CHICAGO - Chicagoans, get ready for fun and excitement as a top-tier community organizer named Lisa Fithian prepares to bring her antics to Chicago to protest proposed school closures. Six months ago, she was at the Michigan State Capitol on the floor, moaning about right to work legislation.
Continue reading "CTU brings in nationally-renowned organizer to protest school closings" »
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ELK GROVE VILLAGE - "Ms. Duckworth will likely spend the next 19 days talking about abortion," Congressman Joe Walsh said Friday after comments about abortion Thursday night during a WTTW debate stirred controversy. "I will spend the next 19 days talking about jobs, the economy, our debt and what I intend to do to get this country working again."
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TINLEY PARK - One of Illinois Review's more popular videos is of an SEIU Local 73 member, who spoke out in 2010 against his union using his dues to promote candidates he could never support. In 2012, Local 73 has donated an average of $15k per month to the Local 73's "BiPartisan" PAC.
Below is how SEIU Local 73's "Bi-partisan" Committee spent Mike's dues - not too "bi-partisan."
Continue reading "Chicago Park District SEIU member speaks out" »
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By Sam Pierce -
Dearest Democrats,
I am a former Republican who will be voting Republican in the 2012 Presidential Election only due to the magnitude of the damage which may be done at the hands of our first composite President if he gets a second term. (Not that I would ever consider voting for a modern Democrat, but would love to vote for a more honest, constitutionally correct alternative to one of the two primary sources of our nation’s woes.) I shudder to think what the product of no parents, communist indoctrination, and brainwashing at the hands of 60′s hippy terrorists like mentor Bill Ayers might do with the type of “flexibility” he promised Putin. Our nation is not what it was intended to be, but I’ll be damned if Barack Obama is satisfied with the level of statism and government intrusion that we already endure.
I don’t want to get too far off topic, so I will get to it. Your party seems to make a lot of noise regarding campaign finance. Oh, I know there are squishy, “moderate” McCain Republicans who can’t help but to think like Democrats on such matters, as well. Your advocacy for constricting the the supply of campaign cash and in-kind support for your opponents (a.k.a. those who are more likely to follow the Constitution) through federal law and regulation is somewhat disgusting and disingenuous. That is, unless you are open and honest about the fact that you seek to allow unfettered in-kind donations to your candidates while using the federal government to choke off the support of more liberty-minded candidates.
Continue reading "Dearest Democrats, Re: Campaign Finance" »
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SPRINGFIELD - Tuesday, hundreds of SEIU Health Care IL-IN workers protested Governor Pat Quinn's proposed $2.7 billion Medicaid budget cuts, as shown in this SEIU-produced YouTube.
The SEIU website says, "Throughout the day, members called on legislators to support a fair tax system in Illinois that puts community resources before tax breaks for rich corporations." Two years ago, SEIU fully supported the Democrat-backed 67 percent state income tax hike.
As show at the end of the video, SEIU union members chanted the Occupy Wall Street theme, "We are the 99 percent!"
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By Fran Eaton -
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has delivered a balanced budget, cut in property taxes and no income tax hike. Gov Pat Quinn has delivered historic pension debt, budget deficits and a 67% state income tax hike. Guess which of the two is facing political pressure and possible removal from office? Go figure.
More frustration vented in my Southtown Star "Always Right" column today.
Oh, and if you're so inclined, please "LIKE" on the Southtown page. The editors need to know someone agrees with my viewpoint. Check out the "No Fan of Fran" letter to the Southtown Star editors today HERE
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U.S. Senator Mark Kirk and Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-11) released statements declaring their position on Hollywood's effort to pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA):
From Kinzinger: "American entrepreneurialism is vitally important to the economy and is something I believe we must protect by ensuring that ideas and content created here cannot be pirated through rogue websites based in places such as China. To do so we should bring representatives from all parties concerned to the table to address all of the major issues which have been presented; with an open and free internet being the central tenet to this debate."
