* A photo from yesterday’s private signing ceremony of the pension reform bill…

* That pic was supplied by the governor’s office. The SJ-R used a different photo…

* The Question: Caption?

       

55 Comments - facts are stubborn things - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:04 pm: This is a great day, we now have more money to spend! - Raymond - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:04 pm: “Look, we’ve got Cullerton on FaceTime!” - 47th Ward - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:08 pm: First photo: “OK everybody, look somber as I reluctantly sign this bill that will diminish the retirement savings of thousands of low level state employees and teachers so we could avoid repaying the billions we stole from them.” Second photo: “Just kidding. Now who wants to help me spend the savings?” - Kerfuffle - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:12 pm: PQ: “Oooh…Oooh…look, they brought out all of the pretty colored pencils. I can draw really good pictures but the teachers say I have a problem staying within the lines. Do you think they are talking about my pictures or the constitution?” - What's in a name? - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:12 pm: PQ: We wouldn’t need this legislation if we didn’t spend so much on pens. - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:13 pm: Second Photo: “Lawmakers watch as Quinn illuminates the holiday lights of his capitol dome.” - MrJM - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:14 pm: “Okay, fun is fun. But seriously, do any of these pens have ink?” – MrJM - Hank - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:14 pm: “I wanted to land on an aircraft carrier and proclaim Mission Accomplished, but the Navy said no so we are stuck with this tiny little room” - wtf - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:15 pm: Ha Ha we stole your life savings and we don’t even have to worry about that orange is the new black jumper. - Levois - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:16 pm: Everyone was texting and sleeping during the first take then they had to do another take with everyone smiling! - Rollo Tomasi - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:19 pm: Do you think we will have cancel Governor’s Day at the State Fair Again? Those Labor Unions are not going to like this. But will they finance my campaign? If I lose do you think Ty Fahner can get me a real job? I have a nice squeezie costume. May I could advertise on the corner for one of those place that you can sell grandma’s siver sets at. Let’s sliver out the back door before they find us. - unclesam - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:20 pm: (Photographer of second photo): “Ok, everyone say ‘Constitutional.!” - Downstate Weed Chewing Hick - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:21 pm: Photo - PQ: “As I am signing this, that a quick look at those souvenir pens. They say……..” Photo 2- PQ “…Dillard for Governor, Paid for by SEIU.” - Tankr - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:23 pm: OH how I love RED! MORE PLEASE! - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:24 pm: @FakeJasonPlummer - I found the “shoe”, the “bucket” and the “magnifying glass” that was not in “Picture #1″ but where’s that “thimble”. This “What’s the Big Diff!” is hard! - Steve - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:25 pm: Big bill, little debate, big smile on insiders. - DuPage Rep - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:25 pm: Can anyone give Jil Tracy her pen and thank her for taking this bill around the track a few times to get it right? - Wensicia - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:26 pm: @2nd pic, Quinn informs the leaders of GA that he’s just reinstated their pay. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:26 pm: “Ok, ready. This one is for the Unions, don’t move, no smile… Great, ok… Now for the Zealots… Little happy, some glee… That’s it… Ok, great….” - Trooper - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:27 pm: Reporters noted after the signing that the group stole the pens also. - Downstater - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:28 pm: After I am done signing this, I am off to meet with my friends at the public employee unions. I’ll take them a few pens. They will thank me!!! - Darienite - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:30 pm: First Photo: Radogno,”That’s P-a-t-r……..”. Senger, “Mine says Super 8 Motels”. Durkin, Mine doesn’t have ink in it.” - Anthony - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:36 pm: Regarding pic#2 “Hey Big Mike, What other words besides Honesty, Dignity, Equality, Constitution and Oath-of-office can we erase out of this dictionary? “Why Pat, you forgot the most important word of all “Middle Class”. Wait, that’s not the dictionary, Silly us.” - Almost the Weekend - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:38 pm: I was put on Earth to solve the pension crisis, and did it. Off to Mars! - Anon. - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:40 pm: Cool guys wear purple ties! - So. ILL - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:47 pm: Bahaha Darienite - “Mine says Super 8 Motels” - Norseman - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:51 pm: Top picture: House Speaker Madigan and House Minority Leader Durkin get ready to write something funny on Gov. Quinn’s bald head. Bottom picture: The legislators at the signing ceremony laugh at the funnies written on the oblivious Gov. Quinn’s head by Speaker Madigan and Rep. Durkin. - nytcw - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:51 