* A group of liberal Democrats around the country is monitoring Rush Limbaugh’s radio talk show and compiling a list of his advertisers. The idea is to use the list to enforce a boycott of Limbaugh’s show over his grotesque remarks about birth control and a woman who testified in Congress.
John Majka is monitoring Rush’s show on WLS radio for advertiser names. One of the advertisers he added to the master list yesterday was the Illinois Lottery.
* So, does the Illinois Lottery really advertise on Rush Limbaugh’s show?
Well, as it turns out, a Lottery ad did run on Rush’s program yesterday during a WLS traffic report. But the ad was mistakenly placed by an advertising network, a Lottery spokesperson claimed today. Metro Networks buys ad time for the Lottery’s traffic spots.
According to the Lottery, it doesn’t advertise on national programs and doesn’t advertise on WLS radio. It also doesn’t advertise on “political” programs. Metro Networks is supposed to follow the Lottery’s rules, but apparently didn’t in this case.
The company is refunding the Lottery’s money, according to a Lottery spokesperson. Two Metro Networks execs werent able to immediately confirm the Lottery’s explanation. I’ll let you know if the company has a statement.
The Lottery was all over this when I alerted them to the fact that they were on the Rush advertiser list. They don’t need or want that sort of publicity.
* Meanwhile, Illinois Review has doubled down on the Rush controversy by publishing a new cartoon…
* Kelly Kraft of the governor’s budget office went on Fox Business News because somebody had said on the channel last week that Gov. Pat Quinn had asked for a federal bailout. The interview was at times pretty contentious, with host Stuart Varney regularly interrupting.
Varney offered up what he claimed was a simple solution to the state’s pension problems: All new hires should be put into 401(k) plans. “I know how this works, I know how this works,” Varney said. What he didn’t know, though, was that Illinois would have to start making Social Security payments for tens of thousands of workers if the state followed Varney’s advice.
Varney also claimed the state’s income tax hike didn’t bring in the amount of money that was expected. Wrong.
And Varney flatly stated than long term municipal bonds paid lower interest rates than short-term bonds. He made that claim while arguing that a ten-year California bond’s interest rate which is much lower than that for a recently sold 25-year Illinois bond meant Illinois’ credit problems are worse than California’s. Um.
An interest rate of 300 percent is usually associated with lenders who threaten kneecaps if payments aren’t made.
But in Illinois that interest rate is allowable, and it appears it will remain so after a House committee last week refused to consider legislation that would have imposed new regulations on car title lenders.
Currently, the interest rate that can be charged by car title lenders is capped at 300 percent, if you can call that a cap.
The House Consumer Protection Committee, a misnamed group if there ever was one, was asked last week to consider a bill that would have capped that interest rate at 36 percent. Only five of the 21 members of the committee voted “yes,” putting the legislation in turmoil. The legislation had been supported by many groups, including the Decatur City Council, which had approved supporting the cap. […]
(T)he state has a role in regulating such loans. In this instance, the House Consumer Protection Committee acted more like a predatory loan protection committee.
I can see their point.
* Phil Kadner is right to be upset that local legislators aren’t returning his calls to talk about a very important issue…
I’ve been waiting for an outcry from Southland legislators about a plan being discussed in Springfield to shift the state’s obligation to pay teacher pensions onto the backs of homeowners.
I haven’t heard a word.
I’ve called state senators Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields), Maggie Crotty (D-Oak Forest) and James Meeks (D-Chicago) and have yet to get a return call.
I ran into Crotty at a charity fundraising event, and she apologized for not returning the call. She told me that legislative leaders are discussing all options on pension reform, and rumors about a “done deal” when it comes to shifting the pension payments to school districts are inaccurate.
But representatives of the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, have told me that such shifting is the one proposal they’ve heard that would be constitutional.
* Let’s end this on an up note. Toronto Star travel editor Jim Byers attended a tourism briefing held by Gov. Pat Quinn this week and filed a long report about our state’s wondrous beauty, including this…
The state also is home to more bald eagles than any other state in the U.S. except Alaska, and, according to Quinn, is an excellent place for bird-watching. (Actually, Quinn made this point several times in an entertaining speech that made me think the guy is quite smart but likes playing up the image of a good old boy hunkering for a tasty snack at the Bar-B-Q Barn in Harrisburg, complete with a country fried steak and a big old Coke)
Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed budget cuts to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources are so severe, the agency’s chief of staff says it’s on the brink of closing.
