Illinois Review

Googlegate…oh, what a tangled web – part three

By Irene F. Starkehaus -  

Conservatives as a voting bloc have yet to figure out how to reconcile the values that a candidate declares on the stump to what his intentions are once he gets swept into office on a conservative platform. Let us be clear. Reagan's words have been pilfered by the RINOs on multiple occasions for the sole purpose of gaining power when they have no intention of following through on their election promises. ~part two

Conservatives recognize the challenges that we are facing politically, but still fail to produce a meaningful plan for energizing people to vote for our preferred solutions to the troubles our nation faces. We are guilty of the worst kind of crisis resolution when it comes to facing down the growth big government. We long for solutions, but our go-to strategy for breaking the Left's stranglehold is to unearth the outmoded bones of compromise that were fashioned for resolving conflict with people who don't view the US Constitution as an obstacle. We expect that our concessions with progressivism will produce happily-ever-afters and kinship with the opposition party and we are stunned when this strategy doesn't work.

A great example of this is Marco Rubio – rising star of the conservative coalition…rarely do we find such a person who is capable of so articulating conservative values, but he doesn't want to be accused of heartlessness when it comes to dealing with illegal immigration so what is his solution? Give Dems everything that they want and hope they will reciprocate our good faith compromises? Good heavens, why would they? But his answer to that question is, "Trust me. I'm not going to do anything that will hurt America's future."

As We Remember the Many, Remember Too the Individuals

By John F. Di Leo - 

Each Memorial Day, Americans proudly, and solemnly, display our flags only at the half-staff position for the morning, not to return them to the full-staff position until noon. This we do in memory of the million-some casualties whom our nation has lost in battle since the Founding era.

We hold parades in their honor; we hoist a flag and raise a toast at city parks and private barbecues. We may wear red, white and blue clothing, or flag lapel pins, or decorate our homes with bunting. But for all this show of support, who are we really honoring?  Do we know?

On July 4, we celebrate the Founding Fathers, a generation of giants who won us our independence and designed the greatest system of government ever attempted. We know their names, from school and books and popular culture. Our street signs bear their names, as do our school buildings and even our towns. 

Do We Really Honor Their Sacrifice?

By Sam Pierce - 

This morning I signed onto Facebook and of course, saw many Memorial Day tributes. The tributes very from the expressions of appreciation for the sacrifice that has enabled our freedom to the remembrance of Pat Tillman and suggestions that he was killed by the government to keep its opium business hidden. This day is one of a handful of days during which such tributes populate social media, accompanying flags flown where they would not normally be seen.

Generally speaking, do we honor the sacrifice of those who died in military service? I'm not questioning the motives behind today's expressions of sentiment and flag-flying. I am, however, wondering if the memory is honored by the actions of our government, including those with popular or "patriotic" support.

A Pentecostal Lesson for Politics Too

By John F. Di Leo -

The feast of Pentecost is the celebration of one of the most important moments in church history.  It commemorates the day when, after the Resurrection of the Lord, the Holy Spirit gave the Faithful a special ability to speak to crowds of different nationalities in their own languages.

Now, we don’t know exactly what happened that day – whether the Apostles instantly learned other languages, or their audiences instantly learned to hear them in their heads as if they had.  All we know is that the leaders of the Church were suddenly, miraculously, able to reach people, and this was new.   They were used to being the Lord’s followers – He did the speaking, not them – and now they were called upon to take on the role of the preacher themselves, and spread the Word.

There was to be a bit of an ongoing debate in the years to come – should we just preach the Word to the Jews, so that all Jews understand that Christ is “our” Messiah?   Or should we reach out to everyone, the gentiles too?   The way this particular Pentecost miracle worked out – the Apostles being heard and understood not just by Jews, but by everyone within earshot, whatever their ethnicity and religion – helped to settle that debate.  The message was for everyone on earth, and the order was clearly to get to work spreading that message.

A story of capitalism gone wild

By Irene F. Starkehaus - 

You know, we're pretty oriented to free market principles around here and we often celebrate our constitutionally protected rights to pursue happiness. We've regularly talked about the goodness of profit motive. We've veered into the spiritual arguments against materialism and we have been consistently adamant that capitalism must never be confused with greed or materialism. But that puts us in a quandary of sorts for we certainly cannot claim that capitalists are incapable of greed.

Sometimes they are.

Nations (like China, for instance) which practice a particularly unusual hybrid of capitalism and tyranny are a prime example of this. This is not to trivialize the instances of pesticides in the cat food and lead paint on the toy cars if we fail to point them out as the best examples of Chinese greed. Chinese greed? Well, no. They would say that these are examples of American greed – that American corporations, in their insane lust for profit and wealth, drove the Chinese factories to use low grade materials that were harmful to the health of children and pets thereby exposing those all-powerful American corporations to massive and crippling lawsuits. It's not China's fault. They are the victims here. So the examples of poisoned cat food and dime store chachkies simple won't suffice for this discussion on the contamination of capitalism because the source of greed is hard to pinpoint.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform: From Euphemisms and Buzzwords to Genuine Progress

By John F. Di Leo - 

There aren’t many things that this nation of immigrants agrees on, but there is one: that our immigration system is broken.  Not just mildly in need of correction, but terribly, destructively and counterproductively errant.

