Today’s quote
Thursday, Oct 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* After the Illinois Restaurant Association endorsed the gay marriage bill, Illinois Review went searching for a response…
David Smith of the Illinois Family Institute told Illinois Review the Chicago-based IMA [sic] doesn’t respresent all the restaurants in the state.
“The bill to redefine marriage would force restaurant owners to surrender their First Amendment right to freely exercise their faith in order to keep their businesses,” he noted.
“Restaurant owners in Illinois should be free to live, work, and operate a business according to their beliefs. It’s one of the principles on which this country was founded. People who oppose other people’s freedom of conscience really want to remove that freedom.”
Discuss.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Oct 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Whenever I do an online news search by name, I often get some odd results. Here’s one for “Tom Cross”…
Lancope’s Tom Cross to Present Poster on Malicious Botnet Behaviors at VizSec 2013
* And then there was this recent story entitled “Equifax Enhances Underwriting Decisions for Lenders and Businesses With Release of Advanced Decisioning Attributes”…
“Equifax Advanced Decisioning Attributes has been specifically designed to support our customers’ decisioning policies — both today and as they evolve over time. A clear and current perspective into consumer behavior is the foundation of consistent credit decisions that support key business strategies throughout the entire customer lifecycle,” said John Cullerton, Senior Vice President, Product Innovation and Management, Equifax.
* But my all-time favorite is the Quinn Emanuel trial lawyers website.
Partners include John B. Quinn, and Chip and Eric Emanuel.
Also, this guy…
Michael J. Madigan is an associate in Quinn Emanuel’s Los Angeles office.
That firm is like some sort of parallel Bizzarro World.
* The Question: If Pat Quinn, Rahm Emanuel and Michael J. Madigan formed a business together after they left office, what would it be?
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Fun with numbers
Thursday, Oct 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WICS…
Governor Pat Quinn has been critical of lawmakers of not getting the job done when it comes to pension reform. Some have been critical of Quinn of not being a leader on the issue saying sometimes, he’s not even around. So is the Governor holding up his end, at least working in Springfield when lawmakers are in session? We asked that to Republican State Senator Bill Brady.
“You walk in the door and see if the Governor’s car is there and it just doesn’t seem to be there,” Brady (R-Bloomington) said. […]
We filed a Freedom of Information Act request of the Governor’s private schedule. From August 2012 to July 2013, the House or Senate or both chambers were in session 76 days. Quinn was in Springfield 54 of those days. So, the Governor was in the Capital City 71% of the time lawmakers had a session day.
“For the legislature to think he’s not there 70 percent of the time, that speaks volumes about his absence, whether he is there or not,” Brady said.
The reality is, the General Assembly more often than not does nothing on the “out” day, which is usually a Thursday and the third day of a session week. Heck, I often don’t even bother to go into the Statehouse if they’re just gonna gavel and go on the out day.
Not to mention that Brady got his numbers upside down. Quinn’s in town 71 percent of the time, not absent 70 percent of the time.
So, would it help if Quinn was around more? That depends on if you think more legislative exposure to this governor would be a positive thing. Some might say it wouldn’t be.
* But there’s no doubt that the governor brought this story upon himself. He’s the one running all over the state cutting ribbons for projects approved by the General Assembly while simultaneously saying legislators aren’t doing their jobs so they shouldn’t get paid.
Maybe the next BIMP bill ought to include a requirement that the governor must pick up his pay check every day in Springfield during session days. No attendance, no money.
Just kidding.
Mostly.
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* Bruce Rauner’s running mate Evelyn Sanguinetti was asked in Quincy this week what made her qualified to be governor in case something happens to Rauner. Her response wasn’t covered locally, but here it is in full…
“First of all, I served at the Illinois Attorney General’s office advising many units of government. I later went into private practice doing a lot of the same, so my relationships with government and knowing the way government works has been sound throughout the years.
“Not only am I an attorney that has advised government, I am also an adjunct professor of law at the John Marshall Law School. And I can send my message to all laws. [NOTE: I heard “all laws” but some heard “all walks” or “all walks of life.”]
