Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Thursday, Dec 22, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Bob…

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen
Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton

You’re running out of time to share your favorite Christmas songs. Have at it, campers.

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*** UPDATED X4 - No Apology *** Cardinal George compares gay liberation movement to KKK

Thursday, Dec 22, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

[Bumped up for visibility.]

* Wednesday, 9:21 pm - Cardinal Francis George went way overboard when talking to Mike Flannery and Dane Placko at Fox 32 Wednesday. During taping for the Fox Chicago Sunday program, George said he backed a North Side pastor who objects to the new route of next year’s Gay Pride Parade. The route would go right past the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church on a Sunday morning, starting at 10 o’clock, which the local pastor says would make it difficult if not impossible to attend mass. The parade drew something like 750,000 spectators this year.

Anyway, on to the interview, the transcript of which was provided by Fox Chicago…

Mike Flannery, Fox Chicago News Political Editor: The Gay Pride Parade is going to go right by there, at least it is scheduled to. What’s your view? The pastor there is upset by that.

Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago: Well, I go with the pastor. I mean, he’s telling us that they won’t be able to have Church services on Sunday, if that’s the case.

You know, you don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism. So, I think if that’s what’s happening, and I don’t know that it is, but I would respect the local pastor’s, you know, position on that. Then I think that’s a matter of concern for all of us.

Dane S. Placko, Fox Chicago News: That’s a little strong analogy, isn’t it? Ku Klux Klan?

Cardinal George: It is. But you take a look at the rhetoric.

Placko: What rhetoric?

Cardinal George: The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan, the rhetoric of some in the Gay Liberation. Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church.

Oof.

* React…

Openly gay State Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), whose district includes the Gay Pride parade route, criticized the Cardinal’s “unfortunate choice of words.” Harris predicted “it probably will provoke other unfortunate words” from some gay activists.

* And the backlash…

In a press release, LGBT Catholic organization Rainbow Sash Movement sounded off against the cardinal’s comments.

“Cardinal George wants to promote a doubled standard when it comes to the Gay Pride Parade,” the statement read. “One only has the look at the Chicago Marathon, and negative impact that race has on parishes such as Assumption Parish, St. Joseph’s Parish, Immaculate Conception Parish and St. Michael’s Parish just to name a few.”

More…

Anthony Martinez, executive director of The Civil Rights Agenda, said he understands that the parade takes place on Sunday, a holy day for Catholic churches, but that there are several churches along the parade route and they aren’t objecting to it. Some are even planning to participate in the parade, he added.

“It seems to me that the cardinal is lashing out at the LBGT community over past matters and legislation that have now been resolved,” Martinez said, referring to the civil unions bill and the Church’s loss of state foster home and adoption contracts.

* The unfortunate irony…

Our Lady of Mount Carmel hosts the Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach, and [Father Thomas Srenn of Mount Carmel] said that reservations about the event had nothing to do with the content of the parade.

Before Cardinal George made his KKK remarks, he told Fox Chicago that he supports the Catholic Gay & Lesbian organization based at Mt Carmel and has led the group’s liturgy.

*** UPDATE 1 - 10:15 pm *** Wow. Talk about your irony. This just in…

Organizers with Chicago’s annual gay pride parade have agreed to a later start time after one of Chicago’s oldest Roman Catholic churches objected to a newly-proposed route they claimed would block access to Sunday Masses.

I seriously doubt the KKK would be so accommodating.

*** UPDATE 2 - 10:34 pm *** Video…

*** UPDATE 3 - Thursday, 1:30 pm *** So far, none of the three Chicago-area newspapers has picked up this story. The Associated Press has moved two stories about Cardinal George since last night, but neither mentioned the KKK comment.

*** UPDATE 4 ***. I’m out of the office and posting via iPhone, but the Tribune finally posted a story.

…Adding… He’s not backing down. Tribune story…

“Whether it was the best choice of analogy I don’t know. Taken out of context the meaning can be misinterpreted,” an archdiocesan spokeswoman said. “I would suggest people read the whole interview.”

AP story is here.

62 Comments

How about ending a real war?

