Caption contest!
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* When somebody starts comparing you to Lincoln, you can either politely demur or just go with the flow. Frerichs went with the flow…
Although Illinois Treasurer Mike Frerichs is a Democrat, when he was visiting the La Salle County Farm Bureau office in Ottawa on Monday, it was readily apparent he bears some resemblance to Republican Abraham Lincoln.
His height and new beard would seem to be similarities — but only to a point, he says.
Frerichs is 6-foot 8-inches while Lincoln was 6-foot 4-inches. But, he says, Americans today are on average three to four inches taller than they were in Lincoln’s time.
“If Lincoln had been born today, he probably would have reached his full potential of 6-feet 8-inches,” Frerichs told The Times.
Also, Frerichs noted his full beard is different than Lincoln’s chin curtain style, where the mustache is shaved.
However, Frerichs agrees there are similarities in that both are tall and lanky and grew up in Central Illinois.
* And here he is…
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* From the Ottawa Times…
A state agency is seeking former state Rep. Frank Mautino’s “clarification” on the more than $250,000 he paid to a Spring Valley bank since 1999.
Mautino, who is now the state’s auditor general, listed Spring Valley City Bank as the recipient of $259,000 in campaign money, even though the purpose listed in documents for the spending was for everything from food to travel.
“They are clearly not expenditures to the bank,” said Tom Newman, director of campaign disclosure for the state Board of Elections. […]
“Maybe the committee didn’t know the correct way to do it, and they took their best stab at it,” Newman said. […]
“We’ll try a couple of times to get in touch with them and see where it goes from there,” Newman said.
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Unsolicited advice
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WLS…
So far only one House Democrat, Ken Dunkin of Chicago, has publicly crossed Madigan in favor of Rauner, but the Governor tells WLS several other Democrats would like to follow suit.
”We’re getting more and more members of the Democratic caucus in private who say they agree with me, that we need reforms and they’ll support it, but only one Democratic Rep. so far has publicly stated we need reforms as part of the budget. I’ve got to get more of them steppin’ up and speakin’ out. Hopefully that will happen.”
Publicly whacking their Democratic colleagues in their own districts probably isn’t helping advance the ball.
Just sayin…
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Heh…
Good one.
* The Question: How much do you trust the media? Please remember to explain your answer. Thanks!
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* The Politico story was a bit confusing and Public Policy Polling hasn’t yet released its numbers, but here’s the breakdown of its latest poll in the 8th Congressional District Democratic primary to replace Tammy Duckworth…
* State Sen. Michael Noland: 22 percent
* Raja Krishnamoorthi: 17 percent
* Villa Park Mayor Deb Bullwinke: 11 percent
* Undecided: 50 percent
Still a wide open race with a slight Noland edge. Raja needs to start spending more of that money.
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Hot rhetoric misses the point
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The governor has been promising to “call out” Democrats for their support of House Speaker Michael Madigan and did so today in the Quad Cities…
I suppose he figures that people will rush to their phones and the Interwebtubes to pressure their legislators to stop being Madigan allies and start voting with the governor. Will it work? The first part, yes. The second… No.
Those two legislators (particularly Smiddy) haven’t spared any words for Rauner, so turnabout, etc.
* But Verschoore and Smiddy are total union guys and always have been, which is something that the governor can’t quite ever understand. They support unions. They don’t vote the way they do out of fear of unions or of Madigan. They do it because that’s who they are.
Smiddy, for one, was elected in a GOP district with only a few hundred bucks from Madigan. AFSCME bankrolled almost his entire campaign. He was an AFSCME member and was totally with them. They actually wanted somebody in that seat who would be independent of Madigan and more aligned with them. He’s not gonna suddenly “break with Madigan” and side with Rauner and against AFSCME. That’s missing the entire point.
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Worst. Analysis. Ever.
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* An op-ed published by the Wall St. Journal…
Revenue isn’t the problem. An October report from the Pew Charitable Trusts found that Illinois’s tax collections have grown by almost 20% since 2008, largely thanks to a short-term income-tax hike of two percentage points that expired this year.