“When I became an adjunct professor, I also took on the role of running and winning and becoming a councilman in the city of Wheaton. Right now I am a councilman to 54,000 residents and I’ve enjoyed my job doing that.
“All of this makes me absolutely qualified. But more so than anything I am a mother and I am a working woman who is very concerned about a state that I love very much.
“And because of that I am fully qualified and ready to serve, now and over the next couple of years. Thank you.
* Here’s the video. Her remarks begin at the 13-minute mark…
* Despite that rather awkward answer, Rauner’s running mate pitch appears to have played well with Downstate local media. Peoria Journal Star…
Bruce Rauner’s credentials campaigning for governor as an outsider were bolstered Wednesday as he introduced his running mate: a first-term Wheaton City Council member who has never held higher office than that.
Evelyn Sanguinetti talked up her work, her family history - daughter of immigrants from Ecuador and Cuba who worked hard to give their progeny a better life - and her conservative credentials as the two stopped at Haddad’s Downtown restaurant on the second day of a statewide campaign swing.
“I’m sure a (4-foot, 11-inch) Latina with an Italian last name is not what the career politicians had expected,” she said. “… I’m not part of a Springfield club, I’m not an insider.”
Sanguinetti repeatedly cast the campaign as a battle between outsiders and insiders, and praised Rauner’s work over the years with education issues, including school reform, and said that dedication linked the two of them.
* The Southern Illinoisan…
Describing her as someone with drive to overcome obstacles, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner’s introduced Evelyn Sanguinetti as his running mate for lieutenant governor during a campaign stop Wednesday at Vault Café On The Square.
“Evelyn has been living the American dream that can inspire us,” Rauner said in his introduction of Sanguinetti, the daughter of a father who legally immigrated to the United States from Ecuador and her mother, who entered the country as a Cuban refugee.
Rauner, who is seeking the Republican nomination, said Sanguinetti’s strong points include a desire to turn around elementary school education in Illinois and create a booming economy throughout the state.
Playing off his campaign motto, Rauner said Sanguinetti joins him on a campaign mission to “shake it (Springfield) up like it never has been shaken up before.”
* WQAD…
“I show respect to very socially conservative voters, I show the respect to socially liberal voters and moderate centrist voters. I want to bring them all together and unite the party and I want to appeal to many Democrats who are frustrated with the lack of jobs and high taxes and the deteriorating schools and corruption in Springfield. Pat Quinn is failing because he’s not a leader,” Rauner said.
“Mike Madigan will be a challenge but Mike Madigan has never negotiated with someone like me,” he said.
Discuss.
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“They make trouble for themselves”
Thursday, Oct 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* As we discussed Tuesday, Gov. Quinn issued an administrative order the other day removing a box from state job applications which indicated whether or not the applicant had been convicted of a crime. Agency employers are free to ask about applicants’ past during job interviews and are still free to conduct background checks. The “ban the box” push has succeeded in getting this done in several other states.
* The News Gazette editorial board doesn’t like the idea…
Proponents argue that minorities suffer disproportionately under the mandatory disclosure rule because they are arrested and imprisoned in greater numbers than whites. That claim is supported by the numbers, but people who get in trouble with the law aren’t selected at random.
They make trouble for themselves, one consequence being that their brushes with the law make them less attractive as employees. [Emphasis added.]
* It’s no secret that the national drug war has focused on minorities. Even though whites have higher substance use/abuse rates, blacks are arrested way more often…
Nearly 20 percent of whites have used cocaine, compared with 10 percent of blacks and Latinos, according to a 2011 survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — the most recent data available.
Higher percentages of whites have also tried hallucinogens, marijuana, pain relievers like OxyContin, and stimulants like methamphetamine, according to the survey. Crack is more popular among blacks than whites, but not by much.
Still, blacks are arrested for drug possession more than three times as often as whites, according to a 2009 report from the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
Of the 225,242 people who were serving time in state prisons for drug offenses in 2011, blacks made up 45 percent and whites comprised just 30 percent, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Jamie Fellner, author of the Human Rights Watch report, offered an explanation for this discrepancy.