Americans are horrified that there are tens of millions of noncitizens in the United States, without permission, while others are horrified that those millions aren’t granted the same full legal status that citizens enjoy.

The severity of the problem is such that an effort is afoot for what its supporters call “comprehensive immigration reform,” and its supporters have the mainstream media so deep in their pocket that even the naive conservative firebrand Marco Rubio has been convinced to risk his political career in support of the current proposal. 

Does capitalism encourage immorality?

By Irene Starkehaus - 

Can morality be best described as a commodity auctioned to the highest bidder within our oft maligned profit-driven society? That is the question that Paul Farrell posed in the Wall Street Journal's online publication earlier this week.

I know. I know. For the time being, it's best to overlook our unbearable misery as we consider the once unabashedly free-market news source and its tortured descent into liberalism's seventh ring of equity. In this Obamian Utopia that we are creating, many heralded conservatives have succumbed to the feel-goodism of state sanctioned avarice for the sake of pragmatism. Why should the Wall Street Journal be any different? Instead of the wasted grief over the infidelity of this previously great ally in the conservative war against materialism, let us, for a moment, consider the question at hand.

Does capitalism kill morality? In Mr. Farrell's opinion, it does. Billionaires control the vast majority of the world's wealth, says he. And that is causing disparity and the ultimate collapse of our economy:

The Minimum Wage: A Maximum Distortion of the American Way

By John F. Di Leo - 

Hundreds of hourly employees of fast food restaurants and clothing shops, radicalized by the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, walked off the job last week, to protest the fact that the minimum wage isn’t a “living wage,” to encourage further unionization, and especially, to do their day’s service to the Democratic Party that keeps them in bondage.

This periodic saber-rattling of the American Left – about the alleged “need” to force other people to pay employees more than they think a job is worth – masquerades as a show of solidarity with the underpaid denizens of America’s lower class.  But it’s malicious and destructive, as it warps the public understanding of the market, and it undermines a desperately-needed understanding of the right paths needed to reach the American Dream.

A Tale of Two Cities Highlights Two Visions of America, and the GOP's Failure

By Teri O'Brien -

The Washington Post had an interesting article last Sunday about Woonsocket, Rhode Island. One third of the people in this town are on what used to be called, in a less sensitive time, food stamps, but which are now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The name changed and so did the stigma involved in presenting food coupons. Now, government dependents just swipe a card that looks just like your ATM card, Peasant. Recipients in Woonsocket call the first of the month “Check Day,” and they don’t mean paychecks.

At precisely one second after midnight, on March 1, Woonsocket would experience its monthly financial windfall — nearly $2 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Federal money would be electronically transferred to the broke residents of a nearly bankrupt town, where it would flow first into grocery stores and then on to food companies, employees and banks, beginning the monthly cycle that has helped Woonsocket survive.

Di Leo: Barack Obama and the Moment of Truth

By John F. Di Leo -

For one brief moment on Sequester Day – March 1, 2013 A.D., a day that will live in insolvency – President Barack Obama let down his guard. In one of his rare real press conferences, he accepted questions, and soon wished he hadn’t. Asked a very softball question – whether there was anything he might have done differently, or might do differently in the future, to break the gridlock and make progress on the government’s budget – Obama snapped back “Well, Julie, give me an example of what I might do!”

Simply incredible. All over the nation, people stared at their televisions, radios, and computer screens, and began to shout. This was more than just a moment of truth, in which he acknowledged how far he was out of his depth in this office, how unprepared he was for the job a gullible nation had twice granted him. 

This was a virtual plea for captions, a straight line begging for a punchline.

Barack Obama and the Zone of Misguided Promises

By John F. Di Leo - 

On a winter day in 2013, Barack Obama flew home to Chicago and tried to channel Jack Kemp.

As the Democratic Party and the Main Stream Media do his bidding, focusing their coverage on the “gun violence” of America’s cities, Obama attempts to ride this manufactured PR wave with a new political issue as his snowboard, the establishment of Promise Zones.

The idea is to take the worst neighborhoods – the cities most in need of help – and revive them with a public-private partnership of new businesses and more – much more – government assistance. The plan is to use government largesse to drive mini-recoveries in the cities, providing tax credits for new businesses to move in, and more federally funded pre-K schooling, mandated increases in the minimum wage, and focused job training for the jobs he dreams might someday appear in their midst. Surely such a program will save these troubled neighborhoods, right?

Surely these gang recruiters wouldn’t have been successful in attracting children to their gang lifestyle of drugs and luxury cars, gold jewelry and cool clothes, if only the kids had been introduced to “See Spot Run” and “Meet Dick and Jane” at four instead of at five. That year of pre-school simply must make all the difference…

A President for America, An Inspiration for the World

By John F. Di Leo -

Reflections on the birthday of Ronald Reagan 

Illinois calls itself the Land of Lincoln, proud of the self-educated man who made a national name for himself in Springfield, and rose from country lawyer to president when Illinois was still young.  But Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky and raised in Indiana; he only moved to Illinois when he came of age at 21.

