GOPUSA ILLINOIS Daily Clips - December 6, 2007
GOPUSA Illinois Daily Clips for December 6, 2007 includes news and commentaries on the following topics:
- Peter LaBarbera, Henry Hyde, Dennis Hastert, Chris Lauzen, Jim Oberweis
- Republican Party candidates, campaigns, and events
- Republican Party platform issues including limited government, abortion, homosexual activity, immigration, gambling, etc.
- Illinois, Cook County, DuPage County, and Chicago budget problems
and more . . .
AMERICANS FOR TRUTH
-- DIERSEN HEADLINE: During an outstanding 5-minute segment yesterday evening on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, Naperville's Peter LaBarbera drew America's attention to outrageous public homosexual depravity in Republican Schwarzenegger's California and in Democrat Pelosi's San Francisco, all Americans should join with LaBarbera in calling for Schwarzenegger and Pelosi to condemn the depravity
5-MINUTE VIDEO CLIP ON YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4COZPftK6s
(THE ARTICLE: Hannity & Colmes Expose "Folsom Street" Depravities in Pelosi's District - Peter LaBarbera Hannity stunned; Colmes tries to shift issue away from Pelosi Well, FOX’s Alan Colmes was carrying water for (Democrat) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in (Wednesday's) FOX “Hannity & Colmes” segment featuring Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth. But despite his attempt to make ME the bad guy, we succeeded in alerting people across the nation to the shocking depravities that occurred in broad daylight in Speaker Pelosi’s district. For the record, Alan: we would welcome Gov. Schwarzenegger’s — or any public official’s — condemnation of the grotesque “Folsom Street Fair”; and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is linked to Folsom because he praised it as a “wonderful and exciting event” in an official welcoming letter in the event’s program. Note Sean Hannity’s near disbelief at our report (and he didn’t even see the video excerpts from the sadistic Folsom ”Fair“. This is the reaction of normal America, which remains largely ignorant of the perversions that occur in big cities like San Francisco that celebrate homosexuality. We’ve as yet gotten no response back from Speaker Pelosi.)
SPRINGFIELD STATE JOURNAL REGISTER
DAILY HERALD
-- 14th Congressional District: Double election, double the work New petitions needed to replace Hastert - Lisa Smith
(THE ARTICLE: Already spending most of their waking hours campaigning in one of the area's most competitive races, the candidates vying to represent the 14th Congressional District have their eyes on yet another prize: the special election. And with that comes a whole host of hurdles for the hopefuls to jump. Candidates seeking to compete in the special election -- which will be held simultaneously with the Feb. 5 regular primary -- can begin circulating their petitions immediately. Filing is expected to begin Monday; even candidates already running in the regular primary must submit new paperwork to run in the special primary to fulfill former U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert's unexpired term. Democrats must submit 863 valid signatures; Republicans must have 793. That number, determined by the Illinois State Board of Elections, equals 0.5 percent of voters who cast ballots in the last primary for each of those parties. Representatives of the Jim Oberweis, Bill Foster and Jotham Stein campaigns were collecting signatures at the Geneva train station early Tuesday morning. Oberweis is a Republican; Foster and Stein are Democrats. "We want to present petitions bearing 2,500 signatures to show the media that ours really is the campaign with the strongest volunteer organization and the most support for Jim at the grass-roots level," Oberweis' campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters Tuesday. Foster said he plans to run in the special election. "We had been planning on this possibility for quite some time," said Foster, a retired Fermilab scientist from Geneva. The Republican and Democratic winners of the special election will face off in a special general election on March 8. That date, set by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, falls on a Saturday and would be the first weekend election in recent state history. Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said a Saturday was chosen to encourage higher voter turnout. The winner would fulfill the remaining 10 months of Hastert's term. The winner of the special election then becomes a short-term incumbent before the November general election. In most cases, incumbency is a major plus. "A member of Congress can do a lot in eight months to establish themselves," said David Wasserman, an editor at The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter of electoral politics. "They can send free mail to people in the district and they can get plenty of interest group and PAC money that I like to call 'Welcome to Washington' money. It helps them establish the kind of war chest that can sustain an incumbent for many (election) cycles." Republicans Chris Lauzen, a state senator from Aurora, and Kevin Burns, the mayor of Geneva, also plan to run in the special election. So do Democrats John Laesch, who challenged Hastert last year, and Joe Serra. "With the special election finalized, the pace just doubled and the stakes got higher," Laesch said. Also running on the Republican side is Michael Dilger, an Evanston resident who has not spoken publicly since entering the race. It remains to be seen whether he will run in the special election. The most recent special election in Illinois was in 1995, when voters elected Democrat Jesse Jackson Jr. to serve out the term of Mel Reynolds, who resigned upon being convicted of having sex with a teenage girl. Jackson's been in office ever since.)