But what the state has taken in, it has spent with reckless abandon. The $8.5 billion in unpaid bills at the end of 2015 nicely matches the $8.5 billion in unpaid bills the state had at the end of 2011, when then-Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, instituted the tax increase. The theory was that this would rescue Illinois and give it time to renounce bad habits. That didn’t work.
Breathtaking.
1) Revenue is not a problem? The analysis used above is akin to saying to someone who was just laid off: “Your average income over the past few years shows you’re doing fine, so don’t bother finding a new job.”
2) Reckless abandon? First of all, the backlog number used for the very end of 2011 is incorrect. And the bill backlog at the very end of 2014, when Quinn lost the election and before the tax hike expired was $4.36 billion. It’s now way higher. Why?
Lack of revenues and no budget to control court-ordered spending!
Also, too, the state finally made its full legally mandated pension payments after the tax hike, which (for the kabillionth time) explains most state spending growth.
It’s like getting a new, better-paying job and using almost all the new cash to pay down second mortgages and credit card bills from your previously profligate ways. Your quality of life isn’t noticeably improving, but your long-term prospects are greatly enhanced.
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Cullerton doubles down
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* He’s said this before, of course, but you gotta wonder what his suburban and Downstate members are thinking, and what the governor will do to them this fall…
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* Congresscritter Tammy Duckworth tried to blame Mark Kirk for radicalizing American Islamists yesterday, then kinda walked it back, then kinda didn’t…
“In the case of those two young people, the Iraq refugees in Texas, they were actually, radicalized here in the United States,” Duckworth said. “They came as teenagers and they were radicalized because they’d been on those talk hotlines with ISIS. Because they see people like Mark Kirk demonizing Muslim and Islam and wanting to shut down our borders. That’s how we turn people against us.”
Immediately though, one of the moderators asked, “You think they were radicalized by U.S. politicians?”
“No, I think they were radicalized by ISIS, who are attempting to get U.S. politicians and the United States to react in fear,” Duckworth responded.
When asked again about her saying politicians like Kirk were responsible for radicalization, she said, “Donald Trump is out there wanting to shut down all Muslims from entering the country. We cannot go back against our values.”
* Kirk was not amused…
* Terrorists are “manipulating the refugee crisis” in Europe, for sure. Refugees are flooding over porous borders. To compare that situation to the refugees waiting years to get into the US because of our screening process is bogus.
But Duckworth got way ahead of herself when she said the US should accept 200,000 refugees. Screening that many folks at the current pace would take many, many years, if not decades. So, does she want to increase the pace? If so, how?
* Either way, if you’re gonna make a serious claim that your opponent is inspiring radicalism, then have the guts to stick with it or don’t level the allegation in the first place.
Sheesh. You’d think she’d never run for office before.
*** UPDATE *** From Duckworth’s office…
Hey Rich—good chatting a few minutes ago. As discussed, the letter that the Congresswoman signed onto—which is the basis for the 200,000 claim that has been floating around (that the Washington Post said was “wrong” and led to a correction from the Associated Press)—is available here.
It endorses a recommendation by Refugee Council USA (a coalition of 20 of the nation’s premiere refugee organizations) for the U.S. to accept 100,000 Syrian refugees, not 200,000 as some have claimed—and that was by the end of 2016, not per year.
With regards to the “does she want to increase the pace/if so, how” questions, that’s explained in the letter sent long before this became a political issue (emphasis added), though the letter is not her only action on this topic:
“There are those who will oppose taking in additional refugees. They will say it is a security risk, or will hurt our economy. This criticism ignores the fact that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program subjects applications to more thorough security vetting than any other traveler or immigrant to the United States. We recognize the importance of security checks and will continue to support your Administration’s strong background checks for all refugees… We pledge we will do everything we can to ensure that, if steps are taken to accommodate additional refugees, there will be adequate additional resources for U.S. resettlement agencies, and for security checks, in order to meet the increased demand.”