The great Union General Ulysses S. Grant too is credited as an Illinois president, having lived in Galena when the Civil War broke out and through his candidacy for the presidency.  But Grant had lived all over the country, and only moved to Illinois at the age of 38. 

So too, Barack Hussein Obama is thought of as an Illinois president, but again the claim is tenuous; Obama was probably born in Hawaii, and was raised there and in Indonesia before attending college in California and the East Coast.  The man known as “The Child of the Chicago Machine” didn’t actually move to Illinois until he was 24.

Things I Learned While Falling Off a Cliff

By John F. Di Leo -

The nation’s problems are almost all economic ones.

That’s not to say that we don’t have social problems too, or that we don’t have defense problems too.  But even those can be somewhat alleviated by fixing our economic problems.

Too many of us don’t go to church or synagogue every week… too many of us don’t have intact families.  And our nation is beset with threats from criminals from across our border and from terrorists from across the ocean.

But if we were to fix our economic problems, one byproduct of that fix would be that those other problems would be diminished.  So many of our social problems are exacerbated by a welfare state that divides and discourages intact families, trapping millions in self-perpetuating ever-worsening circumstances; so many of our foreign policy problems are exacerbated by pouring oil dollars into the coffers of islamofascist nations that sponsor terror and foment war.  So we must concentrate on fixing the economy first. 

Five Mainstream Republican Resolutions for 2013

By John F. Di Leo -

Time once again for a list of New Year’s Resolutions for the Republican Party. The party leaders haven’t taken my advice these past few years, so there’s no reason to believe they shall this year, but who knows? Perhaps if things get too dire, they’ll start looking to bloggers for solutions to the problems that their top consultants haven’t been able to solve. One can but hope.

1.  Learn the Meaning of Compromise

This isn’t entirely fair, but it’s still a good place to begin. Republicans are notorious for conceding defeat before negotiations begin.

Let’s say for example that the Republicans know that a 30% tax rate cut would be the best thing to spur the economy, create jobs, and restore upward mobility to all demographics. But the Democrats are still clamoring for a 30% tax increase because they’ve drunk so much Keynesian kool-aid that their veins run purple with the stuff.

Of fiscal cliffs and realistic resolutions

By Cranky Housewife -

It's just that, what difference does it make? Nothing ever changes anyway.

That one little statement is a major triumph of the Left's stubbornly unending fiscal melt downs, you know. Play it again, Uncle Sam. We're down to the wire. The Republicans are proving to be diplomatically inept against…the superior political intellect?...really?...of the Democrats once again. And all you can manage to think is, "Is it too much to ask that these Bozos just get it done without the drama so that I can enjoy my holidays? I mean, how much are we paying these guys anyway?"

Truth is, this little donkey and elephant show has been on permanent rerun since the Clinton Administration perfected it's War on Republicans during their own little fiscal cliff fiasco – you know, I've always thought that if the Democrats would work half as hard at actually solving the world's problems as they work to annihilate their political enemies and grab power, the country would be strong, well-educated and hunger-free in half a decade. But I supposed their wasted potential is quite beside the point.

The current economic bile that passes for political discourse would be a tragically tedious rehash under the best of circumstances, but how many times have we repeated this fiscal melodrama just this year? And it's almost New Year's Eve. How on earth are we supposed to keep caring about a crisis that's already been scripted to yield maximum economic pain for the producers of this nation and only waits for the clock to run out before that truth is revealed to an audience so overwrought by the absolute angst of it all?

Di Leo: Greco Sees Double

By John F. Di Leo - 

The minor mob boss from the south of Europe learns about double-entry bookkeeping… coming soon to a western nation near you?

It was a good day for a walk. The sun was shining, the air was clear… the view from Athens, out across the lovely Aegian Sea, had never been so sparkling. So Greco put on his pea coat and fisherman’s cap, clipped his blackjack on his belt and checked his pocket for his switchblade, pulled on his driving gloves and walked outside.

In the old days, Greco had more employees to help with the collection task; he just got the business himself, then sent out his bagmen for the monthly protection money (weekly for some… you might say Greco’s business required certain flexibility in payment plans).

DiLeo: Greco Sees A Beating

By John F. Di Leo -

Reflections on the ultimate conclusion of punitive taxation

Greco was making his rounds, one cool December morning, when he turned the corner and saw an unexpected sight. One of his clients, a shopkeeper who was never late with his protection payments, was sitting on the park bench in front of his shop, covered in bandages, gently rubbing his cheek and temples.

“Giannis!” shouted Greco as he strode up. “What happened? Were you in an accident?”

Giannis looked up. “Yeah, it was an accident, all right.”

“You look like you were hit by a bus!” said Greco. “Will you be okay? Were you driving? Were you just crossing the street?”

Giannis shook his head no. “No, it wasn’t that kind of accident, Greco.”

Greco’s worry turned to anger as he put two and two together. “Somebody beat you up?” Giannis nodded. “Who was it?” demanded Greco. “I’ll take care of it! Everybody in town knows not to mess with my clients! They’ll never walk again!”

Aim Those Scissors Somewhere Else!

