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* Hey, campers, let’s play: “Which is the most unneeded piece of legislation?”
* First up, a ban…
An Illinois Senate Committee moved Wednesday to ban the sale of flavored cigarettes, saying the addictive effects will make smoking more appealing to teens. Rep. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, said flavored cigarettes were most attractive to young people because they could be flavored like candy, fruit or soda, unlike regular cigarettes.
* Next, truth in labeling…
llinois lawmakers cracked down on alcoholic energy drinks Wednesday even as some cracked open a few. An Illinois Senate committee voted 8-2 to require stricter labeling requirements on the increasingly popular bottles of “buzz,” which a couple of members sampled during the debate.
* Populist futility…
“Reagan County” has a bit of a ring to it for state Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine. That could be the name created if Palatine and other towns fed up with having little influence in Cook County matters disconnect and former their own county.
* The “Isn’t this already covered under other laws?” bill…
State Sen. Ira Silverstein (D - Chicago) introduced a bill that would criminalize “cyberbullying,” the act of harassing others through the Internet, cell phones and email
* Doesn’t sound like a truly horrible idea, until you look at the pricetag…
An Illinois House committee has rejected a measure meant to help police track bullets found at crime scenes. The legislation would have required that bullets be imprinted with codes so police could figure out where the ammunition was sold. […]
Ammunition makers said the requirement would be too expensive. They estimate the startup costs could be $200 million.
* Are all of these bad ideas? Nope. All were likely introduced with excellent intentions. But are they necessary? You decide.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 10:39 am
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Its a tough call, many great canidates, but I am oing to go with the ban on the sale of flavored cigarrettes. Since technically yah can sell them to minors anyway, this one gets my voet as the most unneccesaary. Its a legal product, let them do it up however. Imagine a bill prohibintg making flavored liquor….
The break away county gets a strong second for windbaggery.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 10:48 am
Reagan County? Are you freaking kidding me?
You know, I’m starting to think that the Republicans want to replace that Jesus guy with Reagan…
Comment by jerry 101 Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 10:50 am
I’m pretty sure Sparks says Alcohol 6.0% on the can. So that bill for sure, but I still would have liked to have seen Ricky getting tore up from the floor up in Committee.
Comment by Anon Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 10:51 am
that should be technically yah *can’t sell them to minors.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 10:55 am
Reagan? Seriously? You GOPers should get over your man crush on him, its been twenty years, he wasn’t as dreamy you remember.
Comment by Ken Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 10:57 am
Wouldn’t it be wiser to spend time on bills that haven’t passed yet first? Like House Bill 1.
Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 10:59 am
Rich; your killing me here!!! You honestly think labelling each round of ammunition is a good idea?
Give me a break, I gave you more credit!
This type of legislation is worthless, but just adds cost to ammo, which is the general idea of the anti-gun lobby, which is to make the price of ammo so high people will not buy it….just the criminals will steal the ammo and again the only thing the Government will be doing is hurting the Law Abiding citizen….it will not stop any of the criminals, (bad-guys) from killing, burglarizing or being bad-guys and so on!..think about it!
Comment by Big W Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:16 am
I’m going to pick my favorite of the bunch, the alcoholic energy drink labeling. Any time that our overworked legislators can take a moment to sip some booze during committee is music to my ears. Keep up the good work!
Comment by Bill S. Preston, Esq. Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:21 am
>The proposed law would make secession easier by no longer requiring voter approval from all of Cook County. Instead, only voters in the breakaway area would have to OK the move.
Reagan was an Illinoisan, Eureka College graduate, so why not honor him with a county baring his name? And yes the proposed law would make it easier for a splitoff.
Comment by Crimefighter Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:24 am
Given some of the press on this issue lately, let’s add pension sweeteners for police and fire to the list. It sounds like they have sweet pensions already. I know they are better than anything we in the private sector have.
Comment by Springfield Alum Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:26 am
The pricetag on the labeling ammo is way way exaggrated. Laser engravers would be able to quickly and fairly cheeply enscribe numbers on shell casings.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:27 am
Before you write off the alcoholic energy drinks, give a couple with alcoholic and a couple without to a parent and see if they can tell the difference without really examining closely.
Comment by Inquiring Mind Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:31 am
Reagan County. Give me a break.
Seriously have to question anyone who’d make such an absurd suggestion.
Comment by JonShibleyFan Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:34 am
Hb5278(Brady) prohibits county clerks and members of election boards from making public endorsements of candidates………….
Comment by blagoman Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:42 am
My tastes are rather plebian, so I’m not familiar with the category — alcoholic energy drink? After one too many, do you hit the floor faster?
