It's not fair.
A dark blue 2001 Chevy Camaro. Looks almost like a Corvette from the rear view mirror.
It's going 70. And if my Cavalier can blow by it, well you have to.
So I did.
And then lights appear in the Camaro's windshield!
A freaking cop!
It's entrapment. Or something.
This was my last trip to Springfield (unless they go into June), and they finally got me. In a sports car!
In other news, the grace period registration bill passed out of the House with 90 votes. It includes a ton of other stuff, some of it not so good (including the Bush on the ballot provision), but what are you going to do? Take the bitter with the sweet.
Now the Senate has one day to concur with the House amendment to send it to the governor. Let's hope they get it done.
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Great interview with Michael Madigan by Kristen McQueary
Congratulations to the Daily Southtown and Political Writer Kristen McQueary for this interview with Speaker Madigan.
My favorite part:
Q: So why don't you agree to sit down with reporters more about your positions?
A: I don't think I get fair reporting from most reporters. I think most reporters simply want to get me into disputes with Blagojevich, and if he were not available, they would try to get me in disputes with Mayor Daley.
That's all they ever want to talk about, and I don't think I get fair coverage. So I talk to people when I want to talk to them. I used to give ad hoc press conferences every day. I'd stand there for 15 or 20 minutes and answer every inane question that came out of people's minds. What did it get me?
It just let some very small-minded reporters be nasty, nasty to people and biased to people.
My favorite part:
Q: So why don't you agree to sit down with reporters more about your positions?
A: I don't think I get fair reporting from most reporters. I think most reporters simply want to get me into disputes with Blagojevich, and if he were not available, they would try to get me in disputes with Mayor Daley.
That's all they ever want to talk about, and I don't think I get fair coverage. So I talk to people when I want to talk to them. I used to give ad hoc press conferences every day. I'd stand there for 15 or 20 minutes and answer every inane question that came out of people's minds. What did it get me?
It just let some very small-minded reporters be nasty, nasty to people and biased to people.
Friday, May 28, 2004
What's the infatuation with congressional candidates? The map is a GOP gerrymander
Archpundit has been pushing some Dem congressional candidates in Illinois (the opponents of Phil Crane, Jerry Weller and Henry Hyde). And while the opponents would all represent an improvement over the incumbents (from our progressive perspective), let's be real. Here's Archpundit's site.
The congressional map is drawn to insulate all 19 incumbents from any competition. And because David Phelps, the former Democratic Member from Downstate Eldorado, got the shaft, it is a 10-9 Republican map. In other words, it's a Republican gerrymander.
Which means: no Illinois Republican in Congress is going to lose.
No matter what.
Here's the Downstate map.
Now, keep in mind, in 2002, Democratic congressional candidates got 51% of the vote compared to Republican congressional candidates. And for that 51% of the vote, Democrats got 47% of the seats (9 out of 19).
Republican congressional candidates, meanwhile, with 48% of the Illinois vote, got 53% of the seats (10 out of 19).
And none of them are competitive. They are drawn specifically for that purpose.
If you want to defeat an Illinois Republican Member of Congress and replace him (or her -- don't forget Judy Biggert!) with a Democrat, then you must redraw the congressional map.
There is no other way to elect an additional Democrat from Illinois to the House.
Luckily, the Illinois General Assembly can re-draw the map.
There's even a bill to do it. It's SB 2127. Senator John Cullerton floated it, but it didn't get much traction.
Well, progressives (and especially Archpundit). . . let's get some traction here.
Because, frankly, all the energy and time spent on the Dem congressional campaigns in Illinois would be better spent in Springfield getting a new map.
Just ask Tom DeLay.
The congressional map is drawn to insulate all 19 incumbents from any competition. And because David Phelps, the former Democratic Member from Downstate Eldorado, got the shaft, it is a 10-9 Republican map. In other words, it's a Republican gerrymander.
Which means: no Illinois Republican in Congress is going to lose.
No matter what.
Here's the Downstate map.
Now, keep in mind, in 2002, Democratic congressional candidates got 51% of the vote compared to Republican congressional candidates. And for that 51% of the vote, Democrats got 47% of the seats (9 out of 19).
Republican congressional candidates, meanwhile, with 48% of the Illinois vote, got 53% of the seats (10 out of 19).
And none of them are competitive. They are drawn specifically for that purpose.
If you want to defeat an Illinois Republican Member of Congress and replace him (or her -- don't forget Judy Biggert!) with a Democrat, then you must redraw the congressional map.
There is no other way to elect an additional Democrat from Illinois to the House.
