I have a picture like this of me and Jay Leno someplace. If you are going to have a picture of you with someone on your website at least make it look as if the other person is at least looking at you.

OneMan

Illinois Conservative Politics: "Recently, I watched a news report by Alita Guillen on Channel 2 WBBM-TV (CBS affiliate) which featured the test lighting of Chicago's Christmas tree. However, during the piece, which lasted nearly three minutes, the word Christmas never crossed the reporter's lips. In fact, the only mention of the word Christmas came from an executive with Marshall Field's department store."

Sad to say but true. If people tuned into a station that used Christmas vs. The Holidays and it caused increased viewship. Every station would do it. Why do we forget that large portions of the media are in fact driven by profit. Conservatives tend to forget this when it comes to the viewpoint of Christianity in the world. If more people listened to the Fish than Howard Stern, then more stations would be like the fish.

Also lumping the ten commandments in a courthouse in the south with 'vanishing Christmas' is a bit much. Sorry I argree with the courts on that one. If you ask me please keep my government out of my religion and I want religion kept out of most of government.

People gripe about what is icky and imoral on TV and rightfully so, however that same stuff is in fact profitable. Is that good, no. If you make the stuff you want to see on TV and hear on the radio profitable then it will become more and more common.

Back from Iowa, only saw a few ads, mostly for Dean, did see a few Gephardt ads, including one paid for by a union, the steelworkers pac I think. I like the fact that they have to declare who paid for the ad. Since it makes it a bit more obvious who has an interest in who wins and so forth.

I also saw a John Kerry ad as well, sorry the dude just does not do it for me. I have to say I thought the Dean ads were the most effective.

I also thought I heard something on the news there that Howard Deans brother may have worked for the CIA. Then again it seemed the report, reporter and the anchor were a bit confused. Most of the story was interviews about MIAs.

OneMan

Well I am going to be off to Iowa for a couple of days for the holiday. I suspect I will watch a fair amount of TV while I am there so I will let you know what the presidential ads look like.

Have a fun Thanksgiving

OneMan

I got something in the mail today from Andy Martin who is running for the GOP Senate nod here in IL. Looks like he has run from FL for senate before.

Anyway the mailer I got asked me to gather signatures and said he would give $1.50 to the county party for each valid one I got. Interesting idea. He has at least enough money to send a mailer out. We'll see if he makes it onto the ballot.

A look at Dr. Kathuria from someone who went to college with him. An interesting viewpoint from someone who went to school with him.

A great quote

We don’t like to use the name ‘Baboo,’” Zahm told me. “We’re creating a brand here and the brand is ‘Dr. Kathuria.’ The nickname ‘Baboo’ gives people an excuse to not take him seriously.”

I am so not going to touch that.

CNN.com - Participant at KKK initiation wounded after shots fired into sky - Nov. 24, 2003: " A bullet fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the head, critically injuring him, authorities said. "

Nuff said'

From the Jack Ryan website END NO-BID CONTRACTS FOR CORPORATE BOARD MEMBERS:

This is another example of taking a fairly easy to understand issue and having a defined and uderstandable view on it.

I think other campaigns could learn from this.

Hull kinds of gets this with his heathcare stuff as well. Some others seem to find long position papers are the way to go, they are if you are interested in getting the attention of policy wonks. Still other feel they need to be vage about stuff and that doesn't work for anyone.

Hey Kids, you too can join Danny Hynes' Leadership Council. As part of his leadership fun club (my name) you can get the items including the following. My comments are in italics


Input: Members of the council will have the ability to communicate their ideas directly through campaign website.

The rest of y'all I can care less what you think

Party at Navy Pier: You will receive a ticket to Dan's biggest annual social event, the summertime Navy Pier party in Chicago.
You get to party with the Danster, that is worth a monthly donation alone. I bet they even have beer and stuf
Souvenir: You will receive a Hynes Leadership Council t-shirt for joining the club.
Kids be the first on your block with a Danny T-Shirt.

Convenience & Satisfaction: Not only will you be able to commit financially to Dan in a convenient manner, but you will also receive satisfaction knowing your contributions will help elect a great leader for all of Illinois.