Jay Curtis says in the past decade the department’s budget shrunk from $106 million dollars to $45 million. And Curtis says in that ten years the agency has lost over half its employees. […]
Quinn wants to reduce D-N-R’s budget this year by 13.5 %. […]
At least one legislator is suggesting fees to enter state parks as another way to supplement the department’s shrinking budget.
* The Question: Could you support an entrance fee for Illinois state parks? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thank you kindly.
The House’s research and appropriations unit [Democrats] estimates 12-13 percent of state workers, at some point, file a workers compensation claim.
Either the state is a horrible employer that fails to pay attention to worker safety, or workers are abusing the system. The Speaker thinks it could be the latter…
“Given that statistic, my concern is that there’s a culture or environment among some state workers that would encourage workers compensation claims when they’re really not warranted,” said House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
His approp director suggests it could be the former…
John Lowder, director of the House research and appropriations unit, said there could be more attention to detail if a private company was hired.
“I would think they would be more thoroughly researched to determine what caused the injury, what can we do to lessen the injury and what we can do to lessen the claims,” Lowder said.
*** UPDATE *** From AFSCME…
Because the Speaker’s staff has refused repeated requests to share the material referenced at a recent hearing, we have not been able to review it or assess its validity. We have no way of knowing what assertions it makes or what data such assertions may be based on.
With regard to this issue in general, it is important to consider the very high proportion of state employees who work in uniquely physical, strenuous or dangerous occupations, such as in prisons, on highways, in psychiatric hospitals, law enforcement, developmental centers and veterans homes to name just a few.
We do not know whether the data includes analysis of comparable state employees in other states.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Meanwhile, Gov. Pat Quinn touted the creation of a whole bunch of well-paying union jobs today. From a press release…
Governor Pat Quinn today announced an agreement between Rock Island Clean Line LLC and Flora, Illinois-based Southwire Company that will support wind turbine and transmission manufacturing in Illinois and create 1,450 union construction jobs under a project labor agreement in Illinois over a three-year construction period. The agreement supports Governor Quinn’s commitment to growing the renewable energy sector in Illinois and continues Illinois’ leadership in the green economy. The governor announced the agreement after delivering the keynote address at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Regional Wind Energy Summit held today in Chicago.
“Illinois is a leader in the renewable energy sector, and agreements like these are helping make Illinois even more competitive,” Governor Quinn said. “These cutting-edge projects will help maintain Illinois’ national leadership in wind energy and manufacturing, and create good paying, home-grown jobs.”
Under the agreement, Southwire will supply the overhead transmission cable for the Rock Island Clean Line project. This project will consist of approximately 500-mile overhead, high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line that will deliver 3,500 megawatts (MW) of renewable power from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota to communities and businesses in Illinois and other states to the east. Construction of the Rock Island Clean Line could begin as early as 2014 and continue over the next few years.
* But as the AP reports, it’s tough for some manufacturers to fill their jobs…
Nationwide, an estimated 600,000 manufacturing jobs are going unfilled, according to a survey by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute published last year. Manufacturers expect the shortage to worsen in the next three to five years as older workers retire.
“Exacerbating the issue is the stubbornly poor perception of manufacturing jobs among younger workers,” the report says, adding that manufacturing ranks at the bottom of industries in which young workers would chose to start their careers. […]
In Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn is supporting manufacturing by pledging incentives to retain or expand the employee base for such companies as Ford Motor Co., truck- and engine-maker Navistar International Corp. and Excel. Aides said Quinn’s strategy to help the industry includes investments in roads and a push to streamline regulation, such as last year’s overhaul of the workers’ compensation system.
* In other news, some nursing homes have apparently found a loophole in state law that lets them avoid hiring higher-priced nurses…
But the 2010 legislation does not distinguish between registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs), who do not have to undergo as much training as RNs. A new rule expected to come up Tuesday before the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules would require facilities to use RNs for 20 percent of direct care.
Lawmakers who worked on the reforms said that was their intent. “There can be no true nursing home reform without addressing the issue of RN staffing ratios,” says Sen. Jacqueline Collins, a Democrat from Chicago, in a prepared statement.
