* Last night, Gov. Mitt Romney said this in response to President Barack Obama’s claim that Romney had invested in some Chinese companies…
“Any investments I have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust. And I understand they do include investments outside the United States, including in — in Chinese companies,” Romney said.
Romney then asked: “Mr. President, have you looked at your pension?”
Obama responded: “I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours so it doesn’t take as long.”
Romney then charged that Obama holds investments in companies based in foreign countries
“Look at your pension,” Romney said. “You also have investments in Chinese companies. You also have investments outside the United States. You also have investments through a Cayman’s trust.”
It’s unclear how many of those Chinese firms are in Obama’s specific portfolio. The board estimates that across all its funds, 19 percent of the assets are in foreign securities.
What Fox doesn’t mention is that the “president’s Illinois pension fund” is via the Illinois General Assembly Retirement System. From the Washington Post…
To our mind, there’s a qualitative difference between a pension-plan investment portfolio and earning returns from contemporary stock investments.
The Romney campaign explains that his point was that international investments are a crucial part of investing today — and that just as Obama has no control over the investments made by his pension fund, Romney has no control over investments made by funds that are part of his blind trust. The Romney campaign says that 19 percent of the Illinois pension fund’s investments are in foreign companies, including dozens of Chinese companies.
“Obama has a pension, managed by the IL Pension fund. He has no control over how they invest it, and they invest some of it in Chinese companies,” a Romney spokesman said. “Romney has a blind trust. He has no control over how the trustee invests it, and the trustee invests some of it in funds that invest in Chinese companies.”
So, will Democratic and Republican legislative challenges now start beating up incumbents for investing in China and having money in a “Cayman’s trust”? Stay tuned, campers.
That’s snark, of course.
Then again, the state House Democrats have been sending mailers blasting just about every Republican candidate for wanting to decimate Medicare and Social Security. At least the Chinese/Cayman claim is somewhat based in reality.
The look at Jackson’s finances is an “ongoing inquiry,” according to a federal source familiar with the probe. Another source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the investigation into campaign finances has been ongoing “for months” and that vendors to Jackson’s campaign are among those being questioned in the case.
On Tuesday, a woman who identified herself as a co-owner of a suburban office furniture company told the Tribune that federal authorities contacted the business within the past month or so to tell the operators they would be receiving a federal subpoena for records connected to a purchase of furniture by Jackson’s campaign committee.
Campaign finance records show that Jackson’s campaign committee purchased office furniture from the company for $8,000 in September 2010.
If that’s what he did, then he’s dumber than a box of rocks.
* Meanwhile, the head of the BGA made some curious remarks to WBBM…
BGA President Andy Shaw notes that Jackson’s constituents have not had a representative for four months.
“There is no procedure for dealing with this,” Shaw said. “Congress does not have … a protocol for somebody to step in and that’s the most troubling thing from a good government standpoint.”
Yes, there is no “vice president” provision for sitting congresscritters (listen to the audio at the above link). Never has been. Kind of a weird idea.
* And Gov. Pat Quinn struggled mightily to avoid being dragged into the controversy today. You really should listen to this raw audio of today’s presser…
Governor Quinn admits it might be time for embattled Congressman Jesse Jackson Junior to speak publicly about what has been going on.
Shortly after the dedication of the new Belmont Road grade separation in west suburban Downers Grove Governor Quinn was pressed by WLS News about whether Congressman Jesse Jackson Junior should have come forward by now, and offered up an explanation about what has been going on to this constituents since he stopped working four months ago.
The governor responded by saying “It’s always helpful if you are in elected office, no matter what office, to provide as much information to your constituents and to the people as possible. I think that is the way government should be.”
* The Illinois Policy Institute has a new Internet video called “Contagion” which makes some dire claims about what the right-wing “think” tank claims is escalating labor unrest. You gotta watch it…
* Script…
Big labor is on the move in Illinois. Emboldened by the success of the Chicago Teachers Union strike, unions across the state are now waging, or threatening to wage, strikes of their own.
