Untitled Document The Midwest is where it’s at — for corn and politics. Five Midwestern states — Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana — account for half of the nation’s corn production and more than 40 percent of all ethanol-processing facilities. Midwestern states are also key in national politics: In almost every presidential election since […]
The Hype
Posted inOpinion
Cut-and-run Democrats
Untitled Document For the past week, Democrats have been beating their chests, declaring that their reclamation of Congress, as well as the majority of governorships around the nation, is proof that Americans are fed up with the Iraq war and scandal after Republican scandal. But apparently the Democrats aren’t interpreting the results of the midterm […]
Posted inOpinion
Spoiler?
A lot has happened for Rich Whitney and the Green Party over the past six months. With very little money, the Greens collected about 433 signatures per day between March and June, dodged a formal objection to their 39,000-odd petitions filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections, and became the first fringe party in […]
Posted inOpinion
Bellwether
One way to measure the difference between the candidates for Illinois’ 99th House District is paperwork. Let me explain: When Republican state Rep. Raymond Poe, R-99th District, visited the offices of Illinois Times, he brought along an assistant and a few sheets’ worth of talking points outlining his legislative accomplishments. By contrast, his Democratic opponent, […]
Posted inOpinion
A modest proposal
It has to be tough for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama — who’s been asked repeatedly whether he’s considering a run for president or would accept an invitation to be a vice presidential candidate someday — to keep coming up with clever ways to skate around the question. Obama’s standard response: I’m flattered, but I love […]
Posted inOpinion
Juxtaposition
With less than eight weeks to go before the November general election, Green Party gubernatorial long shot Rich Whitney has 6 percent support among likely voters, a Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll released Monday finds. Most third-party candidates pray to get 5 percent on Election Day, and it wasn’t long ago that Whitney was an afterthought, relegated […]
Posted inOpinion
So let’s be fair
One year ago this week, Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped out New Orleans, one of the oldest, most culturally rich, poorest, and, indeed, important cities in America. In the weeks leading up to the anniversary of Katrina’s onslaught, a glut of television specials have “looked back” at and “remembered” the storm that killed 1,800 people along […]
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Life and debt
Before embarking on a five-nation tour of Africa last week, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama expressed concern about the perception that he could deliver to the continent, as he told the Chicago Tribune, “the largesse of the U.S. government.” Though one of the most prominent and respected black politicians in America, Obama frequently tries to underplay […]
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Party Favors
“They may be our color, but they’re not our kind,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a loyal and longtime Democrat, of African-American Republicans during a television interview earlier this week. Sharpton announced that he’d be spending the next several months traveling the country to help Democrats defeat black candidates running on Republican tickets. Black Republicans, […]
Posted inOpinion
No end in sight
Israel’s consul general to the Midwest, Barukh Binah, traveled to Springfield earlier this week to discuss the newest war in the Middle East, which started with the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Islamic organization Hezbollah. In the wake of the soldiers’ capture, Binah says, Israeli officials believed they had two military options: 1. Use […]
Posted inOpinion
Taxman cometh
Since being profiled by Illinois Times this spring, Dayton Keyes, who spends less than $1 per day on fuel by producing biodiesel from used cooking oil, says he’s lost count of the media interviews he’s done. So it was bound to happen: Officials from the Illinois Department of Revenue contacted Keyes last week and politely […]
Posted inOpinion
Does anyone feel a draft?
In a story that barely made a ripple in the press, save for a handful of military publications, the U.S. Army upped its maximum age for recruitment last month from 40 to 42, according to Army Times, to avoid “a repeat of last fiscal year’s recruiting shortfall.” In January 2005, Rolling Stone magazine reported on […]
