Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2004

Friday, Nov 12, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Because I know it drives certain unnamed tinfoil hatters on the right absolutely bonkers - and that can’t be a bad thing.

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And the dealer keeps on jokin’…

Friday, Nov 12, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’m not sure that this is such a great PR move, and one can’t help but wonder who’s paying for it (especially in the wake of all the bad publicity surrounding the Latino Caucus “retreat” and its lobbyist sponsors). Still, it could be worse, I suppose. The Casino Queen isn’t exactly what you would call a first class place. According to Wilco, it can be downright mean, and I don’t think they even have any “tables so green” any more.

The Illinois Black Legislative Caucus is hosting a retreat at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis. The lawmakers are working on their agenda for next year.

The state senators and representatives took a bus tour through East St. Louis. State Representative Wyvetter Younge (YUNG) says the tour was a chance for legislators from Chicago to see the effect that legislation has on the area.

The Democrat says it was also a chance to see what’s still needed to bring the city back to what it once was.

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“Pure and simple hell”

Friday, Nov 12, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Judy Topinka is not given to understatement. She didn’t disappoint today.

Judy Baar Topinka says her two-year term as head of the Illinois Republican Party has been a series of challenges marked by political scandals and a lopsided loss in the U-S Senate race.

(And Topinka says it was “pure and simple hell” at times.)

Topinka plans to step down as party chairwoman by the end of the year.

But during a taping of W-B-B-M’s “At Issue” show today, she said she wants to keep the title through President Bush’s inauguration. She says she’s earned the right to go to the event as party chair after two tough years.

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“Clone and Kill”

Friday, Nov 12, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Senate may vote on Sen. Jeff Schoenberg’s stem cell research bill this week, and opponents have been gearing up for days.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ — The nation’s largest faith-based association of doctors today labeled the Stem Cell Research Act (HB3589) currently before the Illinois House “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” noting that it condones human cloning, encourages abortion for research, and betrays an ignorance of stem cell science.

“This bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing–a blatant attempt to foist human cloning on the good people of Illinois,” explained David Stevens, M.D., M.A. (Ethics), executive director of the 17,000-member Christian Medical Association. “The bill clearly states ‘that research involving the derivation and use of human embryonic stem cells…from any source, including somatic cell nuclear transplantation, shall be permitted.’

“That’s human cloning. That’s the exact same cloning process that produced Dolly the sheep. And when Dolly was cloned, an overwhelming majority of Americans and legislators vowed that cloning would never be used on human beings.” [Snip]

Dr. Stevens, who is a physician and bioethicist noted, “Besides encouraging embryo-destroying human cloning for research, this outrageous bill actually encourages abortions for research. The bill states that ‘Embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue may be donated for research purposes…’ “

The problem with the opposition so far is that it ignores the amendments that Schoenberg is working on. The Senate does not publish amendments until they are passed by a committee, so Dr. Stevens’ comments are based on the original draft, which has long since been abandoned.

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Firefox test

Friday, Nov 12, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’ve been testing out Mozilla’s free new Web browser Firefox for the past few days, and so far it has been pretty darned good. I had downloaded an earlier, beta version and wasn’t impressed. Not so this time. I love it.

My only complaint is that it won’t automatically import my bookmarks from Safari. Moving them over has been a pain.

I’m really looking forward to Mozilla’s e-mail software, Thunderbird. Its beta program looks pretty zippy, but it hasn’t worked all that well for me yet. Still, the name brings me back to my pre-Germany high school days, when Thunderbird was the preferred brand of wine because it was so cheap and carried a nice kick. You could get a case of that stuff for next to nothing, which was all the money we had back then.

Ah, good times. Good times.

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6 this week

Friday, Nov 12, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

It’s only Friday, but six Marines from Illinois have been killed this week in Iraq. Photos and bios from ABC-7:

(No photo) Sergeant David Caruso of Naperville died Tuesday in fighting in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq, which includes the city of Fallujah. The 25-year-old was based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina

Corporal Peter Giannopoulos, 22, of Inverness

Lance Corporal Nicholas Larson, 19, grew up in Wheaton and joined the marines after graduating from high school last year.

Infantryman Aaron Pickering, 20, of downstate Harrisburg joined the Marines after graduating from high school in 2002. He was killed Wednesday.

Lance corporal Branden Ramey of Belvidere was 22-years old when he was killed Monday.

Corporal Joshua Palmer, 24, of Blandinsville also died Monday. He died in a non-combat accident.

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“Disappointed” legislators

Friday, Nov 12, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Southern Illinois reports that some local legislators are frustrated with the veto session so far because it has mostly dealt only with… vetoes.

The first week of the Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session began on Monday and ended on [Wednesday] with no movement or discussion on school funding projects or the statewide medical malpractice crisis.

The second and final week of the veto session will begin Tuesday and run for three days. Local lawmakers expect it to deal primarily with the governor’s veto of legislation already passed by the General Assembly this spring, however.

Those same lawmakers expressed disappointment with the inaction during the two-week fall session.

State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, said little was accomplished during the first week of the veto session.

