18 Comments - Sewanee - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 3:32 pm: Rich, It’s impressive how quickly you get these videos up–if it’s not a trade secret, I bet a few readers might be interested to know how you manage the technology to collect and post to this blog from so many locations and at all hours. If we ever get some legislative downtime, a “how the gears turn” article might be popular. - Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 3:40 pm: Rich-thanks for your extraordinary efforts. Much appreciated. AA - George - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 3:54 pm: a “how the gears turn” article might be popular. Uhhh… there are some things we don’t want to know… - sal-says - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 3:55 pm: IL = The Continuing Disgrace - dupage dan - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 4:07 pm: IL = International Laughingstock - Anonymous - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 4:26 pm: wanting to see the gears? a truism about sausage comes to mind. - dupage dan - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 4:28 pm: liverwurst is my favorite - tastes great but not pretty to watch being made! - DuPage Moderate - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 4:54 pm: Quinn - what a buffoon. That said, this legislature has a way of making Governors look that way. It high time for a change….everywhere in Illinois government. Vote them all out!!!! - Anonymous Coward - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 5:12 pm: Rich Miller “opens his kimono”.. - Been There - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 5:26 pm: These video links are great to have but they slow down viewing your site. I have this page as my home page and I can barely navigate to the news feed after you add more than 2 or 3 videos. - Will County Woman - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 5:47 pm: seriously you people who are going on and on about IL still being a national “laughingstock” of “disgrace” are making too much of all this. other states are in the same situation, and I would imagine everyone else is far too consumed by his/her states’ problems to be laughing or condeming Illinois. Im pretty sure that rational and reasonable people across the nation can appreciate that the recession is making things tough all over. I am in no way trying to mitigate the political sqaubbling going on here, but political squabbling happens in every state of the nation. so, let’s stop the everyone else is looking and laughing, because they probably aren’t. - Rubbernecker - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 5:52 pm: Rich — Any chance of Mike coming back? That kid had one steady hand on the ol’ camera. Not sayin’ you’re not as good, I’m just sayin’. Thanks, truly, for all of your work. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 6:08 pm: We’re working on the speed. And Mike ain’t coming back. I just have to figure it out on my own. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 7:16 pm: Carol Marin is delivering a beating to Cullerton on “Chicago Tonight.” Lot of talk about the Senate as the “junior chamber” and how he’s a lackey to MJM. He’s honked about Quinn and the POB. He’s not coming off well. - El Conquistador - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 7:44 pm: Quinn is a patsy. He’s going to get the same budget in mid-July with overrides. Quinn has lost his credibility and appears incapable. If he continues his histrionics, he will be further marginalized and become cemented even more firmly as the tax-increase-obsessed goofball. Operation Quinn-ovich is in effect. Quinn needs to man-up, make the cuts with the 70% funding, and as all have suggested, wait for the ACTUAL human service deficiencies to arise and address them with the legislature accordingly. His hysterical stories of proficized catastrophies aren’t enough to raise taxes. And yes, things may have to break a little before a remedy is applied. Time to grow up. - Southerner - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 9:06 pm: I work for a social service agency. Rich - this site has been invaluable to help us understand what is and isn’t happening. Thanks! Today, We, like most agencies, have started cutting services and laying people off. My agency serves impoverished children who have played no part in making this fiscal mess and now will end up paying the price. El Conquistador, do we really need to see children go hungry, the mentally ill out on the streets, the elderly to die in a heat wave, perhaps a little veteran PTSD to get the Legislature to act? I prayed on my knees these things would not happen but here we are. As Thomas Jefferson said, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” - El Conquistador - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 10:05 pm: Southerner - Just a little melodramatic don’t you think? I can assure you that children go hungry everyday somewhere, mentally ill people (or commonly referred to as homeless) have been, are and will continue to be on the street everyday in large numbers, and that each and every summer elderly will die in a heat wave. Oh, also a vet will go postal somewhere. All these things will happen with or without yours or any other human service agency. The point is that you can’t tax your way out of a debilitating economic downturn. In tough times, there are cut backs and people suffer. It’s a fact of life from which you can’t insulate yourself. Illinois is a republic, not a utopian paradise. - Southerner - Wednesday, Jul 1, 09 @ 11:38 pm: El Conquistador - perhaps these things seem melodramtic to someone who is doesn’t have to worry about the effects of these cuts - but they are altogether DRAMATIC to people who depend on these services. I do not understand how you can write the lives of people off so non-chalantly when these things are preventable. It is analagous to suggesting that we cut funding for counter terrorism on Sept. 12 or to lay off firemen during the great Chicago fire- afterall stuff happens. I don’t think utopia by any definition involves a child not going hungry. Fairly low standard don’t you think?? This is a matter of priorities. I have worked in many countries where resources aren’t there to feed kids. Sorry - we have the resources to feed our children, to provide services to the metally ill, and to those who serve our country if only we choose to. No excuses. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.