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* Reality sucks: Unemployment in Illinois climbed to 7.9 percent in January — the highest levels since April of 1993 — as the state’s employers chopped another 29,300 workers from their payrolls in response to worsening economic conditions.

* My intern’s rough notes from today’s House Executive Committee meeting on HB 12, the “One gun per month purchase limit” bill…

NRA: …The 2nd Amendment says that the right to bear arms will not be infringed upon. Can’t say one book a month, and due to the same constitutional rights you can’t say I gun a month. ….

Rep. Arroyo: How many people are killed with books each year?

NRA: (Now he is yelling) That is not the issue. Guns are not the problem. All these laws do is restrict the rights of law abiding citizens and violent criminals ignore these laws anyway… they are still able to get guns… the problem is the Chicago public schools system that only has a 47% graduation rate.

Rep. Arroyo: You are not answering the question…How many kids do books kill each year…

NRA: Well, Mein Kampf killed about 6 million people.

The bill passed 7-3.

* Hamlet on the lake…

Former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley is inching closer to making a decision about running for the Democratic nomination for Senate in 2010. According to a source close to Daley, he is tying up loose ends with his employer before making any announcement.

“He hasn’t made the final decision, but he’s beyond just seriously considering,” the source said. “He’s very close to making that decision.” […]

The brother of the mayor of Chicago, Daley would presumably enter the race with the backing of his family’s political operation. He has already recruited pollster John Anzalone and media consultant Larry Grisolano of AKPD Message and Media to help him if he decides to run.

* From an e-mail…

I received a written thank you for an on-line contribution to Mike Quigley. It is the first thank you I have received in years. I know that Barack couldn’t have kept up but why isn’t anyone sending thank you letters anymore? Just something I thought I’d pass on to you.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:15 pm

Comments

A candidate who does not send “thank you”s to donors deserves to lose. A campaign manger who lets it happen should be put to death.

Comment by Ravenswood D. Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:20 pm
Congratulations to the NRA for invoking Goodwin’s Law.

Comment by HV in HP Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:25 pm
===A candidate who does not send “thank you”s to donors deserves to lose. A campaign manger who lets it happen should be put to death===

but a candidate who wins the primary when the general is literally days away - deserves some respect. Quigley and his folks just got mine.
thanks for sharing this Rich.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:28 pm
The Daily Herald editorial writers have been on a rip lately. Are they reading anything beforehand?

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:32 pm
I would be curious to know who else the emailer had donated to. I get thank you notes — often with hand-written messages — from candidates all the time. But then again I have never donated to a candidate who could help me in any material way. Perhaps in a “pay to play” system your thank you is whatever consideration you get for whatever you are trying to get from that person, so thank you notes aren’t necessary.

Comment by Lakefront Liberal Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:33 pm
In defense of Mein Kampf (wow…did I really just type that!?), the 6 million killed were over a few years, to answer the legislator’s question. How many are killed each year by books? Should we count the Bible, Koran and other religious texts?

Comment by Vote Quimby! Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:34 pm
Don’t get me wrong because I like Mike Quigley. But, perhaps he is getting so few contributions that he has plenty of time to answer each one of them personally? Just a thought.

Comment by Beowulf Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:40 pm
@HV in HP: It’s “Godwin’s Law” — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law — but yeah.

Comment by Eric Zorn Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:45 pm
Illinois unemployment high? It’s not going to get any better.

Obama could help the unemployment picture immediately by stepping away from the Employee Free Choice Act (card-check). I’ve never seen the business community as “chilled” as they currently are. They feel like they are under attack.

All the statements from Democrats concerning the “thousands of companies that pay no taxes” are disingenuous. Sub-S corporations and LLC’s don’t pay any taxes. Those are pass through entities. Their profits are reflected on their owner’s personal tax returns. That’s an “inconvenient truth” that those pontificators won’t talk about.

It’s this type of rhetoric that has cast a pall over businesses, particularly those in Illinois. The proposed Illinois legislation that would require prevailing wages on any project built in an enterprise zone is equally galling to small business owners.

