28 Comments - Squideshi - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 9:44 am: Why didn’t the Sun-Times indicate the author of the editorial? - Leroy - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:04 am: Why doesn’t the IDOT privatize rest stops like the tollway does (or like Ohio does)? Then we can use private money to provide wifi, instead of tax dollars? We can use the savings to fund schools. (*groan*) - Squideshi - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:10 am: Leroy, what evidence is there that privatizing rest stops would result in an improvement? The State would still have to spend taxpayer money policing the contract, plus the entity would no longer be direcly publically accountable. - Pat Hickey - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:11 am: Judge Capital “C” lit up another one - it is amazing a young lawyer can go from bakruptcy to U.S. District Court and all without a scintilla of politics - Coar studied, crammed, wrote long essays and took the Cvil service U. S. District Court Judge exam and got straight A’s - no wait - he was appointed by a politician - Bubba I think it was: “They have to stop shrugging their shoulders and saying, `That’s just Chicago.’” Yeah. Throw the building at him Capital ‘C’! - Leroy - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:15 am: You are right, Squid….bad idea. - Pat Collins - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:18 am: You missed the Washington times editorial on Sen. Obama. They comment on his voting record as IL senator, promise to look at US record later. - fedup dem - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:19 am: Nice try, Sun-Times, but if you think this editorial will absolve you of your great sin (endorsing Toddler Stroger), you have another guess coming! - Bill - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:28 am: Privitizing the rest stops sounds like a good idea. What’s the matter? Don’t you like Panda Express? - Leroy - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:37 am: I love Panda Express (well, the non-corrupt, non-juiced, non-tollway Panda Expresses). I always order the fried panda. Yum! - Squideshi - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:39 am: Bill, I guess that’s one difference between a Green and a Democrat–I tend to prefer small, independent, locally-owned, and family businesses over chains. It’s these businesses that create most of the jobs in the State. If your position is representative of Democratic Party’s stance, this may explain, in part, why Blago has lost the support of organizations like AFSCME. - Pat Hickey - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:41 am: Bill, Harold’s Chicken would win my vote - Now, Harold Pierce, CPD (dec.) was a great American and a fine judge of fowl.Privatized rest stops from Zion to Cairo with Harold’s a featured favorite. - Bill - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:48 am: The governor’s “loss” of support of this particular union was due to the political machinations and mis-calculations of their disconnected, soon to be ex-leadership. Besides what does ASCFME have to do with “small, independent, locally-owned, and family businesses”? I was just kidding. You really should relax and try to enjoy your upcoming christless, secular holiday. - Cassandra - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 10:49 am: The Sun Times writers need to start earning their pay. Excoriating the taxpayers for voting for relatives of pols is too easy. By the time the kid is on the ballot, or the upcoming appointment is being announced, the voters’ options are extremely limited. Instead of blaming it all on the pols and the voters, the concerned press should do some research and propose some solutions. - Bill - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 11:06 am: Pat, Pierce used to drive around town in the chicken-mobile. A white El Dorado with a giant chicken head bolted to the roof. He was an institution. - Snidely Whiplash - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 11:11 am: Hmmmm … the Sun-Times endorses Todd Stroger, Lisa Madigan, Dan Hynes, the Daleys, the Burkes, Kevin Joyce and on and on, then has the nerve to whine about nepotism? If I recall correctly, didn’t they also endorse Little Lip even after whining about how he was slid into place? Maybe they ought to stick to tabloid “journalism”, eh? - Pat Hickey - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 11:13 am: I taught a couple of his kids. Great guy! - Pat Hickey - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 11:16 am: Bill, Harold was one of the funniest and biggest hearted guys I have ever had the pleasure to meet. When he got pretty sick , all he wanted to do was fish in the creks around St. Anne, IL. - Bill - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 11:24 am: Snidely, It sounds like the ST has a great record of picking candidates. All winners…all fine upstanding, hard working, young(except for Burke) public servants…and all Democrats! Keep up the great work S-T! No wonder the Trib is in trouble. - Squideshi - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 11:25 am: Bill, more accurately, ASCFME preferred Rich Whitney over Blago. It should come as no surprise that AFSCME leadership met with Whitney and expressed support for his campaign in private. In answer to your question, I was referring to AFSCME’s opposition to the continued privitization of public assets. Stronger support for small, independent, locally-owned, and family businesses is my personal preference and that of the Green Party in general. Green policy is built upon Ten Key Values, and one of those values is Community-Based Economics. Compare this to the Governor’s plan to rob families of their generationally-owned family farms near Peotone, to build an airport that