Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Thursday, Dec 9, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

As I always say, it never hurts to be related to geniuses.

My brothers Darian and Doug helped me fix my javascript today. Darian came up with the final fix. Now, when you click on a link in the pulldown menus at right, the page pops up so you don’t have to keep coming back to the blog to find more links. The main blog page should also load a lot faster now.

Thanks to both brothers for taking time out of their busy days. And thanks to my mom and dad for having the foresight to produce several smart offspring.

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Paper owned by National Chamber

Thursday, Dec 9, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Washington Post busts the Madison County Record.

The Madison County Record, an Illinois weekly newspaper launched in September that bills itself as the county’s legal journal, reports on one subject: the state courts in southern Illinois. A recent front page carried an assortment of stories about lawsuits against businesses. […]

Nowhere was it reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce created the Record as a weapon in its multimillion-dollar campaign against lawyers who file those kinds of suits.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce created the Madison County Record.

“We wanted to educate [the people] that their county is the laughingstock of the country” because of the large number of lawsuits filed there, said Stanton D. Anderson, chief legal officer for the chamber, which is a part owner of the Record. […]

Through a common acquaintance, Anderson met Brian Timpone, 32, co-owner of a small chain of community newspapers in Illinois. Over the summer, Timpone agreed to become the Record’s publisher with the chamber as his silent benefactor. The chamber has poured about $200,000 into the 6,000-circulation broadsheet and expects to invest more, Anderson said.

The chamber hopes the Record’s influence will spread beyond Madison County and help push tort reform nationally. Anderson distributes the Record to interested companies and business trade associations. Timpone sells subscriptions to law firms and companies across the nation — some of which have cases pending in the county.

$200,000 and the Chamber is only part-owner? Not a bad gig if you can get it. My hat’s off to Timpone

Seriously, I remember the days when the Chicago Federation of Labor owned a popular music station, WCFL. But the Chicago Fed never hid the fact that it owned “Super CFL.” Its slogan, “The Voice of Labor,” was repeated throughout the day and they did some labor-oriented programming (mostly at times when nobody was listening).

Timpone said the chamber doesn’t dictate the paper’s news content and he defends the stories he runs as genuine news. He said he chose not to divulge the Record’s connection to the chamber in print because “I was afraid we’d be prejudged. I thought, ‘Let people judge us by our actions.’

Actually, the paper isn’t too bad, although its bias is pretty clear in editorial comments and story choices.

Interestingly enough, the Post’s article hasn’t been picked up by any papers in Illinois that I could find , although Reason has an Op-Ed up.

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Chambers scores again

Thursday, Dec 9, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Rockford Register-Star’s state political reporter Aaron Chambers is also a big music fan, and he scored an interview with BB King not long ago:

Fear is not among the emotions that come to mind when B.B. King, the undisputed King of the Blues, takes the stage. But that’s just what the King said he feels.

“I’m scared when I first get out there.”

Scared of what?

“I don’t know,” he said.

“But I think some people call it stage fright. If you haven’t been married, you won’t understand. But to me, it’s like meeting your in-laws for the first time. … And you say, ‘Oh God, I hope they approve of me. And I hope I can be myself.’

“After I go on stage, after a couple of tunes, it’s like I’m the No. 1 quarterback. I’m throwing the right plays. I start feeling like I’m in control.”

It also turns out that BB is an MP3 guy:

King, relaxing in his cabin beside his laptop computer and his digital audio player, recounted his favorite artists: Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhart and T-Bone Walker.

“I was myself. I heard many other people, wished I could play like ‘em, wanted to. But couldn’t. I could never do some of the things,” he said.

“Those five people I got on my MP3 right here, right now, that I listen to. And I still can’t play like ‘em. So I had to go on doing the things the way that I felt that I could do.”

Forget those washed-up hacks U2, IPod should sell a BB King edition.

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Con-Con 2008?

Thursday, Dec 9, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Some people who think we need a state Constitutional Convention in 2008 have set up a Yahoo! Group. The last attempt at holding a Con-Con was blocked at the polls by a consortium of business and labor groups.

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He doesn’t want to know the answer

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I can’t resist a pleading e-mail.

From: #######
Date: December 8, 2004 2:50:28 PM CST
To: capitolfax@###.com
Subject: C’mon Rich

What do I got to do to get on the Capital Fax Blog Ring of Fame?

http://makesmeralph.typepad.com

Done.

