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Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Comments are now off. Talk at you Monday.

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Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Unlike this blog, Illinoize will be open for business all weekend, and the comments will be left on.

There were some very good posts today and late yesterday.

The Illinois Shadow is his/her usual best with a funny post about Judy Baar Topinka’s new nickname. The Shadow doesn’t like it.

Bill Dennis may have a big scoop about his local government.

Grand Old Partisan has a very well thought-out piece about the upcoming GOP primary. A must-read.

My personal favorite this week comes from President Nixon, who gives us a Top Ten list.

Governor’s top ten upcoming initiatives

10. Placing a $1 million dollar bounty on Osama bin Laden’s head.
9. Passing resolution stating, “Cold weather is not cool”.
8. Proposing law requiring every professional sports team to have an Elvis night.
7. Initiating Illinois funny money with “In Rod We Trust” inscribed on it.
6. Running as a Republican so he can debate himself and still win.
5. Officially renaming Springfield “Do I really have to go thereville”.
4. In an effort to boost foreign policy credentials, will activate the National Guard to invade Iowa
3. Outlawing Grandparents Day.
2. Rename Illinois, “Rezmar”.
1. Indefinetly postpone the November 2006 General Election.

Tricky Dick is also asking for more suggestions.

There’s a lot more. Sorry for those I missed. Hightail it over yonder and see for yourself.

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This just in… Giannoulias to announce Sunday

Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Liberal banking heir Alexi Giannoulias will announce Sunday that he is running for state treasurer. Giannoulias will face slated candidate Paul Mangieri in the Democratic primary.

Word is some serious heavy-hitters are endorsing him. More later.

UPDATE: US Senator Barack Obama will reportedly be on hand Sunday to endorse Giannoulias.

Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., Alderman Dick Mell, Rep. John Fritchey and others will be there as well.

60 Comments

Question of the day

Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

It’s Friday, so let’s do something offbeat.

Let’s say you owned a tavern, and instead of naming sandwiches after prominent politicians, you decided to rename various drinks for them.

Have at it.

~~UPDATE: Well, that lasted longer than I thought it would. Comments closed. And I think it was one guy who did it.~~

~~My friend, I’m gonna hunt you down like a dog.~~

37 Comments

As mentioned in today’s Capitol Fax

Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Here is the story where Jim Oberweis says he’s not connected to George Ryan.

Here is the Chicago Tribune story about Oberweis’ meeting with Ryan.

For the final piece of the puzzle, you have to subscribe to the Capitol Fax.

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Guv fires back

Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I mentioned this story in today’s Capitol Fax.

It appears the gloves are coming off in the race for governor. On Wednesday Republican candidate Judy Baar Topinka announced she and the Republican Party plan to take out incumbent Rod Blagojevich and fix the state’s fiscals mess. Now the governor says Topinka and the Republicans are to blame for that mess. […]

“The Republicans that were in Springfield, that worked with George Ryan and allowed the worst fiscal crisis, I think they had their fair share of responsibility,” Blagojevich said.

Governor Blagojevich said Illinois voters should remember that Judy Baar Topinka was the state treasurer, the keeper of the cash, when George Ryan was governor. So she’s responsible in part for the multi-billion dollar budget deficit he inherited from Ryan. And her claims of fiscal expertise are disingenuous.

“We dealt with that fiscal crisis and we did in it a way that no one said was possible. We didn’t ask the working people of our state to pay more in taxes. We held the line on taxes,” Blagojevich said.

45 Comments

Educators say they need help with other things

Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

From the Rockford Register-Star.

When Stephen Mack Middle School started offering chef salads at lunch this year, they sold like hot cakes.

So much so, the school had to a hire another cafeteria worker to prepare them.

Pop sales at Stephen Mack and Rocktonâ€™s other public schools are down; students and teachers are buying more bottled water, sports drinks and juice.

Some principals are removing vending machines. In Rockford, cafeterias offer pieces of fresh fruit free of charge.

Local educators say they donâ€™t need Gov. Rod Blagojevich to tell them to become more nutrition-conscious, and his latest proposal to ban junk-food sales in the stateâ€™s public schools lacks substance.

â€œRight now, there are bigger issues to deal with than whether or not weâ€™re serving junk food in school,â€ Rockton Superintendent Jean Harezlak said.

â€œIâ€™ll deal with that issue. Help me figure out how Iâ€™m going to replace roofs and mechanical heating and ventilation systems. Thatâ€™s the kind of help I need from the people in Springfield.â€

Junk food, video games and tattoos have been targeted so far by the governor. One can’t help wonder what will be next.

14 Comments

The Supremes

Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Some of the actions taken yesterday by the IL Supreme Court:

â€¢Upheld a 2001 law imposing a $120 million settlement on challenges to Illinois Bellâ€™s rates for business services. […]

â€¢Upheld the conviction of a woman who argued her lawyer never should have stipulated that the substance found in her car was cocaine.

â€¢Rejected the arguments of a mother who said the stateâ€™s child-welfare agency had no authority to cross the border to take custody of her newborn son at an Indiana hospital.

â€¢Ruled prosecutors did not act improperly by calling a murder suspectâ€™s actions â€œpure evil.â€ It also allowed use of the suspectâ€™s confession, which was obtained during repeated interrogations over two days.

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Did anyone see this?

Friday, Dec 2, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

From yesterday.

llinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and St. Louis lawyer Ed Martin are slated to appear late this afternoon on CNNâ€™s â€œLou Dobbs Tonightâ€™â€™ to discuss Illinoisâ€™ rule requiring pharmacies to fill emergency-contraception prescriptions.

The show runs from 5-6 p.m. Central time. Martin will join Dobbs in New York, while Blagojevich will be based in Chicago.

Martin is the lawyer representing the four Walgreen Co. pharmacists from the Metro East who were put on unpaid leave for refusing to fill such prescriptions. Martin also works for Americans United for Life, and is the Republican chairman for the St. Louis Election Board.

I’m curious how it went.

UPDATE: The transcript is up.

“To suggest that somehow pharmacists should be treated differently, would be to suggest for example, that when you go to your supermarket and the clerk is checking out your food, and that clerk may be a vegetarian, that when you check through the counter to pay your bill, he’s checking the asparagus and the potatoes and the pasta, but when he gets to the ground sirloin, says: I’m sorry, I have a moral objection to meat, I’m not going to sell you the hamburger.”

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