-- Naperville looks at giving residents recall power - Jake Griffin
(THE ARTICLE: Naperville leaders want residents to have the ability to vote them out of office. The measure comes as the city council struggles with a growing divide among members over the departing city manager's accusations of a councilman's abuse of power and that councilman's federal civil rights lawsuit against the city. At Tuesday's meeting, Councilman Grant Wehrli suggested the city support a state initiative that might allow for recall elections at local levels. A recall election allows residents to vote on the removal of an elected official from office. Only a few home-rule communities in the suburbs have adopted this power. Meanwhile, City Attorney Margo Ely said she is investigating the method required to "create a local mechanism for a recall election." She was unsure whether it required a citywide vote or whether the council could simply adopt the provision. It appears a citywide vote is required. Officials in both Arlington Heights and Mount Prospect -- two villages with recall election power -- said village-wide votes were held to enact the provision. Arlington Heights enacted the law in 1980 and Mount Prospect in 1995. Neither community has ever used it. "I believe it had to go to referendum because it changed the form of government," Arlington Heights Village Attorney Jack Siegel said. "It's never been tested." Ely did not set a date for a report back to the council on the proposal. Meanwhile, there are dueling resolutions in both chambers of the Illinois legislature that would change the state constitution to allow for recall elections in statewide offices. A statewide vote would be required to enact the proposal. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn supports recall elections and has long advocated for the ability at all levels of government, calling it a "tool of direct democracy." "I feel it's a good way to keep elected officials accountable," he said. "I've been pursuing this for 32 years." Depending on the language adopted for recall power, a certain percentage of registered voters would have to sign petitions to recall an elected official. The issue would be placed on the next ballot and require a super-majority of the vote for recall. The state proposal calls for more than 60 percent of the vote. "I don't think it should be easy to recall somebody, but the option should be there," Wehrli said. "It's not something you want to see a practice made of." The Naperville recall measure came up the same night the council approved drafting a resolution of censure against Councilman Richard Furstenau. The embattled councilman is accused by outgoing City Manager Peter Burchard of intimidating and threatening staff members during his nine years in office. Furstenau recently filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and three police officials stemming from his 2006 arrest and eventual acquittal of battery charges against a Naperville police officer.)
-- Resigning Naperville manager Burchard getting severance package - Jake Griffin
-- 11th Congressional District: Baldermann v. Lee: Sing withdraws petition challenge - Allison Ryan
(THE ARTICLE: A dispute over petitions has come to an end between two Republican candidates for Illinois’ 11th Congressional District after the challenger withdrew a contention that his competitor’s petitions were not properly bound. Challenges to Tim Baldermann’s petitions to run for the seat were filed by April Wong Loi Sing, a volunteer of his competitor, Jimmy Lee’s campaign. Both are running to replace U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, the Morris Republican who is not running for re-election. Lee said his campaign questioned the legitimacy of Baldermann’s filing because it did not appear to fit the requirements for filing. While filing his own petition in Springfield, Lee said he saw representatives of Baldermann’s campaign present Baldermann’s petition on a clipboard. “You don’t submit petitions on the clipboard,” Lee said. He said the campaign appeared “disorganized.” After Lee's protest was withdrawn, Baldermann's camp replied. “Jimmy Lee’s challenge to Tim Baldermann’s petitions was bogus and has now been clearly revealed as such,” Steven Shearer, campaign manager for Tim Baldermann, said Monday in a press release. “Filing a challenge without merit just to make the other campaign spend money on attorneys defending the petitions is a classic Chicago campaign dirty tactic. That should come as no surprise because Jimmy Lee just moved to the 11th District from Chicago and made financial contributions to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s re-election campaign and Mayor Daley’s campaign — over $3,000.”)
