Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Sunday, Feb 13, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

There are better poets than Bob Dylan, but few of them have written better love songs.

Valentine’s Day seemed a good time to touch on a small handful of highlights, especially for those of you who haven’t really listened.

I and I

Been so long since a strange woman has slept in my bed.
Look how sweet she sleeps, how free must be her dreams.
In another lifetime she must have owned the world,
or been faithfully wed
To some righteous king who wrote psalms beside moonlit streams.

Sara

How did I meet you? I don’t know.
A messenger sent me in a tropical storm.
You were there in the winter, moonlight on the snow
And on Lily Pond Lane when the weather was warm.

Sara, oh Sara,
Scorpio Sphinx in a calico dress,
Sara, Sara,
You must forgive me my unworthiness.

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

My love she speaks like silence,
Without ideals or violence,
She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful,
Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can’t buy her.

1 Comment

Sunday column roundup

Sunday, Feb 13, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

My newspaper column this week deals with Gov. Blagojevich and his relationship with state contractors (see this for more.)

The Bloomington Pantagraph finally puts Kurt Erickson’s column online, and it’s a doozy.

People are supposed to laugh at clowns. That’s why clowns exist.

Clowns put red bulbs on their noses and shoot water out of flowers into the unsuspecting faces as their audiences.

“Ha, ha,” we all say. What a delightfully silly diversion.

But what happens when the clown doesn’t deliver?

The reference is to Governor Blagojevich. Ouch.

Rep. Larry McKeon has an Op-Ed in today’s Sun-Times that hauls Andrea Barthwell, former deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, over the coals for lying about his medical marijuana legislation.

Doug Finke takes a few whacks at the guv for missing a public event in Decatur and paying off an Illinois trucking company to stay here. He also knocks the CrossBloggers for listing a bunch of white people in its “Today in Black Rock History” series.

John Patterson over at the Daily Herald has a worthwhile and readable piece about pension funding.

The Southtown’s Kristen McQueary has a light piece today about Lincoln’s home and the Jesse Jackson duo, senior and junior.

Greg Hinz at Crain’s has an amusing and illuminating column about the proposals of two legislative “mushrooms.”

When it comes to power and glory, the Illinois General Assembly has two distinct castes: the Four Tops and the mushrooms.

The tops, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, determine what happens, when it happens and who gets to do it. The other 173 elected legislators â€” the mushrooms â€” get to labor in the dark like their namesake fungi, surviving on whatever compost falls from above.

Even mushrooms can grow good ideas, however. Two of the best so far this year concern what to do about payday lenders and the zillion-percent interest they charge customers, and how to drag local government into the Internet era.

And, finally, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher has an interesting piece today about Alan Keyes and his daughter Maya.

9 Comments

Weird

Sunday, Feb 13, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

This post was removed because I didn’t read the linked story correctly. Oops.

Comments Off

Shameless plug

Saturday, Feb 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

My brother Darian has a side business that sells collecting supplies by the case. So if you have a lot of old photos, postcards, magazines, sports cards, etc. that you want to preserve and store, he’s the go-to guy for big discounts.

2 Comments

Jacobs opinion

Saturday, Feb 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

A hot and cold editorial on newly appointed state Sen. Mike Jacobs (who replaced his father, longtime state Sen. Denny Jacobs) from today’s Quad City Times:

Mike Jacobs brings that family experience and more. He has worked side-by-side in Springfield with his father, witnessing first-hand the creation of the Illinois gambling industry Denny Jacobs can rightfully take credit for. […]

At age 44, Mike Jacobs has the genes, education and experience to be an excellent state senator. He has every credential his father ever had, save one.

Mike Jacobs never has been elected to anything. […]

If Mike Jacobs was a careful student, he will be well prepared with the legislative and street smarts handed down through his family.

But he gets this job without ever passing the only test required for public office: An election.

Passing voter approval is infinitely harder than winning family approval.

Voters get their chance when the seat comes up in 2006. We wish theyâ€™d have been given first crack at this fine candidate.

14 Comments

Hyde to make decision by spring

Saturday, Feb 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

From today’s Daily Herald:

Congressman Henry Hyde said Thursday he’ll decide whether to seek a 17th term by spring, won’t resign in mid-term and doesn’t plan to endorse a successor if he retires. […]

There’s no shortage of Republicans expressing interest in succeeding Hyde. State Sens. Peter Roskam of Wheaton, Dan Cronin of Elmhurst and Carole Pankau of Bloomingdale and Mayors Craig Johnson of Elk Grove Village and Tom Marcucci of Elmhurst are on the list. Another potential candidate would be state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, who recently moved out of the district to Elgin’s west side and is also weighing a governor run.

3 Comments

Racism

Saturday, Feb 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

What the heck is going on in Joliet? Story number one, from today’s Joliet Herald News:

JOLIET â€” City Councilman Alex Ledesma was planning to ride out to a vacant lot on North Broadway on Friday afternoon to rip down yet another sign disparaging Mexicans.

The crude spray-painted sign, which reads, “No More Mexicans,” had been posted on an empty lot that the city owns north of Industry Avenue.

“I’m going over there to tear it down,” Ledesma said. “I’ll do it every time I see one.”

In November, Ledesma went to the same lot to tear down a sign spray-painted with the words: “Hey Mexicans. Go back to Mexico. You’re not wanted here.”

He took the sign to the police department and filed a report. He said he planned to do the same with the new sign.

Story number two, from the same paper, on the same day:

JOLIET â€” A racist flier posted in front of a home for sale in the Reedswood neighborhood has sparked a police investigation.

The flier warned, “If you can’t hang with the Klan, stay off the porch,” and, “Reedswood stays white.” The flier was placed on a for-sale sign at a house on Park Drive in Reedswood and was discovered shortly after 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Realtor selling the property, contacted Friday, said he knows nothing about the flier that someone posted on his sign.

A young couple living nearby said they were unaware of the racist flier, but said they had seen signs of hate-mongering in the neighborhood in recent months.

A pamphlet regarding minority crimes perpetrated against whites was left on the windshield of their car while it was parked in their driveway in the fall. Around Christmastime, the couple, who asked to remain anonymous, spotted a man posting racist signs on utility poles.

Reedswood is the home of a vocal white power advocate, Brian Moudry of the Creativity Movement, formerly known as the World Church of the Creator. Moudry said he was not responsible for the flier on the for-sale sign.

“I don’t know anything about that,” he said. “That sounds like Klan activity to me.”

Moudry said he has associated with Ku Klux Klansmen in the state, but knows of none in Will County. Still, he conceded, “They could be anywhere. They’re the invisible empire.”

Maybe these guys can throw some light on the subject.

1 Comment

« NEWER POSTS