I don’t think our fellow Illinoisans in Dixon and Tampico want to give up any claim to The Gipper. By the way, read his presidential diaries — fascinating stuff.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:43 am
Defending Reagan county.
It would make some sense considering most counties in the state are named after people that if we were to create a new one it would be named after the only president born here.
Do Republicans at times seem to have Reagan on the brain, yeah. But the idea does have some logic behind it.
That and ‘WeHaveLowerTaxesThanCook’ county would just tick folks off.
Comment by OneManBlog Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:57 am
I’ll give you this, OneMan, as one who is no huge fan of the Gipper, I am sure lesser folks are honored with county names.
And as a Cook resident who is also no fan of the tax increases, I think the secession talk is a clever PR ploy, and I am disinclined to bash Palatine officials for it.
But sponsoring a bill to authorize the creation of “Reagan County” is like remora PR. Sucking one’s own PR out of the PR created by another.
Comment by JonShibleyFan Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:20 pm
For me, the most ridiculous piece of legislation is, hands down, Dunkins attempt to make it illegal to use cell phones while crosing the street.
Comment by M Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:30 pm
I would like to see a candidate run on the platform “I will do nothing”. They will sponsor no legislation that has a cost to it, and vote NO on any other legislation that has a cost to it. Plus, they would be telling the truth. We don’t need more laws. Shows how frivolous a desperate Rep or Sen can get.
Comment by Term Limits Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:39 pm
While the secession from Cook County is a wonderful idea, this insane cult of personality surrounding Reagan is enough to make me yak.
And as for banning everything under the sun…can we just please stop it already? I’m no fan of cigarettes, but if someone wants to smoke themselves sick on flavored smokes, I say more power to you.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:50 pm
While the secession from Cook County is a wonderful idea, this insane cult of personality surrounding Reagan is enough to make me yak.
And as for banning everything under the sun…can we just please stop it already? I’m no fan of cigarettes, but if someone wants to smoke themselves sick on flavored smokes, I say more power to you.
Comment by More Cowbell, Less Regulation Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:51 pm
Sorry about that double post, not sure how that happened.
Comment by More Cowbell, Less Regulation Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:52 pm
The people introducing the ammo serializaion legislation either do or do not understand that it would have a chilling effect. No one would shoot semi-autos at the range for fear of the cases winding up somewhere. No ammunition would actually be registered to criminals, of course, only the law abiding. Love the part that make it illegal to hold onto “vintage” ammo that one has already purchased…
Comment by mikew Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:52 pm
What is it with trying to regulate people’s behavior by banning certain things? Chicago wants to ban little baggies now they want to ban flavored cigarettes.
Comment by Levois Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:56 pm
Just more trivial blather to avoid doing their real job of being the people’s agents not our babysitters. We need to avoid calling these people lawmakers.
Comment by alsatian Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 12:59 pm
For something weird (IMO) check HB4139. No public entity employing a “peace officer” can prohibit that person from carrying a weapon on duty. So the gun controls the government and not the other way around? Yikes!
Comment by anon Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 1:10 pm
Surprise, surprise - another Cook County Democrat proposes piecemeal disarmament in the Spring Session. Every year brings a new load of Daleyesque city style gun control to committee.
The engraved bullet proposal might just be the dumbest proposal to EVER come to vote in the Chicago-democrat controlled committees. The last thing needed in this state is MORE populist gun-control drivel.
Can someone explain to me how one would engrave a 12 gauge round of BB shot? .22LR lead unjacketed bullets? Birdshot? Or are we simply just going to ban what we can’t laser tag? Worded correctly, such a law could also effectively abolish the right of people to reload ammunition.
This is just the latest in an ENDLESS parade of ill-intentioned proposals by liberal Democrats bent on disarming the public. It will have no effect on criminals other than forcing them to steal ammo along with drugs, money and meth ingredients and will, once again, punish the law abiding.
Can we not find SOMEONE to represent us who doesn’t always take the most simple minded path of least resistance to every issue?
Comment by NimROD Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 1:16 pm
Casing labels that could be erased, stolen (or used casings get repacked) and sold on the black market. What a waste of time and money.
Per corrections personnel, the only gun reform that really works is longer sentances for those using guns in a crime of violence or force. Word spreads fast and they start carrying knives and clubs instead. It’s worked well in England.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 1:18 pm
[…] His successor in that chamber, friend of the blog Sen. Matt Murphy, has just proposed in the legislature that it be called “Reagan County“. […]
Pingback by Battle of the State Senators over Fictional Counties!!! « Illinois Reason Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 1:22 pm
I would add HB-5700 to the list of most un-needed bills as an anti-war hyteria aimed at Blackwater.