Luckily, the Illinois General Assembly can re-draw the map.
There's even a bill to do it. It's SB 2127. Senator John Cullerton floated it, but it didn't get much traction.
Well, progressives (and especially Archpundit). . . let's get some traction here.
Because, frankly, all the energy and time spent on the Dem congressional campaigns in Illinois would be better spent in Springfield getting a new map.
Just ask Tom DeLay.
The omnibus bill is moving! SB 955. .
The big bill is moving today. In 45 minutes, House Amendment Number 4 to SB 955 will be heard in the Elections and Campaign Reform Committee.
I had a court date this morning in Chicago, so I unfortunately couldn't be part of the fun.
The bill isn't yet available online, but it will likely include the Bush on the ballot provision, as well as the 14-day grace period voter registration provision.
You can follow the bill's progress here.
I had a court date this morning in Chicago, so I unfortunately couldn't be part of the fun.
The bill isn't yet available online, but it will likely include the Bush on the ballot provision, as well as the 14-day grace period voter registration provision.
You can follow the bill's progress here.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Political conventions
The Wall Street Journal editorial page might be the Defenders of Wealth Against Justice, but they sure can write well. Here's a great line on political conventions:
The news that the Massachusetts senator may delay
accepting the presidential nomination until several weeks beyond the Democratic Party's late-July Boston convention exposes two truths that the political class hates to admit.
The first is that the party conventions are now little more than free advertising vehicles. They long ago lost all political drama, but this year one of them may not even nominate a candidate. The next step would be for the media finally to agree not to cover them, though we probably won't because these week-long affairs have also become the equivalent of cardiologist conventions for the political press. We get to see old friends and eat well on expense accounts.
---
So, if the Dem convention is a "late-July Boston convention" will the WSJ call is an "early-September New York City convention" to make it very clear that the Bush campaign is looking to exploit 9/11? Just asking.
While the Journal might be right, I love conventions. The civic energy is astounding. It's like the accessibility of Springfield but with federal electeds.
An anedcote (apropros of nothing, with no particular point to make). I went to the 96 Chicago convention. Got an internship through the Washington Center (which cost me $1500 as I recall -- not cheap). I 'worked' for Cox newspapers, but ended up with CBS.com and wore a baseball cap that read CBSNEWS.com. That made me a cutting edge web-savvy college student journalist-of-the-future. I could tell all these print journalists looked at me with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity. What *is* that strange Internet thing (in August of 1996)? Anyway, that was sort of a magic pass, so I could wander anywhere I wanted. I ended up on the floor during Al Gore's famous speech on how his sister died from smoking. I was standing directly behind Cokie Roberts (who is a tiny woman). And she just snickered the whole time, with this attitude of contempt and superiority. She was the Beltway journalist, personified.
Anyway, I'd like to get to Boston. I applied to get a journalist crediential through the party. I'll let you know what happens.
The news that the Massachusetts senator may delay
accepting the presidential nomination until several weeks beyond the Democratic Party's late-July Boston convention exposes two truths that the political class hates to admit.
The first is that the party conventions are now little more than free advertising vehicles. They long ago lost all political drama, but this year one of them may not even nominate a candidate. The next step would be for the media finally to agree not to cover them, though we probably won't because these week-long affairs have also become the equivalent of cardiologist conventions for the political press. We get to see old friends and eat well on expense accounts.
---
So, if the Dem convention is a "late-July Boston convention" will the WSJ call is an "early-September New York City convention" to make it very clear that the Bush campaign is looking to exploit 9/11? Just asking.
While the Journal might be right, I love conventions. The civic energy is astounding. It's like the accessibility of Springfield but with federal electeds.
An anedcote (apropros of nothing, with no particular point to make). I went to the 96 Chicago convention. Got an internship through the Washington Center (which cost me $1500 as I recall -- not cheap). I 'worked' for Cox newspapers, but ended up with CBS.com and wore a baseball cap that read CBSNEWS.com. That made me a cutting edge web-savvy college student journalist-of-the-future. I could tell all these print journalists looked at me with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity. What *is* that strange Internet thing (in August of 1996)? Anyway, that was sort of a magic pass, so I could wander anywhere I wanted. I ended up on the floor during Al Gore's famous speech on how his sister died from smoking. I was standing directly behind Cokie Roberts (who is a tiny woman). And she just snickered the whole time, with this attitude of contempt and superiority. She was the Beltway journalist, personified.
