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It’s just a bill…
Friday, Mar 20, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller * Some folks have asked me over the years why I use the “It’s just a bill” headline here on the ol’ blog. Several years ago, I ribbed a legislator hard who was known back then for his friendliness with the utility interests. He’d just sponsored yet another in a long line of outrageous bills written by and for a utility company. My recollection is I referred to him as being what some used to call a “lady of the evening,” or (more likely) words to that effect. “It’s just a bill, Rich,” was his cheery reply. In other words, the legislation was, to him, merely a starting point. Plenty of negotiations were ahead and the bill would be changed. No worries. But by sponsoring that legislation as written, he was allowing the utility company to set the terms of the coming debate. Sure, changes would be made to that bill, but it was still the utility’s bill. They controlled the debate, and the committee it would be heard in, as well as the chairman of that committee and the bill’s sponsor. * And, so, yesterday we saw yet another utility bill written by yet another utility unveiled in the General Assembly…
* But check this out…
So, ComEd - one of the most sophisticated and successful lobbying entities in Illinois - doesn’t even have a ballpark on how much money it’ll make off its own bill? Please. * And in other just a bill-related news…
Doesn’t Illinois already have a bad enough reputation without making a grain our state vegetable?
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- Democrowhat - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 12:55 pm:
Be careful! New Hampshire made news on a similar issue yesterday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/nh-lawmakers-kill-4th-grader-bill-change-state-raptor-article-1.2155979
- Demoralized - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 12:58 pm:
I think in the debating world, corn is considered both a vegetable and a grain, depending on when it is harvested. Harvest it as sweet corn for eating - it’s a vegetable. Harvest it for grinding when it is drier - it’s a grain.
I can’t believe I just engaged in a debate on corn.
- A guy - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 12:58 pm:
Demo, Please go on man… lol.
- Sir Reel - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 12:59 pm:
Glad to see Senator McCann tackling one of the most challenging issues of the day.
- Anon221 - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:04 pm:
The definitive answer:
http://www.extension.org/pages/36971/please-settle-a-dispute-is-sweet-corn-a-vegetable-or-a-grain-what-is-the-difference-how-about-field-#.VQxhEnIcRv4
- John A Logan - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:06 pm:
Trying to figure out a way to tie Aaron Schock and Corn Shock together in this debate.
- Belle - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:06 pm:
Corn? It is such a hotly debated crop since Monsanto has messed with it so that most of the crop is GMO-itized. And, all of the junk food made with the associated corn products that get a bad rap?
I realize corn is a hot commodity in this state and brings a lot of dough here. I do not think it currently brings good publicity along with it.
Soybeans are worse since it is the only crop that is 100% GMO.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:09 pm:
We already have official state vegetables - our elected General Assembly legislators!
- JS Mill - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:11 pm:
=We already have official state vegetables - our elected General Assembly legislators!=
VM- you WIN!!!
- Not just utilities...... - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:11 pm:
The video gaming bill was written by the video gaming industry according to news reports quoting one of the industry attorney. I think this happens all the time.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:13 pm:
Corn? It is such a hotly debated crop…
Yeah - I can’t believe all the hot debate we have about corn! Corn? Sorry, I thought you said porn.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:14 pm:
===I think this happens all the time===
Yes, it does. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right way to go.
- OldSmoky2 - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:14 pm:
Wait - isn’t corn a fuel?
- BlameBruceRauner - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:15 pm:
I believe most of Illinois corn should be call Franken-food more like it! Still hard to believe that people cant wake up and realize that GMO agriculture is not a good thing.
- Nearly Normal - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:15 pm:
Rich–
I thought your “It’s Just a Bill” was an Illinois play on the Schoolhouse Rock song “I’m Just a Bill” video–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0
- ??? - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:16 pm:
And what rewards and perks does the corn get for being named the official state vegetable? Grand marshaling a parade? A scholarship?
It’s just a STUPID bill, is more like it.
- Nearly Normal - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:16 pm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0
here’s a live link, I hope.
- Juvenal - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:17 pm:
Anon221:
Sorry to burst your bubble.
We have been telling kids too eat their fruits and vegetables for years. Grains, too, belong to a mutually exclusive taxonomy.
“Vegetables” is a food group classification, and corn belongs in the “grain” category, pure and simple.
- Nearly Normal - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:20 pm:
And then, there is the SNL version of the “I’m Just a Bill”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82mG_RV1Fys
that shows how Guvmint really works!!
- Mongo - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:23 pm:
Good to know little Steel is getting a good education at his private school in Iowa.