Wednesday, Dec 21, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A local congressman is complaining that he can’t use taxpayer funds to say “Merry Christmas” in his official mailers…

Rep. Joe Walsh, an Illinois Republican, and Rep. Mike Ross, an Arkansas Democrat, are trying to overturn a rule that forbids the use of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Hanukkah” in taxpayer-funded congressional correspondence.

Congressional rules state that mail containing holiday greetings cannot be “franked” — Hill lingo for receiving taxpayer reimbursement for postage — according to a memo from the “Franking Commission Staff” obtained by The Washington Examiner.

And people wonder why nothing ever gets done in DC.

The House has banned the phrase since 1974, but Senators can apparently use it in their official mail, so this shouldn’t be a big deal. But leave it to Walsh to scream bloody murder about a trivial matter. Instead of going all-in on the alleged War on Christmas, how about using all that boundless energy to end the all too real, disastrous, un-American, budget-busting and morally bankrupt War on Drugs? Now, that would be something to brag about…

War is over if you want it

And before he flips his lid yet again, maybe Walsh should ask Franking Commission Chairman Aaron Schock, a fellow Illinois Republican, why he hates Christmas so much. Just kidding, of course. Schock apparently hates Hanukkah as well. OK, kidding again. It’s not Schock’s fault. The rule goes way back to 1974. Whatever. It’s a joke. Merry, um, holidays, Aaron. Hope it’s a great one.

* Meanwhile, Rep. Jack Franks is at it again…

A bill inspired by U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh’s child support issues would forbid people owing more than $10,000 in back child support from running for office in Illinois.

House Bill 3932, filed Tuesday by state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, would require statements of candidacy to include a statement that the person running for office is not delinquent by $10,000 or more.

Walsh, a tea party Republican freshman representing the 8th Congressional District, is facing allegations in court by his ex-wife that he owes her more than $100,000 in back child support. Walsh has not been found delinquent or in contempt of court in the ongoing dispute.

While Franks said Walsh, R-McHenry, was his inspiration for the bill, he wants to make sure that people holding office are taking care of their family responsibilities.

“I think it’s important for people to take care of their families first, and preclude people from public office if they fail to take care of their primary obligations,” Franks said. “Nothing is more important than taking care of your family.”

* I told subscribers about this odd development yesterday morning and again today. The group simply started its recruitment drive way too late…

With the congressional candidate filing period to begin Friday in Illinois, another potential challenger to U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, has said no.

Sen. Sam McCann, R-Carlinville, said Tuesday he would not oppose Johnson in the newly created 13th Congressional District that runs from Champaign-Urbana south to the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis.

He said he was contacted by a group last week that said their polling indicated he had the best chance of any other area Republican to unseat Johnson.

“There was no proactivity on my part, in any way, shape or form. The phone calls that came to me late last week came totally out of the blue,” said McCann, who was elected to the state Senate last year. “I had not sat back and contemplated it, up to that time, at all. These gentleman called me and told me about the polling.

* And congrats to Congressman Kinzinger...

One of Washington’s most eligible bachelors is taking himself off the market.

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Manteno, 33, said this morning that his girlfriend of more than a year, Riki Meyers, 31, is now his fiancée.
“I haven’t taken the plunge yet,” he said. “I’ve taken the pre-plunge.”

Meyers, a captain in the Air Force, is currently stationed in Charleston, S.C., but is scheduled to relocate to the Washington area sometime in February, Kinzinger said.

* Other stuff…

* U.S. Rep. Bob Dold tries to explain his tax vote

* Why Dorothy Brown Wants Another Term as Circuit Court Clerk

* Santa’s ready with lots of gifts for good — and bad — Chicago pols

* VIDEO: Christmas at the Illinois Governor’s Mansion

28 Comments

Lunchtime Christmas Video: Louis Armstrong

Wednesday, Dec 21, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Go, cat, go with that Cool Yule…

So dig, Santa comes on big

Feel free to tell us about your favorite Christmas/holiday tunes in comments, and don’t forget to link to the videos if you can.