I know of one business that cut his workforce by 15% because of the pending legislation. CAT is laying off in Peoria and moving some production to “open-shop” states. If EFCA goes through, expect that work to move out of country.

Illinois economic picture will improve, when the leaders become more business friendly.

Comment by Downstater Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:55 pm
[…] While I was writing the last post: […]

Pingback by ArchPundit | Daily Dolt: NRA Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:57 pm
How many people are killed by cars each year?

Comment by Madison County Watcher Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:58 pm
While we’re on to the “This and That” file, here’s something I’ve been meaning to pass on about the Sun-Times.

If I check the Sun-Times’ mobile site, from my cell phone, I can access just about all of their content — EXCEPT whatever the front page story is that morning. I first noticed this about a month ago, maybe slightly more.

I wonder if this is their way of trying to get people to pay for content — by showing them something at the newsstand they can’t get on their mobile devices. It doesn’t work for the internet (though they tend to bury front page stories on the net, too) but it might be a devious little scheme.

Comment by Concerned Observer Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 1:59 pm
Illinois has record unemployement… perhaps more layoffs are not the best plan to improve the economy.

Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 2:17 pm
2nd Amendment supporters need to find another group to represent their interests. The NRA is worthless. This fool couldn’t even answer a simple question about books. Their committee chair shoulda kicked him out of the room.

Comment by Deep South Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 2:29 pm
As a revolutionary, I agree with the NRA in principle that violent revolution is sometimes warranted.

Even past felons have a right to defend themselves from tyranny, and I am waiting for the day that the NRA takes up the cause of ex-offenders.

Given the record of abuses by the Chicago police, I especially object to the fact that the NRA’s concealed weapons bill bans “gang members” from owning a concealed weapon. Clearly, they need them for defense.

And while we’re at it, why ban concealed weapons in churches? If someone at the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois had had a concealed weapon, Rev. Fred Winters might still be alive.

According to the Christian Anti-Defamation League, church shootings are on the rise.

I think its hypocritical and wrong-headed of the NRA to say that concealed weapons should be allowed everywhere, just not in church.

The Second Amendment should apply to Christians too.

Comment by Protect Gun Rights Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 2:33 pm
Rich, did Dan Proft replace Mike? For some reason, the IL Leader–oops–Review, is giving a hat tip to Proft on their HB 12 post. Weird.

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 2:45 pm
I still don’t see Bill Daley duking it out in a contested primary, particularly one where, there will certainly be one major black candidate, perhaps the incumbent.

I don’t think Richie wants to expend any political capital for anyone but himself.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 2:53 pm
One gun purchase a month…seriously?? That wins the award for (Dumbest Illinois gun legislation to date)….OOps I forgot, their all dumb!

Comment by Cooper Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:01 pm
“If someone at the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois had had a concealed weapon, Rev. Fred Winters might still be alive.”

Really? Because the killer walked right up to him and shot him point blank. No one, no usher, no parishoner, no one attempted to stop him BEFORE they knew he was armed.

What’s more, the Pastor deflected the first bullet with a bible, pieces of which rained down upon him and the assailant like confetti, according to witnesses, who at first thought they were witnessing a play.

Might the killer have himself been killed? Certainly. But likely not before his victim had been claimed.

While I am on the topic, an Alabama gunman killed ten people. Yet, there is legal C&C in Alabama. How could that be?

Should C&C be allowed in IL? Maybe. But if you want to win public opinion, you might want to consider ending the practice of setting up your PR tent on the graves of crime victims (hard core anti 2A folks are guilty of this as well).

Comment by JonShibleyFan Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:02 pm
This or that… forget about all that.

The 2010 campaign has begun:

http://progressillinois.com/2009/3/11/madigan-income-tax-hike-impossible

Comment by George Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:02 pm
I ran for office, got lots of contributions, and sent everyone a handwritten thank you. I don’t know any other way to do it.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:03 pm
JonShibleyFan - I think he was being less than serious.

Comment by George Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:03 pm
One gun a month. Maybe Oprah could have a selection for Gun of the Month right after her book picks. So how does this stop the out of state, gun show and internet sales of guns? What a waste of time. As for the anti gun crowd, I have been watching my gun for years and it never once went off unless someone pulled the trigger.