By John F. Di Leo -

The nation is in recession. Home foreclosures continue to wreck lives, unemployment (when counted honestly) remains in the mid-teens, business startups are in virtual retreat.

But not to worry, the president and the leaders of Congress are working on an agreement to raise real taxes and maybe, just maybe, to cut the projected increase in future spending a bit. Ooh. What a relief.

Have none of this nation’s leaders, and none of the mainstream media, ever taken an econ class? Haven’t they even played back their own speeches from as recently as a year ago? What on earth are they doing, talking about raising taxes in the midst of a five year recession?

For Economic Growth: Full Steam Ahead!

By John F. Di Leo -

In the 1760s, the British fought a world war, partially to defend her American colonies from French encroachment. When they tried to unfairly raise taxes to pay for that war, American colonists objected, so the British solved the problem in a way that suited the times: They merely mandated that virtually all American commerce must move through London. Everything had to be exported to London and imported from London… so that the king would be sure to get his cut. The colonists objected, and started a war of independence over it, because the king had them chained; this coastal nation could only ship through the Atlantic Ocean, and Great Britain ruled the Atlantic.

In the summer of 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, working together (yes, this was before he turned traitor) captured Fort Ticonderoga to win the prize of its wonderful artillery… then abandoned it when they couldn’t figure out a way to move the guns the 220 miles from the fort to Boston. New England was then an unnavigable region of forests and mountains; with no roads, trucks, rails, or other modern transportation solutions, those 220 miles may as well have been across an ocean… at least until the brilliant Henry Knox came along with a plan for that noble train of artillery. But Knox’s solution could hardly be replicated as a regular mode of trade.

Mitt Romney: Half-Right, But Still Clueless

By Teri O'Brien -

The denizens of the 24/7 nuthouse, which I watch so you don't have to, MS-NBC, and other fellow travelers in the Lame Stream Media, are feigning outrage over Mitt Romney's recent post-election statements, in which he blamed his campaign's failure to rescue our country from the clutches of the Chicago Mafia on the "gifts" the One has bestowed on his supporters.

As I told you here, there certainly were answers to Obama's argument "Vote for me! I'm giving you free stuff!" Mitt failed to make them because he is not a conservative. Unlike Ronald Reagan, who spent decades reading, writing, analyzing and honing his conservative message, a message he understood in his bones, Mitt tried to speak conservatism as a second language, which is why the obvious answers weren't there, and why he is left throwing up his hands saying "What am I supposed to do? I can't compete with free stuff!"

Wrong, but you need to articulate a clear message about free people, free markets, and prosperity, and why government dependency starts out as a cozy, comfy little hideaway from cold, cruel reality, and ends up being an inescapable prison.

Jones directs Illinois lottery, and sees the world

By John Ruberry -

A short while ago, we showed you how Illinois Lottery Director Mike Jones stuck his nose in Indiana’s private lottery procurement process, unsuccessfully criticizing Illinois’ successes in that regard, potentially because he lost a bid for Illinois' lottery contract himself. During his anti-Illinois lottery campaign, Jones made two trips to Indianapolis - one in October 2011 and another in March 2012. We question the value of such trips for Illinois taxpayers. Indeed, upon close examination of roughly a year’s worth of Jones’ travel vouchers, we have even more questions.

It’s no secret that Illinois is broke. As lawmakers in Springfield do what they please, Illinois taxpayers are shouldering the burden. In just a few short years, our property taxes and income taxes have skyrocketed, and businesses (and people) have left the state in droves as doing business in Illinois becomes more expensive by the day. Although Illinois families struggle to put food on the table, Springfield bureaucrats and politicians wine and dine themselves. And Mike Jones appears to be no exception.

The Political Lessons of a Disaster

By John F. Di Leo -

There are certain subjects that we feel – in our hearts – should be “outside of politics.” We hear of human tragedy, whether an accidental death, or a hurricane, or earthquake, and we unite in prayer and support of the victims.

But that doesn’t really mean that it should be – or ever really can be – entirely outside of politics.

Ours is a political system, a nation run by representative governments at every level. So if a flooded subway is to be cleared, that’s a job for the political appointees of a mayor or city council. If power needs to be restored, we turn to a publicly licensed utility, chosen by city, county, or state. If a harbor is to be cleared of debris so that ships can again sail in and out, and so a critical transportation hub can continue to function, that’s a job for a partnership of local, state, and national agencies, from the local port authority to the Army Corps of Engineers. Whether these politicians or their appointees do their jobs well or poorly is certainly legitimate material for election season.

Obama has a plan for America - an insidious plan

By Teri O'Brien - 

Barack Obama is a man with a plan, and it isn’t the recycled, and long ago broken, promises repeated in the silly brochure he has been waving around in front of his low-information fans during recent campaign appearances. It’s true that these tired slogans reflect his no-growth, big government policies, and are a rehash of what he promised in 2008. It’s also true that the only people left who are surprised by that fact are the afore-mentioned ignoramuses who still don’t recognize what a breathtaking failure he has been. The pamphlet is nothing more than another coverup of his actual plan for America; specifically, to make it poorer and weaker, no longer the world’s sole superpower, but just another country in the United Nations roll call, to make its citizens more dependent on the government for even their most basic needs, and to confiscate and redistribute wealth from the makers to the takers.