However, many for profit nursing homes argue that they cannot afford to hire enough RNs to fulfill such a demand. “We are not against improving staffing, but we are against putting in a requirement that sets nursing homes up to fail,” Pat Comstock, executive director of the Health Care Council of Illinois, told the State Journal-Register. Comstock did not return a call from Illinois Issues.
Sen. Heather Steans, who was a sponsor of the reforms, said that a revenue stream was built in to pay for higher staffing levels. “I very much urge the JCAR members to support and pass the rule. I think it will very much help improve the quality of care in our nursing homes. We also passed the bed tax, which was primarily to fund the increased staffing we are putting into place, so funding has been put in place for that,” Steans said.
* Last month, the prestigious National Journal gave Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger a 58 percent conservative voting record score. It gave Kinzinger’s GOP primary opponent Congressman Don Manzullo a 74 percent conservative score. Manzullo is now up with a TV ad that yet again claims Kinzinger is a false conservative and drags in Nancy Pelosi, President Obama and Debbie Halvorson. Kinzinger defeated Halvorson in 2010. Halvorson’s National Journal conservative score was 48 percent at the time, so Manzullo’s ad claims that Kinzinger isn’t much different than the Democrat he replaced. Watch the ad…
* There has been much consternation over National Journal’s rankings, according to Politico’s Dylan Byers…
So I took my first foray into congressional rankings last week and noticed some major discrepancies between the list published by the National Journal last month and those published by conservative groups like Heritage Action and Club For Growth — which, I quickly learned, is an ongoing source of frustration among many conservatives here in Washington.
For instance, Representative Justin Amash — who ranks as the most conservative House member on the Club For Growth’s list and fifteenth most conservative congressman on the Heritage list — ranks as the fourth most liberal Republican representative on the National Journal list. Utah Senator Mike Lee, the second most conservative congressman on the Heritage list, is less conservative than Utah Senator Orrin Hatch on the National Journal list. Per the National Journal, Mitch McConnell is more conservative than Marco Rubio, who is more conservative than Rand Paul, and so on down the seemingly backward line.
“In no planet is Mitch McConnell more conservative than Marco Rubio or Mike Lee,” one source at a conservative think tank told me. “Only in bizzaro world is Rand Paul considered the 32nd most conservative senator.”
Erick Erickson, the editor of Red State, made an even more aggressive critique shortly after NJ’s list came out in February: “I think National Journal must hand over its rating of the most conservative and liberal members of congress to an outsourced shop in Mumbai filled with mental midgets,” he wrote. “There can really be no other explanation for this year’s embarrassing list of the most conservative members of Congress.”
However, in this particular contest, both Heritage Action and the Club For Growth rate Manzullo as far more conservative than Kinzinger.
These two guys have been arguing over who is the more conservative candidate since they kicked off their campaigns. But now Manzullo has some statistical support to back up his claims. From a Manzullo press release…
American Conservative Union lifetime scores: Manzullo 96, Kinzinger 72.
Heritage Action for America: Manzullo 84, Kinzinger 63.
Americans for Prosperity: Manzullo A+, Kinzinger B.
National Journal (conservative composite score): Manzullo 74, Kinzinger 58.
* Kinzinger, by the way, was just endorsed by Dan Proft…
The consequence of failing to return Adam to Congress will be to tell other young, bright, diligent, and principled conservatives to again “wait their turn”. If we do that, we will again suffer the corresponding brain drain.
The benefit of returning Adam to Congress will be to signal to the Regressive Left that they are on the wrong side of history for the next generation of conservative grassroots leaders is ascendant and prepared to abide the Burkian contract between ourselves, our ancestors who provided for us and our posterity to whom we owe a responsibility to act responsibly.
The letter is signed thusly…
Regards,
Dan Proft
WLS Radio Talk Show Host*
*Opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WLS-AM 890 radio or Cumulus Media, Inc.
* Meanwhile, if you live in the Chicago area, you could soon be seeing some Republican presidential ads. I’m told the Mitt Romney-backing super PAC Restore Our Future just booked a heavy schedule on the Chicago Cable Interconnect plus AT&T Verse and DirecTV. No Illinois ads are posted on the group’s YouTube site as of yet.
