* Dana Milbank of the Washington Post in in St. Louis for tonight’s vice presidential debate. Milbank kicked off a live online chat this afternoon with some characteristic wit…
I feel my arrival here has enhanced my domestic policy experience.
It certainly does, because our next door neighbors here are other states. They’re next to the state that I am in.
Missouri has a very narrow maritime border between another state, Illinois, and on our other side, the land boundary that we have with Kansas. We have trade missions back and forth. We do.
It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Illinois as Governor Blagojevich rears his head and comes into the airspace of Missouri. Where– where do they go? It’s Missouri. It’s just right over the border. It is from Missouri that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful state, Illinois, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.
I, myself, have been a strong proponent of going to war with Missouri and seizing territory at least as far west as University City, or perhaps out to the western suburban riverboats. Milbank’s fears are not unfounded.
* This is a vice presidential debate open thread, or you can use it to discuss pending war plans with the Show-Me State. Either way is fine, but, as always, try your very best to keep those stupid DC talking points out of the discussion, please. We like to think we’re better than the rest, so let’s prove it. Thanks.
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Lisa Madigan: Concern troll
Thursday, Oct 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Attorney General Lisa Madigan ought to be ashamed of herself today. Her office tried and failed yesterday to convince a Cook County judge to keep the constitutional convention ballot question as originally written. The judge, as I told you yesterday, flat-out nixed that idea, ruling the question and a ballot instruction unconstitutional. As a refresher, here’s the question in, um, question…
In 1988 the electors rejected the call for a constitutional convention, with 75 percent voting against calling a convention and 25 percent voting in favor of calling a convention.
That’s clearly leading language and a completely unnecessary addition. But Madigan’s office argued that it was just fine and dandy.
* So when the constitutional arguments came up short, Madigan’s mouthpiece tried blatant scare tactics…
[Judge Howse] ought to have lowered the lights in his 17th-floor courtroom and issued the attorneys flashlights to hold under their chins to illuminate their faces as they outlined the horrors they said would result from efforts to remedy the problem.
“You’ll be putting the presidential election at risk,” Assistant Atty. Gen. Thomas Ioppolo said. “You’re going to be disenfranchising people. We cannot blow up the whole election over this.”
Ballots already are printed. Absentee ballots already are in the mail. Voting systems vary in Illinois’ 102 counties, and making systemwide changes would pose insurmountable printing and computer programming challenges.
What about creating a new, separate paper ballot with appropriate wording?
“There are too many quality-control issues,” Ioppolo said. “Too many problems. Too much risk. The election judges haven’t been trained. You’re going to have confusion.”
At one point, he said, “I am shouting the sky is falling because maybe it will be falling.”
Please.
So, this is how Lisa Madigan wants to kick off her 2010 gubernatorial campaign? Blatant fearmongering for the powers that be?
* This is the attitude we need…
“What I’m trying to do is do the right thing by the people of Illinois,” [Judge] Howse said
* Meanwhile, Progress Illinois reports that the anti con-con folks are coming up way short in their fundraising goals…
The AFL-CIO is part of the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution, which is organizing against Con-Con and had $224,871 in the bank as of June 30.
While the economic downturn may prevent the Alliance from hitting their original fundraising targets, Drea says there will be “plenty of money” to carry out an effective campaign. What does that mean? They’ll hit lots of union and editorial board meetings and also take out print ads in newspapers and bulletins.
“I think there will be some ads. I don’t think you'’re going to see us on network television in Chicago. I’d be surprised to see us on TV downstate,” he said. [emphasis added]
TV ads move voters. Period. The Alliance may go on cable, but it’s hard to tell from that quote. Cable ads are just as good as the nets for targeted campaigns. We’ll see. Downstate polling shows lots more opposition to the con-con there, so maybe that’s why they won’t bother running ads in the region.
But this is certainly an opening for the proponents.
* Related…
* A look at disputed language on Illinois ballot
* Judge Orders Con-Con Rewrite
* Judge Orders Stop On Absentee Ballot Mailing
* Judge: Constitutional convention must be remedied before election
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It ain’t all good news for Obama
Thursday, Oct 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Recent battleground state tracking polls showed a big jump for Barack Obama. But a Democratic news outlet dumped a tanker truck of cold water on Obama’s presidential aspirations yesterday….