IL lottery chief Michael Jones goes to Indiana and disses IL lottery

By John Ruberry -

Illinois Lottery Commissioner Michael Jones (photo right) has been taking a number of field trips lately, heading to nearby states, including Indiana, to speak out…against the Illinois Lottery.

This might seem strange. After all, following its privatization, the Illinois Lottery has greatly improved its take. In fiscal year 2012, the Lottery made $100 million more than it did in 2011, before privatization took effect. Regardless of how you might feel philosophically about gambling – or for that matter, about the state taking money from its own citizens – Illinois is in such dire financial straits that you’d think Springfield would be elated at the thought of receiving that kind of easy money, and eager to share its success with every neighbor who would listen.

Nevertheless, Jones took it upon himself to insert his unsolicited opinion on how to run a lotto contract award process when our neighbors in Indiana considered plans to emulate Illinois’ success. Jones trashed Illinois' selection process for the lotto contract to the Indiana government and the Indiana press, in what appears to be a clear attempt to prevent Indiana from courting the same group of lottery sub-contractors.

Welfare spending up 32%, reaches all-time high of $1.03 trillion

WASHINGTON DC - Despite the Obama Administration's costly job stimulus plans, over the past four years, welfare spending jumped 32%, the Congressional Research Service reported Thursday.  Federal spending on more than 80 low-income assistance programs reached $746 billion in 2011, and state spending on those programs brought the total to $1.03 trillion.

The biggest federal welfare expense was Medicaid, which rose from $82 billion in 2008 to $296 billion in 2011. The next biggest item was food stamps, which hit an historical high of $75 billion in 2011, nearly doubling since 2008.

More at Washington Times

Free Phones and the Loss of Freedoms

By John F. Di Leo -

Statistics are odd things.  They can grab one’s attention; they can utterly fascinate, or they can make one’s eyes glaze over.

Election seasons are a great time for such examples – candidates, parties, and commentators all use statistics to make their points, but all too often, the important issues are lost in the shuffle of challenges or defenses to the statistics.

The modern welfare state presents such a problem.  Consider the “rise of the Obamaphone” in recent years, as a three-decade-old policy of providing the most indigent with a subsidized landline has been translated by the current administration as a commitment to provide 12.5 million voters with the latest cellphones.  Honestly, shouldn’t the recipients be offended that their party hopes their votes can be bought with a free phone?

First, the statistics:  there were about 7.1 million federally-subsidized cellphones in 2008, and that number nearly doubled to 12.5 million during the Obama presidency.  Politicians are sure that these statistics will affect the November elections, especially with the news that about a million of them are in Ohio, the battleground of all battlegrounds.

Di Leo: Greco Strikes a match

By John F. Di Leo -

The mob boss from the south of Europe encounters an unexpected demonstration as he makes his rounds in Athens one September Wednesday...

Greco was feeling sorry for himself.  As his career decline approached four years of sheer misery, he was beginning to wish he had become a fisherman, hotel clerk, tour guide, archaeologist… heck, anything would be better than running the rackets in times like these.  How do you shake people down when the people don’t have anything left to be shaken out of them?

Wednesday, September 26 was a particularly bad day for Greco, as he wandered through Athens on his regular collection run. 

It wasn’t a difficult job; you get up in the morning and shower and dress, like everybody else… maybe put on a leather jacket or a wool pea coat, depending on the weather, a traditional Greek fisherman’s cap as a rakish nod to the past… affix a blackjack to your belt and keep a set of brass knuckles in your pocket… and head out to work.  A lot like your typical commuter, Greco thought, except that his hours were his own, and he got more fresh air than most people.

Kansas' Huelskamp objects to USDA takeover of school lunch programs

The debate about the new federal school lunch program is just heating up and moms aren't happy about what's going on with their kids. Tuesday, Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton wrote about the school lunch debate and urged the real Nutrition Nannies to re-assume their parental rights to make choices for their kids. The "hungry kids" debate continued this morning, when Congressman Tim Huelskamp of Kansas took it to the national level on CBS morning news. Nationwide, taxpayers are funding the lunches of 31 million school age kids now getting between 650 and 850 calorie lunches, approved by the USDA.

Barack Obama and the Effects of Unemployment

By John F. Di Leo -

What is the problem of unemployment?  It’s a political issue, in a way, the biggest one of them all. What is it that makes unemployment below 5% an achievement, and unemployment above 5% a crisis? And why do the left and the right have such different approaches to that crisis?

5% unemployment has long been considered “effectively full employment” in the United States. At this rate, Americans feel, everybody who wants a job right now either has that job or is in the process of a willing, patient search for the right one. 

There are always couple percent who are unemployed because they just don’t want to work, so they go between jobs as long as they can, and a couple percent who are in an intentional gap between jobs, taking a couple weeks off after leaving one and starting the next, or after being graduated from school and starting the first job. In a normal economy, there are millions of people in this circumstance at any given time.