Comment by Belle Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:13 pm
Rich, am I going to get banned for making a “Catcher in the Rye,” joke?

Comment by Greg B. Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:33 pm
So what do you think? The media going to follow the usual routine.

Heck yes.

So, they’re going to blame guns and the NRA.

Yup, the usual routine.

Then what?

Then we’ll find out the guy was a nut and should have been institutionalized long ago and the family knew it but just couldn’t do it to their loved one.

The media will love to play that “if only the government could fund more resources” line.

Shouldn’t that be “the taxpayers”.

Not so loud.

Comment by True Observer Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:39 pm
Gun o’ da month:
Yes, just like the limit of 1 car per month since minimum of 1000 people are killed by them in IL each year.
Yes, just like the limit of 1 alcohol drinking & driving spree per month.

I noticed that since our IL legislators limited us to 1 eraser per month that we have really cut down on misspelled words.

Comment by North of I-80 Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:40 pm
“Breaking News” http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/685547.html

Comment by Ahem Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:41 pm
Just curious: Who buys more than one gun a month? Isn’t the purpose of this proposal to keep rogue gun dealers from buying guns, legally, mind you, then selling them, illegally, to the gangbangers?

I support the right of law-abiding citizens to own guns (I don’t own one myself). But certainly there can be some lawful restrictions to serve the public purpose of making it harder for criminals to get guns.

When the NRA opposes all restrictions and safeguards, and makes goofy “Mein Kamp” references, they undermine their core position with a great deal of the public.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:49 pm
I bought a turkey gun and a sporting clay gun within 30 days of one another.

So yeah, you can buy more than a gun a month for very legitimate reasons such as shooting clays and not shooting at wild turkey because you are such a rotten hunter who can easily be out smarted by a fowl with a brain the size of a pea that it won’t matter anyway.

Camouflage shotgun is really cool looking, though.

:)

Comment by Greg B. Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 3:58 pm
Madison County Watcher asks facetiously, “How many people are killed by cars each year?”

Maddy, Is your point that we should treat guns and gun owners like cars and their owners? If it is, you need to convince the NRA of the following when it comes to guns:

We require several forms of testing and a lengthy education process before one is able to legally operate a car… (The gun industry lobby, to its credit, is generally on board with weapons training.)

We license, permit and register car drivers and the cars themselves and track each as best we can… (The NRA balks at registration.)

We put serial numbers on cars and a variety of car parts and enforce titling regulations to facilitate tracking them… (The NRA balks at serial numbers and tracking.)

We give police the authority to take cars away from their drivers for a whole host of infractions, some of which may not even be related to driving… (Need I say more?)

And we tax the bejeezus out of cars and the commodities required to operate them in order to account for a mere fraction of the infrastructure required to accommodate them in our society (road maintenance, pollution consequences, etc.)…

To your question, in 2007 about 37,000 Americans died in car accidents (DoT) and in 2005 about 21,000 Americans were killed in gun violence (CDC). According to census stats there are about 240mil+ cars in the US and the FBI estimates there are about 200mil guns in private hands (not incl. police or military). (Take those stats with a grain of salt, they all came from WikiAnswers.)

If your point was that guns kill 2/3rds the number of people cars do… I’m not sure your false comparison matters much to either those 21,000 families or the 37,000 other families.

Both guns and cars can be made more safe.

Comment by Rob_N Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 4:01 pm
The whole point should be, cars don’t kill people, people misusing cars kill people. Books don’t kill people, people using books to get their misguided thoughts and people reading those books kill people. I own several guns, the media would call it an “arsenal”. None of my guns have killed anyone. Someone would have to misuse or use them illegaly to kill another person. You’ll never stop evil people from doing evil deeds by outlawing tools they might use.

TimB

Comment by Tim B Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 4:04 pm
Amazing timing of gun proposals with two episodes this week.

Comment by Ahem Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 4:07 pm
I was cleaning off my desk a few months ago from a old stack of papers and what did I find…not one, but two thank you letters from 2004 from Barack Obama. I guess its now worth something!

