A Natural Golf Update... Still seems to be helping, about 70%~80% of my shots with the 9 iron (the only club I have that is the proper length) seem to be playable and when I mess up I know why, I had a 3 day layoff from practice and I know that didn't help. So I guess I am going to keep trying to hit 50 balls a day or so and we will see how it goes.

The instructor recomended some new custom sticks at $1,200. Can't really convince my self about spending that kind of money at this point. However if they were to provide them to me I would be happy to blog about Natural Golf some more :-)

OneMan

The Governor had 12.2 Million available at the end of the period Judy 1.5.

Anyone win the lottery lately and want to give Judy about 20 Million?


Near Casa OneMan Linda Chapa LaVia had 65K available.

Mayor Weisner had 51.6 K on hand. The report still shows he owes 25K in campaign debt. He also got another 5K from the painters. I can't seem to find the committee reference for the painter group that gave him 5K. I suspect it is due to my own lack of searching skill but still.

OneMan

They put the Rocky Balboa trailer on-line in the last couple of days. Might be an interesting film, remeber Rocky and Rocky II were not bad at all.

Then again it might be Rocky 4.

OneMan

The Tribune has a story about the Shaw Brothers and their use of a public access cable show "Dolton Digest" to talk about people they disagree with politically.

All be it is has been close to half a life-time-ago (18 years) since I lived in Dolton, it is where OneMan grew up so I always enjoy watching what is going on in my old home town.
I think it is a bit interesting that the Shaw's are now reduced to using public access cable to get they viewpoint accross. Someday when some poli-sci grad student writes the history of the Shaws vs. The Jackson's it will be an interesting read even if the ending at this point is fairly obvious.

As for the cable show, perhaps they can make it a sort of 'Cops' like show where inspector general Robert Shaw chases bad guys.


OneMan

No Eric I think the real fear is about what is next...

Eric Zorn makes a intelligent point about the "Big Box" ordinance, that the resistance from the 'Organized opponents' are afraid that the ordinance is going to work and show that people can make money and pay a 'living wage' at the same time.

However I think he misses the point. The thing that would have me worried if I was any sort of business operator in the city was if I was going to be next. If they were going to raise the minimum wage across the board, make me provide health insurance for my workers, etc. All nice ideas, however none of them should be mandated by the city. No entity likes additional regulation and rules, be it business or journalists and will generally fight against the rules using the tools at their disposal. What if they wanted to put a tax on newspapers, wouldn't people be screaming about the impact that would have on readership and the public's right to know? Will arguments that may be a bit of hyperbole.

Business advocates for positions that they see as advantageous to them, nothing wrong with that. Unions do the same thing, do you think the only reason the Chicago Teachers Union wanted charter school restrictions was because of educational quality and not because they could have impacts on the number of employed union teachers, please.

Do I think it will end up passing, yes. Do I think the mayor will veto it, I have no idea.

OneMan

Can you be a Republican Party Official (all be it a very minor one) and know all the words to 'Baby Got Back' by Sir Mix-A-Lot. As I was singing along to this fine tune at a company event recently someone said to me. You can't like this you are a Republican. I am and I do.

OneMan

So as Rich pointed out the International House Festival attracted 2,000 fans. As reported by the Pantagraph, the state gave the event a $200,000 grant. I like house music, seriously. But a $100 a head state grant for a music festival? Seems a bit steep to me.

OneMan

I just want to point out this has to be one of the dumbest things I have seen on a web site. From the Chicago Yacht Club website

Go to the "On the Water/Racing" Link and Click on "Race to Mackinac" to proceed to the Race to Mackinac Site.

Ummm, why don't you just make that text a freakin link instead of making me go into a different menu.
I used to sail and have done the Chicago to Mackinac race once and I wanted to check to see how the crew I used to race with is doing when I discovered this. Yes, Republican, sailboat racer I do see the irony.
Seriously would it have killed you to make it a link off of the homepage without go into two menus?

OneMan

Recently took a Natural Golf lesson with a buddy. Actually their one day school, it was only the two of us so there was a decent amount of one on one with the instructor.

I have been golfing on and off, mostly off for about 15 years, I think I average about 1 round a year and 3 trips to the range a year. Suffice to say I really suck. My buddy's only golf experience was some in gym in high school 12+ years ago. By the end of class he was hitting a 5 wood off the mat 200 yards dead straight 8 out of 10 hits. When I say dead straight I mean within one yard of his target line.

I was doing about the same, I was hitting about 10% of my shots thin and mine would go about 10 yards each way at times. Still the best I have ever hit a golf ball in my life.

No I am not an affiliate or anything. Just figured if you have reached that point in your life where you might want to try golf, I would suggest looking into Natural Golf.

I will give you an update in a month or two.

OneMan

Over at MSNBC they have a story about New Hampshire having issues about the DNC looking to modify the primary schedule. I can understand how they want to stay after Iowa, heck I am sure the primary provides a small kick to their economy and puts the state on the map every 4 years.