In an unusually candid interview, a top official for the largest union backing Obama said that internal union polling shows that the race remains much more volatile and fluid in key battleground states than public polling suggests. He warned that low-information swing-state voters are saying they still don’t have a firm enough grasp on Obama’s life-story, character and record for the Illinois Senator to close the deal with them. […]
“This election remains extremely volatile in the battlegrounds,” [AFL-CIO deputy political director Mike Podhorzer] told us. “The public polls are giving a false sense of precision about where the race is. That’s a story that’s not really being told.”
Strikingly, Podhorzer said that his union’s internal polls — which push voters hard on the question of whether people are really firmly committed to their pick — show that as many as “15 to 20 percent” of battleground state voters remain “persuadable,” as he put it, despite what public polls say about the level of undecided voters.
“There are more voters than you’d expect who are just starting to pay attention to the election,” he said. “And there’s a lot of room for people to go back and forth.” […]
“Low information voters who haven’t been following this don’t know very much about Obama, in a way that might be different from other elections,” he said. “Voters are saying, `I really don’t want another four years of this, but I don’t know much about him.”
* As if the uncertain polling, the Tony Rezko deals, machine endorsements, and his ties to people like Senate President Emil Jones and Gov. Blagojevich isn’t enough already, the FBI is now reportedly looking into one of Sen. Barack Obama’s bestest buddies…
FBI agents met with Will County Auditor Stephen Weber for two hours Wednesday morning regarding an investigation the auditor initiated into a countywide office, the Tribune has learned. […]
Sources say the investigation centers on Will County Executive Larry Walsh’s office. Walsh, who faces Joliet businessman Dan Kennison in the November election, was outraged by rumors that investigators were looking into whether one of his employees was improperly accepting payments from a lobbying firm hired by the county.
Walsh, a Democrat, blamed the accusations on gutter politics. Weber is a Republican who also faces a November challenger, Democrat Kevin Duffy Blackburn.
Walsh has been prominently featured in some of Obama’s TV ads during the presidential campaign.
* More…
At 9:45 a.m., Chicago agent Joseph Basile and another man walked into the offices of Will County Auditor Steve Weber. They walked back out again just after 11 a.m. […]
“If you are insinuating that [chief of staff Matt Ryan] is receiving some kind of monetary reimbursement from them, I find that totally preposterous,” Walsh said.
The lobbying firm has secured quite a bit of federal funding for the county, including money to clean up and modernize the water and sewer system in Joliet Township’s Ridgewood neighborhood; to do engineering work at 143rd Street and Interstate 355; and to add laptop computers to the squad cars driven by Will County police. […]
“I have never received one nickel of compensation from anyone, including Mr. Smith, since I have been a county employee,” Ryan said.
Walsh is up for reelection, so this could just be a political game. But the timing isn’t just bad for Walsh, it’s bad for Obama.
Please remember our rule forbidding the use of mindless DC talking points in the comment section. They’ll just be deleted anyway, so you might as well come up with something original to begin with. Thanks.
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Blagojevich roundup - It ain’t exactly pretty
Thursday, Oct 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The governor can’t catch a break…
Presented with a certificate from Gov. Rod Blagojevich for her 100th birthday, Skokie resident Sally Lerner, looking as vital as ever, had this to say:
“That’s very nice. I don’t like some of the stuff he does, but OK.”
Heh.
* And citizens are resorting to some unusual actions to express their grievances…
In the dark of night between Thursday and Friday, an anonymous citizen, or group of citizens, made a bold statement concerning Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s current plans to shut down or cut open hours for many of Illinois’ historical sites.
Julia Dent Grant, the proud statue next to the [Ulysses S Grant] home, was discovered on Friday morning with a bandage around her head, cotton up her nose, her arm in a makeshift sling. On her pedestal was taped a sign that read, “Thanks Gov’ner.”