Anyway, I'd like to get to Boston. I applied to get a journalist crediential through the party. I'll let you know what happens.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Health Care Justice Act passes House
Great progressive victory today. The Health Care Justice Act passed the House (on a motion to concur with the Senate amendments) with 62 votes and is now sent to Governor Blagojevich to sign into law. Here is the roll call. Congratulations to Willie Delgado and everyone who worked on this.
I wrote my column in the Third Coast Press about how Illinois can be the Saskatchewan of the Canadian health care movement (the province of Saskatachewan in the 50s or 60s started to implement a government-funded health care system where everyone was covered, which proved to be so successful and popular that the rest of the nation followed a decade later). I'll post that to my main site when the Third Coast Press is printed.
By the way, the latest draft of the omnibus election reform bill still has the 14-day grace period for voter registration, and the speculation is that it will be filed Friday or Saturday. And the talk is that the House and Senate will be in all weekend, working up until the Monday deadline to pass a budget before the 3/5 rule kicks in (meaning that it takes 60% of the vote to pass anything, so Republicans hold a veto in each chamber, as Republicans hold more than 40% of the seats in each chamber).
I wrote my column in the Third Coast Press about how Illinois can be the Saskatchewan of the Canadian health care movement (the province of Saskatachewan in the 50s or 60s started to implement a government-funded health care system where everyone was covered, which proved to be so successful and popular that the rest of the nation followed a decade later). I'll post that to my main site when the Third Coast Press is printed.
By the way, the latest draft of the omnibus election reform bill still has the 14-day grace period for voter registration, and the speculation is that it will be filed Friday or Saturday. And the talk is that the House and Senate will be in all weekend, working up until the Monday deadline to pass a budget before the 3/5 rule kicks in (meaning that it takes 60% of the vote to pass anything, so Republicans hold a veto in each chamber, as Republicans hold more than 40% of the seats in each chamber).
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Obama write-up in New Yorker
The write-up is here and my favorite line (from Obama, as it turns out) is this one:
“You can’t always come up with the optimal solution, but you can usually come up with a better solution,” [Obama] said over lunch one afternoon. “A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence.”
That sentiment really appeals to the legislative policy wonk in me. There's nothing quite like a good bill.
“You can’t always come up with the optimal solution, but you can usually come up with a better solution,” [Obama] said over lunch one afternoon. “A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence.”
That sentiment really appeals to the legislative policy wonk in me. There's nothing quite like a good bill.
Write Mayor Daley -- fund CAN-TV
This is worth a letter to Mayor Daley at Chicago City Hall, 121 North LaSalle, Chicago, IL 60602 (so please, get out your pens, write a letter and put it in the mail).
CAN-TV is a great public-access television organization that puts anyone on cable to be watched by anyone in the city with cable. It's as public as you get.
Unfortunately, it is funded by cable companies who get a franchise from the city to offer service. In the go-go nineties and the early part of this decade, telecommunications companies were insta-bajillionaires from Wall Street investors and they were swimming in money. Now, not so much. RCN is bankrupt, and they have not paid CAN-TV their required funds. More to the point, it's extremely unlikely any other company can raise the capital to compete for the Chicago market, which means the money for CAN-TV disappears.
Fortunately, there is a solution. The City of Chicago imposes a franchise fee (a tax on profits, as I understand it) on cable companies that operate in Chicago. That money goes to the general city fund, and does not fund public access television. You see where we're going.
One-fifth of the franchise fee (about $2,000,000 annually) should fund CAN-TV.
Alderman Bernie Stone introduced an ordinance to do just that. I called his office to find out the ordinance number (still looking for that), and Alderman Stone had his assistant call me back a minute later with the message "Write the Mayor. That's how we show our power."
(There's a good Ben Joravsky Neighborhood News article in the Chicago Reader, but the Reader wierdly doesn't put their articles online).
So: write Mayor Daley. Letters matter. How else will electeds know that there is a real constituency for this?
For more background from CAN-TV, check their page here.
CAN-TV is a great public-access television organization that puts anyone on cable to be watched by anyone in the city with cable. It's as public as you get.
Unfortunately, it is funded by cable companies who get a franchise from the city to offer service. In the go-go nineties and the early part of this decade, telecommunications companies were insta-bajillionaires from Wall Street investors and they were swimming in money. Now, not so much. RCN is bankrupt, and they have not paid CAN-TV their required funds. More to the point, it's extremely unlikely any other company can raise the capital to compete for the Chicago market, which means the money for CAN-TV disappears.
Fortunately, there is a solution. The City of Chicago imposes a franchise fee (a tax on profits, as I understand it) on cable companies that operate in Chicago. That money goes to the general city fund, and does not fund public access television. You see where we're going.