none of the airlines want to use, destroying local communities in the process. - Bill - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 11:58 am: Squid, Ive got to agree about the airport but I would hardly characterize it as the governor’s plan.He didn’t initiate the land grab, Ryan did. No progress has been made on the unwanted and unneeded airport since Rod took office. He is content to let local dems fight it out and try,if possible, to come to a consensus which will probably never happen. If Henry and the boys liked Whitney so much and actually met with him to express support, than they should have had the courage to publicly express their convictions like a real union would have. - Johnny USA - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 12:18 pm: Yo Squid - Ever been to a rest stop on the tollway? They have gas stations, mcdonalds, starbucks, krisy kremes, etc etc etc….This is called a ‘revenue generator’ for the tollway…they *pay* the tollway for the right to place their establishments there. Free money! Contrast that to the I-57 rest stop outside Champaign. It has an ice cream machine with an ‘Out Of Order’ sign on it. Does the Green Party even like ice cream, Squid? Not the state manufactured stuff they have in prisons, I’m talking *real* ice cream, like made from Dean Foods? You should try it. I know, I know…Dean Foods is not a mom-and-pop operation, so the ice cream is tainted with the stench of profiteering, and Green candidate Rich Whitney would probably turn his nose up at it, but mmmmmmmmmmmm….. - Squideshi - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 12:40 pm: Bill, it’s my understanding that IDOT recently demolished a bunch of houses in the proposed airport footprint, despite an agreement to the contrary with local residents. Isn’t IDOT an executive agency, direcly accountable to the Governor? I agree with you about AFSCME. They should have had the courage to publically express their convictions; but like so many other unions, they use an absolutely ridiculous electability standard that does little more than perpetuate the status quo. Take a look at the IEA. They were afraid to endorse Whitney because they didn’t want to face retaliation from Democrats. By kowtowing to incumbents, these organizations are contributing to the problem–they’re not forcing candidates to compete to earn their endorsements; and as a result, their support is often taken for granted, despite their issues. Johnny USA, free money? What’s the price of gas look like at one of those private gas stations on the tollway? In answer to your question, the Green Party has no position on ice cream, other than, of course, banning the abuse of antibiotics and hormones present in most dairy products that we consume. - Snidely Whiplash - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 1:02 pm: Bill, It’s pretty easy to pick the winners most of the time, and that’s not supposed to be the basis of an endorsement (but often is, in fact). I’m not criticizing their choices, I’m criticizing the fact that they are continuously whining about nepotism in city, county and state government, but seem to endorse every son, daughter, wife, brother, etc. of an incumbent Dem official who runs for office. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. - Buck Flagojevich - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 3:12 pm: Squideshi, Since when has the state, especially under Blago, policed any contract they have issued to campaign donors? - huh? - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 4:51 pm: FYI concerning interstate rest areas - The rest area building and grounds along the interstates are maintained by organizations which employ developmentally disabled people. These operations are under contract to IDOT to clean the buildings, empty the garbage, stock the vending machines. - Bill - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 5:08 pm: Squid, Yes the state did demolish some VACANT buildings that they owned. There was some liability issues that had to be dealt with. This subject was beat to death on the blog last week. I would hardly call this”robbing families of their generationally owned family farms”. By the way, I don’t really consider the IEA a union. - Squideshi - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 8:31 pm: Buck, that’s an entirely seperate issue. Bill, the buildings were vacant because the State threatened the owners with the idea that they had to sell or the property would be taken though eminent domain, and the resulting legal bills would cause them to loose their equity. IDOT also reached an agreement with area residents, indicating that they would perform a feasibility study to determine if the buildings could be rented; however, IDOT didn’t honor that agreement, and as a result Illinois taxpayers have lost a potential asset. If you don’t think that the farms in this area are generationally owned family farms, then you’ve obviously never been there. I’ve been within the proposed airport’s footprint several times, and I’m familiar with the communities surrounding the site. I’ll bet that you didn’t know that there was once a 160 acre indian reservation in that area; and IDOT, for some strange reason, refuses to acknowledge the possibility that a burial mound exists there. - Lovie's Leather - Thursday, Dec 14, 06 @ 11:35 pm: Phil Luciano can bite my shiny medal butt! First he rags on Lahood for criticizing another Congressman for coming into his district. Then, when Lahood is upset about something in Peoria and tries to do something about it and Luciano jumps on him for that! But Luciano was onto something with this line, “Call me naive.” You got it right, Phil. One day you are a genious, the next you are a moron! Try taking your meds everyday, instead of every other day…. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.