After the bad press he’s received lately, I’m sure he probably wants one. Try to be funny.
*** UPDATE *** Completely off topic, but while we’re being funny, Adam Nagourney reports that John McCain stumbled a bit today when pressed for several minutes by a reporter in Iowa…
Q: “But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: ‘No, we’re not going to distribute them,’ knowing that?â€
Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) “Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these issues before.â€
Then Nagourney writes…
This went on for a few more moments until a reporter from the Chicago Tribune broke in and asked Mr. McCain about the weight of a pig that he saw at the Iowa State Fair last year.
Wonder who that was? Perhaps these guys can fill us in.
[McCain has] also made what he calls “the obligatory visit” to the Iowa State Fair to view a 1,187-pound pig named Waldo and eat pork on a stick, all rites of passage for those who wish to become president.
In olden days, state legislatures elected US Senators and routinely passed resolutions like this directing their Senators on various issues. Those days are long gone, of course, but the resolutions pop up from time to time…
In a slap at President Bush, the Democratic-led Illinois Senate went on record Thursday opposing any additional troops being sent to Iraq.
“We have to send a message to Washington that it is time for us to get out,” said Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago), sponsor of the resolution. “We declared victory already. We’ve already made it clear the weapons of mass destruction no longer exist, if they ever did, so why are we still there? It doesn’t make any sense.”
His resolution, which passed without any objection from Republicans, was watered down from an earlier version. A call for an immediate withdrawal of troops was stripped from the resolution that passed Thursday.
Hendon said he was “shocked” no Senate Republican stood to oppose his proposal.
Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson (R-Greenville) ridiculed Hendon’s nonbinding resolution and said legislators had no business dictating war policy. “I’m sure the Pentagon will be calling Rickey to get his thoughts on how to handle the Iraq war.”
Question: Regardless of your position on the war, do you think resolutions like this should be encouraged or discouraged. Why?
I know I’m taking a risk here, but please, let’s not get into a debate on the war. There are plenty of places for that, so take it somewhere else. I know there’s anger, but let’s do our best to avoid it. Also, if I’m not around and someone tries to gin it up with some goofy comment, please just ignore them. I’ll delete them later and put them into permanent comment moderation. Thanks.
Americans for Prosperity made their second stop of a statewide “Mystery Pork Tour,” Thursday at JTM Concepts Inc., Rock Island.
AFP Illinois director Joe Calomino said the goal of the tour is to spotlight some of the most outrageous examples of projects throughout the state funded by pork-barrel spending.
“The state of Illinois has a pork-barrel spending problem — a trend toward government waste, fraud and abuse that the people of Illinois cannot afford,” Mr. Calomino said. “Our lawmakers must get spending under control.”
Their website can be found here. The group has chapters all over the place, and Illinois director Calomino has been around for a while. From his bio…
Joe Calomino began his career as a political strategist in the Illinois Secretary of State’s office where he served for eight years. During this time, Joe served as a regional campaign coordinator for the successful 1994 re-election campaign of Secretary of State George Ryan as well as Ryan’s successful 1998 gubernatorial election. […]
In the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary, Calomino managed the campaign of first-time candidate Ron Gidwitz.
Calomino held a press conference a few weeks back about the heated driveway at the governor’s mansion…
He was joined at a news conference Thursday by representatives of the national office; state Rep. Michael Tryon, R-Crystal Lake; Greg Baise, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers Association; former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Gidwitz; and others.
It’s occurred to me that one very good way to undermine support for a tax hike is to undercut government credibility with persistent allegations of gross mismanagement. Both Baise and Gidwitz have been lobbying hard against the governor’s gross receipts tax.
This morning, Ron Gidwitz, 2006 Republican Primary Candidate for Governor and Chairman of the Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity, launches local chapters of Americans for Prosperity Foundation in the Quad Cities region.
Gidwitz, who is supporting the grassroots organizations mission of educating and empowering citizens to hold their elected officials accountable for how they spend our tax dollars, highlighted the states fiscal problems and called on citizens to “take back their governmentâ€.
Gidwitz unveiled a direct mail piece that will be mailed to approximately 100,000 households in several legislative districts throughout the state.
At a later stop in Moline Illinois, Gidwitz called on citizens to “contact 71st District Democratic Representative Mike Boland and ask him why he has regularly voted for higher taxes, raiding the pension funds earmarked for veterans and raiding funds for environmental purposes and roadwaysâ€.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman was asked by the Southwest News Herald about the governor’s tax plans…
“We’re waiting for the details,†said Steven Brown, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-22nd).
