’ Pensions

    The state will have to come up with another $670 million for the teacher pension system in the next budget after a retirement fund panel crunched the numbers and adjusted its assumptions.

    The Teachers’ Retirement System lowered what it expects from investments from 8.5 percent to 8 percent. The pension fund’s leadership also increased a variety of other assumptions, including how long it expects retired teachers to live. The fund covers teachers outside Chicago.  …

    The state is paying $2.7 billion into the fund in its current budget. Without any adjustments, the state would have owed about $2.89 billion in the new budget year that begins next July 1.But the changes approved Friday increased that price tag to $3.37 billion. All told, the state will have to pay $670 million more than this year.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Consider, we’re going to pay $3.3 billion into the teachers pensions and another $3 billion on debt service.  That’s $6 billion next year that could have gone to pay for services for the poor and the elderly but instead are going to the politically connected and union members (… I realize that’s redundant.)

    But this may be the best line of all:

    Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan, both Chicago Democrats, recently suggested that changes to the pension system would have to get done in January at the earliest. That’s a post-election period when more lame ducks are freer to take politically risky votes, and the bar to pass legislation with an immediate effective date drops from three-fifths to a simple majority.

    Allow me to translate:  Fixing the pensions is going to be very unpopular and thankfully our experience is that voters have short memories.  We also don’t care how much more money this costs the state (after all, all the bond holders and the teachers unions are our buddies.) We’re also not sure that we can get all the Democrats to go along.  So we to avoid any embarrassment — and to make sure the unions make the campaign donations they promised before the election — we’re going to put this off until next year.

    The Machine is like a casino… the house never loses.

  • Chicago Aldermen: White Collar Criminals

    An analysis of pension fund documents for 21 aldermen who retired under the plan shows they are in line to receive nearly $58 million during their expected lifetimes, though contributions and assumed investment returns are predicted to cover just $19 million, or a third of that sum.

    The pension deal was inked more than two decades ago, but the costs began to kick in recently. Most of the 21 aldermen in the Tribune/WGN-TV analysis have retired within the past five years, and there are 53 more in the pipeline.

    Former Ald. Thomas Allen is a prime example. After retiring from the City Council in 2010 at age 58, Allen went on to become a Circuit Court judge while also collecting roughly $90,000 a year from his city pension. During his lifetime, he stands to receive more than $4.2 million in benefits, though contributions and assumed investment returns are expected to cover only $1 million.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    We’re doomed.  Chicago will not be able to sustain itself under this kind of dead weight.  The taxpayers are going to be asked to provide more and more payments for services they will not receive.

    Glad the Tribune is on the story now… but where has it been for the last 20 years?  Where’s the Sun-Times (the “Bright One”) on this?

    We’re going bankrupt and no one cares.

  • Derrick Smith ‘I intend to fight these charges’

    State Rep. Derrick Smith on Monday spoke publicly for the first time about his bribery case, saying he would not “cower” and vowing to fight the charge against him.Holding a prepared statement in front of him and talking in a shaky voice minutes after he pleaded not guilty to a federal court indictment, the West Side Democrat referenced “shenanigans” he said the FBI pulled on him. Smith’s lawyer later castigated the government’s confidential informant.

    “I intend to fight these charges. I look forward to having the opportunity to clear my name,” Smith said in a press availability at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. Smith said he was troubled by “the shenanigans being played by the FBI to lean on people around me.”

    “I will not cower,” Smith vowed. “I intend to stand tall with my wife, family, friends, House colleagues and lawyers.”

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    Seems to me like he’s going to be headed to prison but there’s no doubt that he’s entitled to plea not guilty and get a fair trial complete with a jury of his peers.

  • lllinois Moves Toward Insolvency

    We’re now making national news:

    After trying to tax Illinois to governmental solvency and economic dynamism, Pat Quinn, a Democrat who has been governor since 2009, now says “our rendezvous with reality has arrived.”  …

    Illinois was more heavily taxed than the five contiguous states (Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin) even before January 2011, when Quinn got a lame duck Legislature (its successor has fewer Democrats) to raise corporate taxes 30 percent (from 7.3 percent to 9.5 percent), giving Illinois one of the highest state corporate taxes, and the fourth highest combination of national and local corporate taxation in the industrialized world. Since 2009, Quinn has spent more than $500 million in corporate welfare to bribe companies not to flee the tax environment he has created.