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Morning Christmas Video: Happy Christmas from the Family

Wednesday, Dec 21, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* My favorite Christmas song is about how love overcomes holiday family chaos…

He threw a breaker and the lights came on
And we sang Silent Night, O’ Silent Night, O’ Holy Night

9 Comments

Protected: *** UPDATED x1 *** SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Supplement to today’s edition and a scam alert

Wednesday, Dec 21, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Happy birthday, Gov. Quinn!

Friday, Dec 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I can’t believe I forgot that Gov. Pat Quinn’s 63rd birthday is today. Gov. Quinn is without a doubt the state’s greatest country music fan and his favorite artist is George Strait, a true country music legend. I’m not a big Strait expert, but I really love this tune…

He was sitting there beside me
Throwing doubles down

Happy birthday, Pat. Many more to come.

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Reader comments closed for the weekend

Friday, Dec 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Did you ever have a moment when you heard a song and just knew that your life as you understood it was over? When you realized that you had suddenly and irrevocably changed and there wasn’t anything that anybody could ever do about it? When you had to admit that you had crossed some sort of other-worldly threshold that you didn’t understand, but you knew right down to your marrow that you could never go back to being the way you were just a few minutes before? When you raised up your head and asked “Is this where it is?” Well, this is the song that did it for me. Turn it all the way up…

Way down by the Methane Sea

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Fun stuff

Friday, Dec 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The other day, I asked you to help my former intern Paul Richardson win an online contest for one of the blogs that his fledgling, but growing company manages. What I didn’t know was that the contest was sponsored by LexisNexis. So, it was the big time. Anyway he won. And it wasn’t even close. From an e-mail…

Hey Rich-

I can officially send you a huge Thank You, because I just received this….

Congratulations !! The Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog was chosen by our voters as the LexisNexis Top Tort Law Blog of 2011! Your site received outstanding support from your viewers, garnering more than 40% of the votes. It must be gratifying to know that all your hard work on the site is appreciated by so many. We will post the results on our Litigation Resource Community later today once all of the participants have been notified of their status.

In a 25 person race, I think 40% is considered a landslide. Obviously the CapFaxers support made it happen. You’re the best.

- Paul

Oh, yeah.

* From the LexisNexis Litigation Blog…

Your votes have been counted and the results are in for the LexisNexis Top 25 Tort Law Blogs of 2011. Congratulations to the Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog, which received the most votes for Top Tort Law Blog for 2011 on the LexisNexis Litigation Resource Community!

We were pleased about the volume of voting and the outstanding list of nominees in this year’s Top Blogs campaign. Our Top 25 Tort Law Blogs contain a wealth of valuable information for Tort Law practitioners. All nominees and those selected for the Top 25 can be proud of the important content, expert analysis and tips these blogs provide to Tort Law attorneys.

And we can all be proud of Paul.

* My mom was apparently rummaging around and found a confirmation letter from WGN TV. Back in 1972, when their five children ranged in age from ten down to a newborn, my parents applied for tickets to attend Bozo’s Circus. The station eventually sent my parents a letter saying we had 8 tickets for the November 8, 1979 show - seven years hence.

We were living in Germany by 1979, so we didn’t go. Here’s the letter. Click the pic for a larger version…

Seven years was the standard waiting period for Bozo tix back in the day. Often, parents would request the tickets just after their kids were born. Every schoolmate of mine desperately wanted to go to that show and my brothers and I were the envy of the schoolyard when we got our confirmation.

Just about everybody we knew back then sent in postcards to enter ourselves for the Grand Prize Game, and my brother Denny’s postcard was picked out of the Bozo Drum. The kid who played for him only made it to Bucket Number Two, but Denny was still a hometown celebrity after that.

* Speaking of WGN TV and my mom, remember Ray Rayner? Ray had a great show when I was a kid (actually, he had two shows a day at one point, one, an after-school show, where he was supposedly an astronaut circling the globe). One of the things he’d do on his morning show was make crafts. The staff would make a finished product, and then he’d demonstrate to his viewers how to make that particular project in real time. Ray’s versions were never as good as the staff version, but it was fun to watch him stumble his way through.

My mom was really into crafts, and still is. When I was a kid, we’d all sit at the table and make whatever craft Mom had come up with, often inspired by Ray Rayner. It was a lot of fun, and we all had a great time laughing at our occasional ineptitude. That’s my mom in a nutshell. She taught us how to laugh at ourselves and not take things too seriously, while still pushing us hard to excel and to broaden ourselves with music, sports and reading.