From Kirk: "Freedom of speech is an inalienable right granted to each and every American, and the Internet has become the primary tool with which we utilize this right. The Internet empowers Americans to learn, create, innovate, and express their views. While we should protect American intellectual property, consumer safety and human rights, we should do so in a manner that specifically targets criminal activity. This extreme measure stifles First Amendment rights and Internet innovation. I stand with those who stand for freedom and oppose PROTECT IP, S.968, in its current form."
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UPDATE 11/30/2011 - on Tenaska vote: The passage of Senate President John Cullerton's SB 678, which was the third try on the Tenaska coal plant legislation some are calling a "boondoggle," was dependent upon three downstate Republican senators - Larry Bomke, John Jones and Sam McCann. Eight Democrats voted against their leader's legislation - J. Collins, Delgado, Garrett, Haine, E.Jones, Lightford, Maloney and Martinez.
SPRINGFIELD - The controversial Tenaska project tax credit legislation passed the Illinois Senate this afternoon without a vote to spare. Illinois Statehouse News was on hand to video the vote:
Continue reading "UPDATE: Tenaska legislation passes IL Senate" »
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by Ghost of John Brown
Over the last year we have seen the State of Illinois morph into the Roman Empire. Speaker Madigan reigns as Emperor Commodus. Sorry, I know Pat Quinn should probably be cast in the role of Emperor, but does anyone in this State REALLY think that Pat Quinn is in control?
In an effort to raise more and more revenue, the State of Illicit (formerly known as Illinois) passed a sweeping gambling expansion bill that would put a casino in Chicago and make slot machines more prevalent than Justin Bieber CD's and just as obnoxious. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude and I love playing poker, but how do we expand the economy by just moving money around from one person to the other with the casinos and the State of Illicit taking a huge chunk? Oh sure, we are going to steal it collect it from out of state visitors passing through O'Hare. Nothing like that midwest hospitality.
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WASHINGTON - Last weekend, 10,000 young Obama supporters gathered in DC to receive activist training and then rally in front of the White House to protest the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Left's new target. The press release below from the "The U.S. Chamber doesn't speak for me" website says Obama Administration-ousted Communist-sympathizer Van Jones was featured at the weekend training, along with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
Leftist activists are being encouraged to visit their local small businesses and encourage them to sever ties with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose 527s and federal PACs were instrumental in electing Republicans to the U.S. House last November.
The website says the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a corporate front group linked to "climate deniers." How they can claim any earthling can deny climate is laughable in itself, but the website then says the Chamber is not only wrong about global warming, it was wrong about Civil Rights, Clean Air and Disabled Rights.
Continue reading "U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the Left's new target" »
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This past Saturday in downtown Chicago.
via Rebel Pundit
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So this is how Wisconsin public employee unions deal with legislative disappointment -- by sending death threats.
This morning, Wisconsin radio station 620 WTMJ's Charlie Sykes republished an email sent to their state's Republican Senators last night. Sykes says local mainstream media refuses to cover what the senators are facing. An excerpt from last night's threat:
Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.
The rest of the death threat is here. Hopefully law enforcement is investigating.
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Governor Pat Quinn (D-Chicago) and House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) are dealing with the tangled web they've woven over the years with state employee unions.
Quinn's finding his generous campaign support from unions comes with a price, and the courts reinforce union contract agreements. Madigan is hinting now that a pension shrinking deal may be necessary, along with another tax hike for the rest of us to pay for the Democrats' power-grabbing deals over the years.
Quinn wants an $8.25 billion mortgage with which to pay overdue bills. That may be tough to pass in the General Assembly. Add that challenge to the teetering $31 billion capital plan, the resulting loss of more construction union jobs, and things must be very tense in the Democrats' power ranks.
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It's really hard not to roll your eyes when reading Progress Illinois' analysis of the state's FY2011 budget crisis. A piece entitled "Can Governor Quinn Convince Lawmakers to Fund our Future?" should strike us all as hilarious. When Progress Illinois (PI) writers say "our Future" they mean "their Future" since PI is owned and paid for by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
So, what's the crisis they write about? It's whether or not their pension coffers are refilled and how they will make it happen. The future they demanded includes a significant tax hike. Ralph Martire sides with SEIU's Progress Illinois. Noted PI:
The red ink is startling. Lawmakers already exhausted several one-time revenue sources last year that can't be tapped again. Martire guesses that without a tax increase of some sort, the state will run out of cash to fund public services sometime around February or March. "If that happens, what are they going to do?" he asked. "Just close down public schools and community colleges? Close down every senior center? Every agency that takes care of folks with mental health issues?"