People, Pork, and Primaries

By John F. Di Leo

Reflections on spending a day at a state fair

Wisconsin holds its state fair in West Allis, a close-in suburb of Milwaukee, in the state’s southeast corner.  This makes it a more convenient state fair for Chicago’s north suburbanites than our own Illinois state fair in Springfield, so one sees a number of fellow Chicagoans munching on funnel cakes and riding the giant slide every year. 

State Fair: it’s not just for farmers anymore.

Which Party is Really Anti-Gay?

By John F. Di Leo -

Desperate to distract the public from the presidential election season, Democrat politicians grasped at a peculiar straw – an interview in an obscure publication in which the head of a fast food chain acknowledged his support of existing law – to brand that entire fast food chain as being a crowd of bigots deserving of economic destruction.

So the Left called for a boycott. It failed, of course; all they succeeded in doing was to remind the majority of what a terrific company Chick-Fil-A is. All over the country, the chain enjoyed record lines all day, with cars frequently backed up for blocks as Americans patiently waited for a chance to show their support of a company so honorable that they close on Sundays so their employees can go to church in the morning and spend the day with their families.

The story therefore got away from the original intention. It became about Chick-Fil-A, instead of about “gay rights.” But gay rights are still worth talking about, so let’s spend a few minutes on them, shall we?

Sacred Cows and Holy Cows

By Hannah Ihms -

When President Obama questioned a business owner’s role in the success of his company, he questioned more than who gets credit for what. He questioned private property itself. If “you didn’t build that,” do you really even own it?

As grand as the Great Pyramids and the Roman Coliseum are, there’s something profoundly unsettling on reflecting that they were built on the backs of slaves. If you and I were properly indoctrinated, we’d feel the same indignation when we looked at the Sears Tower or the Space Needle.

Because, we’re told, businesses are the Bain of our existence. Our employer may press a paycheck into our sweaty, calloused hands, but he’s paying only a fraction of what is rightfully ours. We’ll claim the whole shebang when the workers unite. Then we’ll collectivize... and restratify?

Year-Round Lessons from a Winter Day

By John F. Di Leo -

Once upon a time, oh, let’s say, six or seven months ago…  an agent of the federal government arrived at a private farmer’s large cornfield in Barron County, Wisconsin, surveyed the scene, then walked up to the farmer.

“Hello, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you,” said the federal agent, lacking either the inclination or ability to be more creative in his introduction.    The farmer nodded, but said nothing, as he hadn’t actually asked for any help, and wondered why the guy had come.

“As far as I can see” said the agent from Washington, D.C., “nothing’s growing on your land. Nothing at all.”

Barack Obama, International Man of Mystery, Rescued by Chief Justice Roberts

By Teri O'Brien -

Thursday morning when I first heard the results of the Obamacare decision, I recalled some words from John Roberts confirmation hearing back in 2005, when he quoted Professor of Law John MacArthur Maguire, who referred to law as the “the wise restraints that make men free.”

Until I read the decision, I assumed that he must be finding some way to show great deference to Congress. In fact, it was just the opposite. As the always brilliant Justice Scalia points out in his dissent, Justice Roberts didn’t interpret the statute. He rewrote it, and he did so in direct contravention of not only the Founders’ plan, as expressed in Federalist Papers, but also in the legislative history. That’s a legalistic way of saying Congress knew what it was doing, and it specifically rejected versions of the Affordable Care Act (I laugh every time I hear that name) that called the “penalty” a “tax.”

Roberts engaged in ridiculous gymnastics, sophistry really, first correctly stating that stretching the Commerce Clause to the point of penalizing those who don’t buy something would make the federal government’s power nearly unlimited, then proceeding to write an opinion that makes the taxing power of the federal government nearly unlimited.

From Sixteen Tons to Sixteen Months – the Business Cycle and the Downward Spiral

By John F. Di Leo -

The Left feels cheated. Not by you or me… not by the system, exactly, but by fate.

Recessions, someone told them, resolve themselves in sixteen months, give or take. That’s what someone calculated, someone who knew about such things, someone who did math and statistics for a living, and should therefore know.

And if recessions resolve themselves in sixteen months, we can do whatever we want in 2009, they reasoned. Whatever we want. Raise taxes, force through some massive spending bills and regulations, provide giveaways to our buddies… If the recession will end anyway, why not?

And so they created “Cash for Clunkers” to buy the votes of American car buyers by paying them to destroy their American cars and purchase Hondas and Toyotas and Hyundais instead.

Illinois Review interviews State Senate Candidate John Bambenek

By Hannah Ihms, IR Correspondent -

Illinois Review recently interviewed John Bambenek, a conservative Republican candidate running for the 52nd State Senate district which stretches from Champaign to Danville.

Where did you grow up and what do you do for a living?

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, in Oak Grove. I moved to the University of Illinois for college and that’s where I met my wife and never left. I’ve been in Champaign for seventeen years. Professionally I do electronic fraud prevention, so essentially I deal with Russian hackers trying to steal your credit card and bank account information. 

How did you decide to run for State Senate?