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New Stuff

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’ve added some more links to the right side of the blog.

Two blog searches are now available, by topic. One for Feedster and the other for BlogDigger

Also, just about all the links from my media page have now been added to the blog. Links to media opinion, Chicago, suburban and downstate newspapers and TV stations have all been brought over to the blog.

I’m looking for a better pull-down menu. What I’d like to do is have the page you select pop up, rather than take you away from the blog. Any suggestions out there?

I also added a link to the Daily Herald’s political writer Eric Krol who does an analysis piece every Friday.

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BlogDigger

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I found a very cool Internet tool via the always rockin’ BoingBoing.

BlogDigger is a search engine for RSS and Atom feeds from blogs and other websites that update via the text feeds. My blog has one here, for instance.

You can even search media feeds from PodCasts (and a good explanation about how to set that up can be found here).

The idea is to narrow the search universe. Google is great, but it often produces way more results than you want. With BlogDigger, you can pare that search down.

For instance, I typed “Blagojevich” into the RSS search and found several snarky posts about the governor on blogs I’d never heard of.

From Catallarchy comes this:

Illinois Governor Launching Program to Reimport Windows

Despite opposition from Microsoft, Illinois will soon become the nationâ€™s first government to help residents buy cheaper software not only from India but from Russia and Malaysia as well.

Microsoft has forcefully objected to efforts to formalize software purchases from India and elsewhere, saying it cannot vouch for the quality of its software once it leaves the country. In addition, according to a Microsoft spokesperson, if everyone purchased the low cost version of Windows, they would not be able to pay their huge R&D costs.

â€œWe have taken every possible step we could think of to convince Microsoft, the Congress, and anyone and everyone who will listen, that people across Illinois, and across our country, deserve access to safe and lower cost software,â€ Blagojevich said in a statement. â€œThe federal government has failed to act. So itâ€™s time that we do.â€

Blagojevich went on to claim that the lower-cost reimported version of Windows would only be resold to schools, the poor, and the elderly. â€œIf the Indians can get Windows on the cheap, why shouldnâ€™t needy Americans?â€

And from Nacho comes this:

The questions going around my office todayâ€¦

Would you rather go on a date with Rod Blagojevich or Richard Daley?
Would you rather go on a date with Maria Pappas or Judy Baar Topinka?

Discuss.

The discussion is pretty funny.

Blogdigger has some other features, so definitely go check it out.

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New blog

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

This e-mail came today:

I have created a new blog called The Barr Exam.

If you could add it to your list of IL. Blogs that would be a huge favor.

Also any help that you could pass along would be great.

I am from Southern Illinois and I recently managed Sen. Gary Forby’s campaign. I have extensively studied Illinois campaigns and political trends; though, the website will probably focus more on national and international politics. I spend a lot of my free time writing and I’m giving it a shot at a website.

Best of luck and thanks for your help.

Chris Barr

I’ll add it today.

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Gracias

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Some thankyous are in order today.

This week’s issue of Crain’s Chicago Business includes another installment of Reading Chair, a series of brief interviews with influential people about their daily reading habits (paid subscription required to view link).

The subject this week is former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson’s reading list and includes this very nice paragraph:

Political e-mail lists, especially Capitol Fax, a daily newsletter on Illinois politics by journalist Rich Miller; subscription is $300 annually. “We devour that here.”

Thanks, guvnah.

Meanwhile, The Chicagoist posted a Chicago-oriented holiday gift guide this week and Mike Fourchier (of the Haymarket Group) includes Capitol Fax on his list, and even works in a plug for my blog:

For those addicted to Illinois politics (and there is a twelve-step program for this horrible disease), the gossip sheet most Springfieldians read is Capitol Fax by Rich Miller. Miller is constantly pervasive in the Capitol, alternately loved and hated by everyone in town. If he hears it, it goes in. His blog is always interesting reading, but the real tipsheet to get is his regular e-mail â€” also sent by fax. To subscribe, e-mail Rich your e-mail or fax number, name, and billing address. Submissions come daily when the legislature is in session, less often during breaks. Annual subscription, $300.

Thanks, Mike, but if I put even half of what I hear every day into Capitol Fax I’d have to hire a body guard and every lawyer in town.

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