From The Trib

The Trib is reporting...

Jerry Springer's nationally syndicated television show looks to be headed out of Chicago in the next few weeks, lured by tax credits to Stamford, Conn.

The story also says that Maury may be headed there too...

I suspect Chicago will lose some jobs and that is a bit sad, but overall the economic impact of flying fewer exotic dancers into Chicago isn't going to hurt too much.

That and if God ever decides to smite America I think Stamford will be at the top of the list now...

Some Peter Gabriel....

Seeing the Feignholtz ads on TV today

I am home sick, I have seen them on two different judge shows. The People's Court and the one where they do DNA testing.

Yes when I am home I watch the judge shows sometimes....

OneMan

Twitter and your campaign

If Shaq, MCHammer, Diddy, Lance Armstrong, Ashton K as well as Wil Wheaton and Rich Miller can all twitter with their own actually thoughts. Why can't you 5th district congressional candidates (and other candidates as well)....

OneMan

Spending in the 5th

Rich reports the SEIU is spending 250K in the CD5 Democratic primary on a media buy for Feigenholtz.

I don't see how Quigley or Fritchey would be any better for SEIU than Feigenholtz would be. It's a safe D seat, I don't see the GOP having a real shot at this one so why spend on one democrat vs another when there isn't a huge difference on labor issues between them. This strikes me as even a bad PR move for the SEIU, they have members out of work but are spending money in a Democratic primary for a special election for a seat that does not face a serious Republican challenge.

Then again as a Republican I would rather they spend their money on campaigns like this...


OneMan

What ever happened to snow fence

I seem to remember seeing snow fences all over the place in Illinois when I was a kid. Now I almost never see them anymore, don't you think it would be cost effective to set them up to reduce the need to plow roads and prevent problems that have been seen on roads like Rt 47.

OneMan

Electronic Medical Records

I have blogged about this before. I know it is getting pushed again as a cost savings measure including by a candidate in the 5th.

The challenge with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is not the technology, it is the change in processes that the technology requires. That is going to eat a lot of the early cost savings, when working with a medical practice to pick a system I remember one of the vendors commenting on how they would want to reduce the number of folks they would see by half for something like over a month and slowly work their way up to their previous productivity numbers. Because the technology could be so disruptive.

Also their are a finite number of folks who understand software and the practice of medicine enough to do these implementations.

It isn't going to happen as fast a people want/hope.

OneMan

Thoughts on the 5th...

Besides the personal entertainment value of watching others deal with a special election this one has been kind of fun to watch. Why? In part because it has not attracted a ton of MSM attention so it has been sort of a little political geek secret. Also because I know and have met some of the players (more so on the Democratic side than the Republican side).

So here are some thoughts.

First I have to admit I like the way Bowen has tried to engage the other candidates on twitter and Sarah's silence in response to questions has been a bit of a surprise. I have blogged about this before .

Secondly, Rep. Fritchey. I have met him a couple of times and he has come across as a really cool guy, yeah I know he is a politician and they have a tendency to do that. But when I took my daughter down to Springfield a couple of years ago, he was nice enough to talk to us (a suburban Republican and his daughter) and did the same last year. Again for a Republican way outside his district. He didn't have to but he did and I think that says quite a bit about him.

Also he was a early legislative blogger as well as an early Blago critic, both big pluses in my eyes. We are coming back down on April 29th (oneson will be with us this time) and I have to say I kind of hope we can't meet Rep Fritchey when we come down because he will be legislating in a different location.

Publish Post

Thrid, the number of candidates. With the number of Dems running, it is making picking this race hard. Also some of 'the rest' seem rather creditable when it comes down to it, you don't see that every day.

The Painter

Well you know Congressman Foster, perhaps Tim the Painter would be better served by his union if instead of the International Union of Painters giving what seems to be over $45,000 to candidates running in Aurora and the Aurora area they used some of that money to help the guy out with his COBRA payments.

Just suggesting.

Roland Burris

Do I think he should just step down at this point.
Yes

Do I think he will
No

Do I think him being a Senator will make the tomb.
Yep

Oneman gets a little stimulus

From the outfit that manages my transit benefits....

Please be advised that as part of the economic stimulus package recently approved the monthly pre-tax transit commuter benefit limit has increased from $120 to $230.

So I have that going for me, which is nice...

The Mayors race

Well, thanks to work and some other factors I have not been really that heavily involved in the race this time around, and I have to admit I am cool with that.

Why,

Well first off, I think Tom Weisner is going to be really hard to beat. I have gone over this a hundred times in my head and I can't figure out how in the heck you beat him, even taking the money advantage away from Tom.

So without it being much of a race in my eyes, it isn't really all that interesting.

So two new members of the board of the Aurora Election commission right before the hearing about the Democratic caucus.  Interesting.

I have to admit I know Ms. Perry the Democrat then I do Mike McCoy, I have spend more than a couple of election nights with Ms. Perry as my Democratic counterpart as an observer.  I don't know if the Democrats could have picked a better person to sit on the board. 

Again, even though Mike was the Republican County Board Chairman during the first part of my time as a committeeman, I have had a lot more interactions with Ms. Perry, so take that for what it's worth.

Reguardless I am looking forward to reading in my local paper why there was a need for this much change at once on the board.

OneMan

Here is a question..

Is it approprate to play the Black Eyed Peas music at a store with kids in and that sells stuff for kids?

If the best the Republicans can come up with..

Is to complain that President Obama takes his suit coat off in the Oval Office.  It going to be a long 8 years.

Yes it was fair...

Contrary to what the National Journal may think (ht Rich), the impeachment was fair, corners were not cut and it didn't come soon enough

Blagojevich was elected governor in 2002, then re-elected in 2006 with more than 1.6 million votes. The New York Times reports that he "was widely unpopular with lawmakers long before his arrest on federal corruption charges." If his enemies had decided to get him out of the way, what sorts of things might you expect to happen?

Why you may ask was he unpopular, perhaps because he couldn't govern his way out of a wet paper bag.  Perhaps because he was unable and unwilling to work with other branches of government.  Perhaps becaus hiring was a joke, perhaps because he was tossing money around and ignoring agreements with legislators left and right.

That's why he was wildely unpopular with lawmakers.   He needed to be removed to protect the people of Illinois, I can't imagine nor do I want to imagine what it would be like if he was expected to deal with this budget crisis.

If you can't resist the mausoleum salesman should you be in the senate?

In today's Trib Senator Burris explains how the mausoleum happened..

"The manager of the cemetery said, 'Mr. Burris, your accomplishments are too many to let them not be known to young people.' And he convinced my wife and I that that's what should be done," he said. "I questioned it and my wife questioned it, and we knew there would be that type of reaction, but we said we would be willing to overcome the cynicism of the press in order to let it be known for future generations."

So let me get this right, because some guy played to your ego you decided to build yourself a monument? I would suggest you stay away from lobbyists then, because if a cemetery manager can talk you into that just imagine what a guy from the banking industry could do..