“The spending things are there but ever there was a time when (details on revenue are needed), this is it,†he said.
You may have seen a complaint by business that the gross receipts tax leads to “pyramiding.” Bruce Braker, the president of the Tooling & Manufacturing Association, explains…
Here is an example of pyramiding in the manufacturing process, assuming the Legislature enacts the 0.5 percent tax suggested by Blagojevich:
“Basic industry” sells $200 worth of raw materials to a “parts fabricator”: $1 tax.
“Parts fabricator” adds value and sells $400 product to “manufacturer”: $2 tax.
“Manufacturer” adds value and sells $800 product to an “integrator”: $4 tax.
“Integrator” adds value and sells $1000 product to a “wholesaler”: $5 tax.
“Wholesaler” adds value and sells $1,200 product to a “retailer”: $6 tax.
“Retailer” adds value and sells $1,600 product to “consumer”: $8 tax.
In this example, $26 in taxes was paid on a single product that was sold to the final consumer for $1,600. Thus, the effective tax rate was 1.7 percent, or more than 300 percent higher than the rate suggested by the governor.
And, finally, the Tribune points out some inconsistencies in the governor’s GRT proposal…
But an official at the Illinois Chamber of Commerce said Thursday that top Blagojevich aide John Filan told her that small businesses would have to pay the gross receipts tax after the corporate income tax is phased out in four years. Filan said the tax would be lower than the one imposed on big companies, or at a fixed dollar amount, said Connie Beard, an attorney and a top chamber official.
The letters didn’t mention anything about that.
“It offends me because they’re [implying] that all of these [small-business owners] aren’t going to be paying the gross receipts tax,” Beard said.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Becky Carroll said that Filan believes Beard must have misunderstood him and that he was simply listing various tax options for small businesses after the corporate income tax ends.
The administration intends to keep the corporate tax in place for small businesses for now, then get comments from the small-business community on which tax system it would prefer, Carroll said.
Yes, it’s the Blagojevich administration, but does every single campaign contribution have to be treated like some sort of federal crime?
The head of the state agency that provides student loans to college students says his ties to Gov. Rod Blagojevich had nothing to do with him getting his $180,000 job.
Andrew Davis, 50, said Thursday that it is “silly” to suggest that his contributions to the governor in 2000 and 2002 led to him being named as executive director of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.
“If that were the case I’m probably owed 25 other jobs because I’ve supported lots and lots and lots of people and never received a quid pro quo beyond an autographed photo,” said Davis.
Davis was appointed to a seat on the commission by Blagojevich in 2005 and signed a three-year contract as executive director in January. State records show Davis and his companies have contributed at least $31,000 to the governor’s campaign fund.
THUMBS DOWN! To the Illinois Executive Ethics Committee, which allowed the former Illinois Department of Transportation secretary to take a job with a company that had received $50 million in contracts during his time with the state. Tim Martin asked for a waiver of the ethics law, which prohibits state employees from starting private-sector jobs at firms with which they did business for one year after leaving a state job. But the ethics commission decided to waive that requirement. What’s the use of having a law if a commission is going to ignore it?
Um, guys, the law specifically allows for the waivers. The commission didn’t “ignore” the law. The commission applied it.
And while we’re at it, the same editorial page had this gem…
THUMBS DOWN! To Gov. Rod Blagojevich for stepping over the line by claiming God is on his side in his battle to reform the state’s tax system. Blagojevich told the Illinois Education Association last weekend that he wants to use some of the proceeds from the gross receipts tax to increase funding for education. He also told teachers he was expecting a battle in the legislature. “It will be Armageddon, but we are on the side of the Lord, and we will prevail.” Huh? Politicians are prone to exaggeration, but Armageddon, with the Lord picking sides? That’s over the top.
Blagojevich was actually quoting Teddy Roosevelt. Here’s what he told me in an interview last week…
You know, Teddy Roosevelt left the Republican convention because the machine renominated William Howard Taft, and Teddy Roosevelt didn’t get the nomination, so he bolted and he went to the Old Historic Chicago Coliseum in 1912 and rallied the troops behind his own Bull Moose Party, a progressive party.