I’ve been active in politics for a while, most actively since I’ve had children and seen the direction of the state in terms of its ever-increasing tax burden, debt burden, and the amount of jobs and opportunities leaving the state. I’m much more conscious as to what kind of future my children will have. With this status quo, they won’t have the kind of opportunities I’ve had, and as a father that’s not really acceptable to me. The way to change that is to change the people who are there.

Di Leo: Greco sees a ghost

By John F. Di Leo -

The poor relative of Europe contemplates his choices, with just a little help from beyond…

Greco had had a bad year. Well, that’s not entirely true. He’d had several bad years, and they just kept getting worse. 

In debt up to his eyeballs with a grubber list that no amount of income could ever cover, he had turned to the biggest loan sharks on the continent: He got hundreds of billions from Madame Angela and Slick Nicky, back when Slick Nicky still had a say in the matter. Now that he’s heard of a change in management up at Mob Headquarters in Brussels, he’s beginning to fear for his life.

Greco thought he’d tried everything before turning to the loan sharks. He’d nicely recommended to his grubber list that they cut back on their spending; they said no. So he nicely asked them to contribute a bit more to the pot; they said no. 

Illinois Policy Institute blasts IL Republican support for ObamaCare

From Illinois Policy Institute -

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (May 25, 2012) – Late Thursday, Illinois lawmakers approved legislation that would implement ObamaCare two years ahead of schedule in Cook County. Sixteen Republican lawmakers voted for the ObamaCare legislation, bucking the national trend of Republicans standing firm against President Obama’s misguided, big-government health mandate.

Illinois Policy Institute CEO John Tillman released the following statement regarding the Republican support for ObamaCare:

“By partnering with Democrats to implement ObamaCare ahead of schedule in Cook County, these Illinois Republicans and Illinois Republican leadership demonstrated how out of step they are with taxpayers and members of their own party. Unfortunately, this is not the only arena in which Illinois Republicans are the outlier.

Tell them to say NO to tax hikes and ObamaCare

By Kristina Rasmussen, Illinois Policy Institute

You are making a difference, but we're not done yet. Phones at the statehouse have been ringing off the hook since we alerted you last week to mischief in Springfield regarding plans to hike taxes and implement ObamaCare early under the guise of "Medicaid reform."

Concerned citizens are weighing in against misguided policy deals and demanding real reform – such as the 59 savings ideas unveiled by the Institute Monday with state Sens. Kyle McCarter, Sam McCann and Darin LaHood. Together, this multifaceted approach offers more than $2.7 billion in real expenditure reductions.

Writing on the plan, Crain’s political writer Greg Hinz said: “The Illinois Policy Institute says the state can begin to bring Medicaid into balance without cutting reimbursement rates for hospitals and without imposing a $1-a-pack cigarette hike…Some of the ideas clearly make sense, such as better price transparency, worth $185 million a year.”

Where is the leadership​?

By John Tillman, CEO of Illinois Policy Institute -

Every now and then you find out whether leaders and legislators are truly for reform or whether they simply use the concept to advance electoral imperatives. The upcoming votes on Medicaid, pensions and the state budget will be illuminating.

Things are moving quickly in Springfield, and the most urgent issue on deck is Medicaid. Leadership of both parties promised real reform. However, that's not what is being delivered. We're about to be asked to swallow an incomplete reform plan coupled with a tax hike and a disastrous Medicaid rate cut that will hurt the poorest among us. It is not yet clear if we can count on Republican leadership to take a strong and principled stand against this disastrous deal.

Quinn's proposal on TRS benefits could be a 'Blessing in Disguise'

By Nancy Thorner -

In April Governor Quinn released his reform pension plan. Five basics tenets were noted, but the one that seems to be generating the most controversy among educators is Quinn's number four agenda item: "Gradually shift the payments for retirement system back to the local taxing bodies over a 3-year period."

The proposal remained a proposal until May 2nd when the Illinois Policy Institute released a study which was in sync with Quinn's reform proposal and which immediately created a fire storm of protest by the head of the Illinois Education Association and a spokesman for the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS).

The May 2nd IPI study, entitled Playing Favorites: Education pension spending favors wealthy, suburban schools, found that teachers in two-thirds (555 out of 867) of the school districts outside of Chicago pay little to nothing toward their own retirements. Instead, their local school districts pick up some or all of the teachers' "employee" TRS pension contributions -- a luxury that those in the private sector are rarely if ever accorded --negotiated at the local level by teacher unions. The TRS spokesman, in a counter attack, did concede that education pension spending does favors wealthy, suburban schools.

Visible Statistics and Hidden Misses: Chicago's 2012 NATO Summit

By John F. Di Leo -

When the president’s former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel (D, Wilmette) became Mayor of Chicago, many expected him to use his many Washington contacts to bring some big business his way, and he delivered.

Mayor Richard M. Daley had sought to bring the Olympics to Chicago… no such luck.

But Emanuel did indeed deliver, if on a slightly lesser scale: in his first year, he secured two big meetings for Chicago, the first, a G-20 conference, and the second, a NATO summit.

The G-20 meeting was quietly pulled, under cover of darkness, to be held at Camp David instead (good call!).  But no matter, the NATO summit would still go on.  Emanuel held in his fury and put on a positive face: we still have the NATO summit to put my city on the map.  52 world leaders and their motorcades will see Chicago and its highway system, up close and personal.  That’s what counts.