Additionally, I’d argue with the implications that the number is:
a) Unreasonably high. In recent American history, we’ve had refugee admission ceilings near 250,000 and over the last decade the ceiling has hovered near 100,000. This chart made from State Department data may be helpful for background on where the numbers have historically been set.
a. As Refugee Council USA notes:
i. “This would not be the first time that the United States proudly carries out our historic tradition of welcoming refugees in large numbers. After the end of the wars in Southeast Asia, the United States resettled 111,000 Vietnamese refugees in 1979 and then essentially doubled that number to 207,000 in 1980.”
b) Out of the political mainstream. Former Ambassador to Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kuwait and Lebanon Ryan Crocker (who served under GOP and Democratic Presidents) recently said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:
a. “That’s why the Obama administration should commit to resettling 100,000 Syrian refugees over the next year.”
i. In addition to Amb. Crocker, former Syrian Ambassador (who also served under President George W. Bush) Robert Ford, a group of diplomats from across the political spectrum and even Bush Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz signed onto a letter urging our country’s leaders to support:
1. “100,000 Syrian refugees on an extraordinary basis, over and above the current worldwide refugee ceiling of 70,000.”
Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Thanks!
Ben Garmisa | Communications Director
Rep. Tammy Duckworth | Illinois’ 8th Congressional District
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* From EIU’s president. Just so you’re clear, “A&P” employees are administrative and professional workers, not tenured faculty…
Dear Campus Community,
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through the cost reductions made necessary by the budgetary impasse in Springfield. I greatly appreciate the input and support I have received in this process from both within our campus community and beyond.
There is very little additional news from Springfield. A smattering of bills were filed last month providing various levels and scopes of funding for public higher education, including one that would provide funding but only for community colleges and MAP grants and another that would provide both full MAP funding as well as an appropriation for the universities but at a rate of only 80 percent of last year’s level. The recent flurry of bills being filed to support higher education appropriations is a positive sign that our lawmakers are realizing the urgency and critical nature of what we are facing.
There was an immense showing of support by our campus and regional community at the Fund EIU rally last Friday. We all love this institution first and foremost for the excellence it provides in educating our students. However, it is also an economic, intellectual and cultural engine for our entire region of Illinois. I remain steadfastly confident that our General Assembly and Governor realize the great importance of EIU and all public universities to the future of our great state.
I would like to re-emphasize that the entirety of our cost reduction activities that are being implemented this month and continuing in March (with layoffs and furloughs) is the direct result of not having an appropriation for EIU enacted by the state and not receiving funds for MAP grants that were committed to our students by the state (which we honored).
Owing to the budgetary situation and in respect to our many colleagues facing layoffs, I am postponing our annual Years of Service luncheon scheduled for this week until later in the year or, perhaps, not until next fall. We will look forward to celebrating when our appropriation is enacted and the recall of those laid off begins to take place. Employees may contact the Vice President for Business Affairs to receive their service pins.
I am disappointed that we will need to lay off 198 civil service employees. Layoff notices will be delivered on Wednesday and Thursday (Feb. 10 and 11). Our Human Resources Office will provide as much assistance as possible to those who will be laid off. We are saddened to be put in this position, and realize it will affect either directly or indirectly our entire campus community.
If an appropriation is enacted and funds begin to be received at the university by the layoff date of Saturday, March 12, many or all of the layoff notices could be rescinded.
In addition to layoffs, all A&P employees (beginning on March 1) will be required to take the equivalent of one day of furlough per week, each month, until further notification or up until June 30, 2016. For those employees who were already required to take a specific number of furlough days, these days will be added until an employee has reached a total of 24 furlough days at which time they have met the maximum furlough limit (EIU IGP #189). The specific days chosen to furlough for any month will be determined by the supervisor in consultation with the employee according to university operational needs and the interests of the employee.