“We overrode a number of the governor’s vetoes, in fact most of the ones that were actually called were overridden,” Luechtefeld said. “The real big issues of the veto session were supposed to be, No. 1 of course — the vetoes. But also the capital projects, which is money we spend each year to repair buildings or funding for new construction at schools or on campuses; anything that is a one-time expense. [Snip]

“We were supposed to deal with capital projects, school construction projects and medical malpractice and the way it looks right now we are not going to deal with any of those.” [Snip]

Luechtefeld said another initiative, a solution to the medical malpractice crisis, would “more than likely not get off the ground” during this veto session.

“Nothing is coming out of that at the present time,” said Luechtefeld. [Snip]

State Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro… said the appointment of a mediator to the medical malpractice situation has turned into an “excuse” not to proceed.

“The argument, I suppose, is that the governor has put this judge as a mediator and in charge of the negotiations and there is no need to speed that up,” said Bost. “Well, I think there is a need to speed that up, I think it is something that needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen during the veto session.”

Bost said Madigan will not call any legislation regarding school funding unless the governor can show there is revenue available to fund the project.

“We’re right back where we were last spring,” said Bost, “with Madigan and the governor fighting again.”

Bost said he doesn’t believe that the med-mal issue will “get off dead center” during the veto session. [Snip]

Luechtefeld said the veto session will accomplish what it is supposed to do handle vetoes but said from every other aspect the session is heading toward a disappointing ending next week.

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Goofiness

Thursday, Nov 11, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

A very misleading factoid seems to be making the rounds of the right wing lately, so I thought I’d help nip it in the bud.

* Alan Keyes received more votes than Jim Durkin did two years ago during his run against US Senator Dick Durbin.

Keyes did receive more votes than Durkin. Durkin took 1,325,703 votes compared to Keyes’ 1,376,044. But total voter turnout was way higher this year than in 2002. Durkin and Durbin received a combined 3.4 million votes. Barack Obama alone received 3.56 million votes this year.

Durkin raised almost no money, was hardly known outside of his own state House district, received little media coverage, was up against a popular incumbent and still won 38.7 percent. Keyes won 27 percent last week. Only a fool would claim that Keyes improved on Durkin’s result. A tree stump running as a Republican might have received more votes than Keyes this year.

Then there’s the “blame the media” mantra that seems to emanate from every rightist corner. Keyes’ own website had this lovely nugget:

For almost three months, the Illinois media had a field day intentionally turning the dignified, passionate Keyes into a caricature of his true self.

There was nothing “dignified” about Keyes or his campaign.

dignified

To invest with dignity or honor; to make illustrious; to give distinction to; to exalt in rank; to honor.

Syn: To exalt; elevate; prefer; advance; honor; illustrate; adorn; ennoble.

Nobody can claim that I am a fan of the mainstream media. But Keyes got pretty much the coverage he deserved. He did not elevate the dialogue here. He cheapened it with over-the-top insults and super-heated rhetoric.

And then there’s the paranoid fantasy that Illinois Republican Party Chair Judy Baar Topinka somehow wanted a Keyes candidacy in order to ruin the party’s conservative wing.

The problem with this tinfoil hat argument is the undeniable fact that it was the conservatives who came up with the Keyes idea and it was the conservatives who convinced the state GOP to bring him here and then defended him until his strange behavior forced most of the saner members of their cabal into hiding.

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Geek in Chief

Thursday, Nov 11, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

From the AP’s afternoon wrap of Veterans’ Day activities:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich attended an annual Veterans Day program in Belleville, where he announced a new Web site that consolidates information about state and federal programs available to help veterans, service members and their families.

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No rejoicing?

Thursday, Nov 11, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Alan Keyes did better in Effingham County than anywhere in Illinois, but the only local article posted on the subject that I could find contains just a brief mention of his success buried way down deep:

Not only did President George W. Bush carry Effingham County by nearly 3 to 1, but U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes soundly thrashed Democrat Barack Obama in the county, even though Obama won a landslide victory statewide.

Keyes won 57 percent of the vote in Effingham County, to 40 percent for Obama. Two minor candidates split the other three percent.

Keyes also did well in Iroquois County, but the largest daily newspaper in that county has yet to post any stories about the victory on its website.

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The Obamatist

Thursday, Nov 11, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Another glowing article on Barack Obama. This time in the November edition of the Washington Monthly. There’s almost nothing new here, including the warnings about how others who were tagged with the “First Black President” prediction have fizzled. But Benjamin Wallace-Wells does know how to turn a phrase.

What was perhaps most brilliant about Obama’s speech at the convention, and indeed about much of his campaign, was the way in which he revamped his unusual, foreign-seeming biography so that it fit the central American political myth, the ascent from the Log Cabin, with a post-racial 21st-century spin. The half-Kenyan kid became Abe Lincoln. Isn’t it unlikely, Obama tells all his audiences, ï¿½that a skinny kid with a funny name from the South Side of Chicagoï¿½ could be where he is today. (In some ways perhaps not so unlikely: He was the son of a single mother, but he also went to prep school and has degrees from Columbia and Harvard).

Looking at Obama, Americans saw a political character that they’d never quite encountered before. He was black, but not quite. He spoke white, with the hand-gestures of a management consultant, but also with the oratorical flourishes of a black preacher.

While I think most Illinoisans are pleased with their choice and proud that we’ve produced such a powerful national figure, lots of us also want him to remember that he is supposed to be our US Senator, not a political showpiece for bicoastal liberals, as Carol Moseley-Braun became. He has a much better head on his shoulders than CM-B, but the Beltway can tempt like almost nothing else.

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