Yeah.....

-- My comments
Basically you sign up for a monthly donation to his campaign.
So when he loses the primary do the monthly draws stop? Or do you then just give to his statewide fund. I have heard of this sort of thing for public radio and stuff but not for a campaign.

Since the GOP convention is on September 2nd and IL law requires canidates to be 'certified' in August, they had to change the law so President Bush could get on the ballot in IL. In order to make that happen the GOP had to give the democrats in Springfield a bunch of stuff .the package would wipe away more than $900,000 in election fines to Sec of State Jessie White and other officeholders and permit paper ballots with hanging or dimpled 'chads' to be counted. It is also going to be interesting if the Senate goes along with this or if the Gov will sign it.

Actually according to the Sun Times $797,000 of those fines are against White. As for counting chads, having watched punched ballots being processed in two different election entities (one city and one county) once they get counted twice they have been delt with one way or another.

Springfield in the fall can be an entertaining place, perhaps Gov. Blago should spend some time down there....
I wonder how many other states have had to give stuff up to the other party to meet filing deadlines since the convention is so late this year.

Update
The state senate is debating the bill right now and they are about to vote on it. Sen. Emil Jones just got done giving President Bush a hard time, real class act while he is out of the country. I suspect the bill will pass the senate, however it would have been intresting if the certification requirement could have come up as it's own bill.

I found an interesting blog a while ago from a member of Parlament in the UK Tom Watson ia a Labour MP. It provides a different perspective on things in the UK.

Imagine if someone in congress (not a staff member) did a blog like Mr. Waton's and how interesting that could be. One things for sure, they would never put up this picture.

Right now in N. California there is a movement to ban the sale and production of foie gras. There seem to be rational people fighting for this, I don't agree with them but they seem rational.

There are also however people taking it to the level of terrorism. Buildings and cars have been damanged, people threatened and the FBI has gotten involved.

Do people really think doing stuff like this going to help their cause at all? Is the only thing it really accomplish is to just make everyone on their side of the issue look like a violent nut job?

From Andy McKenna for U.S. Senate 2004 ... Biography: "McKenna, 46, began his business career in 1980 in the strategic planning department at Kraft Foods. In 1981 McKenna left Kraft to work at Schwarz Paper, a national paper packaging and distributing business, where he worked in sales for ten years, rising to vice-president of marketing. In 1996, McKenna was named to his current position as president of Schwarz."

Of course it the bio does not have this little nugget from a different part of the site

His father, Andrew McKenna Sr., is chairman and CEO of Morton Grove-based packaging materials firm Schwarz

Having dad as the CEO can never hurt your movement up the company ranks. Then again it looks like he worked for over a year for someone besides his dad.

Jack Ryan 2004: "Illinois Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Jack Ryan today renewed his challenge to all candidates running to replace Senator Peter Fitzgerald to pledge, if elected, to vote to allow all judicial nominees a straight up-or-down vote in the U.S. Senate"

This is an example of pick a focused issue and being specific about it. He can be held to it later and it simple to understand and express. Much better than some of the vauge stuff I have seen.

I would be curious to see how the Democratic challengers feel about this one.

From Todays Sun Times Speaker Madigan backs Hynes for Senate: "Democratic Senate candidate Dan Hynes on Tuesday picked up the crucial support of powerful House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, an endorsement Hynes said 'will help make the difference on Election Day.'"....

Madigan is a frequent ally of Hynes' father, former Cook County Assessor Thomas Hynes, committeeman of the Southwest Side's 19th Ward, but Brown said that is not why Madigan made the endorsement

You have to figure fathers of statewide elected officals need to stick together.

Again the fact Danny has not locked up all of the major labor support has to be a bad sign for him. I always thought that the election on the democratic side was Dannys to lose and it looks like he is trying really hard.

The primary is going to be seriously fragmented this time around (depending on who ends up on the ballot) and if for some reason Illinois is still in play for the dem presidential nod, party activists are not going to care jack about this race and Madigan will leverage his army for one of the presidential canidates.

If the democratic presidential canidate is set by then, there will be major apathy on the democratic for the primary and it will be the activists who will mobilize. I see Obama doing better with that crew than Danny.