Why do unions erect roadblocks to reform? Remember that the explicit purpose of a union is to protect the employment status and benefits of their members, not to improve the quality or nature of the service that their members provide.
In fact, what we are now seeing may be the early stages of an outbreak of labor unrest that could consume the state.
The billion-dollar-question is: Will Illinois’ lawmakers confront these labor monopolies, contain the outbreak, and pass desperately needed reforms? Or will politicians once again succumb to the politically convenient in hopes that a federal bailout will save them from tough decisions?
* OK, five districts outside Chicago are mentioned in that ad. The state has 868 school districts. So, that’s about half a percent. And this is rampant labor unrest?
Not quite.
And if you look at the Institute’s own list, you’ll see that these strikes were pretty short. Lake Forest High School (one-week strike), North Shore School District 112 and Prairie Grove School District 46 (mere one-day strikes), Champaign (settled before strike). Yes, a hotbed of furiously angry communists, for sure.
By far the longest was in Evergreen Park, which lasted two weeks. From the Southtown Star…
The lessons of both the Chicago teachers’ strike and the just-settled one in Evergreen Park School District 124 are that teachers are tired of being made the scapegoats for public education’s ills and that animosity between them and their employers is growing. […]
We draw two conclusions about the strikes in Chicago and Evergreen Park. The school boards forced the teachers to walk out by making demands they saw as politically popular but that were unrealistic. And faced with strong parental support for the teachers, the boards blinked because the unions would not.
The national debate over public education and the power of teachers unions has teachers more united than ever, and if our local results are any measure, parents value teachers more than the critics. That’s a losing hand for school boards, and pushing teachers to strike and keeping kids out of class is the worst bet of all.
* So, publicly attacking teachers and subjecting them to ratings which have been widely debunked by experts have maybe led to a handful of strikes in Illinois, and maybe more are coming. But check out the oh so scary poster…
I get so tired of large groups of people being demonized like this.
* Do teachers unions have their faults? Heck yes they do.
But, to me anyway, the people at the very top are most at fault. I’ve never been a fan of the industrial model for education. Hate it, actually. As I was traveling home from Galena not long ago, I found myself wondering if a relatively new building out in the middle of nowhere was a school or a prison. It was a school.
I happen to like the concept of charter schools, not because I think they are a panacea, but because I believe they can offer kids incredible alternatives to the one-size-fits-all industrial model. That link, by the way, goes to a French immersion charter school in Kansas City that my best friend’s children attend. My friend died a couple years back, and we wanted to help his widow and the kids come to Illinois, but there’s just nothing like that school anywhere here. So, they stayed put.
Why can’t we have these same choices in Illinois? What’s keeping us back?
Gov. Pat Quinn isn’t buying everything charter schools are selling. The governor invited education scholar Diane Ravitch to speak to a civic group in Chicago. Ravitch told the audience that charter schools are no better than traditional public schools, except that they allow the private sector to make money off education.
Ravitch, a former U.S. assistant secretary of education who served in appointed capacities under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, says charter schools were intended to help the poorest, least-able students, but they’re being used now to skim the kids who are easiest to educate.
“And my fear, having attended segregated schools in Houston, Texas, is that we are returning to a pre-Brown vs. Board of Education society, in which segregation will be based on class, not on race, in which the charter schools will take the most motivated children, and the public schools will become dumping grounds,” she told the City Club of Chicago, after an introduction by the governor.Ravitch is the author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.
I think the segregation fear has some legitimacy. But that can be overcome with reasonable regulations. The stuff about people making money off of schools doesn’t really bug me too much as long as the schools are well-run. The beauty of charter schools is the diversity they can potentially offer - and do offer in places like Kansas City.
There are downsides. Charter schools don’t perform all that much better on standardized tests. But I don’t like basing education on testing anyway. In Chicago, the charter schools are mostly non-union. But there’s nothing preventing the CTU unions from trying to organize those teachers.
All I’m saying here is let’s stop with the demonizing, please, and get on with truly changing the way we educate kids.
