illinoisreview

Ozinga talks cash and conservation at the pumps

MOKENA -- Two days after returning from a trip to Moscow where he attended the graduation ceremony of a Russian university on whose board of trustees he serves, 11th CD candidate Marty Ozinga will be pumping gas for four hours in southwest suburban Mokena today.  The owner of Ozinga Concrete, with 30 locations and a fleet of cement trucks, plans to discuss the high price of gasoline with those drivers whose tanks he'll be filling.

“I know what people are going through when it comes to paying for fuel,” Ozinga said. “Our business uses 4 million gallons of diesel fuel each year. If the price of fuel goes up just 50 cents, that’s $2 million that we have to eat. And of course, it has gone up by much more than just 50 cents.

"All Kids" means "all," but Gov doesn't know how many

by Cal Skinner

One of the first articles on McHenry County Blog was "Will Those Illegally in Illinois Will Be the Biggest Beneficiary of Governor Rod Blagojevich’s 'All Kids' Health Plan?"  It ran on October 24, 2005.

At a town meeting conducted by State Senator Pam Althoff and State Rep. Mike Tryon in Lake in the Hills on October 24, 2005, the question came up and impressed the Northwest Herald reporter and editor enough that it ended up on the front page of the paper.

Springfield's "Deal or No Deal" re-runs

Little by little, we're hearing just how furious state lawmakers are with deals that were apparently cut last Thursday and Friday to spare the Governor embarrassment of the recall amendment on this November's ballot. Democrats in the Senate fell two votes short of passing the recall referendum and Senator Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete), at the behest of Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), adjourned the week's session just in time for the Dems to head for Indiana to help the floundering Obama campaign.

Just what kind of Springfield deal or no deal re-runs were played?  Here's what State Rep. Bob Pritchard (R-Sycamore) suggests happened in today's newsletter:

It’s common knowledge how Senate President Jones twisted Democratic arms to defeat the elected official recall constitutional amendment last week despite overwhelming popular support for the measure.  We are just now starting to hear about the promises made to get those “no” votes.

The truce in the Governor’s war on agriculture was pretty transparent.  His office quickly announced the release of agricultural funding for Extension, 4-H, C-FAR, conservation districts and other ag programs.  Just a few days ago he justified the withholding of nearly the entire budgets for these programs on the grounds that the state was broke.  Governor, what changed in two days besides the vote on recall?

There are reports that efforts to close a state prison in a Democratic senator’s district were suddenly refocused on a prison in a Republican’s district when the Democrat failed to show-up for the vote on the recall issue.  Other stories are circulating about moving an entire government department from Springfield to Benton, to help boost the local standing of a senator after his “no” vote.  Stay tuned for more reports about wasting public funds.

Cross reviews this week at the Capitol

Take a few minutes and listen to this week's House Minority Leader Tom Cross' "Capitol Week in Review" update. 

House Republicans are focused on holding the line on taxes and approving a balanced budget this year.  They're also trying to suspend the gas tax to give Illinoisans a break as gas prices edge up to over $4 a gallon. 

With the higher prices of fuel, food, home mortgage crisis, home values declining, House Republicans need to hear from folks back home that they're on the right track holding back as many higher costs as they can. 

Download cross_week_in_review_208_52_a.MP3

Rep. Davis, Rev. Wright and Rob Sherman

Atheist blogs are buzzing this weekend (here, here and here) about Eric Zorn's blog post on State Rep Monique Davis' (D-Chicago) comments during a House committee hearing last week.  Upset about atheist Rob Sherman's opposition to a new law requiring schools to set aside a "moment of silence" at schools, Rep. Davis' unhappiness turned into a pretty boisterous critique of atheism and Sherman himself (audio available here) during Sherman's testimony against the Governor giving a million taxpayer dollars to Pilgrim Baptist Church's Loop Lab school:

"I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln  where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous--"

Rep. Davis' angry comments shouldn't be a surprise.  She's another politician who's been influenced by the church where she's often seen in the pews, located in her home district -- Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ.   

As reported a few weeks ago on Illinois Review, Rep. Davis sponsored a House resolution honoring Wright in March 2008 here and another in 2007.

Another small step for homosexual rights

If you think Chicago teachers aren't paid enough, you'll be thrilled about the new benefits they'll be getting if State Rep. Greg Harris' (D-Chicago) HB 4731 passes in the House. 

With HB 4731, in addition to the health benefits they're already getting, Chicago teachers' survivor and death benefits will be able to be bestowed upon same sex domestic partners, as well.  Before the March 13th House committee hearing, Rep. Harris -- the only openly gay House member -- included opposite sex partners in the bill's language.   Now the definition of domestic partners applies to same sex partners only.