It’s misleading to publish a popular vote poll in this primary, because that’s not how the delegates will be awarded. They’ll be awarded according to the winners of each of the state’s 18 new Congressional districts. This gives Romney a huge advantage, because Santorum isn’t running delegate slates in four districts: the 4th, 5th, 7th and 13th. […]
In addition, Illinois will choose 12 unpledged delegates at the state party convention in June. The Republican National Committeeman and Committeewoman, Richard Williamson and Demetra DelMonte, plus the state party chairman, Pat Brady, will go as “superdelegates.” Romney has the support of Pat Brady, Sen. Mark Kirk and the Illinois Republican Party establishment, so most if not all of those 15 votes will be his.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has a federal prison identification number.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has given Blagojevich the number 40892-424.
Typically, once inmates are assigned a number, it is their individual number throughout their prison term. It is also typically affixed to their prison clothes.
The 55-year-old Blagojevich has been ordered to report to prison on March 15. While he has asked to be incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in Colorado, he could be sent elsewhere.
* Meanwhile, Commissioner Beavers seems to be taking a page from Blagojevich’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury on all but one count…
Cook County Commissioner William Beavers pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges Friday and then lobbed another bombshell — declaring U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “a wild man” guilty of driving three political figures to suicide with “Gestapo-type tactics.”
After a relatively mundane arraignment hearing — lasting all of about 10 minutes — Beavers left the courtroom and walked in a crowd of reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal building — unleashing on Fitzgerald.
“I do not owe the government any money — no taxes,” Beavers said, moving on to his next point: Fitzgerald.
“Let me tell you about this federal prosecutor. This man is like a wild man on a train, and somebody needs to stop him.
“He has caused three deaths — Michael Scott, Orlando Jones and Chris Kelly — with these Gestapo-type tactics that he used to try to make them tell on their friends,” said Beavers, 77.
Sam Adam and Sam Adam, Jr. are defending Beavers. They also defended RRB in his first trial.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Fitzgerald, declined comment. But Beaver’s allegations don’t square with the known facts about two of the suicides.
Scott, the former Chicago schools chief, was not being investigated by federal authorities but his use of his Chicago public school credit card had been questioned.
Jones, a former top Cook County aide, was under investigation for an alleged contract scheme in Las Vegas.
Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn paid a quick visit to Premier Dalton McGuinty on Monday to talk water, how to stop the Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes and to get tips on hosting a G8 summit. […]
Quinn added he is looking for advice from McGuinty on how to handle a G8 world political summit.
“We have a state that is hospitable and welcoming. We want to have a conference that is peaceable and where people can speak out on the issues they believe in but we want to have law and order.”
In June, 2010, Huntsville hosted the G8 summit and the federal government spent tens of millions on security and sprucing up the Muskoka area.
“We have to be prepared for anything and I am sure he has good advice for me.”
Oops.
* Not much later in the day, the word came down that the G8 was canceled…
Gov. Pat Quinn’s office issued a statement Monday reacting to the relocation of the upcoming G-8 economic summit from Chicago to Camp David.
The statement doesn’t mention G-8. Instead it emphasizes that the NATO summit will still be held in Chicago and stresses that Illinois is “an excellent place to do business.”
The statement says the state of Illinois continues to look forward to hosting world leaders and their representatives in the “great city of Chicago” at the NATO meeting in May.
Despite the well-orchestrated spinning by Emanuel and the White House that it’s a “win-win” for everybody, the move seemed abrupt. Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy had just been interviewed by the Tribune about his preparations for the G-8/NATO summits, expressing confidence. Other political bureaucrats had been trotted out to play talking heads as well.
You don’t send them out there if you think the White House is going to yank the chain.
* Did the mayor keep Quinn and others in the dark?…
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Mayor Rahm Emanuel was consulted about the switch. Emanuel spokesman Sarah Hamilton said the White House called late morning or early afternoon to inform the mayor about the decision.
Just hours before the White House stunner, Emanuel was still talking up the back-to-back summits at McCormick Place — and playing down the political risks.
That lends credence the claim that the decision came from Washington.
“This is a unique opportunity for Chicago to showcase itself to the world and the world to see the city of Chicago,” the mayor said before the White House announcement.