- Demise - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:28 pm:
I had the corn conversation yesterday with Jasper in the session coverage comments. I initially said it was a grain. After Jasper’s challenge I researched further and found what Demoralized stated. If there is ambiguity regarding the identity of the food item, perhaps we should adopt something that is without question a vegetable. (This discussion is better for my blood pressure than the usual topics.)
- walker - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:32 pm:
It’s not corn, it’s “maize.”
Wheat and barley are “corn.”
Just to add to the critical debate.
Steel cut through the blather. Good kid, I’m sure.
- Wordslinger - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:37 pm:
Picked at just the right time, boiled or grilled just right, seasoned just so, Illinois sweet corn is heaven on a cob.
You ever had sweet corn in Florida? I don’t think the hogs up here would eat it.
- lil' enchililada - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:38 pm:
From 2007-when New York wanted to make CORN their State Vegetable
http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/corn-vegetable-fruit-or-grain/comment-page-1
- Cable Line Beer Gardener - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:39 pm:
I am no expert but shouldn’t we be more concerned with genetically engineered food rather than GMO’s? technically hybrids can be considered GMO’s.
- Bigtwich - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:50 pm:
Attorney General Ryan called a meeting of all his Assistants. He brought in a respected legislator to address us on the legislative process. He showed us Schoolhouse Rock, “I’m Just a Bill”.
Grain,vegetable, or fruit?
- anon. - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:57 pm:
Everyplace grows sweetcorn but IL produces over 90% of pumpkins for eating. (horseradish too, but not everyone likes horseradish).
- walker - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 1:58 pm:
A lot of trivial bills seem to surface on days when leaders are behind closed doors finalizing deals. It fills the time and distracts the members who don’t play with the starting five.
Just sayin’.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 2:07 pm:
The only one who voted to make pumpkin the state vegetable, instead of corn, was someone named Peter Peter
- Team Sleep - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 2:09 pm:
Why do I find it both humorous and ironic that the Senator who usurped Senator McCann’s position on the Senate Ag Committee utilized his son to throw Senator McCann under the bus?!
- Last Bull Moose - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 2:10 pm:
Corn makes whiskey. And we will need whiskey to get through this session. Raise more corn!
- Finally Out (and now very glad to be) - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 2:12 pm:
It’s now clear to me….
“He’d just sponsored yet another in a long line of outrageous bills written by and for a utility company”
“yesterday we saw yet another utility bill written by yet another utility”
“video gaming bill was written by the video gaming industry according to news reports quoting one of the industry attorney”
If a union tries to lobby for it’s members, then it’s a corrupt special interest.
I want to thank King Rauner for explaining that to me, I have always been confused about that concept. /s
- Anon221 - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 2:23 pm:
To Juvenal-
I’m not taking a stand any which way:)
The post I posted was direct from the Extension Service and a taxpayer funded answer.
Enjoy your ‘corn however which way-
grain, vegetable, fruit… or liquid!
- Try-4-Truth - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 2:36 pm:
I don’t want to be a jerk, but….
noun
1.
any plant whose fruit, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, or flower parts are used as food, as the tomato, bean, beet, potato, onion, asparagus, spinach, or cauliflower.
2.
the edible part of such a plant, as the tuber of the potato.
3.
any member of the vegetable kingdom; plant.
Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vegetable
- Jerry 101 - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 2:51 pm:
If the big 10 can have 14 teams, then why not have the state vegetable be a grain?
- Minnow - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 3:09 pm:
I think these comments are pretty funny. (Just hope none of those 4th graders read this blog.) They’re probably really into learning the process involved in the introduction of a bill becoming law and are feeling pretty proud of being a part of it. Encourage-not discourage. In fact, this bill is as sensible as some of the others I’ve seen submitted by the adults in the Legislature. (but I still love the comments)
- 100 West - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 3:22 pm:
Bigtwich: That never happened.
- 1776 - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 3:35 pm:
You’re all wrong - Corn is a fruit.
Corn belongs to the Poaceae family, and while eaten sometimes as a
vegetable and sometimes as a grain, it is actually classified by botanists as a
fruit, as are tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and other squashes.
Sweet corn is a variant in which the sugar in the fruit kernels turns from sugar
to starch less slowly after harvest.
- Bigtwich - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 4:20 pm:
“Bigtwich: That never happened.”
Steve Rauschenberger in the squaretunda in Springfield or someone has implanted a false memory in my brain.
- Anon 2 - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 4:29 pm:
This brings Nero’s actions to mind.
- vole - Friday, Mar 20, 15 @ 5:04 pm:
Dig into the curricula of any vegetable crops course at any ag school in the US and you will find sweet corn covered. Not a grain of truth it is a grain.