* From the twitters…

* Wordslinger posted a wicked rant on this topic yesterday that deserves front-paging…

=Ask us your questions on our plans to create jobs and grow the economy.=

OK.

–How do you plan to reverse the three-year slide in Illinois farm incomes?

–What actions will you take to prevent abundant and cheaper natural gas from replacing Illinois coal?

–How will you reverse technological advances in coal-mining to save Illinois jobs?

–Same question as above, when it comes to direct jobs and related service jobs being lost in the financial services sector on LaSalle Street?

–How do you intend to raise the world-wide price of oil (and gasoline) to make Illinois fracking profitable?

–Will you devalue the Illinois dollar to make Illinois exports more attractive?

–Do you intend to re-negotiate Illinois trade agreements with foreign nations?

–What’s the plan to combat the growing state teacher shortage with more enticing salaries and benefits for prospects? You know, like you do in the private sector when you have a labor shortage?

–How are you going to save Sears?

– What is the state plan to revitalize Illinois’ buggy-whip industry?

Obviously, I kid. The governor can’t do any of those things, nor can he reverse the global trend in manufacturing, despite all the mumbo-jumbo he continually spouts.

Here are some real questions:

–What scholarship should we read to fully understand your theory of centrally planned, state direction of “the economy?” Marx? Lenin? Mao? Goldberg?

–Where’s your capital plan? For infrastructure? For technology? How are you going to pay for it? Is that not a fundamental purpose of state government? What are you waiting for — you’ve been in office nearly two years.

–What is the GOMB whiz kids’ projections on job and economic growth if the State of Illinois was on a reasonable timetable for paying its record backlog of bills (set on your watch), pumping those billions directly into the state economy?

–Do you have any plans for job assistance for the thousands who have been tossed out of work due to your refusal for political reasons to honor contracts or fund higher ed at levels you, yourself, recommended in your proposed budgets? How much have those layoffs cost the state, fiscally and economically, in unemployment insurance costs and lost economic activity?

–Do you believe in the sanctity of contracts? For realsies?

–What is your master plan for Illinois universities and community colleges? For the social safety net? By your actions, you’re certainly up to something, but you’re just not being square with us peasants.

I’ll hang up and listen to your usual scattered-brain non-sequiturs…. I mean, “answers.”

Ouch.

* For the record, however, Word and I disagree somewhat about this topic. I believe there are several ways to retain businesses and encourage them to expand here rather than elsewhere. Obviously, I think the governor’s ideas go way too far and are mostly unrealistic given the political realities, but I do believe there’s plenty of room for compromise if anyone would freaking listen to each other.

* Related…

* Equal sweetener plant closing: Eighty-nine workers at Manteno’s Merisant plant — which produces Equal, the artificial sweetener — were told Monday the location will be closing its doors in mid-December and moving to a southeastern state… Of the company’s 89 Manteno employees, 70 were involved in production. A production worker earned between $16 to $24 per hour. The company, one of the mainstays of the Diversatech campus, operated three shifts, five days per week. Overtime work was not uncommon.