If you're wondering how HB 4731 defines as a domestic partner, here it is:

"Domestic partner" means an individual of the same sex as an unmarried teacher who (1) is involved with the teacher in a long-term relationship of indefinite duration; (2) has resided together with the teacher at the same address for at least 12 months; (3) is not related to the teacher by blood to a degree of closeness that would prohibit legal marriage in the state in which they legally reside; (4) is not married to any other person; and (5) has an exclusive mutual commitment to the teacher in which they agree to be jointly responsible for each other's common welfare and to share financial obligations.

This is nothing but another incremental effort to force hard-working taxpayers to subsidize homosexual rights.

Froehlich promotes special rights for hookah smokers

After helping to lead the way last year for the statewide smoking ban, seems State Rep. Paul Froehlich's (D-Schaumburg) found there's some smokers in the state who he thinks should have special rights -- those into hookah smoking.

Despite the fact the Mayo Clinic says hookah smokers absorb more tobacco than regular cigarette smokers, Rep. Froehlich has now decided there's certain constituents who should not be denied the cultural experience of social hookah smoking -- that's unhealthy and well, anti-multicultural, therefore politically incorrect, you see.

Cyberbullying or free speech?

We've all read those nasty commentaries and email messages that are critical of what we think or what we do.  It comes with the territory of politics and the media.  But if one senator gets his bill passed, internet meanness will be curtailed by the meanie being thrown in jail.

Senator Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) wants to put cyberbullies in jail for harassment.  But what unclear is exactly what the definition for "tormenting" or "terrorizing" a specific person is.  Is that left up to the complainer to determine, file a complaint, throw someone in jail and then make them prove their criticism or offensive remarks are not "harassment"?  How would this work? 

Seems like we're edging closer and closer to stifling the freedom of speech, but maybe not from a liberal Democrat's perspective.  One would assume one of those senators brought up concern about free speech during committee testimony. 

Senate Bill 2426 aims to add "cyberbullying" to the crime of harassment through electronic communication, the release said.

"The term includes making a harassing statement for the purpose of tormenting or terrorizing a specific person on at least two separate occasions," the release said.

The bill passed Senate Judiciary Criminal Law committee unanimously Wednesday.

Link: cbs2chicago.com - Bill Could Send Cyberbullies To Jail.

Stop ERA 2008: 31 remaining key NO votes

The ERA's 2008 battle royale is in the Illinois House.  The last time the Equal Rights Amendment was called and voted on in Illinois was 2005, when it passed the House in a 76 to 41 vote, and shutdown in the Senate which fell short of the needed 3/5 majority support.  Since 2003, several House members have retired or moved to the Senate.  Of the 41 "Nos," 31 remain. 

ACTION ITEM:  You can help stop the advance of the ERA in Illinois this year by encouraging your anti-ERA legislator to hold firm on his or her 2003 vote.  You can be assured the ERA lobbyists will be pressuring those 31 to vote differently.  In order to stop the ERA in the House, 46 48 firm "Nos" are needed.

Republicans who stood in 2003 in favor of life and the traditional family by voting "No' on the ERA are Bellock, Biggins, Black, Bost, Brady, Brauer, Cultra, Dunn, Eddy, Kosel, Leitch, McAuliffe, Bill Mitchell, Jerry Mitchell, Moffitt, Myers, Poe, Rose, Sacia, Schmitz, Sommer, Stephens, Wait, Watson, Winters and Wirsing. They were joined by Republican-turned-Democratic Paul Froehlich and four other downstate Democrats Flider, Hannig, Phelps and Reitz.

All you need to do is call the Capitol at 217-782-2000 and ask for the House member's office to tell him or her to remain a "No" vote this year . . . it takes only a moment.

JCAR fires back at Governor

Tuesday, Illinois General Assembly's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules rebuffed Governor Blagojevich's plan to skate around the legislature to get his expanded health care program enacted whether they like it or not.  JCAR'S pushback is seen as "input" to the governor, who signalled immediately he would find another way to spend that money we simply don't have for a socialist program that's bad for our state -- to heck with balance of power.

Who says the battle against power-obsessed dictators and the war on legislative terrorism is across the globe?  Think Springfield.  It started among the power-crazed Democrats in January 2003.

Tuesday’s 8-2 vote marked the second defeat of health care expansion by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules in recent months in a battle that’s being waged both at the Capitol and in the courtroom. But the Blagojevich administration, which has insisted it has the authority to expand the program on its own, indicated it would do just that.

“JCAR has provided its input,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said. “We will move forward and continue to, within the parameters of the law, assist the uninsured in getting access to affordable coverage as well as helping to protect coverage for working parents within the FamilyCare program.”

Some lawmakers predicted such a move would prompt the Legislature to push back as well, possibly creating more fighting and discord this year.

Link: Kane County Chronicle - Local News and Video for Kane County, Illinois - Legislative panel again rejects Governor Blagojevich's health care expansion.