Comment by One to the Dome Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 4:12 pm
I’m a democrat and I agree. Guns do not kill people; people kill people. The problem is the deterioration in society and the lack of respect for human life. America has become a society where we blame everybody else instead of dealing with our indivdual problems.

The violence needs to be addresseed with individuals, family by family; neighborhood by neighborhood. The violence and the guns are a symptom of a bigger issue in our society. If you take the guns away people, people are still going to kill people if they choose to. The question that needs to be asked is “why does America have so much violence?”

Comment by anon50 Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 4:22 pm
Of the 21,000 gun deaths in 2005, how many were committed in gang related, drug related, or crime related (robbery, break-ins) activities? These deaths would have been caused by criminals, who by definition would not obey a gun law in the first place. One gun a month won’t stop these crimes.

How many were accidental shootings? Again one gun a month won’t stop these deaths. Crimes of passion? One gun a month won’t stop these either because they would be committed with a gun which is already owned. In Illinois, you have to wait at least 24 hours for a long gun and 72 hours for a hand gun purchase - a cooling off period / instant background check by the ISP for people with an FOID card.

Comment by tanstaafl Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 4:31 pm
Reporters or journalists as elitists like to refer to themselves tankin’ for pols in print is bad enough but sending contributions is both unprofessional and worse stupid…buy a round.

Comment by The Fox Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 4:34 pm
Rob N.

One big difference between cars and guns. The US Constitution says that “the People” have the right to keep and bear arms. No mention of the right to keep and use any form of transportation. Bearing arms is an inalienable right, driving a car is a privilege. None of the other rights enumerated by the Constituion require a test, training or license to exercise. And as stated before, the printing and reading of infalmmatory books, the pracice of extremist religion and yes, even the pursuit of happiness by some people has injured or killed many people.

Again, it’s not the object nor the excercise of the right that kills and injures people. How will restricting the right to law abiding people keep criminals from breaking any law that you put out there??? And yes, the timing of these gun issues is ironic. But when looking at the domestic violence, also look at the shooting rampage in Germany, where firearms are highly regulated. How many lives could have been saved by a discreetly armed teacher/administrator in that school??? It’s done in Israel and other countries.

The only thing that stops a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun.

TimB

Comment by Tim B Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 4:37 pm
I’m sure a one gun a month law will be VERY effective at limiting the number of firearm purchases made by criminals from criminals. I’m sure it will not incovenience ANY of the law-abiding majority who purchase from other law-adiding citizens. I’m sure that “one gun a month” could NEVER be understood by ANY people of sound mind to be infringing upon an right that was reserved to those people by their supreme. We MUST have a new law to restrict the activities of the law-abiding, FOID-holding, point-of-purchase-background-check-submitting folks since they appear to be the ones committing all of the gun violence that the existing laws so effectively prevent criminals from undertaking.

Yeah, I’d say another restriction is the way to go. Yep, that’s the ticket. Good Grief!

Comment by ragtopme Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 5:15 pm
Ragtopme, forgive me if I’m wrong, but I detect a hint of sarcasm there.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 5:18 pm
You guys have this all wrong - This is a mandatory you shall buy one gun a month! Another unfunded mandate! Where is the funding? At least a cost sharing match? Me 50% Guv 50%. Should be some stimulus money available as this will be very good for the economy in so many ways.

Comment by A Citizen Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 5:24 pm
==Just curious: Who buys more than one gun a month? Isn’t the purpose of this proposal to keep rogue gun dealers from buying guns, legally, mind you, then selling them, illegally, to the gangbangers?==

If you banned all guns completely, and effectively make the limit zero guns per month, and criminals would still have guns. End of story

Comment by Denny Crane Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 5:54 pm
I have a gun, and I know how to use it.

If I were planning to go on a hunting trip, I might very well want to buy a couple of guns before I go.

This is another silly law that has no basis in reality. It is someone trying to grandstand for their constituents. A common sense law would require training and a test prior to getting a FOID card. That would help prevent accidental deaths. As long as guns are protected by the 2nd Amendment, they will be available for criminal activity as well as lawful activity. It cannot be stopped by silly gun control laws. And it’s too late to ban all guns now, the cat’s out of the bag.