There will be the following number of furlough days:
Days in the month chosen for furlough need not be structured as one per week. For example, it would be possible, pending supervisor approval, to use the five days of Spring Break to satisfy furlough for the month of March.
The administration continues to work on alternative strategies that may allow for reducing the number of layoffs. As these discussions continue, I will communicate with the campus. A reduction in A&P required furlough days is possible upon the enactment of an appropriation and timely receipt of funds from the state.
Let us stand together in optimism that an appropriation for EIU will be enacted quickly with funds distributed to our university in order that these difficult measures affecting our campus family can be avoided. I am thankful and proud to serve as your president and we will continue together in action for our students and our beloved university.
Sincerely,
David M. Glassman
President, Eastern Illinois University
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Because… Rauner!
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle visited both the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune editorial boards yesterday. You can read the stories here and here, but I think this Mihalopoulos Twitter feed is actually more enlightening…
*** UPDATE *** Greg Hinz…
So, I asked, why not follow Rauner’s lead and ask Madigan to move on Rauner’s Turnaround Illinois Agenda, something the governor says is needed for him to back a tax hike that likely is needed to pass a balanced state budget?
Because Rauner takes and doesn’t give, Preckwinkle replied in so many words.
Specifically, Rauner last year asked Preckwinkle to dispatch county CFO Ivan Samstein on a special duty, serving on a task force Rauner formed to draft a possible solution to state pension woes.
“I consented, without condition,” she says. “He wanted Ivan down there (in Springfield). He was, a day a week. For two months.”
Afterwords, Preckwinkle says, she asked Rauner for help getting her own pension bill through the General Assembly, where it had been blocked by labor unions who felt it was too tough.
“He told me he’d help me only if I helped him on his turnaround agenda,” Preckwinkle said. “It’s sort of his way or the highway.”
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A Rauner vs. Madigan proxy war
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Rep. Ken Dunkin and his Democratic primary rival Juliana Stratton met with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board yesterday…
During the side-by-side interview with Stratton on Monday, Dunkin referred to Democratic lawmakers as “monkeys”— before quickly correcting himself and calling them “minions”— prompting a lengthy denouncement from Stratton.
“To compare himself in the Illinois House to this horrific institution of slavery is not only offensive, but I also find it to be pathetic,” Stratton said. “For him to use that type of language I see that as race-baiting.”
Dunkin didn’t back down, claiming Madigan has demanded the Black Caucus vote the party line, while the speaker ignores caucus members’ requests for help in their districts.
“The Mike Madigan slave mentality of his plantation politics is real,” Dunkin said. “That’s an afro-centric terminology in terms of plantation politics. If you want to go there [Madigan] has been there 45 years, 32 years been the speaker. Have you gone on the West Side of Chicago, in certain parts, certain parts of the South Side?” […]
“The best people to say whether he gets credit [for his dealmaking] are the people of the 5th District,” Stratton said. “His alliance with Gov. Bruce Rauner is not going to be something that is going to be good for them.”
Go read the whole thing.
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* The Belleville News Democrat reports on a blockbuster prisoner lawsuit about alleged brutality by “an elite, mobile Illinois Department of Corrections tactical unit” known to inmates as “Orange Crush”…
Members of the tactical unit begin the tactic by running onto a prison tier when female guards are sometimes also present, “whooping,” banging on metal tables and shouting to prisoners: “Get butt-naked.”
The guards do this, according to the lawsuit, while dressed in orange fatigues, wearing helmets, carrying clubs and chanting “Punish the inmate. Punish the inmate.”
Hundreds of prisoners at a time were marched in this way in April of 2014 at four Southern Illinois prisons while being threatened by laughing guards who shouted they would be taken immediately to solitary confinement if they allowed any daylight between themselves and the man in front of them, the plaintiffs’ lawyers allege. Prisoners were eventually led to an exercise area and made to stand for hours with their faces pressed against a wall while their hands were cuffed behind them in a “stress” position. During this time, other members of the guard unit searched the prisoners’ cells for contraband.
