Illinois Review

Not into football? How about emergency landings?

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The Economy: Looking for Grownups in Congress

by Matt Gauntt

This week, Congress was formulating a stimulus bill to get the economy moving in the right direction.  The House of Representatives passed an $819 billion bill on Wednesday and the Senate is poised to pass a similar bill this coming week.

The Country and the World are facing potentially, the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.  We were told that this was a time to end partisanship, to end the culture of greed and corruption in the nation.  We were told that we needed to end the influence of lobbyists and special interest.

The actions that Congress are taking this week will have profound impacts on the future of our country.  This is a time for leadership and more importantly statesmanship.

DCCC attacks Rush and launches Facebook support

In response to the video below, a new Facebook group has been created -- "We, Too, Hope Obama Fails!" Be one of the founding members and join up today if you're a FB fan!

 

And how does this stimulate the economy?

Could someone please explain how the economy will be stimulated with the Chicago Tribune's review of what Illinois might be able to do right away with its projected share of Obama's  "artificial stimulation" economic package?  Just how does giving people more unemployment and food stamps create jobs? 

WASHINGTON — If the Obama administration's economic stimulus package is passed and signed into law, the first way most working people in Illinois would feel it would be a small increase in their take-home pay, through a tax cut of about $10 per week in most cases.

For the more than 820,000 people in the state who are on the unemployment rolls, the immediate impact would be larger, a $25 per week boost in their benefits.

By April, families on food stamps would receive an increase in benefits. In short order, the working poor would receive more assistance through a larger earned income tax credit and expanded access to a tax credit given to low-income families with children.

Adult stem cells may reverse MS

Northwestern University released breakthrough findings this week of a major study on MS patients whose symptoms have been reversed by adult stem cell therapy. You'd think Chicago media would be lauding their own university's study on a debilitating disease that affects over 400,000 Americans.  But this morning, the news is being carried in Boston, Kansas City and elsewhere, but the only Chicago-based news media that covered it was Chicago Public Radio.  That was a short, three-paragraph story that was nearly overlooked.

Here's the CPR transcript:

Another Super Bowl favorite -- "Herding Cats"

Especially funny to those of us who work with Illinois conservatives ...

Herding Cats @ Yahoo! Video

Single-party control's devastating effects

from the Illinois Federation of Young Republicans' Dennis Cook:

In the heady days of the last 6 weeks, we have seen an Illinois Legislature unite against the obvious corruption of the Blagojevich administration. But let's not forget the people that helped create an environment fertile for corruption. At best, there are still many people in Illinois government that simply looked the other way for the past 6 years. So while we can celebrate the removal of one shameful politician, it is premature to call Illinois clean or free from the kinds of bad practices that brought us here. In fact some of the people that enabled him are still around in positions of power. And they may want their participation in Blagojevich's schemes to be quickly forgotten. But those 6 weeks of looking into corruption do not make up for the 6 years of looking the other way.

Favorite Super Bowl ads from the past

Coca-Cola Classic ad: Mean Joe Green @ Yahoo! Video

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GOPUSA ILLINOIS Daily Clips - January 31, 2009

Spite is a Horrible Tasting Dish When Served Cold

by Mark Rhoads

I was attending a conference about 18 years ago at a hotel then called The Water Tower Inn.  It was just around the corner from the Loyola University Lewis Towers campus at 820 N. Michigan only the entrance faced East Chicago Avenue.  From across the street, I saw two Yellow Cabs waiting to pick up fares at the hotel entrance.

As the first Yellow Cab started to pull out with passengers, the second Yellow Cab started to move up to first in line as other hotel guests came out.  But a Checker Cab came from nowhere racing west on Chicago Avenue, cut in front of the second Yellow cab waiting in line, and picked up the passengers.  At first the second Yellow cab driver did not see what was going on because he was writing something--maybe in his trip book.

Suddenly the second Yellow cab driver backed his cab almost all the way to Michigan Avenue, slammed on his accelerator in forward gear, hit the rear of the Checker Cab from behind as that cab hit the first Yellow cab in a three-car chain collision of terrifice force with passengers in the first two cabs.  The driver of the second Yellow cab hopped out of his door and screamed at the Checker driver at the top of his lungs, "That'll Learn Ya!"