- Larry Mullholland - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:20 am:
The people of Illinois do really care about our State, our government and they care about who our leaders are. This blog is an example of the the lenghths at which people will go (perhaps too far at times) to promote their cause because they do care. Merry Christmas AND Happy Holidays.
Rich, Thank you for providing this service to those of us who care. Larry M.
We’re a blue state with two Democratic Senators, a Democratic Governor, 10 of 19 reps. are Democrats, we voted for Gore and Kerry, we are doing our part for the team.
I was, has been, and remains, the Land of Lincoln.
Home state to: Ronald Reagan, Northwestern University, the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago Bears….(etc.), the Chicago Lyric Opera (next nearest regular season grand opera company, hundreds of miles away…), one of the largest French Impressionist collections in the world at the Art Institute of Chicago, the start of the Mackinac Island Race, countless stars of film, radio, and TV, the best damn pheasant and fowl hunting in the entire Midwest, etc., etc….
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, and a very Happy New Year to all.
In this state filled with some of the nation’s best cultural sites, sports teams and tourist attractions, there is still the heady whiff of an active democracy at play. This blog serves as the perfect showcase for the (mostly) two-party system at work, with plenty of rancor, civility and discourse all at once. We have admirable public servants, polarizing politicians and special interest groups that don’t yield an inch. Reading this blog and its comments is proof positive that our system of government not only works but also provides lots of entertainment along the way. Surely 2006 will bring lots more fun. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hannukah, Happy Holidays, and most important, Aren’t We Glad The Days Are Getting Longer Again.
- Crank-tankerous - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:09 am:
Dan Lipinski simply withdrew some defective petitions. He filed two sets. He’s still an active candidate. But thanks for the brief period of excitement.
It is 45 degrees on December 23rd and the snow is melting and the sun is out. Also the George Ryan trial and “hired truck” scandal make reading the morning papers fun.
- takethehighroad - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:36 am:
Illinois - the home of Fred McMurray, Steve Allen, Mel Torme, Gene Krupa, Willie Dixon, Jams Jones, James T. Farrell, Nelson Algren, Richard Wright, Ronald Reagan, Adlai Stevenson, Paul Douglas, Curley Dirckson, Richard J. Daley, The Special Olympics, Mercy Home for Children, Fr. John Smyth, the Kankakee River, Starved Rock, Galena, Giant City, Murfeesboro, and Biscuits and Gravy is some territory.
Positive!
How about let’s be thankful for Bush’s popularity fallng into the toilet. It kept him from reinstating the draft!
Actually I think the blogodome shutting down for a few days will be good because it will cause many of the participants to reenter the real world dimension. They will discover Illinoisans care more about the SOX, Illini and even the Bears than any of GRod’s slight missteps.
Not positive enough?
How about thanks to CaptFax for this blog break and for the millions in subscription fees you have sucked away from IL corporations. That is coin they might have given to those sad, lonely misguided GOP candidates.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!
- Rep. Ed Sullivan, Jr. - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:54 am:
Reddbyrd,
From one of those “sad, lonely misguided GOP candidates, have a merry Cristmas, happy Hanakkah or wonderful Kwanzaa (as I do not know what you might celebrate). But more importantly I want to wish you and your family good health and prosperity in the new year!
- Son of A Sailor - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:55 am:
We Still Believe and Peace and Good Will
Merry Christmas to All and I’ll see you all on the Other Side
- ONEMANCANMAKEADIFFERENCE - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:04 am:
The State of Illinois is a blessed state!!!!!!!!
We have not seen the damage of a terrist attack, no hurricanes, no weather that really truly caused a calamity and we are also blessed to be apart of the United States the Land of Freedom of Speech!
While we could have experienced some of the catastrophies that other states have, we havn’t.
