Saturday Topinka Blogging
Saturday, Dec 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller Oops. I was out of the office Friday afternoon and forgot all about my Topinka blogging duties. To the left is an album cover from the Czech band Houpacà konÄ›. The first cut off the 2003 album, PÃsnÄ› z bistra, is called, believe it or not, “Topinka.” Not sure what all this means, but the state treasurer is a Bohemian, so maybe she knows. You can listen to a sample of the “Topinka” track here. The lyrics can be found here. A translation of some of the lyrics by Intertran gives us this mangled mess: WITHIN bistru where shadows hangering as forth as nappy air them here supine plus wind ÄÃny Trencher sake two wedges chandry plus spleen she has wine he stewed fruit out of dýnà I’m as baffled as you are. Here is some info from an English language website: The band started playing in 1991. Such a long time ago. In the beginning it was simple rock-songs with czech lyrics, boosters and a mad bass guitarist. Everything was expressive, bitter and noisy. During the years the band has played hundreds of concerts all over the republic and elsewhere – in Slovakia, Germany or Holland, has released three albums, changed members, sound and audience’s interest. In fact they didn’t make it to the first league. And that, dear friends, concludes your weekly Topinka blogging.
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Slone gives up
Friday, Dec 17, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller Rep. Slone finally gave up the ghost this week (via PeoriaPundit): State Rep. Ricca Slone is giving up the fight for her 92nd District House seat after a two-day recount failed to turn up any major problems in the city or county election outfits, she said Thursday. Schock is now in for the ride of his life. The House Democrats will go all out to beat him in two years, and that means running bills at him in the interim that will be tough for him to vote for or against. For instance, a bill to give unemployment insurance to locked out workers would be greatly opposed by Peoria gargantuan Caterpillar, but 100 percent supported by the by Peoria’s unions, particularly the very strong United Auto Workers.
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Fallout
Friday, Dec 17, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller Here’s a link to Governor Rod Blagojevich’s new website, “Safe Games Illinois” that I wrote about in today’s Capitol Fax. The site is owned by Jascula Terman, a Chicago PR firm. The 2003 poll about parental attitudes on media influence can be found at the Common Sense Media website. Meanwhile, the blogoshpere is up in arms about the governor’s proposal to criminalize the sale or rental of violent/sexual video games to minors. Most of the blogging is super negative. My favorite headline is Governor Rod Blagojevich Thinks You’re an Idiot on momentago. Another, from Libertarianism ,and entitled “Dem Rod Blagojevich is villainizing videogames,” is far more strident: “I hate Illinois Nazis” (Except that many, including the governor, contend that retailers aren’t doing a very good job of regulating themselves.) Some, like brothersjudd take the opposite view. This is an excellent values issue and one the GOP should quickly swipe. As I told you in Capitol Fax today, other Democratic governors are reportedly about to jump onto this bandwagon.
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Not
Friday, Dec 17, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller These guys wonder why local bigtime media outlets haven’t picked up on this story yet, and suggest I might. Not gonna do it. Here are some of the operative sentences (emphasis mine): The Justice Department is considering a request to investigate the disclosure of secrets about an expensive U.S. spy satellite project criticized by some senior Democratic senators, a law enforcement official says. […] Sorry, but as of now that looks more like a payback leak to a compliant wire service reporter than a real story.
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