And the last line of his speech was ‘It is Armageddon and we are on the side of the Lord.’ And I was dying to say it out there, cause that’s how I’m feeling.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleged Thursday that corporate manipulation caused the huge jump in electric rates that Illinois consumers are facing, and she asked federal regulators to suspend the rates and investigate.
Electric rates have soared since January, when a 10-year freeze on prices expired. The new prices were set through a “reverse auction” that was meant to keep rates as low as possible.
But Madigan says the auction yielded prices far higher than the actual cost of producing electricity. That’s because some 15 power companies manipulated the process, she claimed in a complaint to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Exelon Corp., the parent of power company ComEd, immediately denied the allegations.
In a 31-page complaint filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Madigan lays out what she says is evidence that last year’s power auction involving Ameren and ComEd may have been fixed to ensure that specific wholesale suppliers got the most lucrative parts of that business _ at the expense of rate-payers who ended up with bills some 40 percent higher than they should be under a competitive market. […]
“The wholesale suppliers are charging prices that are at least double the marginal cost of generating electricity,’’ the complaint alleges. It goes on to allege that “there is evidence that some of the wholesale (power) suppliers manipulated prices in the auction,’’ possibly with secret side-agreements among the suppliers.
The complaint states that “quid pro quo arrangements’’ are a “likely’’ explanation for unexpectedly high power rates that resulted from the reverse auction, which was ostensibly designed to ensure that Ameren and ComEd got the cheapest possible power supply contracts from competing wholesale electricity providers.
It is “possible’’ that “departing bidders’’ were rewarded with side-agreements that their power would later be purchased “at favorable prices,’’ the complaint states. It cites a similar “market manipulation scheme’’ that was uncovered in the Enron corporate scandal.
State Sen. William Haine, D-Alton, praised Madigan’s action and suggested it could lead to the Illinois Senate passing a bill to return Ameren’s rates to last year’s frozen levels as soon as next week.
“If the auction was tampered with, obviously, it should be thrown out,” he said. “If there is fraud in the procurement process, it’s across the board. All of it is void. It’s the fruit of a poisoned auction, and as such, these contracts are voidable, which means we have a new ballgame in the procurement of electric power based upon lower rates.”
It’s abundantly clear that the auction and the rate hikes it produced must be scrapped.
True dat.
Meanwhile, Sen. James Clayborne picked a really bad day to complain that CUB and AARP, of all people, are not negotiating in good faith…
Some Illinois consumer advocates are being so inflexible in their demand that newly raised electric rates be legally forced back down that they’re endangering attempts at a compromise with the utility companies, the state Senate’s top utility negotiator hinted Thursday.
“I’m not going to say (they’re) obstructionist. I just feel like they haven’t come to the table in good faith,” said state Sen. James Clayborne, D-Belleville.
He said advocates, including the Citizens’ Utility Board and AARP, “aren’t cooperating like they’re supposed to” in closed-door negotiations that Clayborne is conducting, looking for a compromise to ease the impact of electric rates that skyrocketed this year after Ameren and ComEd deregulated in Illinois. […]
“If being uncooperative means not agreeing with the utilities … and representing the best interest of our members, then yes, we’re uncooperative,” said Donna Ginther, director of state affairs for AARP-Illinois.
The charge is ridiculous, particularly in light of Madigan’s investigation.
His audit urged lawmakers to revamp the way mass transit is funded. The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the three transit agencies, relies on sales taxes in Cook and the collar counties — a formula that has remained unchanged since 1983.
* Auditor says state should give funds, require reforms for RTA
The modern criminal code was just 72 pages when it was written in 1961. Now it would take the Rosetta stone to decipher the code’s more than 1,200 pages. Court appearances sometimes have to be continued to give judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys more time to sort through the often conflicting, redundant and outdated morass of laws.
“If they can get behind the wheel of a car and they manage to make poor judgments there I don’t know how you are going to sit there and tell us that we absolutely have to lock up every firearm in our house.â€
“It’s hard to know whether lobbying’s flat growth in 2006 was due to Jack Abramoff giving the industry a bad name or an election year in which Congress didn’t consider much legislation for lobbyists to cash in on,” said Sheila Krumholz, the center’s executive director.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer granted a four-month reduction to Scott Fawell’s 6¨-year sentence for racketeering committed while he served as chief of staff to George Ryan in the Illinois secretary of state’s office.
* City workers nabbed in joint city and federal payoff probe
* Presidential candidate Brownback to speak in Peoria