That being said, I think it makes sense for the Democrats to put a different state in the early mix. A state that is a little less rural perhaps?

OneMan

So the state is looking for a consultant to prepare for the sale or lease of the lottery. Speaking of gambiling, I think a safe bet that Goldman Sachs will get the consulting contract. Since it appears they were the ones did the study showing the lottery was worth 10 Billion.

It might be a bit awkward if a different company consults on the sale and says, we think it is only worth 4 billion.


OneMan

So Sen. Obama is going to have some steak fry with Tom Harken in Iowa. It seems the Jr. senator from Illinois can't go to Iowa with the o8ama or the 08ama or Even Obama2008 speculation starting up.

Buying one of these domains may make a fine investment btw...

OneMan

Not every Republican thinks the Internet is nothing but Tubes the video is funny however.

Why we as Illinois Republicans need to get ‘over’ Sen. Obama.

As Rich over at CaptiolFax has pointed out there has been some Republican Blogging about Sen. Obama lately.  There was Tom Roeser asking questions about what Sen. Obama dreams about. Actually trying to offer his insight into the interest in Obama’s upcoming trip to Kenya and asking why he doesn’t ‘dream about his white mother’. He seems surprised at how Obama seems to ‘dwell’ on his father and his background and not his mothers. Drawing a comparison to President Ford and his relationship with his biological father and how Obama’s interest in is father is different and some sort of liberal thing.
Secondly Fran Eaton over at Illinois Review comments on Sen. Obama’s recent comments about religion and politics.

We seem to have spent a lot of time and energy (myself included at times) complaining about how he gets a free pass from the media, how he got a free pass in the election, etc.
Let me start with a simple answer to these questions first.

Who cares at this point?

He has won this one, won it without even looking like he was
trying. Feeding red meat to those who would never vote for Obama at this point accomplishes nothing.

If your goal is to reduce Sen. Obama’s influence the way to
go about it is not going to be to ask questions about how he feels about his
mom or pointing out that his faith does not lead to the conservative social
views that you may feel Christianity leads you to.

If the goal is to replace Sen. Obama with a Republican senator when he comes up for re-election we need to start thinking about how to do that. I strongly suspect that the way to accomplish that is not going to be by attacking the man’s values or his viewpoints. In the long and short run that has failed and will continue to fail. It may score some points with the folks who voted against Obama last time but it will fail to convince a single Obama voter to change their vote the next time around.

I think the key to making Obama a one term senator (without it being because he was elected president during his first term) is to start trying to get him to start commenting about what is going on with Democrats in Illinois. By putting him in a position where he has to start campaigning for the Governor because Blago needs his help so badly. By making him defend his endorsement of Alexi as things get tougher down the road.  Asking him how he feels about Chicago area Democratic primaries being replaced by ‘my kid can do the job’.  

He needs asked more questions about issues relevant to the state of Illinois. So he has less time and political capital to spend on national issues.
Will this work, heck I don’t know. But I do think all this
navel gazing we seem to be doing about ‘Why is he so popular’ and ‘But wait he
isn’t what he seems’ is not going to get it done.

Feel free to let me know you think I am all wet.

-- And two folks have already commented. Hyram makes a point about the party rebuilding now at to some extent he has a point. But I think we are in better shape than he gives us credit for. Austin Mayor, I suspect there is a part of the party that will make the defeat of Sen. Obama it's mission in life, will they succeed? If they go about it the way they have been they have no chance of doing so. However I suspect we will have a more creditable candidate next time around then Keyes.

OneMan

This kids may be some big news

The former head of Illinois' Historic Preservation Agency alleged Thursday that he was forced out of his job for refusing the Blagojevich administration's order to fire Republican employees.

A lawsuit filed by Maynard Crossland claims aides to Gov. Rod Blagojevich came to his office in 2003 with a chart with red X's over the names of people the governor wanted to fire. Crossland says he was told the employees should be fired because they were Republicans, even though their jobs were protected from political hiring and firing.

So Judy's Job Plan has been announced, (pdf) and thanks to a CapFax comment poster it is possible to see what appears to be the entire plan.

It looks interesting because it has some new ideas and sets a focus on manufacturing jobs.

Here is one little snippet to start with

Some Illinois-based businesses have stated that while they are repeatedly courted by economic development ‘SWAT teams’ from other states, they have yet to receive a single phone call from the Illinois economic development agency

It references in part Enterprise Florida, Inc. a public/private partnership that started in 1996 and her plan seems to be making it a bit of a model. Her paper makes this comparisonon of job growth between our two states. It also references Indiana which started a strategy similar to Florida's

Since January 2003, Illinois has created 67,900 jobs. Florida has created 815,000 jobs! At the same time, Florida has had a job growth rate of 11.3%. The Illinois job growth rate has been 1.2%.

The Commitment to Manufacturing.

Not sure if I completely buy this as the best approach but it does have some real advantages. They including being workable for Southern Illinois as well as helping a sector that can take advantage of our transportation infrastructure as well as a established labor pool.