* Even some Cub fans booed him last night (sensitivity warning: profanity at this link)
* Some citizens were not so successful at expressing their displeasure, perhaps because they overreached…
Although she is disappointed Oprah Winfrey and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn won’t attend the Save the Park Rally on Saturday at Gebhard Woods State Park, rally organizer Rachel Pfaff says it is not going to stop her or the community from fighting to keep the parks open.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced in August that 11 state parks and 13 historic sites would be closed to accommodate the state’s deficit. The Senate voted last week to take $221 million from dedicated accounts to restore funds to save the parks and human service programs.
The bills to dedicate and appropriate the funds are going through the process to hit the governor’s desk for approval, changes or veto.
“It still has to go on. We still have to fight this fight,” Pfaff said.
* Best Bagojevich line of the day goes to Kristen McQueary…
That hug between [Speaker] Madigan and Blagojevich at the Democratic National Convention? No doubt Madigan took a Silkwood shower afterward.
* And on a day when no new stories about the sped-up federal investigation of the governor were published, Tony Rezko was back in the news…
A federal judge on Wednesday froze more than $100,000 belonging to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, saying the money may be needed if she orders the prominent political fundraiser to forfeit a big chunk of his assets as punishment for masterminding political corruption.
“There is a substantial probability that the United States will prevail in its request for entry of a money judgment against the defendant,” U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve, who presided at Rezko’s trial, said in her order freezing the money.
* And a former deputy chief of staff who is now running for congress, Jill Morgenthaler, wasn’t exactly heaping praise on the guy at the Tribune editorial meeting this week…
Morgenthaler said Blagojevich “has been good in some areas and bad in other areas.”
* Related…
* Task force strategizes about funding cuts
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Morning shorts
Thursday, Oct 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Jobless claims highest since 2001
* CN sweetens pot on rail deal, but not enough, critics say
* Tribune editorial: Cancel the cannon order
Civil wars drown even innocent bystanders in brotherly bloodshed. So before Chicago’s outer suburbs place orders for cannons, before inner-ring communities float a navy, let’s all chill and take a fresh look at Canadian National Railway Co.’s offer to buy the underused Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
* City Hall’s No. 1 charity
In just a few years, Mayor Daley’s wife has built one of the fastest-growing charities in Illinois.
The charity — After School Matters — has seen its revenues soar 243 percent from 2003 to 2006, from $5.3 million to $18.2 million, according to the latest reports it’s filed with the Internal Revenue Service. […]
The charity gets donations from city contractors who can no longer give money to Mayor Daley’s campaign fund as a result of the reforms he imposed three years ago in the wake of the Hired Truck scandal.
* City expected to ban driving while texting - Web surfers would be fined $75, too
Distracted driving has come a long way in the 95 years since the invention of windshield wipers prompted fears that drivers would be “hypnotized” by the back-and-forth motion.
* Planned Parenthood marks 1 year in Aurora amid controversy - Supporters, opponents of clinic claim successes; protests continue near its doors
* Alderman demands soundproofing near Midway
“This group has invested a lot of money. They’re gonna want to maximize that investment. It’s gonna be up to me to see how many flights they’re talking about. That’s why the soundproofing is so important. That’s very important to me and my consituents,” Zalewski said.
* Chicago cab fares to increase in 2009
Chicago taxicab fares will be going up in 2009 for the first time in four years, but not because cabbies are threatening to “paralyze the city” if they don’t get an increase, a top mayoral aide said Wednesday.
Consumer Services Commissioner Norma Reyes said she’s sympathetic to the United Taxidrivers Community Council’s request for a 16 percent fare increase.
* Rolling toward a fare standoff
* Lawmakers raise alarm on compensation plan changes
“Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a situation where recent history has forced us to be suspect of even the most mundane-looking items.”
* Electronics recycling bill becomes law
* Ex-Lake County chief judge must stand trial on DUI charge, court rules - Judge says police had cause to stop David Hall, who resigned after being arrested in April
* Libertyville Supervisor Moore to retire
* Aurora opens doors to foreign trade
* Bobby Skafish interview
* James Munger 1926-2008
James Munger ran the Garrick Restaurant in the Loop for 20 years and helped start an association that harnesses the buying power of hundreds of Greek restaurateurs in the Chicago area.
Mr. Munger, 82, died Tuesday, Sept. 30, of complications from leukemia at his Deerfield home, said his son Andrew.
* Tropicana Field: Orange-ja glad you’re not there?
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