The Illinois Center Right Coalition is closing up shop. For a few laughs check out their comments on candidates on their blog. http://www.illinoiscenterright.com/
Illinois is as diverse a mixture of people, cultures, and ideas as you can find. This is a positive thing for Illinois as it brings a variety of ideas and concepts to share among the various groups found in our state. Now, we need to exhibit the wisdom that is required to “cherry-pick” from amongst these ideas so that we may retain “the best of the best” and weed out those which are not condusive to the people’s health, happiness, and the pursuit of liberty.
- Reddbyrd is an Idiot - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:15 am:
Reddbyrd - I can’t believe you fell for that junk about Bush reinstating the draft. What a farce. You’re an idiot. We should send you to a desolate island where your stupidity won’t rub off on anyone else.
As for good things about Illinois - We got that great Fitzgerald Prosecutor who is cracking down on the wealth of corruption in Illinois. Today George Ryan; tomorrow Rod Blagojevich, Mike Madigan, and Richard Daley. All of four of them deserve prison time.
All of us true hacks out here are thankfull for Rich’s Capitol Fax and the opportunity to work for a great candidate Tammy Duckworth. Merry Christmas Happy Holidays fellow hacks. See you in the precict!
I lived around the country before moving back to Illinois several years ago. Couldn’t wait to come home. Politicians here are as goofy as other states. Finances are never good. Walking down State Street still excites me as much as when I was kid. Snow at a Bears game. Blowing through some backroads with 6 foot corn and country blasting on the radio. Growing tomatoes in black dirt. Leaving gum on the rail in the Capitol. Swimming in a farm pond while listening to Buddy Guy on WXRT. Great friends and family.
It’s just a good life here. Stay safe, have a fun Christmas/New Year and come back next year tanned, rested, and ready.
1)Capitol Fax;
2)property values kept down due to current government chasing business & growth away from IL;
3)IL is generous to and welcomes all welfare recipients, illegal aliens and other non-contibuting citizens…
4)prisoners in IL are released early after serving only a fraction of their sentences due to over-crowding…
Positives:
Chicago Bears finally acting like a football team;
White Sox winning the series;
Capitol Fax blog keeping my political brain cells clicking;
Verizon finally getting broadband in my neighborhood;
Living in a state that with all of its problems and chicanery is NOT California!
The opening of the Abraham Presidential Library in Springfield and the NFC North Division Champs..the Chicago Bears. Also U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, fighting the corruption in politcs.
Illinois positives: We have the best Italian beef, brats, hot dogs (NO ketchup!!!), and beer (anything–from bitter to ale–from Walter Payton’s Roundhouse microbrewery) in the world. And our corn and soybeans ain’t bad, either.
Illinois is the calm, rational, practical and centrist center; without it, everything would spin off to the crazy extremes of the East and West coasts.
And nobody would know what a real pizza would taste like.
Illinois is great! Comments please! Should Tom Dart back Claypool? Yes/No?
- 6 Degrees of Separation - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 7:54 pm:
Here’s to:
The City of Big Shoulders, Hog Butcher to the World.
The Galena Territory.
Starved Rock State Park, and its Lodge.
Everything about Abe Lincoln, including the city where his body rests.
The Shawnee National Forest.
That park in Cairo where the Ohio and Mississippi come together.
A thoughtful politician who’s in it for the right reasons every once in awhile, like Paul Simon, Barack Obama, Pete Fitzgerald, and Dick Ogilvie.
A political boss who is an easy target and a source of entertainment even when we hate what he does, like the Richards Daley.
The unsung wonks, hacks, technocrats, bureaucrats, engineers, computer geeks, inspectors, front-line health care workers, prison guards, and state troopers who thanklessly keep the state safe and working, despite an oftentimes not-too-clear sense of direction from above.
Rib joints on the South Side.
Pizza joints on the North Side.
Dese, dat, dem, doze. Gimme tree bucks.
A World Series champion, a 10-4 pro football team, a potential Final Four repeating college basketball team, a pro basketball team likely to make the playoffs…and a pro hockey team that is, ahem, playing this year.