pm: 1st pic, pq “ok one more, five letters starts with t, ends with t” reform mm “treat” 2nd pic pq “no the 4th letter should be an f” mm “troft” pq “thats not a word” mm “theft” pq “yes, we did it, lets go home, sign here!” - Anonymous - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:55 pm: Oh, boy! I haven’t been this excited about a pen since we went shopping for school supplies at Golblatt’s! (On a more serious note, I really do wish I hadn’t seen that first photo.) - OneMan - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:56 pm: One local retiree was heard to comment “Hey, perhaps I can sell those pens on a street corner to cover what I am losing” - Southern economy - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:03 pm: Well… Now we can spend the (millions) money we took from Rep Bradley’s district to Chicago. We appreciate that “tough vote” he took to rob his district of millions of dollars . He is in leadership… You know. - Anonymous - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:04 pm: Just another day at Madame Tussaud’s. - The DuPage Bard - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:12 pm: First pic- I’m so sad, this will affect our pension too! Second pic- Don’t worry we’ve already started a bill for next session that puts it back, no one will know! - Archimedes - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:14 pm: Anybody seen Squeezy - Snucka - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:17 pm: That Kwame photobomb gets ‘em every time. - OneMan - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:25 pm: Each legislator was given a pen to write letters back in response to the angry letters they will be getting from retirees… - OneMan - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:25 pm: In the best statehouse prank ever each of them realized the pens said “Raunner For Governor” - woodchuck - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:27 pm: “This bill is an important step for the insane gambler.” - truth hurts sometimes - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:31 pm: 30 signing pens for 5 people in the room?!? - pensioner - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:36 pm: Fools on parade. - A guy... - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:38 pm: Jeez, I have to keep dotting the i’s and crossing the to use 92 pens. John Cullerton asked that his pen be shipped to his house. - And the horse they rode in on! - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:44 pm: Ladies and gentlemen we have to protect our phony baloney jobs! There! that out to keep all those low information voters happy for a awhile. They’re so easily duped and they will believe anything the right wing media tells them. Anyway the real facts would only confuse them about this exaggerated crisis that us politicians created in the first place. - Timmeh - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:47 pm: Not Shown: Senator Murphy texting while riding a unicycle. - Kathryn - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 2:56 pm: 47th ward - your comment is spot on!!! - woodchuck - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 3:02 pm: “Somebody’s gonna have to go back and get a $xxit load of pens.” - Sgtstu - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 3:23 pm: My vote goes to Trooper : Trooper - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 1:27 pm: Reporters noted after the signing that the group stole the pens also. - TribuneAgoons - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 3:28 pm: We did It! We kept the photo and all mention of Mike Madigan out of our paper. We love dehumanizing him. - Give Me A Break - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 3:31 pm: PQ: Hey Speaker remember those AFSCME guys at the State Fair, remember them screaming at me, you and Lisa? Thought so, watch this. - Judgment Day (Road Trip) - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 3:39 pm: “Make sure he spells his name correctly this time. You know, “P” instead of “C”. Oh, and none of that “X” stuff…….. - Just The Way It Is One - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 4:09 pm: Re. 2ND Photo–Madigan, thinking to himself: “Oh my GOD–if he uses ONE more pen to sign this darn thing, I’m gonna KICK him, I swear, just KICK him!!” (Bill Brady also blurts out loud simultaneously in background to Jim Durkin re. Private Inside joke they chatted about previously about how PQ has a “Pen Fetish” when it comes to these signing ceremonies: “‘PF’ Jim, THAT’s right, Pppppppp F!! HA HA HA HA HA…boy is THAT right!!!”). - AFSCME Steward - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 4:14 pm: 1st Photo Madigan watches Illinois Governor Pat Quinn sign the pension bill and anxiously hopes the Governor gives him his pen back. - AFSCME Steward - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 4:18 pm: 2nd Photo Governor Quinn proudly shows off the first purchases made with the savings obtained from the pension bill, a big pile of fancy pens. - AFSCME Steward - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 4:21 pm: 2nd photo: A group on onlookers laugh histerically after the Governor informs them that the unions plan to support Republicans from now on. - One day at a time - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 4:25 pm: 1st photo: How come we all have pens stating “Made in China”? 2nd photo: “Now that this bill has been delivered and signed into law we can buy Cross pens and new copper doors fall all!” - Ruby - Friday, Dec 6, 13 @ 4:35 pm: How the Grinches Stole Christmas Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.