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Friday Topinka blogging
Friday, Feb 18, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
No, she’s not hanging with hippies. This is a photo of JBT with a priest identified here as The Very Reverend Archimandrite Zacchaeus (Wood) - Dean of the Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr in-the-Fields, Representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Moscow Patriarchate Topinka was attending a function to raise money for a new bell for St. Catherine the Great Martyr Church.
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Out of hairspray
Friday, Feb 18, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller Anyone know what happened to Will County Hairspray? I praised the site a few days ago as the best micro politics blog around, and now it has disappeared. (Thanks to a commenter for the tip.)
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Quote of the week
Friday, Feb 18, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
- White House drug czar John Walters, testifying yesterday at the Statehouse against a proposal to allow for the medicinal use of marijuana. First runner-up: “The word ‘pledge’ conjures up to me, you know, did you sign a pledge, did you promise to make a pledge, no tax pledge, those sorts of things.” - Governor Rod Blagojevich, explaining to the Daily Herald’s editorial board why his repeated campaign promise to direct 51 percent of all new state revenue for education wasn’t a “pledge.”
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Gaming Board
Friday, Feb 18, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller Asked yesterday why he hasn’t filled the three open slots on the Illinois Gaming Board, the governor had this to say: Blagojevich said the “big problem” in filling the vacancies is that “a lot of good, qualified people either don’t want to be a part of it because it’s been sort of a maligned place” or because they “have a horse in this race,” such as working for a law firm that represents a casino. Left unsaid, however, was that it was Blagojevich who heaped “malign” on the Board in the first place. It can’t be easy to convince someone to serve on a board when that person knows you’re gonna throw him under the bus at the first opportunity.
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Iowa smoke tax
Friday, Feb 18, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller One of the standard talking points against Governor Blagojevich’s proposal to slap a 75 cent per pack tax hike on cigarettes is that it will drive consumers to other states. Illinois has some long borders, and businesses worry they’ll lose even more customers. But Iowa is now looking at jacking up its low cigarette tax rates, from 36 cents per pack (41st lowest in the nation) to anywhere from $1.116 to $1.36 per pack, which would make their taxes higher than Illinois’ current tax rate (the proposed 75 cent increase would put Illinois at $1.73). Most of Iowa’s Senate Republicans oppose the proposed tax hike, but it may be gaining steam. The Iowa Senate is divided evenly between the parties. “It’s the big lie,” said Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows. “We see we are going to be able to grow our way out of this without a tax increase.”
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Even less than advertised
Friday, Feb 18, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller The Daily Herald discovers a hitch in the governor’s education spending proposal. Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed $140 million in new spending for schools during his budget address Wednesday. Go read the full story for more details.
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Wolcott
Friday, Feb 18, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller If you’ve never read James Wolcott’s Tracer Fire blog, you are missing out on one of the great pleasures of the Internets. Wolcott, a Vanity Fair writer and author, is a magnificent wordsmith. Even if you don’t always agree with his politics, it’s impossible not to marvel at the way he writes. A very brief excerpt from this week: [He has a] thumbless grasp of the issues and a propensity for lachrymose whimpering when he doesn’t get his way. Follow the above link to discover the target of Wolcott’s fantastic putdown.
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