D
Comment by Dozer Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 2:01 pm
There were ten laws written, in stone no less, a long time ago. We cannot even adhere to at least the last seven of them. Frankly, we don’t need any more than those.
Comment by anon Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 2:16 pm
They are all equally worthless. A bunch of wastes of space in search of a mission in life. Just a bunch of nanny state nonsense. Self-obsessed goofs fiddling while the state burns. Mark this all as exhibit #7,542 in the case of the grossly overpaid legislators.
Comment by GOP'er Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 2:34 pm
To hell with ‘Reagane County’, I saw we name it ‘Stroger County’.
Comment by Johnny USA Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 2:49 pm
Naming something after someone, regardless of how noble that individual, is a waste.
I see thousands of work hours wasted over stupid legislation such as this.
Ronald Reagan made it clear that he did NOT want stuff named after him when he was gone. He was opposed to the monuments, the buildings, the national airport, and would not support this county idea.
DUMB!
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 2:59 pm
Labeling rounds of ammunition for tracking….
The cost isn’t in the labeling, it’s in the record keeping, tracking, etc., etc. We can’t even keep track of pallets of food coming from food processing facilities, so now we’re going to “improve” on that experience by trying to chase individual bullets?
Most law enforcement isn’t “CSI” or “CSI - Miami”. They don’t have all sorts of fancy budgets for doing DNA tests at the drop of a hat, and they certainly don’t have the time, or money to be wasting time trying to track ownership of individual bullets.
Don’t know who pitched that idea originally, but somebody doesn’t have a clue what it’s like out here in the real world.
Maybe we need the Capitol Fax version of the “Razzies” [”The Razzie Awards,” saluting the worst that Hollywood has to offer each year], awarded to the poorest legislation offered each year.
Maybe call them the “The CF’s”.
Comment by Judgment Day Is On The Way Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 4:59 pm
Beating the secession drum comes off as nutty. (Which worked wonders for Oberweis.) The Cook GOP needs to come up with something better than running against Stroger.
Comment by HappyToaster Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 8:34 pm
Reagan County? A few years ago, a State Rep. from Palatine wanted to create “Lincoln County.” That went nowhere and this absurd and wasteful idea won’t go anywhere either.
The cost in legal fees alone to secede and establish “Reagan County” would make the Gipper spin in his grave at 10000 RPM. Palatine, get over it, and deal with the issue. If the downtowns of smaller towns can survive in the face of a Wal-Mart, your businesses can survive the tax increase.
Comment by Getting Too Old For This Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 8:44 pm
I see nothing wrong with wanting to secede from a county that has a population greater than 30 of our states.
Comment by It's Broken Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 9:01 pm
The first one, the ban, is a horrible idea. Banning flavored cigarretes will not reduce the number of teen smokers. If a kid’s dad smokes Marlboro reds odds are the kid will too. Instead of placing all the responsibility on the government, blame the people who should REALLY be responisble for the children… their parents!
Comment by Justin Thursday, Mar 13, 08 @ 11:06 pm
The legislative process is out of order. The volume of bills introduced seems is well beyond the abilities of the general assembly to legitimately address. Why all the trivia while last year is still a mess?
Forget the broken promises of our habitual liar and chief. Forget about the OPPS the $1 million went to the wrong place. It is one thing to pander, but to not re-appropriate the funding necessary to honor agreements is a new low of this administration.
Forget about how many grants DCEO may have issued to the “wrong place.” I wonder how many grants were issued with a promise to pay that haven’t been kept. How many building sites have been closed with construction incomplete? Didn’t Rod promise over a million to a public High School in while on the campaign trail in the southern part of the state? I wonder if they got all there promised money. How many times can this Gov promise the same million dollars? Kind of smacks of the Producers—a little “Spring time for Hitler” anyone?
The four leaders should table all this junk and focus only on the budget, a comprehensive capital-public works program and finding the money to honor the promises made—many of those promises are their very own “member initiatives”. Nice work ladies and gentlemen, once more blurring the lines between comedy and tragedy.
Comment by sinequanon Friday, Mar 14, 08 @ 1:27 am
Criminals cannot legally buy ammunition in Illinois as a FOID card is needed. The only people that can legally buy the labeled ammunition are law-abiding gun owners. Criminals will obtain their ammunition illegally. This proposed gun control legislations is just another attempt by the anti-gunners to harass gun owners.
Comment by Pro-Gunner Friday, Mar 14, 08 @ 7:08 am