Seriously, go See it Now!
ArchPundit
This is beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Seriously.
May 2004
Schoenburg Tees Off
Bernard Schoenburg is known for writing columns in excruciating details about local politics including the inworkings of Sangamon County politics. In many ways he’s a pretty technical writer giving everyone the details and summarizing where different people are on an issue or in some race. Good stuff generally and while not the kind of thing to grab the attention of even all political junkies that kind of stuff really allows people to figure out what is going on. Every once in a while he drops a bomb and today is one of them:
Some people think Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH is bluffing when he talks about laying off thousands more state workers, or when stories suggest he’s making plans for how government might function if the budget morass isn’t settled by the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1.
But having watched this governor since he became a serious candidate for the 2002 election, and having been to many of his Springfield appearances – when he takes the time to come to the capital city – I wouldn’t be surprised at anything he does.
Go read the rest because it is probably one of the single best descriptions of how Blagojevich governs. He doesn’t know too damn much about state operations and he assumes everyone else is lazy.
The problem is, it simply isn’t true. There are problematic state workers and agencies, but when you interview or observe many of them doing their job, they are for the most part incredibly conscientious people who do the best within the budgets and legal framework the elected officials give them. Much of the whining about inefficiencies can be found to have started in law or how money is allocated. In fact, one could argue that is much the case with the problems in the State Board of Education. I can make a good argument for reform of the institution, but that doesn’t mean the people doing it are horrible. Usually they are doing the job they were hired to do.
Blagojevich doesn’t see it that way though, he thinks they are humps. Those humps are people who educate your children, protect your environment, and build your roads and they deserve respect.
DTripTV: Must See TV
The DCCC is getting tough and funny at the same time,
Check out their ad for their upcoming web series:
So Much for those Donations
Much was made of Blagorgeous’ effort to circumvent the Democratic Lege leadership with independent donations to Lege members.
To date, I think we can call that strategy a failure:
And then Madigan, in dramatic fashion, called the governor’s plan to raise business taxes and let it die in the Democrat-controlled House with only 23 of the 60 votes needed to pass.
Denny Jacobs Jabs the Guv
Oneman has the details.
I’m not sure it’ll hurt Obama–in fact, attacking the Governor might be good politics for him by the time this is over.
Goring Blagorgeous
The Daily Herald does a piece on The Blagorgeous’ bit on pandering over sports teams. Obviously some of this is in humor and taking it too seriously would be dumb.
But it strikes me that such silly stories tend to start to add up to what happened to Al Gore. Gore was too programmed and in trying to meet everyone’s expectations, he pandered. Blagorgeous has the same tendencies and silly stories tend to stick after a while. If this continues, it’ll be a real problem. This is part of the problem of annoying the press.
Errr. You can’t Tape Public Officials?
Nice way to keep the story in the news Alderman Burke, but there is this teensy thing called the First Amendment. Banning taping of public figures especially would be a pretty clear violation.
“My suspicion is that, for the ordinary person, if they’re dealing with someone who is being harassing in some way, they probably can get a restraining order of some sort.
“Whether public figures have those same protections is not clear to me.”
But “the nice thing about our society is that not all problems have to be solved by laws,” Obama said.
“A lot of times, public opinion is sufficient.”
And again, Obama is the reasonable one.
Imagine If Bill Clinton Had Done It
Now the White House has informed the American people that they were also “all wrong” about their decision to place their faith in Ahmed Chalabi, even though they have paid him 340,000 dollars per month. 33 million dollars (CHECK) and placed him adjacent to Laura Bush at the State of the Union address. Chalabi had been convicted of fraud and embezzling 70 million dollars in public funds from a Jordanian bank, and escaped prison by fleeing the country. But in spite of that record, he had become one of key advisors to the Bush Administration on planning and promoting the War against Iraq.
And they repeatedly cited him as an authority, perhaps even a future president of Iraq. Incredibly, they even ferried him and his private army into Baghdad in advance of anyone else, and allowed him to seize control over Saddam’s secret papers.
Now they are telling the American people that he is a spy for Iran who has been duping the President of the United States for all these years.
UPDATE: And in comments Absit Invidia leaves a note that the National Review’s David Frum was defending Chalabi as late as May 5th.
AI is a good site–take a look–he is conservative and very smart and independent. He’s linked on the expanded blog roll as well. Always a good read.
Nuclear Materials Here!
“There was also in Rumsfeld’s planning a failure to provide security for nuclear materials”
Some have tried to shrug this off as the chaos of the original invasion.
Those who have read for a long time know that I harp on the issue of nuclear security quite a bit. Much of my respect for Dick Lugar comes from his work alerting the nation to the danger of loose nuclear materials control. In this case, the material is not fissable–at least easily, but I didn’t think an invasion of Iraq was to create an open bazaar of dirty bomb materials for Al Qaeda–such a situation leaves us less secure than with Saddam Hussein in power who had an interest in controlling such material to make sure it wasn’t used against him.
Why not just put a giant neon sign
“Nuclear Materials Here!”
Sign the petition to have Rumsfeld fired. If anything, the petition is too modest in asking for only Rumsfeld’s job.
Small Problem Joyce
Rutherford isn’t against the wetlands bill on principle, he’s against exempting Cook County. It’s a reasonable position. Maybe you should ask him about it.