I still have one of those crafts I made. It’s a Christmas Tree topper that’s supposed to be an angel. It doesn’t really look like an angel, but I thought it was cool back then and I’ve often topped my trees with it.

* I thought about Ray Rayner when Mom posted a link on her Facebook page. It was an article about how to make homemade snow globes. What a great Christmas project for the kids…

Snow globes are magical, whimsical, and fun. And they’re super easy to make at home.

The first thing you need are jars, with nice snug lids. Check out your fridge; I grabbed an almost empty bottle of peperoncini peppers (that I have been using on Greek Salads and Greek Tacos, you’d think I was the pregnant one with the cravings I have for those. I am most definitely not.) I also had a bottle of capers that I finally finished by making one last batch of this Grown Up Dipping Sauce (another obsession, you guys need to all try that one), and a big jar from marinara that we used for dipping Pizza Rolls. Marinated artichoke heart jars work really great for these, as do little teeny tiny baby food jars. Really any size jar works; you just have to find things to fit inside of them.

* By the way, this is from Ray Rayner’s final show…

34 Comments

The good, the bad and the ugly

Friday, Dec 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Chicago Tonight had a great story last night on Illinois’ incredibly stupid felony penalty for recording a police officer in public…

* Speaking of quality stuff, the Tribune has a fascinating story today about pension funding. According to the article, pension laws have been revised “nearly 700 times” since 2003. Many of those revisions was due to duplication because of the large number of pension funds and regulations here. But check this out…

Not all revisions captured in the review by the Tribune and WGN-TV had a fiscal impact, but the legislative record shows that more than half of the pension laws passed during the last eight years came without any fiscal analysis. [Emphasis added.]

One particularly egregious example of the lack of fiscal analysis was George Ryan’s early retirement program…

The original plan targeted up to 7,000 state employees and had a relatively modest price tag of about $550 million. But as Ryan and legislative leaders gathered around the negotiating table to finalize the incentive, a variety of perks were thrown in. The cost estimates, meanwhile, were not updated in time for legislators to weigh the full impact of the program. […]

In the end, more than 11,000 state employees took advantage of the lucrative deal, which caused the immediate cost of the incentive to climb to $2.3 billion, a fourfold increase from the original cost estimate.

When lawmakers realized how expensive the incentive turned out to be, they asked the staff of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability for options. The commission offered various scenarios to pay down the debt over time, but the Legislature opted for the most costly — stretching out payments over 40 years.

* And check out this sidebar…

All it took for former state Rep. Robert Molaro to nearly double his public pension was spending one month as an aide to Ald. Ed Burke, the powerful chairman of the Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee.

Among Molaro’s duties: Write a 19-page white paper about Chicago’s ailing pension funds. For his services, the former lawmaker was paid $12,000.

That paycheck sent his pension soaring, as many lawmakers’ benefits are based on 85 percent of their final pay on the last day of service. When Molaro officially retired on Jan. 1, 2009, his pensionable salary would be calculated at $144,000 — the amount he would have earned had he worked for Burke for a full year.

Oy.

* Not all “hit pieces” are created equal, but this one in the Reader is close to a classic. It’s about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “New Chicago Committee” and includes this priceless paragraph about a $15,000 contributor...

I wondered why Southern Wine & Spirits was keen on reforming Chicago, but my calls to the company’s corporate office in Miami weren’t returned. In 2008 the beverage distributor gave $20,000 to the governor committed to reforming Illinois, Rod Blagojevich.

If you don’t return a reporter’s calls, you’re in danger of getting broadsided. But that company has contributed to tons of candidates over the years, so pairing Emanuel up with Blagojevich is grossly unfair and totally unwarranted and really shows what sort of “story” this is.

* Chicago Magazine ran a pretty good piece about gangs and Chicago politics this month. The piece mentioned legislators, but offered up no names or evidence. A sidebar story tried to make the connection between legislators and gangbangers by listing the Chicago legislators with the most requests for Department of Corrections prisoner transfers.