* What one word - and I mean that - best describes your feelings about last night’s presidential debate?
…Adding… I’ve been watching and posting some YouTube videos in comments about “candy” today because I thought Ms. Crowley did such a good job last night during the debate.
This video from 10,000 Maniacs called “Candy Everybody Wants” probably sums it up best. It’s about the cynical manipulation of the populace by giving the people what they want. We’re all too familiar with that theme.
Plus, it’s got the word “candy” in it and Natalie Merchant is the coolest…
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The cable industry is asking lawmakers to place a NEW 5% tax on satellite TV service. HB 5440 is not about fairness, equity or parity – it’s a tax increase on the 1.3 million Illinois families and businesses who subscribe to satellite TV. They cannot afford another NEW tax – not now and not in this economy!
HB 5440 Will Hurt Illinois Families and Small Businesses
• Satellite TV subscribers will see their monthly bills go up 5%.
• This tax will impact every bar, restaurant and hotel that subscribes to satellite TV service, which will translate into higher prices, decreased revenues, and fewer jobs.
• Rural Illinois has no choice: In many parts of Illinois, cable refuses to provide TV service to rural communities. Satellite TV is their only option.
HB 5440 Is Not About Parity or Fairness
• Cable’s claim that this discriminatory tax is justified because satellite TV doesn’t pay local franchise fees could not be further from the truth. Cable pays those fees to local towns and cities in exchange for the right to bury cables in the public rights of way—a right that Comcast and Charter value in the tens of billions of dollars in their SEC filings.
• Satellite companies don’t pay franchise fees for one simple reason: We use satellites—unlike cable, we don’t need to dig up streets and sidewalks to deliver our TV service.
• Making satellite subscribers pay franchise fees—or, in this case, an equivalent amount in taxes—would be like taxing the air It’s no different than making airline passengers pay a fee for laying railroad tracks.
* Democratic congressional candidate David Gill has repeatedly promised never to take corporate cash. He does so again in his latest TV ad, calling corporate and Wall Street money “legalized bribery.” Watch…
* But check out who paid for the ad…
The DCCC does take corporate and Wall St. money. So Gill just blatantly broke his “not one penny from corporations” pledge in an ad pledging not to take any cash from corporations. Ironic, no?
*** UPDATE 1 *** Right on cue, the Illinois Republican Party released an amateurish, but still correct, Internet video about this topic…
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the NRCC…
“David Gill has a history of being dishonest with Illinois families. The one thing voters know for sure is that David Gill has no problem selling himself out for political gain and he will do the same to Illinois families if sent to Congress.”
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* Meanwhile, Gill has a new radio ad that has his Republican opponent up in arms. It begins thusly…
McDonald’s employee: “Next order, please.”
Announcer: “As a teenager, he worked at his parents’ McDonald’s. But these days, Rodney Davis is serving up whoppers in his campaign for Congress.”
The ad also includes a snarky “You want fries with that?” line followed by a claim that Davis “keeps super-sizing his lies.” Listen…
* Gill’s Republican opponent Rodney Davis is not amused. From a press release…
David Gill, a perennial candidate who has lost three elections for Congress, this week launched an attack radio ad against Rodney Davis for his work at his parents’ small business, a McDonald’s, while growing up in Taylorville.
This, once again, underscores Gill’s hypocrisy, as just last week he stated in an endorsement interview with the State Journal-Register that “100% of the advertising that has come from my campaign has been positive.”
The ad features a disparaging male voice which intones, “As a teenager, he worked at his parents’ McDonald’s…but these days, Rodney Davis is serving up whoppers in his campaign for Congress. He’s trying to cover up his past.” Later in the ad, a voice asks, “You want fries with that?”
“I am disgusted that David Gill would attack my family, my family’s business, and the hundreds of McDonald’s employees in the 13th District,” said Davis. “I continue to talk about the issues; about where I stand on issues and where he stands on issues. I have never once besmirched his profession, work history, family or background. David Gill, on the other hand, has continually tried to make this election a personal attack on me. He has trashed my work as a public servant, and now he is trashing the workers of my family’s small business. How low will David Gill go?”