“This is above and beyond what I’ve seen ever in the 35 years I’ve been doing this kind of work,” said civil rights attorney Alan Mills of the Chicago-based Uptown People’s Law Center, one of two law firms pressing the lawsuit. “This is part of some official policy. Higher-ups in IDOC will have to explain what in the world they were thinking when they gave these people this kind of direction and leeway.”
Mills said the practice continued on at least a few occasions after the lawsuit was filed in 2015.
Federal Judge Staci Yandle recently allowed the lawsuit to continue and ruled against two motions presented by the attorney general.
* In a follow-up editorial the paper called for an immediate investigation and a fix for this alleged craziness…
This practice being carried out in front of female corrections officers and accompanied by whoops and pounding metal tables is a scene out of a bad movie. There can be no purpose other than to sexually humiliate the inmates.
Remember the last group engaging in that behavior? They were U.S. soldiers holding inmates at Abu Ghraib in Iraq who outfitted the inmates with dog leashes, women’s underwear and shrouds as they were hooked to fake electrocution devices.
Our state owes compensation, safety and respect to its correctional officers. They in turn owe us professionalism in how they exert power and to curb their own sense of entitlement so it does not extend to fake workers’ comp claims that give them fancy bass boats or to sadistic shows that give them a sense of superiority.
They also owe their fellow correctional officers a safe work environment. Since when does punishing a group of inmates for the violence of a few do anything but build a large reserve of resentment?
Agreed.
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* Tribune…
(T)here are three things President Barack Obama won’t do during his swing through Springfield on Wednesday:
Play “back-seat driver” and offer detailed advice to try to solve the state’s budget stalemate. Sit down one-on-one with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner for a beer. And try to negotiate a peace accord between Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Previewing the trip, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Obama will pick up the themes of his State of the Union speech in January and urge the country to move past partisan divisions. […]
As for the state’s budget impasse, his call for bipartisanship could help, but he won’t be putting forth detailed remedies, Earnest said. For one thing, Obama’s proposed federal budget comes up the day before his trip to Illinois. “We’ve got our hands full here,” the spokesman said.
* AP…
“This is actually something we’ve been talking about for a while,” Earnest said in a conference call. “There has always sort of been the sense that going back to Springfield on the anniversary of his announcement speech would be fun to do. And it would serve as the background for a discussion about the kind of potential that the president sees in the country.”
* Lynn Sweet…
“The president views this as an opportunity to not offer advice or be a back-seat driver for running the state government of Illinois but rather an opportunity to deliver a broader message about the value and potential benefit associated with trying to find common ground,” Earnest said.
* Sweet asked why this visit is a good idea, considering Springfield’s partisan gridlock…
“It’s a good idea because the president’s experience when he served in Springfield was different than the situation the president encountered in Washington. And the president does see this as a good backdrop to talk about the kinds of benefits that can be realized when our citizens and our elected representatives don’t allow themselves to be so easily divided.”
Um, OK.
* More Sweetness…
Rauner singled out his two big issues – term limits and redistricting — in focusing on what he wants Obama to talk about, suggesting incorrectly that Obama backs Rauner’s term-limit crusade.
Rauner is not going to get that one-on-one beer he sought with Obama. He will be greeting him on the tarmac of the airport in Springfield.
* Back to the AP…
While Obama did discuss term limits when in Ethiopia last summer delivering a speech to the people of Africa, saying “old thinking can be a stubborn thing,” Earnest said Monday that Obama’s message there was not a general call for term limits. He said Obama was telling leaders not to overcome limits already imposed, “either by ignoring them or by coercing the government to change the rules just for them.”
* The most interesting nugget…
Obama, Earnest said, sees his speech as an opportunity “to deliver a broader message about the value and potential benefits associated with trying to find common ground. … That doesn’t mean that anybody needs to capitulate on their most strongly held principles. That typically is not a recipe for success, either.”
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Oh no! There goes Tokyo!
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I have some stuff to finish up for subscribers, but I thought you’d enjoy this one from the twitters…
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