“The race issue isn’t just that the judge is going, ‘Oh, black man, I’m gonna sentence you higher,’” she said. “The police go into low-income minority neighborhoods and that’s where they make most of their drug arrests. If they arrest you, now you have a ‘prior,’ so if you plead or get arrested again, you’re gonna have a higher sentence. There’s a kind of cumulative effect.”
So, yeah, black people do the crimes, but they also do a disproportionate amount of the time when compared to whites.
* If this administrative order helps us unwind the drug war’s horrific personal costs, then it’s a good thing and the right thing to do.
Of course, if it’s about hiring some alderman’s nephew who can’t otherwise get past the initial application, then that’s another story.
* Back to the News Gazette editorial…
Unfortunately, politics has as much to do with Quinn’s action as the hiring process. Quinn’s order gives him another means of selling himself to black voters, who polls indicate are among his strongest supporters. He won’t need that voting bloc in the March 2014 primary election now that his main opponent, Chicago’s William Daley, has withdrawn from the race. But black voters could play a crucial role in Quinn’s fight to win re-election in November 2014, and it’s apparent that Quinn will use the vast powers of his office to win their support.
Good politics can be good government.
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It’s not good, but it’s not this bad
Thursday, Oct 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Reuters…
The would-be architects of a grand bargain to solve Illinois’ $100 billion pension crisis have not met as a group for three months, and the state’s last chance to strike a deal this year is slipping away.
They haven’t met as a group, but the ten-member committee has two five-member working groups which meet quite frequently, plus they’ve held lots of other smaller meetings and numerous conversations. The process isn’t quite as dysfunctional as that lede might seem.
* Check out the careful language here…
“I don’t think what the Democrats put on the table is enough to tell people it’s sustainable,” said committee member Senator Bill Brady, a Republican. Although Democrats control both chambers of the legislature, Republicans votes will be needed to offset some Democrat votes against it.
Brady didn’t say the reforms weren’t sustainable, he said they’re not enough to convince people they’re sustainable. The facts…
An actuarial review last month of the Democrats’ proposal found it would save nearly $140 billion over the next 30 years, reduce the state’s fiscal 2015 pension payment by nearly $1 billion and reduce current unfunded liability by $19.6 billion.
Cutting employee contributions by a percentage point and not throwing the far right a bone with a 401(k) option are major GOP sticking points. That might be a doable fix.
But others don’t like the fact that most of the savings don’t occur until the last decade of the pay-down. I’m not sure how they resolve that one.
* And as I’ve pointed out before, this could also be a real problem…
Three of the panel’s four Republican members are running for higher office, including Senator Brady, who announced a run for governor soon after being named to the panel. All of the other members but one face reelection in 2014.
* And speaking of Republican gubernatorial candidates…
During a short question-and-answer period, Rauner said Gov. Pat Quinn “has completely failed” in pension reform. He said freezing the current pension system would protect those entitled to the benefits. Reform would come from prosecuting corruption and moving into a more defined contribution plan, he said.
Prosecuting pension corruption?
* Related…
* Topinka Likes Pension Proposal
* Editorial: Cullerton has promising plan to fix pensions
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Major business group endorses gay marriage bill
Thursday, Oct 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a press release…
Saying that it is “good for business” in the state, the Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA) today announced its strong support for the freedom to marry and urged members of the Illinois House to act quickly in passing SB10, the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act. The Illinois General Assembly returns to Springfield in less than two weeks for its fall veto session.
“As owners of small and large businesses, our members know the importance of treating all customers equally,” said IRA president Sam Toia. “It’s the right thing to do — and it’s good for business.”
Toia pointed to a study released in March by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law showing that marriage equality would generate up to $103 million in spending in Illinois within the first three years of SB10’s passage. The boost to the wedding business and related industries such as hospitality would create 281 jobs, the study estimated.
Last month, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback came to Chicago to invite same-sex couples from Chicago to travel to Minneapolis to get legally married. “This means that instead of keeping business and dollars in Illinois, couples and their families will leave the state to hold their weddings, their receptions, and their rehearsal dinners,” Toia said. “As a businessman, I worry that Illinois is falling behind.”