On the other hand, suggesting that folks need access to every type of gun in order to protect themselves is pure BS. It’s a rare occasion when someone uses a gun in self defense. Responsible gun owners keep their weapons locked up where they are not available for quick response to crime.

And toting around a concealed weapon is a disaster waiting to happen: Picture the recent church shooting if some of the congregants had weapons on them. The shooter enters and opens fire. Person A draws his weapon to take out the shooter. Person B hears the commotion, pulls her gun and sees A with his gun out and mistakenly shoots him. Person C wakes up, pulls his gun and starts shooting at C and the shooter catching several parishioners in the cross fire. More vigilanites waiting for a crime are the last thing we need.

Own all the guns you want, but please, keep them at home, locked up, until you go hunting or shooting clays or targets. When the black helicopters from the UN come, then you can get them out and open fire on those.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 6:17 pm
- Pot calling kettle -
Well, well! That certainly is a stylish tinfoil fedora you have there. You may lock up all your guns you wish. I also may choose not to but rather carry it . . . concealed. I promise not to shoot any innocents! Do you also have a mounted Clay Pigeon hung on the wall of your den?

Comment by A Citizen Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 6:27 pm
George,

Thanks. Now that you’ve pointed it out… The point stands though. Hard core advocates on both sides of the issues to choose the most inopportune moments to speak up.

As to the bill in question. I am with others here - it’s a silly window dressing of a law that will inconvenience law-abiding citizens and reveal the creativity of the criminal mind.

Comment by JonShibleyFan Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 6:46 pm
- Pot calling kettle -
Wish I could chat further with you about this, but the Voices told me it was time to clean all of my guns. I’ll be up all night! Nuts!

Comment by A Citizen Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 7:17 pm
- Pot calling kettle -
Tip that sword with a drop of Curare. I’ll put a bit of garlic on my cartridges. We’ll both sleep better tonight.

Comment by A Citizen Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 9:19 pm
Tim B,

You skipped a few words while reciting 2A.

Even Justice Scalia acknowledged there may be limits in last year’s landmark case.

And if the comparison to cars was inappropriate from the get-go… why do Madison Watcher and others make it?

Comment by Rob_N Wednesday, Mar 11, 09 @ 9:25 pm
I was going to bring up Godwin’s Law but I see Eric Zorn already beat me to it.

This is the gun control law the NRA dreads because it’s the one gun control law that is proven beyond a doubt to work. Go check out what happened in the DC metro area when Virginia finally followed DC and Maryland’s lead on limiting purchases to one-a-month. The gang leaders were going to Virginia to buy batches of guns to hand out to 15 year olds in the District. And after one-a-month spread throughout the DC metro, they couldn’t do that and I guess they were too indolent to go to Pennsylvania to get the guns. In any case the DC murder rate had been stubbornly around the 400 mark for years and within two years of metro wide one-a-month it dropped by half, where it has remained ever since. It’s still too high but the impact of one-a-month cannot be disputed, and probably another thousand to two thousand people by now are alive to tell the tale of how they weren’t shot at by some wild fifteen year old.

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 8:20 am
Sorry for whatever I wrote that was bad, Rich. I was tired.

The gist of my comment was that the average person is not trained to react carefully and quickly in a crisis where their weapon might be drawn. Police officers have that training. If someone wants to go through police training to get a concealed carry permit, more power to them. The rest of us need to leave the policing to the police.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 10:51 am
On the coke/Pepsi thing, I think there is room to be skeptical.

Word from former DoR people was that Coke “phoned in” their bid, essentially sending in a power point about how great coke is.

Coke is so used to just cosaying through these things on their high-paid lobbyists.

Word was that Pepsi actually did a lot of legwork to submit a thorough bid that included pricing, locations and vendor agreements. They took it seriously.

Coke apparently won in the end with their high-priced lobbyists getting the legislature to audit and soon overturn the contract.

in the end, maybe this means coke will take the bid seriously this time and put in a better bid that gets the state more money, but don’t expect Pepsi to go down without a fight.

Comment by a cigar is just a cigar Thursday, Mar 12, 09 @ 1:44 pm