Illinois Federation of Teachers backs Obama for U.S. Senate:

I think this is big for Obama, first it is a large union. The endorcement also takes away a bit of Chico's education credibility.

Since it looks like Grey is trying to be the education guy this is a bigger loss for him than for Hull who seems to be the 'Health Care' guy.

I also think this is a really bad sign for Danny. Most people seem to figure he is sort of the front runner on the Demo side because here he is the only state-wide elected offical in the race and the power of his father. (For those who are not from IL, every statewide democrat besides the Lt. Gov is the child or son-in-law of a serious power player in the state)

The IFT is very pragmatic. It seems the IFT does not seem to care that they make tick off Danny or even worse his father. If the IFT though Danny was the man they would get behind him now and it looks like they don't feel that way. The also don't see any risk not going that way.

Reservist in Iraq gets word he's fired--again: "Twice since the terrorist attacks of 2001, Army Reservist Anthony Marcukaitis of Carol Stream has answered his country's call to duty, and twice the insurance company he worked for fired him.

Country Insurance and Financial Services, which is based in Bloomington, Ill., said Tuesday that the action is the result of a longstanding policy: Employees who are on leave for more than 9 months are automatically terminated. But it said it rehires servicemen when they return."

It also points out that they do offer extended benefits during part of those 9 months before the termination. Thats nice, but the termination thing is still wacked beyond all human comprehension. Suffice to say I am going to let Country Insurance know that I will never get any fiancial products from them.

Update:
They changed their policy today

InfoWorld: SCO: GPL threatens $229B software market: November 19, 2003: By : Applications: "'The world, especially here in America, is shifting to one that is an information society,' McBride said. 'In the future, is that $229 billion in software still going to be there? Or in the case of the Free Software Foundation's goal, is proprietary software going to go away?' " --The SCO Group Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer, Darl McBride


Hey I have an idea Darl, how about you let the Market decide. Running to the courts in only making you guys look like the biggest tools in the world.

tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog: "“It really doesn’t matter how many readers you have, it is who reads your work.”"

Since I suspect no one reads this blog but me, I guess that makes me really pathetic.

On what appears to be the slowest loading website I have seen recently.Nancy Skinner for U.S. Senate from Illinois - 2004: Also all that pink makes me think of America's favorite fashion doll. It does not inspire confidence.

"NO to the Bush administration's looting of the U.S. Treasury with his tax cuts for the wealthy, contracts for the stealthy, and massive deficits that are just unhealthy.
YES to Operation U.S. Jobs: Illinois is 4th in the nation in job losses, and we must stem the tide of jobs moving offshore. We must create jobs here faster than we ship them to China and India, by creating jobs in theU.S. that are not easily transferable to other countries."

Hey Nancy why not use rhyme yeah thats the ticket....
What sort of jobs can not be transferred to China and India besides some healthcare work and government jobs. Oh, I know jobs get moved overseas when it may be more cost effective, so I guess your answer is to create really low paying jobs here in America.

Another free piece of campaign advice. At this point either be really specific on a subject or really vague. This half and half stuff sounds nice but it will not hold up to the light of day.

Over at Blog4kerry: the dude is having a fit.
"The Dean Bloggers are already spinning their web of deceit.". Nothing screams "Oh Crud" at this point in a campaign besides already complaining about the other guy (or the other guys bloggers). Besides the inability to raise money . It will be interesting to see how bloggers respond to their canidate not being in the mix anymore. Will they shut down, talk about the winner. Or just start going negative. Me thinks that a lot of them will go negative...

Then again I could just be spinning my views as part of some huge Howard Dean web-log conspiracy.

Besides for the fact I am a Bush supporter and a Republican.

Then again perhaps we are part of the spin conspiracy as well...............

Reservist fears wife may be deported: "But in December 2001, the Monarrezes learned the government had denied their request because Jorge and Maria signed their names in the wrong places on the form. The couple were informed they would have to file again as new applicants and wouldn't be considered under the limited program. " The husband is about to ship out to Kuwait.

I have a real simple idea. Feel free to use it if you are running for something.