    Quinn raised personal income taxes 67 percent (from 3 percent to 5 percent), adding about $1,040 to the tax burden of a family of four earning $60,000. Illinois’ unemployment rate increased faster than any other state’s in 2011. Its pension system is the nation’s most underfunded, and the state has floated bond issues to finance pension contributions. Quinn’s recent flirtation with realism — a plan to raise the retirement age to 67 and cap pension cost-of-living adjustments — is less significant than the continuing unrealistic expectation that some Illinois’ pension investments will grow 8.5 percent annually. Although the state Constitution mandates balancing the budget, this is almost meaningless while the state sells bonds to pay for operating expenses (in just 10 years the state’s bonded debt has increased from $9.4 billion to $30 billion), underfunds pensions and other liabilities, and makes vendors wait (they are owed $5.6 billion).

    …

    Peterson, a professor of government at Harvard, and Nadler, a doctoral candidate also at Harvard, say collective bargaining rights for government employees pose “a dramatically new challenge to the viability” of American federalism. They cite studies demonstrating that investors’ perceptions of risk of default are correlated with the rate of unionization among government employees. Higher percentages of government employees who are unionized, and larger Democratic shares of state legislative seats, correlate with increases in state borrowing costs.At least 12 percent of Americans change their residences each year, often moving to more hospitable economic environments. In a system of competitive federalism, Peterson and Nadler write, “If states and localities attempt in a serious way to tax the rich and give to the poor, the rich will depart while the poor will be attracted.” And government revenues and expenditures vary inversely.

    via Boston Herald.

    Illinois may fail before California.  Businesses are fleeing.  Residents are fleeing.  Illinois is shrinking, dying.

    For all of the Democrats efforts to “help” the poor, how will the poor be helped when Illinois becomes nothing more than one big Detroit?  The rich will all leave — they have the means to do so.  Those left I guess will feed on each other.

    I need to make sure history get written correctly.  The suffering of the poor that is coming is blood on the hands of Richie Daley, Michael Madigan, Lisa Madigan, Rod Blagojevich, George Ryan, Pat Quinn, Rahm Emanual, Jesse White, Danny Davis, Jesse Jackson, Todd Stroger, John Daley, and the rest of the Illinois combine… the Machine.

  • Derrick Smith Must Resign or Be Expelled — Dems Own It

    The Democratic party was silent prior to the election of State Rep Derrick Smith on the issue of his resigning or getting off the ticket for allegedly accepting a $7000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI agent posing as a daycare center owner in exchange for a $50000 grant.

    The silence of the Democrats is now over as they are calling for the resignation of Derrick Smith in unanimity, as if from a chorus, they are signing the same song, “Get out!”

    Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Minority Leader Robert Cross found an issue they can agree as they named members to a committee to investigate the charges and to call on Smith to “Get out!”

    via Examiner.com.

    Silent?!  The Dems weren’t silent:

    The growing pressure on Democratic state Rep. Derrick Smith contrasts with the silence from party leaders who avoided such criticism in the days after the arrest, when it might have affected his primary race.

    Some, including U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, encouraged voters to support Smith to ensure the West Side seat stays in Democratic hands. But that changed the day after his easy victory over Tom Swiss, a former Cook County Republican Party official.

    Now Democratic leaders are moving to oust Smith and pick a replacement to run in the November general election.

    Davis said that while he asked voters to cast their ballots for Smith, it was about ensuring the seat stayed in Democrat control and was not a show of support for Smith. Davis said Smith should not appear on the November ballot given the ethical cloud he now faces.

    “I was glad to see Derrick win the election, but I think in reality one can say that Democrats won the election,” Davis said. “I don’t think they were necessarily voting for Derrick, but I think they were saying ‘Democrat, Democrat, Democrat.’”  …

    Quinn likewise refused to call for Smith’s resignation before the election, only to change his tune Wednesday while on a trade mission in Brussels.

    “The governor believes Rep. Smith should resign” because the charges represent a “cloud hanging over” him, said Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson.

    House Speaker Michael Madigan poured more than $60,000 into the race before Smith’s arrest.  Madigan has declined to comment on the situation.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    The Illinois Machine, made up of both Democrats and Republicans, is working overtime here.   The Machine is controlled by Chicago Democrats — the GOP’ers in their mist are really just tolerated because they play along — and they own this.

    Jesse White, Danny Davis, Michael Madigan, Lisa Madigan, Pat Quinn… what have you done for the poor folks whom you represent?  Quinn’s new budget calls for cutting Medicaid spending by $2.7 billion next year.  Well who’s that going to hurt Governor?

    Last year this cabal doubled our income taxes.  This year they want to kill Medicaid.  How about stopping the corruption that costs our cities and state billions every year?

    The whole lot-of-’em need to be kicked out to the street and have their pensions cancelled.