Illinois Review

Five Mainstream Republican Resolutions for 2011

by John F. Di Leo

The year 2010 saw two significant records at every level of government in the United States:  record-breaking numbers of socialist and otherwise destructive Democrat bills and programs, and in response, record-breaking victories for Republicans on Election Day.

2011 will be a year of challenges, as newly elected Republican majorities and governors try to find money for the shovels, excavators and front end loaders that will be required to dig their states and country out of the hole that their predecessors left for them.

With the crushing burden of the present budgetary disaster confronting these legislators and executives, it will be difficult for them to find energy and time to focus on the future, but it’s imperative.  Here are just a few basic guidelines that every Republican office-holder must remember for the next two years and beyond, if we hope to build on the 2010 election victories, rather than having to look back on this time as no more than a momentary blip in an otherwise unbroken descent into Stalinism.

Kurtz, Creamer and Dudley on Beyond the Beltway Sunday

by Chris Robling

Big Program Note:  Sunday evening, 2 January, 6 to 8 central, I have the privilege of sitting in for Bruce Dumont on his award winning "Beyond the Beltway"  (WLS-AM, lots of stations nationally and POTUS on Sirius XM).  

We will welcome GOP analyst Chris Dudley and liberal activist Bob Creamer, two longtime buddies in the slog.  Also on -- for hour two -- Stanley Kurtz, author of Radical-in-Chief, Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism (Threshold/Simon and Schuster).  

Radical-in-Chief is a great read that builds the documentary case that our president is in fact a socialist. Dr. Kurtz provides 75 pages of footnotes and references to primary documents in more than 60 libraries around the country, and... Bob Creamer, because of his leadership at the Midwest Academy, is a co-star in Stanley's narrative !  

Stanley and Bob don't go on a lot of programs together, so don't miss this one.  I promise an insightful chat about 2010, 2011 and the presidency of Barack Obama.  Join us... 

Obama works around Congress on healthcare, climate change

by Jason Millman and Andrew Restuccia

Republicans are preparing an array of budgetary, legislative and political strategies to fight regulatory action by President Obama.

Without Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a majority in the House, Obama is expected to rely heavily on his executive power to influence policy over the next two years.

To counter that effort, Republicans hope to cut off funding for the new healthcare law and, through legislation, to block efforts by agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and the Internet.

New pension law could force municipalities to raise property taxes 60%

While most emphasis has been on Speaker Madigan's pension reform law setting up for later retirements and less cushy pensions for new firemen and law enforcement hires, little attention has been focused on the shift in pension fund pay=in burden that local city councils argue will now suddenly fall on their already cash-strapped budgets.  Chicago's Mayor Daley blasted the reform bill Quinn signed on Thursday, predicting it will cause Chicago to hike its property taxes up to 60%. 

ABC Chicago News covered the topic:

The governor's statement is not yet available on his website.

Madigan calls for pension trustee whistleblowers

On the same day Governor Quinn signed Illinois new two-tiered pension system SB 3538 into law, House Speaker Mike Madigan sent out a letter to pension trustees statewide, asking them to report any concerns they may have about how their local pensions are being handled.  He writes:

 
Forgive us if we're just a little cynical about the timing and the content of this letter being sent this week to police and firefighter pension trustees.  Why, to read it, it sounds like Madigan had never head of such a thing as "spiking pensions" before they were exposed in recent media stories. 

Top 10 politician Twitter mentions in 2010

Can you imagine being almost 100 years old, deceased, and still hitting the list of the top 10 most influential politicians on 21st century tech addicts' Twitter?  Sure enough, Ronald Reagan remains very influential worldwide, along with Republican politicians Palin, "W," McCain and Brown.

Klout.com reports 2010's top 10 most influential politicians on Twitter:

• Barack Obama
• Sarah Palin
• George W Bush
• Scott Brown
• Nancy Pelosi
• John McCain
• Harry Reid
• Ronald Reagan
• Joe Biden
• Bill Clinton

LaHood makes Malkin's "Big Nannies of the Year" List

Illinois' 18th CD former U.S. Congressman Ray LaHood, Barack Obama's token Republican -- albeit phony Republican -- cabinet member, made nationally-renowned conservative columnist Michelle Malkin's "Big Nannies of the Year" list this week for his caring, big government proposals.  Referring to LaHood as an "unstoppable control freak," Malkin writes:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. He proposed meddling mileage taxes, mused about a system to track drivers’ routes, lobbied for high-speed rail boondoggles and promoted a “livability initiative” to limit suburban growth and force dwellers into public transportation. Then America’s driving czar floated a plan earlier this fall to disable cell phones through some kind of centralized government mechanism. LaHood backed off that creepy crusade, but he is still intent on waging war against drivers who choose to use cell phones, entertainment systems and GPS devices on the road. Just last week, the unstoppable control freak proposed a new rule banning truck and bus drivers from any use of cell phones while driving — including emergency calls on hands-free devices. His anti-car agenda is stuck in overdrive.

Don't you love it when folks beyond Illinois borders figure out and then confirm what we've known for years? 

2011: Just new year or new decade?

The question of the day:  Do we embark upon a new decade tonight at midnight, or will it just be the second year of the 2010 decade?  Maybe at the New Year's Eve party tonight, this will come up for discussion, so we want you to be ready.

We're hearing some say 2009 was the last year of the 2000 decade and 2010 was the first year of the 2010s.  Others are saying 2010 was the last year of the 2000 decade and 2011 launches the second decade of the 2000s.  Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

The 2010s, pronounced "twenty-tens", "two thousand (and) tens", or simply "the tens", is the current decade, which began on January 1, 2010 and will end on December 31, 2019. It is the first decade to completely take place within the 3rd millennium as the previous decade (2000-2009) took place across two different millennia.

Now, you're ready to proceed.  Happy New Year!

H/T Facebookers Karen Hoogland and Catherina Wojtowicz

A Surprise Holiday Movie Treat

by Mark Rhoads

If you are looking for a good movie this week that is not a sequel to some older movie, I was delighted to see Colin Firth in "The King's Speech" and I think many IR readers would also find the movie a treat. 

First,  you have to find it because it only played on 87 screens in the whole country last week.  It is worth the hunt. The story is about the last King of England, George VI, who was the father of the current Queen Elizabeth II and who died in 1952.  Set aside the pagentry of Buckingham Palace and this story boils down to a good and decent father, but a frightened man who unexpectedly inherited a big job he did not want to have and was not trained for. 

Because public speaking was crucial for the job, his wife had to help him learn how to overcome his fear of a serious and embarrassing speech impediment.  So it winds up as an inspirational story of his personal courage that anyone can relate to if they are Anglophiles or not. The big budget sequels will all still be around next week, so don't miss a chance to see a rare high-quality story that will raise your holiday spirits.

RNC Chairman candidates asked pro-life, pro-marriage questions

The prolife political action committee Susan B. Anthony List has been conducting interviews with candidates for the Republican National Committee chairman and made them available to the public for viewing. 

Backgrounds and interviews with Michigan's Saul Anuzi, Iowa's Gentry Collins, Wisconsins' Reice Priebus, current RNC chairman Michael Steele, and Missouri's Ann Wagner were conducted previous to next Monday's RNC Chairman debate, which will be available to view online from noon to 1:30 PM CST at www.RNCdebate.org

Take a few minutes and listen to these short interviews on current social issues that would influence his or her leadership if elected the national party chairman.  Which do you think would be the choice leader for RNC social conservatives?

View SBA List's interviews HERE.