If your spouse is in the US Military you can not be deported unless you are some sort of psycho criminal.

Simple. If you are willing to be in the Army the least America can do is make you and your spouse and your minor children citizens.

Howard Dean Signs the Death Certificate for Taxpayer Financing: "Liberal Democrats don't usually declare a government program dead. Yet Howard Dean just did. He has declared an end to the long and useless life of taxpayer financing of presidential campaigns. Americans owe him a vote of thanks."

John Samples over at the Cato Institute makes this argument today. Interesting idea assuming he is right how early is spending going to start in presidential cycles in the future?

If nothing else this is going to be good news for TV stations in Iowa and New Hampshire.

In his set of bullet points on health care Dan Hynes for U.S. Senate: has this idea.

"Address the nursing shortage in Illinois and the country as a whole by advocating incentives such as scholarships and loans to attract top talent to the profession."

Sorry Dan, a cheaper education is not going to give you more good nurses. It may give you more nurses, but it will be short term fix at best. If you want to increase the number of quality nurses.

-- Improve working conditions for nurses. The stress is driving people out of the profession.

-- Make it a more popular with men as a job choice. Part of the issue is Nurses leave the workforce to raise their kids.

-- Pay nurses better. More money can attract people. Yes I know this does not match my statements about teachers. Then again teachers don't do shift work. Teachers have very important jobs but if they mess up someone doesn't die.

Scholarships sound nice, but they are not going to do jack.

Also he has a list of things he would like to do for healthcare. Just one little question. How are you going to pay for this stuff?

An story via Druge Answers elusive in school raid. Provides some follow on that recent incident of the police coming into a school hallway with guns drawn to search students for drugs. They didn't find any by the way.

It will be interesting to see
A) If anyone ends up getting in trouble for this then
B) If not if this is going to become a standard practice.

Ok, I offer this senario for you. Some people on the IllinoisLeader.com web site have had an issue with a canidate (Steve R) on how he 'fliped-flopped' on including teachers in the classroom carry a gun in the classroom.
So here is what could and I think could happen.

Mr Brown is looking out the little window from his classroom into the hall. He sees a gun and trying to be the heroic armed teacher draws his gun and steps into the hallway and get shot dead by a police officer with his gun drawn, of Mr. Brown just sees someone with a gun and starts shooting without processing the fact the guy holding it is a cop. Either way it would suck.

As for concealed carry, once they develop a maturity test for people that will help figure out who is mature and stable enough to carry a gun then give me a call.....

Added a link today to Rick Klau's Howard Dean blog. He is an active Dean supporter in DuPage county IL. Until not too long ago about as Republican (go to the bottom of the page to see how the Democratic vote has grown and the Republican vote has shrunk) as you could get. The blog provides some insight as to why people are into Dean.

It is interesting to look at these blogs maintained by people who support the Democratic candidacy for president. Click into Rick's links and look at some other blogs for Dean and ask yourself. Have you ever seen this kind of passion for a Republican candidate?

Don't get me wrong I am a Republican , however I just haven't sensed that level of passion behind a GOP candidate. Perhaps for McCain at one point, right until he got beat. But overall nope.

I know, I know there was a lot of passion for McGovern and look what happened to him. However one way or another I think there are lessons to be learned from how the Dean people pulled this off. Perhaps this raises another question how could a local or state candidate pull this off? Could they? Should they?

Started looking at Gen. Borling's site today and found this reference. General Borling is the founder and CEO of SOS America (Service Over Self), at a patriotic organization advocating a program of universal military service for America’s youth (18-26).

Sounds like a nice idea, then again I am over 26. However I wonder how popluar this position is going to be with voters overall. The plan is for one year of service so assuming that it takes 9 weeks for basic training so thats two months out of the 12 right there. Is 10 months enough for someone to learn a job in the military and be compitent in it. Also in todays world would we let these guys out in a year or would the enlistments become longer? Is the desire to do this to give everyone a taste of what the military would be like?

One more before I go to bed, Dan Hynes in his education section says in one of his bullet points.

Increase teacher salaries -- especially for those teaching in districts with the greatest need -- and provide tax credits and scholarship incentives to attract more individuals to the profession.