A governor who is hanging on by a thread in his own state, even as he plays to a national audience with some success…hmmm, wasn’t the last guy like that, too?
And a blanket of snow over the state on Christmas Day.
- The Angry Sicisilian - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:18 am:
Eisendrath make me happy for Illinois.
- The Angry Sicilian - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:19 am:
Here’s to spellcheck! :-/
- Larry Mullholland - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:20 am:
The people of Illinois do really care about our State, our government and they care about who our leaders are. This blog is an example of the the lenghths at which people will go (perhaps too far at times) to promote their cause because they do care. Merry Christmas AND Happy Holidays.
Rich, Thank you for providing this service to those of us who care. Larry M.
- SouthernILRepub - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:22 am:
Illinois isn’t the most liberal state, yet!!!!!
- Crankyboy - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:29 am:
We’re a blue state with two Democratic Senators, a Democratic Governor, 10 of 19 reps. are Democrats, we voted for Gore and Kerry, we are doing our part for the team.
- Anon - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:37 am:
Something positive about Illinois?
I was, has been, and remains, the Land of Lincoln.
Home state to: Ronald Reagan, Northwestern University, the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago Bears….(etc.), the Chicago Lyric Opera (next nearest regular season grand opera company, hundreds of miles away…), one of the largest French Impressionist collections in the world at the Art Institute of Chicago, the start of the Mackinac Island Race, countless stars of film, radio, and TV, the best damn pheasant and fowl hunting in the entire Midwest, etc., etc….
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, and a very Happy New Year to all.
- Anonymous - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:41 am:
Illinois is undefeated. Look out Big Ten.
- SalukiDog - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:43 am:
If there’s one thing about it, the politics in this state ensures there is never a dull year.
- Anon - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:44 am:
Rich Miller is the sexiest man in Illinois.
- InThePatch - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 9:54 am:
In this state filled with some of the nation’s best cultural sites, sports teams and tourist attractions, there is still the heady whiff of an active democracy at play. This blog serves as the perfect showcase for the (mostly) two-party system at work, with plenty of rancor, civility and discourse all at once. We have admirable public servants, polarizing politicians and special interest groups that don’t yield an inch. Reading this blog and its comments is proof positive that our system of government not only works but also provides lots of entertainment along the way. Surely 2006 will bring lots more fun. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hannukah, Happy Holidays, and most important, Aren’t We Glad The Days Are Getting Longer Again.
- Crank-tankerous - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:09 am:
Off point (sorry) — but this just in:
Dan Lipinski has WITHDRAWN. See the ISBE website.
- Navin Johnson - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:15 am:
Da Bears.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:25 am:
Dan Lipinski simply withdrew some defective petitions. He filed two sets. He’s still an active candidate. But thanks for the brief period of excitement.
- Jenny Kustra - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:33 am:
White Sox
Bears Defense
Patrick Fitzgerald
- IrishPirate - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:36 am:
It is 45 degrees on December 23rd and the snow is melting and the sun is out. Also the George Ryan trial and “hired truck” scandal make reading the morning papers fun.
- takethehighroad - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:36 am:
Sox.. Bears… The Great City of Chicago..
- Pat Hickey - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:45 am:
Illinois - the home of Fred McMurray, Steve Allen, Mel Torme, Gene Krupa, Willie Dixon, Jams Jones, James T. Farrell, Nelson Algren, Richard Wright, Ronald Reagan, Adlai Stevenson, Paul Douglas, Curley Dirckson, Richard J. Daley, The Special Olympics, Mercy Home for Children, Fr. John Smyth, the Kankakee River, Starved Rock, Galena, Giant City, Murfeesboro, and Biscuits and Gravy is some territory.
- Reddbyrd - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:46 am:
Positive!
How about let’s be thankful for Bush’s popularity fallng into the toilet. It kept him from reinstating the draft!