I’m pretty sure that no candidate has ever been “disgusted” by a McDonald’s joke before now. So, we could be seeing a major first here.
* Davis goes on to defend the honor of “public servants”…
Gill also continued his attack on public sector employees by attempting to demean Davis’ work as a public employee. Gill states that Davis has been paid $1 million as a public servant, but what Gill does not say is that is over a 20-year period beginning with his first job out of college in 1992. This continues a theme of Gill and his Washington allies who have throughout this campaign belittled public servants. Earlier this year, attempts by Gill and his allies to link Davis to public scandals were debunked by local media as a “misleading attack ad.”
“‘I’m proud of my work with my family’s small business, just as I’m proud of my work as a public servant collaborating with community leaders to solve problems and move this economy forward,” added Davis. “I have never called into question David Gill’s work nor his obvious passion for medicine, and I never will. We can certainly disagree on the issues, but his personal attacks on my work and my family go too far.”
The race for the 26th Senate District features two candidates who both say they are independent voices and haven’t received funding from their respective parties. Incumbent Republican Dan Duffy, a small-business man from Lake Barrington, faces a challenge from Democrat Amanda Howland, an attorney and College of Lake County board member. […]
Howland ran for state representative without Madigan’s help in 2006 and is doing so again.
Howland is running for the state Senate, so why would she be getting help from Speaker Madigan?
* With that editorial, the Daily Herald has pretty much jumped the shark on the Tribune/GOP “Fire Madigan” program. The Northwest Herald is also firmly on the bandwagon…
Republican David McSweeney is running for election to Illinois’ 52nd State Representative District. The seat currently is held by Kent Gaffney, who lost to McSweeney in the Republican primary. Gaffney was appointed to the position after the death in June 2011 of longtime state Rep. Mark Beaubien. […]
McSweeney’s opponent, Dee Beaubien, is the widow of the late Rep. Mark Beaubien. She did not run in the primary, getting her name on the ballot afterward as an independent.
She says she is a fiscal conservative, but she has accepted financial and campaign help from Madigan. This will make her beholden to him if she is elected. In an interview with the Northwest Herald’s Editorial Board, she would not commit to not voting for Madigan for speaker.
Voters in the 52nd District have a clear choice. That choice should be McSweeney.
22nd District: House Speaker Michael Madigan was first elected to the Illinois House in 1970 and became speaker in 1983. He’s controlled the House for all but two years since then. In short, he has presided over nearly every bad decision that brought Illinois to its current mess, chasing employers away with higher taxes, watching its credit rating plunge, squeezing money out of valued social services. He is running against Robert Handzik, a 13th Ward denizen who faithfully voted in Democratic primaries until this year when he mysteriously filed to run as a Republican. He’s one more Madigan plant to protect the speaker from the fuss of a real election. Voters have no real choice. No endorsement.
Today, EMILY’s List WOMEN VOTE! will release an ad to expose Bobby Schilling’s extreme, anti-middle class agenda. The ad will go up on broadcast television with 1000 points in Peoria, bolstering the nine pieces of mail that have been circulating to nearly 23,000 independent women since September 19th.
“Bobby Schilling has made it clear that he is willing to dismantle vital services like Medicare in order to increase tax breaks for wealthy corporations,” said Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY’s List. “And this November, voters in Illinois are going to make it equally clear that they don’t support his right-wing agenda. Right now, women and families need leaders like Cheri Bustos – pro-choice Democratic women who will fight for their access to healthcare and economic opportunity.”
* Schilling edges Bustos in fundraising: Both candidates did well, but Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling holds an advantage. Schilling raised $613,164 in the third quarter and finished with $839,150 cash on hand. Democratic challenger Cheri Bustos raised $488,803 in the third quarter and finished with $656,827 cash on hand.
* Schilling tops Bustos in 3Q fundraising: Schilling outspent Bustos for the quarter, dishing out $723,925, including a $45,450 transfer that went to the state Republican Party. Bustos spent $661,568.