SOUTHTOWN STAR
-- Business group sues over Blago health plan - Deanna Bellandi
GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY
-- Blagojevich Announces $70 Million for New Supercomputing Facility at Argonne National Laboratory in DuPage County
WASHINGTON TIMES
-- VERY SAD: New citizens fall short on English test - Stephen Dinan
(THE ARTICLE: Only about half of Hispanic immigrants who have earned U.S. citizenship can speak English well or even somewhat well, a new study has found, even though the citizenship test usually requires immigrants to demonstrate English proficiency. The Pew Hispanic Center's study also found most Hispanic immigrants overall [-] U.S. citizens, legal immigrants and illegal aliens — don't speak English in their homes or at their workplace, though their children do. Pew examined years of polling and found just 52 percent of Hispanic naturalized citizens speak English well or pretty well. “It's possible several years ago the tests weren't take with the same degree of seriousness,” said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at the center. The English-language skills of immigrants have become a major point of focus in the immigration debate. The presidential candidates in both parties agree on the need to encourage better English, but Congress is in the middle of a fight over whether the Bush administration should sue a business that requires employees to speak English on the job. The citizenship test is administered as a series of questions immigrants must answer. The law does allow elderly immigrants to become citizens without having to demonstrate English skills. The Bush administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing a Salvation Army store in Massachusetts, charging that the store discriminated by giving two employees a year to learn English and then firing them when they failed to do so. D´Vera Cohn, one of the authors of the report, said the bright side of the equation is that by the second generation, the vast majority of Hispanic immigrants speak English well. Less than 25 percent of Hispanic immigrants speak English fluently, but 88 percent of their adult children are fluent, the report found. “For most immigrants, English is not the primary language they use in either setting. But for their grown children, it is,” the report's authors said.)
GIULIANI CAMPAIGN
-- Giuliani Campaign Files For Illinois Republican Primary
(THE PRESS RELEASE: The Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee filed official paperwork today to place Mayor Giuliani on the ballot in the Illinois Republican primary. Filing on behalf of Rudy were Illinois State Representatives Bill Mitchell of Macon County and Chapin Rose of Champaign County. “Mayor Giuliani’s campaign made the first official step toward victory in Illinois,” said Representative Mitchell. “Rudy is far and away the best organized in the state, with a fully staffed campaign headquarters, an impressive delegate slate and dedicated volunteers who have made over a quarter million phone calls throughout the state so far.” Rudy’s Illinois campaign headquarters is located in Lisle and house eight full-time staff members. The campaign recently announced the endorsement of former Governor Jim Edgar. Rudy’s Illinois team also includes Representative Tom Cross, Giuliani’s State Chair, Congresswoman Judy Biggert, former Governor Jim Thompson, and former Attorney General Jim Ryan. On Friday, Mayor Giuliani will make his eight campaign trip to the state, delivering remarks to the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association’s Annual Meeting and holding a town hall meeting with Illinois voters in the Chicago area.)
CONGRESSMAN ROSKAM
-- Roskam introduces historic legislation honoring the life and legacy of Congressman Henry J. Hyde
(FROM THE PRESS RELEASE: Washington, Dec 5 - Congressman Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) today introduced H.Res. 843, mourning the passing of Congressman Henry J. Hyde. This resolution marks the first time since 2000 the United States House of Representatives will recognize the service of a former member in such a way following their passing, highlighting the level of respect Congressman Hyde garnered from members of both parties. This rare legislation has both Republican and Democrat original cosponsors, including; Congressman Jerry Costello, Congressman Dan Lipinski, Congressman Don Manzullo, Congressman Jerry Weller, Congressman Tim Johnson, Congressman Ray LaHood, Congressman Danny Davis, Congressman Mark Kirk, Congressman John Shimkus, Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip Roy Blunt, Congressman Chris Smith and Congressman Joe Pitts. Congressman Hyde represented Illinois’ 6th Congressional District with bipartisan civility and distinction for more than three decades, and he will forever be remembered for his work. Roskam now represents Congressman Hyde’s district. Text of legislation can be found below:)
TANCREDO CAMPAIGN
-- "Consequences" TV ad
MARTIN CAMPAIGN
-- Andy Martin exposes biased reporting by Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