* And a Chicago alderman is doing just that. Leaving Illinois to get married…
The alderman who represents much of Uptown on the Chicago City Council is headed to Washington state next month to tie the knot with his longtime partner, frustrated over a stalled gay marriage bill in the Illinois House.
“We are going to go elsewhere,” said Ald. James Cappleman, 46th. “It’s kind of sad that a Chicago alderman, an elected official, has to leave his own state. But we’ll keep fighting. There’s a lot of people who want to get married.”
Cappleman and Richard Thale, who met in church, have been together for 22 years. The plan to get married Nov. 22, surrounded by relatives who live out West. The couple already have a civil union in Illinois.
* Meanwhile, the pro gay marriage forces are highlight a “couple of the week” in the run-up to veto session. From a press release…
The series kicks off with Lee Edwards and Brenda Lee, a South Shore couple who first met 23 years ago. In spite of their love and long-term commitment, their home state continues to deny them the freedom to marry.
“We just wish to continue living together in our beautiful, supportive relationship,” said Edwards. “We are waiting for the day that Illinois realizes that our love is important, too.”
Edwards and Lee met at a friend’s barbecue while enjoying a sunny day in Chicago. Over the years, they have spent much time together at their church and are involved in local ministries.
The video…
* On the other side of the equation, the Illinois Family Institute is cranking up the heat in advance of the veto session…
I am so excited to see how our grassroots efforts are making a difference. You made it possible for us to sell out the IFI Fall Banquet that we held recently with Dr. Benjamin Carson. Over 1,100 Illinoisans turned out to show their support for Christian values. This event reminded me that, despite what media pundits want us to believe, protecting life, family, and freedom is a value shared by many, many citizens. […]
The push for same-sex “marriage” is meant to divide people, and it is, of course, a negative. Secular progressives know that if they push this negative hard enough it will eventually appear to be a positive. They hate the God of Christianity and the Bible.
We must resist this scheme. As Christians, it is our duty. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, let’s make sure marriage revisionists go no further in advancing their effort to pervert the legal definition of marriage.
You can help right now by contacting your legislator:
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From the mailbag
Thursday, Oct 10, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I received an e-mail from John Tillman in response to my post yesterday about the Illinois Policy Institute’s lobbying practice…
Rich,
I’ve only done a cursory look so far but as far as I can tell this resolution from the state AFL-CIO on Obamacare hasn’t been released to the public yet….if it has we may have missed it. Where did you see it? Up to now it isn’t on their website unless I’ve missed it, and it doesn’t turn up on Google searches either. Perhaps they sent it to you directly?
How did Abdon make his pitch to you for this hit job and was he the only one?
Nevertheless, I don’t think it disproves Paul’s point.
And we are in a great win-win now - when you criticize us, we hear about it and it increases our fundraising. When you ignore us people notice and it has the same effect. And when you compliment us it still has the same effect.
Oh, and about that lobbying, we are required to register as lobbyists by IL law, which has a highly narrow definition of what a lobbyist is though you somehow make that sound bad. I’ve always said every citizen and business has a right to lobby. I proudly wear the label of a lobbyist for free enterprise, fiscal sanity and the Founding Principles. You imply there is something wrong with being an advocate but you advocate every day. Ironic.
By the way, shall I start saying “journalist” Rich Miller every time I refer to you? LOL.
Next time you have to buy the beer.
John
–
John Tillman
CEO
Illinois Policy Institute
* He added a postscript a while later…
As you certainly know, it can be tough to prove a negative, but I just fed the first clause into Google, and it spit back two entries. Both were Cap Fax.
So where did you receive this or find it? And is the way you put this post together proper “journalistic” practice?
Methinks you are a lobbyist with an agenda. At least we are transparent about ours. Our output reflects it every day and is there for anyone of fair mind to judge.
As I explained to him, I received a copy of the AFL-CIO’s resolution on Tuesday afternoon from a labor union.
As to the stuff about Abdon, my response was unprintable. I don’t play that way.
Also, I never implied there was anything wrong with being a lobbyist. Heck, most of my subscribers are lobbyists. Lobbying is a constitutional right, and lobbyists way too often get a bad rap.
But if you run a lobbying outfit, why masquerade as a journalistic outfit? Who’s hiding what?
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