Looking various politics and other issues. From a Republican committeeman in Aurora, IL (The home of Wayne and Garth)
Illinois Democrats have reaped the financial benefits of their political power, racking up a huge campaign fund-raising advantage that will make it even harder for Republicans to mount an election comeback.
"Oppose John Roberts' Supreme Court Nomination
In nominating John Roberts, the president has chosen a right wing corporate lawyer and ideologue for the nation's highest court instead of a judge who would protect the rights of the American people. Working for mining companies, Roberts opposed clean air rules and worked to help coal companies strip-mine mountaintops. He worked with Ken Starr (yes, that Ken Starr), and tried to keep Congress from defending the Voting Rights Act. He wrote that Roe v. Wade should be 'overruled,' and as a lawyer argued (and won) the case that stopped some doctors from even discussing abortion. That's why we believe: "
His highest profile legal opinion came when he was Solicitor General Ken Starr's deputy back in Bush Sr's term.. So obviously he must be totally unqualified. Please, at least give me something more than guilt by association.
"Basically I'll concede the fact that he's an honest man with good legal credentials who has a good temperament by all the accounts that I've read," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a member of the Judiciary Committee, who voted against Roberts' confirmation to his appeals court position.
"But you have to get down to the basics," Durbin told The Early Show. "Is he in the mainstream on American values on issues like civil rights, workers' rights, protecting the environment? I have an obligation to ask those questions because Americans look to the Supreme Court as the last stop in our government when it comes to our rights and liberties."
By HELAINE OLEN
Published: July 17, 2005
OUR former nanny, a 26-year-old former teacher with excellent references, liked to touch her breasts while reading The New Yorker and often woke her lovers in the night by biting them. She took sleeping pills, joked about offbeat erotic fantasies involving Tucker Carlson and determined she'd had more female sexual partners than her boyfriend."
--snip--
Yet we had enough in common - if I took her statements at face value - to make me uneasy. In my 20's I, too, felt passionately about 19th-century English literature but had long since let it go, barely able to concentrate on The New York Times, let alone Henry James. I, too, had an abortion back then. And trouble with depression? Check. Self-righteousness and inflated self-regard? Affirmative.
"The worst answer, not surprisingly, came from Blagojevich himself.
When challenged, the governor puffed up righteously: 'Anytime you do what is morally right,' he said, according to the Associated Press, 'however you get there is immaterial.'
Not to step into a Durbin trap here, but if I were to read this 'ends-justify-the-means' rhetoric to you and did not tell you that it came from a governor in the United States of America, you would most certainly believe that it must have come from an infamous dictator or crazed fanatic."
Blagojevich has been "actively involved for more than a year" in intense efforts to pass stem-cell legislation, according to a letter signed by Schoenberg, Hynes and Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago). "It is ironic that the governor is now being accused of grandstanding when for months he has been doing exactly the opposite--working hard, quietly and behind the scenes."
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), the woman who would be president, hits town Sunday to attend her 40th high school reunion in Park Ridge.
"As much as she would love to go and see old friends at her reunion, her schedule simply did not allow for the trip," said Phillipe Reines, Clinton's press secretary. "Sorry about the confusion."
--snip--
An earlier missive from the Clinton camp intercepted by Sneed claimed she would be attending Sunday. Now we're told she will be making the rounds in New York all weekend.
Blagojevich stayed on the sidelines when Comptroller Dan Hynes pressed lawmakers unsuccessfully to approve a $1 billion research initiative that would have been funded with a new tax on plastic surgery.
Yet there was Blagojevich this week, boasting that he has ordered up $10 million in stem-cell research on his very own. He disguised the funding in such vague terms in the state budget that legislators didn't know it was there. Then he issued an executive order to trigger the funding for the research.
His actions, Blagojevich declared, were "morally right," leaving the impression that those who question government funding for such research are immoral. The end run, he said, was necessary because the General Assembly might have balked. "While we are forced to live in a democracy with several branches of government, sometimes in a democracy the process is frustratingly slow," the governor explained.
What process? The governor attempted no process. His actions here are incredibly devious, and they give legislators ample new reason not to trust anything he says or does.
The bill-signing is expected to take place in Chicago on the set of "The Break-Up," a romantic comedy being filmed in Chicago and starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.
We went to the July 4th parade and I really enjoyed Little Elvis. Too bad he can't stay that way. I don't mean to be critical, but the Marines for presenting the flag, it was a nice float but the guys should have had helmets on.
I've had caller ID from the first day it came out, and it's always worked for me. I wouldn't be without it. I've had calls from Ohio, Washington and so many other places I can't remember. I don't answer any of these calls I don't recognize. I have an answering machine, and if it's important, they will leave a message. Ninety percent of the time they don't, and if they do, I never call back.
So now Blagojevich wants to make nice with us downstaters and remind us of all the things he has done for us. It may not be as easy to mend fences as he may think - nor should it be.
The governor's actions are reminiscent of the father who runs out on his kids and comes back a couple of years later, showering them with gifts trying to get them to forget the past (bolding mine).
A source who is associated with the Teamsters and would speak only on condition of anonymity said the union was providing legal assistance to members who work at IDOT and were interviewed by the FBI. Federal agents were questioning employees about the contract for PWS, the source said.
The source said one union lawyer accompanied the employees to the interview with FBI agents, but he did not know how many workers were being interviewed. He said the FBI was not accusing the employees of wrongdoing. ''It doesn't really involve our members directly," but what they know about the contract and the work the company did, the source said.
Hours before word of the FBI interviews became public, Martin was alongside Gov. Blagojevich defending the controversial pressure-washing contract with PWS Environmental Inc. while announcing a new step to keep a better handle on IDOT spending. Beginning today, with the start of the new state fiscal year, Martin personally will sign off on all IDOT contracts worth more than $25,000.
"I want to make sure what we're spending is absolutely proper," said Martin, who made a surprise appearance with Blagojevich during a Loop news conference about new child-support laws.
"It had nothing to do with" the washing deal.