Actually I think the blogodome shutting down for a few days will be good because it will cause many of the participants to reenter the real world dimension. They will discover Illinoisans care more about the SOX, Illini and even the Bears than any of GRod’s slight missteps.
Not positive enough?
How about thanks to CaptFax for this blog break and for the millions in subscription fees you have sucked away from IL corporations. That is coin they might have given to those sad, lonely misguided GOP candidates.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!
- Rep. Ed Sullivan, Jr. - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:54 am:
Reddbyrd,
From one of those “sad, lonely misguided GOP candidates, have a merry Cristmas, happy Hanakkah or wonderful Kwanzaa (as I do not know what you might celebrate). But more importantly I want to wish you and your family good health and prosperity in the new year!
- Son of A Sailor - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 10:55 am:
We Still Believe and Peace and Good Will
Merry Christmas to All and I’ll see you all on the Other Side
- ONEMANCANMAKEADIFFERENCE - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:04 am:
The State of Illinois is a blessed state!!!!!!!!
We have not seen the damage of a terrist attack, no hurricanes, no weather that really truly caused a calamity and we are also blessed to be apart of the United States the Land of Freedom of Speech!
While we could have experienced some of the catastrophies that other states have, we havn’t.
- Anon - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:07 am:
Positive?
Despite scandal after scandal, corruption, incompetence and ignorance, our democaracy and politics will endure forever. Amen.
- Anon - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:09 am:
The Illinois Center Right Coalition is closing up shop. For a few laughs check out their comments on candidates on their blog. http://www.illinoiscenterright.com/
- Beowulf - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:12 am:
Illinois is as diverse a mixture of people, cultures, and ideas as you can find. This is a positive thing for Illinois as it brings a variety of ideas and concepts to share among the various groups found in our state. Now, we need to exhibit the wisdom that is required to “cherry-pick” from amongst these ideas so that we may retain “the best of the best” and weed out those which are not condusive to the people’s health, happiness, and the pursuit of liberty.
- Reddbyrd is an Idiot - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:15 am:
Reddbyrd - I can’t believe you fell for that junk about Bush reinstating the draft. What a farce. You’re an idiot. We should send you to a desolate island where your stupidity won’t rub off on anyone else.
As for good things about Illinois - We got that great Fitzgerald Prosecutor who is cracking down on the wealth of corruption in Illinois. Today George Ryan; tomorrow Rod Blagojevich, Mike Madigan, and Richard Daley. All of four of them deserve prison time.
- Stone Hack - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:20 am:
All of us true hacks out here are thankfull for Rich’s Capitol Fax and the opportunity to work for a great candidate Tammy Duckworth. Merry Christmas Happy Holidays fellow hacks. See you in the precict!
- Link - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:51 am:
At least we are not New Jersey…
- zatoichi - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:51 am:
I lived around the country before moving back to Illinois several years ago. Couldn’t wait to come home. Politicians here are as goofy as other states. Finances are never good. Walking down State Street still excites me as much as when I was kid. Snow at a Bears game. Blowing through some backroads with 6 foot corn and country blasting on the radio. Growing tomatoes in black dirt. Leaving gum on the rail in the Capitol. Swimming in a farm pond while listening to Buddy Guy on WXRT. Great friends and family.
It’s just a good life here. Stay safe, have a fun Christmas/New Year and come back next year tanned, rested, and ready.
- North of I-80 - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 11:54 am:
1)Capitol Fax;
2)property values kept down due to current government chasing business & growth away from IL;
3)IL is generous to and welcomes all welfare recipients, illegal aliens and other non-contibuting citizens…
4)prisoners in IL are released early after serving only a fraction of their sentences due to over-crowding…
- Mongo - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 12:18 pm:
The people who live here and work here make this a great State in which to do both.
Sometimes our leaders are puds. But the people make things happen here.
