Underdog Democratic U.S. Senate candidate David Hoffman has a new poll which purports to show that he’s in the hunt, but the camp of Democratic primary rival Alexi Giannoulias says there’s no way the poll is accurate. Hoffman’s survey of 505 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted Oct. 2-4 by Hart Research Associates. The initial […]
Politics
Posted inOpinion
Something to Stu over if Jim Ryan runs for governor
You may have read the news by now that former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan is seriously considering another run for governor. Ryan commissioned a poll which shows him leading the GOP pack and running neck and neck with Democratic Comptroller Dan Hynes and trailing Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn by five points. That ain’t bad […]
Posted inOpinion
When Quinn speaks ‘truth to power’ he forgets he’s talking to himself
One of Gov. Pat Quinn’s favorite lines is “I speak truth to power.” He uses it almost all the time, and has for years. It appears to be a verbal tic. Quinn has grown so accustomed to saying it for so long that he can’t stop himself. He said it once while explaining how he […]
Posted inNews
Springfield’s shrinking state workforce
Thousands of state jobs are at stake in Illinois as the largest union of state employees squares off against Gov. Pat Quinn in the fight to keep their jobs. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 filed a lawsuit against the state in August to stop Quinn from cutting 2,600 state […]
Posted inOpinion
Look who’s Pat Quinn’s new best friend
Gov. Pat Quinn brought out one of the biggest Democratic Party guns possible last week in his latest fight with Comptroller Dan Hynes. As you already know, Hynes is running against Gov. Quinn for the Democratic nomination. Hynes recently refused to process several million dollars worth of state payments for tourism programs and various consulting […]
Posted inOpinion
China%uFFFDs ethos of piracy
The year 2008 went out with a big bang for Microsoft. On Dec. 31, a court in China’s southern city of Shenzhen convicted 11 people of violating national copyright laws for manufacturing high-quality fake versions of Windows XP, Vista, Office and 16 other Microsoft products, and distributing them in 36 countries. They were sentenced to […]
Posted inOpinion
Flocking to the faith
In the old days politicians would slip preachers some hundreds under the table and preachers would deliver the flock on Election Day. It was borderline illegal, but at least it left the Constitution alone. The same could not be said of the Bush administration’s faith-based initiative, a political bribe to the religious right that put […]
Posted inOpinion
His GOP appeal
Untitled Document Rush Limbaugh and some myopic Democrats would have us believe that most if not all Republicans who have been voting in Democratic primaries are “dittoheads” implementing the radio host’s “Operation Chaos.” Limbaugh has promoted his scheme for months, encouraging Republican listeners to reregister and vote in Democratic contests for the presumably weaker candidate, […]
Posted inOpinion
The formula for global despair
Untitled Document The International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization promised that more trade would help eradicate poverty and hunger. Food crops? Self-sufficiency in food? They had a better idea. Local farms would be closed down or encouraged to concentrate on exports. This would make the most not of natural conditions that might be […]
Posted inOpinion
Bitter? You should be!
Untitled Document U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, destiny’s tot, recently suggested that blue-collar Americans are feeling bitter about their financial condition, and critics have been whaling on him ever since. How dare Obama suggest that people are bitter? Americans are not bitter! Americans are happy, proud, peppy, content, and optimistic! Maybe. But if millions of them […]
Posted inOpinion
Rush%uFFFDs chaos
Untitled Document “Operation Chaos,” Rush Limbaugh’s campaign urging Republicans to vote for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in Democratic primaries, has been very effective. It doubled Republican turnout in Ohio and Texas, boosting Clinton and prolonging the Democratic race. But in Ohio it was also almost certainly illegal. Ohio law requires that citizens genuinely support a […]
Posted inOpinion
Obamanomics
Untitled Document JANESVILLE, Wis. — When I talked with U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold about what the Democratic candidates for president needed to do to win the Wisconsin primary, he suggested that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton go to the senator’s hometown of Janesville and talk about trade. Obama got the hint. On the first […]