Continue reading "Can Governor Quinn save SEIU's future? You bet he can." »
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by John F. Di Leo
Join us this week, as our young volunteer learns all about vote fraud in Texas…
“Awfully hot in here today, isn’t it, Pockets?” Pavel mopped his brow with a napkin as he collated literature for the week’s volunteering. “Dusty too…. Sorry, I don’t mean to complain.”
“No problem, Paully,” said Pockets, as he opened his window, carefully aiming it so the draft wouldn’t wreak havoc on the collating table. That’s all they’d need… for the Boss to walk in just as an open window blew a thousand leaflets all over the 51st ward headquarters. “That’s just the way these old boilers get the first few times they’re fired up in the fall. Won’t be so bad by the election, when we’ve had the heat on a few times. Besides, at least it’s not as hot as it got in Houston last month; now, that was a real inferno!”
“Houston?” the young volunteer perked up. Pavel Syerov, Jr. (Paul to his friends) put down his work and opened another frosty can of diet cola. “Doesn’t it ever cool down in Texas?”
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by Teri O'Brien
From the Washington Post’s article about Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars
"Everything we're doing has to be focused on how we're going to get to the point where we can reduce our footprint. It's in our national security interest. There cannot be any wiggle room."
Obama rejected the military's request for 40,000 troops as part of an expansive mission that had no foreseeable end. "I'm not doing 10 years," he told Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a meeting on Oct. 26, 2009. "I'm not doing long-term nation-building. I am not spending a trillion dollars."
Stop the presses. Our Marxist, Amerika-hating, ACORN-educated Community Organizer-in-Chief isn’t interested in victory over America’s enemies, who just happen to share his sick, twisted view of our amazing country. His attitude is like Jay Cutler being interested in making sure that the Green Bay Packers win on Monday night, which should come as a surprise only to the really slow kids who still haven’t caught on.
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Congratulations to Joel Pollak, 9th CD GOP candidate to oust Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, for raising $150,000 at his fundraiser featuring U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan. The SEIU protestors, there at the beckoning of Schakowsky's campaign manager, failed to disrupt the event, although they gave it a good try.
Chicago News Bench's Tom Mannis reports via YouTube:
More on the event as live blogged by Marathon Pundit John Ruberry HERE.
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by John F. Di Leo
Tired and bored from a morning collating literature at party headquarters, Pavel Syerov Jr. (Paul to his friends) pushed back his chair from the table and said, “I need a soda. Can I get you anything, Pockets?”
Pockets, the old pol who ran the office when the Boss was out, straightened out the stacks of brochures and direct mail. “Sure, Paully, gimme a grenade. Thanks.”
Pavel went back to the refrigerator and collected a diet cola for himself and a longneck bottle for Pockets, and promptly returned. With adult unemployment at ten percent, there was no chance for a summer job for a 17-year-old, so he had been helping out at the local party HQ all summer. He knew the refrigerator and storeroom as well as any volunteer, and he and Pockets had become fast friends. The young man was getting a better education this summer than any summer school class could have taught.
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The day after thousands of purple-shirted state workers demanding higher taxes marched through Springfield's streets, House Democrats blocked passage of an effort to protect home health care workers from forced unionization. State Rep. Jim Durkin's HR 720 is a resolution calling on Governor Quinn to rescind his Executive Order forcing home care providers -- many of which care for their own family members -- to unionize. The home health caretakers voted down union efforts last year, despite what some called "bullying tactics" on behalf of the SEIU and AFSCME.
The National Right to Work Foundation announced Thursday morning they are suing Governor Quinn on behalf of those care providers who do not want to be unionized. From the NRWF:
Continue reading "Quinn faces class action lawsuit over home health care worker unionization" »
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