- Nearly Normal - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 12:49 pm:
Positives:
Chicago Bears finally acting like a football team;
White Sox winning the series;
Capitol Fax blog keeping my political brain cells clicking;
Verizon finally getting broadband in my neighborhood;
Living in a state that with all of its problems and chicanery is NOT California!
- McH GOP - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 12:58 pm:
Isn’t it great that we live in a state and a nation that allows us the freedom to express ourselves? Now that’s positive!!
- bored now - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 12:59 pm:
da bears. da sox. illini basketball! here’s hoping for ron zook!
- Shallow Pharnyx - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 1:19 pm:
For the most part, Illinois people are nice.
Elections are coming.
Happy Holidays!
- scoot - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 1:23 pm:
The opening of the Abraham Presidential Library in Springfield and the NFC North Division Champs..the Chicago Bears. Also U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, fighting the corruption in politcs.
- Truthful James - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 1:30 pm:
The wide diversity of opinion, which is a necessary condition for both democracy and debate.
As it was originally written
“Peace on Earth to Men of Good Will.”
- RAM - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 1:37 pm:
Illinois positives: We have the best Italian beef, brats, hot dogs (NO ketchup!!!), and beer (anything–from bitter to ale–from Walter Payton’s Roundhouse microbrewery) in the world. And our corn and soybeans ain’t bad, either.
- Newshound - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 2:16 pm:
There’s never a dull moment!
- Goodbye Napoleon - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 2:36 pm:
We have some great restaurants here! Not all of them are in toll oasis.
- Common Sense in Illinois - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 3:37 pm:
Were it not for Illinois, none of us would be commenting here.
Merry Christmas, everyone. See ya next year for more fun and games…
- John - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 4:10 pm:
Its not Nebraska!
- anon - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 4:13 pm:
Soon Bush will be impeached
- Fighting Ennui - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 6:02 pm:
Illinois is the calm, rational, practical and centrist center; without it, everything would spin off to the crazy extremes of the East and West coasts.
And nobody would know what a real pizza would taste like.
- The Colonel - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 6:59 pm:
We’re probably not as corrupt as Louisiana, yet.
- The Broken Heart - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 7:41 pm:
This blog is still free.
- Anonymous - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 7:44 pm:
Illinois is great! Comments please! Should Tom Dart back Claypool? Yes/No?
- 6 Degrees of Separation - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 7:54 pm:
Here’s to:
The City of Big Shoulders, Hog Butcher to the World.
The Galena Territory.
Starved Rock State Park, and its Lodge.
Everything about Abe Lincoln, including the city where his body rests.
The Shawnee National Forest.
That park in Cairo where the Ohio and Mississippi come together.
A thoughtful politician who’s in it for the right reasons every once in awhile, like Paul Simon, Barack Obama, Pete Fitzgerald, and Dick Ogilvie.
A political boss who is an easy target and a source of entertainment even when we hate what he does, like the Richards Daley.
The unsung wonks, hacks, technocrats, bureaucrats, engineers, computer geeks, inspectors, front-line health care workers, prison guards, and state troopers who thanklessly keep the state safe and working, despite an oftentimes not-too-clear sense of direction from above.
Rib joints on the South Side.
Pizza joints on the North Side.
Dese, dat, dem, doze. Gimme tree bucks.
A World Series champion, a 10-4 pro football team, a potential Final Four repeating college basketball team, a pro basketball team likely to make the playoffs…and a pro hockey team that is, ahem, playing this year.
A governor who is hanging on by a thread in his own state, even as he plays to a national audience with some success…hmmm, wasn’t the last guy like that, too?
And a blanket of snow over the state on Christmas Day.
- 4% ain't enough - Friday, Dec 23, 05 @ 8:41 pm:
No war at home
No hurricane ravaged areas
Bless the soldiers and citizens away from their homes and loved ones.
- Nicolas - Tuesday, Jun 5, 07 @ 2:30 pm:
interesting
- Anastasios - Wednesday, Jun 6, 07 @ 2:46 pm:
Nice