One-fifth of the franchise fee (about $2,000,000 annually) should fund CAN-TV.
Alderman Bernie Stone introduced an ordinance to do just that. I called his office to find out the ordinance number (still looking for that), and Alderman Stone had his assistant call me back a minute later with the message "Write the Mayor. That's how we show our power."
(There's a good Ben Joravsky Neighborhood News article in the Chicago Reader, but the Reader wierdly doesn't put their articles online).
So: write Mayor Daley. Letters matter. How else will electeds know that there is a real constituency for this?
For more background from CAN-TV, check their page here.
Wal-Mart. Wednesday. Why Withhold? We Want Workers With Wealth.
Now that's an alliteration.
So, the Chicago City Council is debating Wednesday whether to grant Wal-Mart two zoning changes and let them open their notoriously union-hostile, corparate-welfare-loving, wealth-sucking super-centers in two poor black neighborhoods of the Great City of Chicago.
Unions and advocates have, to their credit, sparked our municipal government to push back against the Wal-Martization of retail (which means low wages without benefits for employees and sucking the wealth away from local stores and back into the Arkansas-based Walton family, who are now boast something like four of the top ten wealthiest people in the country. They are billionaires. And they donate big-time to right-wing causes. Check out some background on them here (got to love the LaRouchies for doing the research).
Wal-Mart is bad for progressives and bad for Chicago. There are a ton of victories around the country on pushing back against Wal-Mart coming in (check out this google search).
The AFL-CIO has a pretty good policy position on the topic here.
If you live in Chicago, call 311 to get connected to your alderman's office and ask them vote against Wal-Mart coming to town (unless they sign a Chicago-style Community Benefits Agreement that would permit a fair union drive and local employment, similar to what the United Center developers signed which did direct real investment into the poor neighborhoods around the Center, which Wal-Mart honchos have so far refused to sign).
So, the Chicago City Council is debating Wednesday whether to grant Wal-Mart two zoning changes and let them open their notoriously union-hostile, corparate-welfare-loving, wealth-sucking super-centers in two poor black neighborhoods of the Great City of Chicago.
Unions and advocates have, to their credit, sparked our municipal government to push back against the Wal-Martization of retail (which means low wages without benefits for employees and sucking the wealth away from local stores and back into the Arkansas-based Walton family, who are now boast something like four of the top ten wealthiest people in the country. They are billionaires. And they donate big-time to right-wing causes. Check out some background on them here (got to love the LaRouchies for doing the research).
Wal-Mart is bad for progressives and bad for Chicago. There are a ton of victories around the country on pushing back against Wal-Mart coming in (check out this google search).
The AFL-CIO has a pretty good policy position on the topic here.
If you live in Chicago, call 311 to get connected to your alderman's office and ask them vote against Wal-Mart coming to town (unless they sign a Chicago-style Community Benefits Agreement that would permit a fair union drive and local employment, similar to what the United Center developers signed which did direct real investment into the poor neighborhoods around the Center, which Wal-Mart honchos have so far refused to sign).
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Health Care Justice Act passes Senate --
This is why Senator Obama is going to be such an effective U.S. Senator.
Yesterday the Health Care Justice Act passed the Illinois Senate, with one vote to spare (31-26-1).
All the Democrats voted YES except for Senator Denny Jacobs (Moline, voted NO) and Senator James Clayborne (East St. Louis, wasn't on the floor). All the Republicans voted NO except for Senator Christine Radogno (LaGrange, voted PRESENT).
Senator Obama was apparently magnificent during the 75 minute floor debate.
We've got another week to get this through the House (since the House bill was amended in the Senate, the House has to vote to concur with the Senate amendments, which Willie Delgado has already filed to do).
The group that pushed for this the hardest is the Campaign For Better Health Care. Reward them for their good work by joining their organization and sending them some money. Their website is here and their membership sign up is here.
Yesterday the Health Care Justice Act passed the Illinois Senate, with one vote to spare (31-26-1).
All the Democrats voted YES except for Senator Denny Jacobs (Moline, voted NO) and Senator James Clayborne (East St. Louis, wasn't on the floor). All the Republicans voted NO except for Senator Christine Radogno (LaGrange, voted PRESENT).
Senator Obama was apparently magnificent during the 75 minute floor debate.
We've got another week to get this through the House (since the House bill was amended in the Senate, the House has to vote to concur with the Senate amendments, which Willie Delgado has already filed to do).
The group that pushed for this the hardest is the Campaign For Better Health Care. Reward them for their good work by joining their organization and sending them some money. Their website is here and their membership sign up is here.
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