Illinois on pension bonds: "Up to no good"

Bloomberg.com's Monday assessment of Illinois' disastrous teacher pension news being 47% funded was blamed on the federally-imprisoned former Governor Rod Blagojevich - specifically on Blagojevich's $10 billion bond plan that four Republicans helped put into effect:

One of [Blagojevich's] first initiatives was a pension-obligation bond plan. For years, Illinois had been struggling to come up with enough cash to make required payments into its pension system (even though its law stating what was “required” was more lax than what was recommended by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board). Blagojevich proposed that the state shore up its pension funds by issuing $10 billion in bonds and investing the proceeds in the pension fund.

Ryan: A budget that trusts the American spirit

WASHINGTON DC - Thursday, during the U.S. House budget debate, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin articulated the basic principles of conservatism, including affirming that American's natural rights "come from God and nature, not government."

The Clouded Utopian Vision for Healthcare Ignores Reality

By Richard Amerling, MD -

In his latest book Ameritopia, Mark Levin discusses utopian “masterminds” who make promises of “heaven on earth” that are never possible to deliver. Attempting to create utopia leads to disruptions in the status quo, always making it worse. In order to pursue their agenda, utopians must ignore history, current realities on the ground, facts, science, and human nature. They must also turn a blind eye to the human suffering their efforts cause. They must lie and misinform on a massive scale to convince citizens they live in misery and should give up their liberty for false promises. In medicine we have terms to describe such thought processes—delusional, sociopathic, and schizophrenic!

Are "Women and Independents" Really as Bad as They are Portrayed?

By Sam Pierce -

Whether it is the media, operatives pushing “moderate” candidates, or liberal Democrats (wait, I already mentioned the media) helping their own, “women and independents are sure getting a bad rap. On one hand, the two groups are built up as critical voting blocks to which appeals must be made if one wishes electoral success. On the other hand, they are portrayed as immoral, foolish voters who seek diminished liberty and abolition of individual responsibility. It is a shame that what seems to be an overwhelming majority of those with a platform have been able to paint “women and independents” in such an unflattering manner.

I realize that it is necessary for political actors to create groups, formulate polls, and fabricate narratives in the interest of their candidates or causes. Are “women” a voting block? Are “independents” all of like mind? If so, how the hell are they “independent?” Can women also be independent and if they are, does that mean that all women and all independents are expected to vote the same way? Stupid question, you say? I agree, but then again, I am not the one pretending that “women and independents” are the way they are being portrayed.

Given the recent shaping of the news to deflect critical examination of President Obama’s successes (not failures, as evidenced by his disdain for his country), “women and independents” are taking center stage. What is so bad about the presentation of these all-important deciders of the future?

Neo-proggies Plead the Tenth

By Sam Pierce -

Let me be clear (not intending to quote Dear Reader, Chairman Obama), just to answer the proggy troll assertion before it is spewed. This is not an attack on or an argument against federalism or the tenth amendment. I know the playbook calls for the troll to feign indignation and lob accusations of selectively supporting state’s rights and being a hypocrite in regard to the Constitution. Call an audible. The complaints against tyrannical moves on the state level are not calls for federal government intervention. One does not have to approve of the actions of proggies and neo-proggies in their various states simply because they are exercising “state’s rights.”

Is it a contradiction to support state rights and not support politicians who have executed acts of government intrusion in their respective states? Absolutely not, and one would have to be somewhat warped to make that determination. Further, it is ridiculous that a certain establishment choice for the presidential nomination would expect liberty-minded citizens to celebrate his statist exercise as a “state’s rights” triumph. Of course, as seems to be the case with most of the candidates supported by the party elite, contortions unrivaled by any human pretzel must be executed to even present the illusion of a limited government conservative.

Illinois Senate tallies 11 LIFT Leaders

SPRINGFIELD - Eleven state senators voted in the 2011 Legislative Session to promote the conservative LIFT principles of Limited government, Individual rights, Free markets and Traditional values. United to Restore Freedom's (URF) fifth annual legislative scorecard averaged together the lawmakers' scores over the years they've been in the General Assembly. View the URF's 2011 Legislative Scorecard HERE.

Sears adds five more Illinois stores to its "to be shuttered" list

HOFFMAN ESTATES- First, Sears threaten to pack up and leave their Hoffman Estates-based national headquarters, then they got $250 million in state and local sweetheart tax incentives to stay, then they announced last week they're cutting 100 workers in Hoffman Estates.  But that's not the latest, despite Illinois' admirable attempt at bailing out, picking winners and losers, just like the feds do...

Here's Illinois' retail sales death by a thousand cuts - five more painful ones announced today by Sears ...

DiLeo: George Washington, the Inspiration of American Independence

by John F. Di Leo -

Reflections on George Washington's Birthday...

On April 5, 1769, George Washington sat down at his writing desk in Mt. Vernon, to write what historian Willard Sterne Randall calls the most important letter of his life.

For a political and military leader in the days before telephones and email, that’s quite a claim… but let’s consider the circumstances.