The tax credit for job creation puts the 'carrot' on direct job creation by a company an advantage in that improved job growth is a basic goal and this helps meet that. The big disadvantage is that it does not take into account ancillary job growth you may cause because suppliers and the rest end up in the area. If I open a pizza factory and hire 10 people I will get a tax credit for that on the other hand if my pizza factory requires the local sausage company to add 5 people he gets the tax credit for that.

However it seems more of a portable idea that some of what we do now, focusing on corporate headquarters (think Boeing and now United) instead of Jobs that are more applicable across the state and can be created virtually anywhere in the state.

Then again I think tax credits vs. here are x dollars to build/expand here may be a better long term approach as well as one that has both parties in a longer term commitment.


Workman’s Compensation

According to the state of Indiana workman’s comp costs are almost double in Illinois vs. Indiana. Regardless of why, that is a real number a real cost business has to face. If you were Honda wouldn’t that have some influence on your location decision?

Education Funding:

She makes a good point here about the neglect that Higher Ed has seen in Illinois.

In particular small manufacturing will benefit from a better community college system. More and more work requires some additional education, be it health care or running a CNC machine or setting up an injection molding machine. The kind of education that our community colleges can provide to communities all over the state. I must admit I taught a computer class for two half semesters at my local community college so I may have a bias. But anytime the state can help non-traditional learners or education that has a direct industrial connection, I think it is a good thing. I suspect as a % a lot more of our higher education dollars in Accounting programs end up being spent on graduates that end up going out of state to work then is spent on Industrial Technology graduates of community colleges who end up working out of state.

As for higher Ed, do you think the funding commitment or lack thereof is part of the reason Google went to Ann Arbor vs. Champaign (home of the browser). Seriously, Champaign should have been in the very public running for that facility. It has the sort of network infrastructure Google likes and an educated population. However it does not have a state committed to it’s higher education system.

OneMan

This came up during a chat I was having with some mates last night (more to come on that soon) they were talking about Warner's appearace at Koz fest or whatever that was called and Sen. Edwards appearance at Gnomedex.

Has talking to bloggers become the new Iowa? A way to get your message out early, a place where it makes sense to spend time with people who operate at a more local/closer to the grass roots level than you will have time to deal with during an actuall presidential campaign?

OneMan

I was at the Busch Race in Joliet on Friday.

Saw some really clever marking going on, State Farm had it set up so you can have your picture taken with some of the cars from the movie Cars. They scan a bar code when they take the picture and you then go to a web site, provide some information and get the picture.

You get something you want (A picture of you and your son with Lightning McQueen) and they get something they want, your name and address.

OneMan

Well the president is coming to Aurora today, I guess they only have my e-mail address for releases, not my phone number to invite me over. sigh....

I guess this explains why I saw Marine One flying over the Route 59 train station. President Bush is coming to Aurora again.

OneMan

He's qualified but lets make him an intern? Seriously, does this make any sense?

The Belleville News Democrat has a timeline for this story, he was approved for the hiring but as a an intern. He left his old job on March 31st 2003 (Monday), Interviewed for the job with the state on April 3rd (Thursday) and started the job on April 7th. That leaves one working day April 4th (Friday) between the interview and starting the job. Don't you normally interview someone before you approving of hiring them? Then again that might be private sector craziness.

OneMan

The folks in Wheaton share a little love with the Gov. FYI, OneMan was marching in Aurora so it wasn't me.

But I have to admit the 'Feds are coming' line was good. Too bad no-one had a Re-Elect Public Official A sign.

OneMan

The Beacon News had a several atricles today about politics and the internet and blogs

Suffice to say it kind of missed the point, here is the feedback I sent to the paper today

Ummm a couple of things.

A) You did a story about political blogs and didn't even mention the Openline blog http://openline.blogspot.com/ likely the best (by far) political blog covering Aurora.

An Alderman questioned someone speaking at a city meeting, as part of offical business if they were one of the authors of this blog. A sign that that they have more of a local impact than daily Koz. I realize they give the Beacon a hard time, but still it is more relevant locally than Daily Koz.

B) The 9th ward site isn't really a blog. The author (Alderman Keith) doesn't really express opinions in any way shape or form. It is a web site and a good way to share information. But it isn't by any definition a blog.

C) The local Republican Party blogs (both at the township and county level).

I know the Alderman of the 9th ward reads my blog once in a while (I am in Aurora's 9th ward) but sorry Leroy your site is useful but it is not a blog.

The Beacon had a chance to do a interesting story about the local influence of blogs (I would argue the Openline folks influcenced the hi-lite 30 debate significantly) and instead focus' John Leasch and the help he has gotten via Daily Kos that came in large part from his physically appearing at a YearklyKos in Vegas. That's the best they can come up with?

At least talk to Rick Klau he can talk to you at great length in an intelegent way about the influcence of the internet, blogs and politics (and he is in Naperville).

OneMan

Oneman