The two topics aren’t necessarily connected, but Chicago Magazine never makes that clear. Legislators are often asked by families to help them get family members transferred closer to home. It’s been common practice for decades, if not centuries. The top requester was Sen. William Delgado. And here’s the one gangbanger whom Chicago Magazine highlighted…

RONNIE “MAD DOG” CARRASQUILLO, 53, a founder of the Logan Square–based Imperial Gangsters, fatally shot a Chicago police officer in 1976 and was sentenced to 200 to 600 years. In June 2008, Delgado requested that Carrasquillo be transferred from Hill Correctional Center to Dixon, a lower-security facility closer to Chicago. The transfer was denied.

The guy has been in prison since Gerald Ford was president and this transfer request is portrayed as evidence that Delgado is somehow in league with gangsters? Pretty thin soup.

…Adding… Let’s do a roundup…

* Quinn to meet with Cardinal George

* Brown: Social Security offset to unemployment insurance unfair to elderly

* Weis weighs in on tickets for marijuana possession

* If Charter Schools Don’t Perform That Well, Why Build More?

* Editorial: Time to put the brakes on driving while calling

* Task force offers options to publicly finance campaigns

* Quinn pleased with judges’ decision on Illinois’ new congressional map

* Percentages of Women in State Legislatures

* Country Club Hills council to review newsletter

* Congressman Kinzinger announces run in 16th

* Ex-Rep. Melissa Bean Backing Businessman Versus Robert Dold

31 Comments

Spin that doesn’t quite satisfy

Friday, Dec 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The key to political spin is that it has to either be believable enough for most normal people to buy into, or have enough red meat that the base can use it at the water cooler. Pat Brady’s react to yesterday’s unanimous judicial decision to approve the Democrats’ congressional map does neither…

Reacting to the decision of the court last night, State GOP Chairman Pat Brady told reporters that “the serious issues in the case regarding Latino disenfranchisement were thrown by the wayside.”

Sorry, but I don’t see this resonating with either the public at large or the base. It’s no secret that preventing “Latino disenfranchisement” has not exactly been all that high on the GOP’s priority list over the past few years. And I highly doubt you’ll see too many hardcore Republicans arguing that their party wants to enfranchise as many Latinos as possible.

Just sayin…

* Senate President John Cullerton might also want to rethink his words a bit. Asked by a reporter after the Senate passed the corporate tax cut bill “Who’s the next in line, and how do you answer this idea that everybody is going to want to get in line…” Cullerton interrupted and responded thusly…

Click to download

“They can get in line and I guess they need to pass a bill in Springfield,” is probably not the way to go. This is precisely the argument against doing these sorts of tax breaks. The connected get the breaks, the non-connected pay the full rate.

* Talk about an understatement. The Pew Center on the States released its ratings on state election board websites this week. From the summary for Illinois…

(U)sers could have a challenging time finding the content they seek, accounting for a lower overall score.

More precisely, the Board’s front page is a massive jumble of scattered information which is so disorganized that it almost seems designed to confuse. It brings to mind this brief exchange between Capt. Willard and Col. Kurtz…

I don’t see any method, either. Two of the Pew Center’s recommendations…

Use informational labels to guide users to content from the home page, rather than vague filters such as “Top Documents” and “Top Pages.” […]

Organize information logically, so that users do not have to jump around the website or visit multiple pages to find related content.

Yes, do that, please. And soon. The Board of Elections’ site has always been a bizarre mess. It’s time they got a real developer over there.

* And, finally…

Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd was locked up in federal custody Thursday as his stunned teammates learned he had been charged with trying to set up a drug-dealing network following his arrest with more than a pound of cocaine.

U.S. Magistrate Young Kim ordered Hurd held until at least Friday while prosecutors and defense attorneys work out bond details before he is sent to Texas to face charges.

The handcuffed Hurd declined to comment on the charges. Asked before the hearing if he was still a member of the Bears, he said: “As far as I know.” He shook his head when asked if he had talked to anyone on the team.

“Sam intends to fight these charges, and we intend to defend him fully,” said high-profile defense attorney David Kenner, one of Hurd’s lawyers. “We have complete confidence in him.”

Words won’t save Hurd now.

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