* Our View: Will Bustos or Schilling give best answers in debate?: Who has the best plan to bring jobs back to the U.S.? Who has the best ideas on how to move health care forward? Who has the best grasp of education issues? And who will be a better representative for the Rockford region?
A conservative SuperPAC touting Duckworth rival Joe Walsh is preparing to dump an extra $2.5 million into the heated 8th Congressional District race — on top of $2 million it has already spent, a source familiar with the plan told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The idea is to “bury Duckworth,” the source said.
The revelation comes a day after Duckworth reported that she personally raised more than five times as much as Walsh did in the last quarter — about $1.5 million to the Republican’s $251,000. That means that the Now or Never SuperPAC spent eight times what Walsh was able to raise himself in the last quarter.
The Duckworth campaign and the DCCC failed to define Joe Walsh early with paid media. They counted on the Democratic map and Walsh’s horrible reputation to sink the freshman Republican. And they figured Duckworth’s very solid fundraising was probably enough. So far, they’ve been wrong on all counts. As I’ve said before, Duckworth hasn’t lost it yet, but the Democrats are in real danger there.
Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh helped found a group that is the top contributor to a SuperPAC supporting his re-election bid.
Walsh’s campaign says he hasn’t been involved with the group, Americans for Limited Government, for a decade. By law, SuperPACs and the candidates they support cannot have direct contact. […]
Walsh attacked Duckworth for being several hours late in filing her complete third-quarter campaign finance report. He has subsequently filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.
In filings with the Federal Elections Commission, it appears Now or Never began as a group of Missouri business men interested in helping state treasurer Sarah Steelman win the Show-Me State’s GOP Senate primary in August. But when Steelman finished third, Now or Never went quiet.
But on the same day Now or Never started its TV ad buys to help Walsh, the PAC received a $1 million contribution from Americans for Limited Government. Eleven days later, another donation from ALG came in for a little less, $950,000.
Why would ALG, a conservative group that advocates for a more limited federal government and reduced spending, go to the trouble funneling almost $2 million through a Missouri PAC instead of doing it directly themselves?
We got this from ALG communications director Richard Manning by e-mail: “Now or Never PAC does an impressive job of fighting for free market principles, which are in alignment with Americans for Limited Government, and we are proud to support it.”
Every penny received by Now or Never in September, when it launched its Illinois ad blitz,came from a Virginia-based nonprofit called Americans for Limited Government. ALG forked over, in two payments, a whopping $1.95 million. As a nonprofit, ALG doesn’t disclose its donors.
Americans for Limited Government was co-founded in 1996 by real estate investor Howard Rich, who also serves on the boards of the Cato Institute and the Club for Growth. According to Politico, ALG has been among the recipients of funding from the extensive donor networkestablished by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. ALG has also employedSean Noble, according to Politico, who helped to oversee how the Koch donor network’s contributions were spent.
Ray Wotring, a spokesman for ALG, refused to say who funds his organization. “We as a practice don’t reveal our donors,” he says. Wotring also declined to say why ALG contributed to Now or Never. Harber, a spokesman for Now or Never, says in an email that the super-PAC discloses all of its donors. “ALG isn’t our first, last, or only donor,” Harber notes. “We can’t compel them to disclose their donors, but we have done everything we can to be as transparent and accessible as possible.”
* Related…
* Less glitz, glamour in local debate prep: Walsh, sources said, relies on some training he received in the mid-1980s in stage, theater and television at the Lee Strasburg Theatre and Film Institute in New York.
* Heritage Action for America Goes Duckworth Hunting: Earlier this year, Walsh received a 93 percent rating on the foundation’s scorecard, one of the highest in Congress — far higher than any other member of the Illinois delegation. Walsh won the organization’s approval by voting to repeal Obamacare, to block loans to green energy companies, and to disapprove of the administration’s waiver of welfare-to-work requirements. Heritage Action for America has paid Walsh back for his commitment to conservative principles by opening a Victory Center in the 8th District, and with a new website, “5 Facts About Tammy Duckworth.”