The day I seen research that indicates teach salaries are directly related to student performance I will give $25 to the Howard Dean campaign. Again directly related, take out econmic factors and the like. Show me that paying teachers more makes them better at their job. The school district I grew up in has high teacher salaries and the student performance is terrible.
Also I would be a bit concerned to say the least about teachers who went into the field because they got a tax credit or a scholarship. If you had paid me to go to college I still would not have been a history major. Or teachers who are working in a school because they get a tax credit for being at that school vs. another. Again a bad motivator.

I would even be happy if just once I saw a canidate say. "I would like to pay sanitation workers more, man that job sucks".

Democratic party canidate Blair Hull has a websire deidcated to his heath care plan The Hull Plan.com: "Elimination of frivolous lawsuits: Under the Hull plan, lawyers will be accountable for proving that a lawsuit is legitimate by having two medical doctors testify to the legitimacy of the claim. In addition, lawyers will be held accountable for bringing forward frivolous lawsuits. If a lawyer brings more than 5 frivolous lawsuits, they will be fined and prevented from representing clients for 10 years. ".

This is just one snipit from Blair Hull's web site that covers his 'Health Plan', it appears to be a interesting way for him to grab this issue. The question I have about this statement is this. How hard to you really think it would be to find two medical doctors who will say just about any claim is legitamate. The problem is not just frivolous lawsuits, it is also legitimate complaints that result in settlements and judgements way outside what would be considered 'fair'.

Turns out at least some Canadian pharmacists are not big fans of exporting drugs. Here is GSK take on the issue as well. One thought, if exporting drugs to the US puts any sort of damper on drug supplies in Canada, it will stop faster than a Chicago Bears scoring drive.

Ok the first position paper I am going to take a look at is from Dr. Kathuria a GOP canidate for US Senate. In this position paper he argues for prescription drug imporatation.

I think some of the statements in this position paper require some further examination.

First:
On the conservative-oriented website IllinoisLeader.com, the vast majority of those who voted in the poll favored drug importation despite very vocal opposition from a number of individuals on the site who attempt to discredit it.

Ok, using a web site poll as an example of how people agree with you is not very convincing. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of IllinoisLeader.com. However I don't consider any web poll to be a good indicator of how the public at large feels.

Next:
Some government findings: nearly half of all seniors 75 or older now live at only 200% of the nation's poverty level (which is a mere $35,300 for a family of four), 19% of all seniors now have little to no prescription drug coverage and 35% of those who are on Medicare lack prescription drug coverage.

The numbers don't add up on the income side, nor do they make sense. The poverty level for a family of 4 is $18,400. So assuming you double this number you get $36,800. Using the family of 4 metric for people over 75 is a bit strange since most people over 75 are not part of family of 4 untis. The median household income in IL is $46,528. Is that much over the median income of people 75 years of age and older. So the argument that half the people over 75 make less than half of the state median income.

Then there is this gem....

Robert Becker, CEO of Nexus Drug Stores, recently noted the disparity between the amount of adverting done by drug companies compared to the amount of research and development done by those same companies is 3-to-1. The top drug company in the U.S. similarly spent anywhere from 11%-15% on research and development while spending upwards of 35% of their funds on advertising and marketing.

Ok how a company wants to spend it's capital is the business of it's shareholders, not public policy. If a drug company wants to spend 95% of it's money on marketing or even French Silk Pie it is it's buisness not the government's. This is not even remotely a Republican position. I guess my argument is SO WHAT?


Finally
Many other astute heath care policies-- like donating to prostate cancer research by voluntarily checking a box on state income forms-- have also been successfully implemented by Senator Lauzen.

Let me start by saying I am a big fan of State Senator Lauzen, however state income tax checkoff boxes are nice, they are not policies. First, the selection does not designate where state money goes, just if you want part of your refund or additional tax you pay above and beyond the tax you owe to go to a particular area. Be it, Wildlife Preservation or Homeless Assistance (both options on the tax form). This is not a policy.

This is my blog, it will cover various things about a host of subjects but I suspect it cover politics for the most part. I may end focusing extensively on the IL Senate primaries.