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Call It A Comeback

August 2004

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Regardless of Who Wins the Presidential Contest

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Look for an assault on No Child Left Behind when it starts hitting suburban schools as has just happened.

And though some of the schools continue to perform well overall, bringing every subgroup up to the same level–the stated goal of No Child Left Behind–remains a daunting task.

“The more subgroups you have, the more likely you are to not make [testing goals],” said Phil Prale, assistant superintendent of Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200, with a student body that is 66 percent white, 27 percent African-American and 4 percent Latino. Prale said that while the school’s overall test scores improved last year, low-income students did not reach state goals in math.

“These are top-notch schools,” he said. “When they land on these lists, I suppose we could reexamine what are the criteria and goal of the legislation.”

The blathering of NCLB supporters tries to sell opposition to the criteria as being against standards whent he real opposition is to rather bizarre and statistically unsound methods of determining whether a school is failing or not.

Illinois Senate

Tax Lien is Gone, but the Next Assault on the GOP is Probably Coming

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The Trib confirms the Maryland tax lien is taken care of (you know–the one he didn’t tell the Republican Central Committee about), but then says this:

Keyes returned the compliment. “This stink is in everybody’s nostrils, and nobody wants to talk about it. The only man who did anything, as far as I can tell in a forthright way, was my predecessor, Sen. Fitzgerald,” he said.

Now the question is does he agree with Peter’s attacks on Hastert and others? I’d love to see Keyes non-answer to that.

G-Rod

Madigan’s Deep Appreciation Of Tolerance

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Is his defense of the Arts Council not being cut.

Pressed on what the “vital function” is, Madigan said, “What the arts do is to especially help young people and children in terms of their verbalization, their appreciation for their culture around them. It really helps toward tolerance and understanding in a society.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the Arts Council, but in such a year it should probably bear the burden other agencies do. In fairness, given his wife’s role, the vital function may have to do with a happy home life .

Illinois Senate

What Steinberg Says

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In regards to Keyes:

Great stuff. But as I was savoring the slice-and-dice (Keyes, “a serial failure” was chosen by a party “undergoing a sort of collective mental breakdown”) a troubling thought occurred to me: Could this be overkill? Keyes is such a mother lode of flaws, we could spend the next 10 weeks mining his odd beliefs, his multiple hypocrisies, his latest slander against Barack Obama.

And toward what end? The guy’s gonna lose and slink his sorry self back to Maryland.

Shouldn’t we resist? Ignore him and focus on important matters?

Nah. Too much fun. Think of it like sports — the same thing happening again and again, true, yet oddly compelling. Nobody dismisses baseball as a dull accumulation of hits and outs and runs. We should revel in Alan Keyes and savor his buffoonery while he’s here. He’ll be gone soon enough.

Illinois Congressional Races

Lipinski’s a Cub Fan?

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At least Hillary had the good sense to say she was a Yankees fan. Dan doesn’t appear to be that progressive either–leading to a potential challenge in 2 years from the left.

Marin runs down the history of fake GOP candidates in the 3rd. Chlada appears to be a ghostpayroller in Cicero’s town government. Cicero. I couldn’t make this up.

Two words: Ryan Chlada.

He is the Republican candidate for Congress in the 3rd District.

If he’s a real candidate, then I’m Britney Spears.

For as long as I can remember, Bill Lipinski’s powerful ward organization has managed politics on the Southwest Side with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

In 1998, for instance, Lipinski’s Democratic precinct captains not only passed out Lipinski for Congress petitions but also petitions for a ”Republican” by the name of Nicholas Pehlke. Only one problem there: Pehlke was really a Democratic Lipinski plant in the Republican race to diminish the strength of the real Republican candidate, Karl Groth, who was honestly trying to unseat Lipinski.

That’s how the political game is played in the 3rd Congressional District.

Which takes me to Ryan Chlada, who works for the town government of Cicero, to which Lipinski has very strong ties.

It is pretty darn hard to find Mr. Chlada. I know because I’ve called him at his office, on his cell phone, even at the bar in Berwyn he appears to operate.

Illinois Senate

Chips Falling, Chips Exploding

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Got to hand it to Keyes, when he is given a chance to say he was a bit over the top, he rejects the chance out of hand. WJBC Transcript (Bloomington-Norma):

FAST: That’s fine if that’s your position, but I just want to articulate, would you consider in this act as evil are the people that–the doctors and the women that perform and receive abortions, are they evil, as well?

KEYES: Well, let me just state the objective fact. Right now, we are engaged in a war against terror. What distinguishes terror from ordinary warfare is that a terrorist consciously targets innocent human life, uses violence, and consciously targets that life to achieve their agenda. What is the heart of abortion? Consciously targeting innocent human life. I think we are caught now in a time when the evil that we fight is the shadow of the evil that we do. And we need to think this through, because at the level of our moral commitment to the fight against terrorism, this kind of thing could lead to terrible moral confusion of conscience as we have to wage the battle to secure this nation against these vicious terrorists.

So, don’t blame me for the objective fact–and the objective fact is that abortion reflects the same principle of evil, and it’s a principle totally, totally contradicted by the view that we are all created equal, that justice requires that we respect everybody’s rights, even those who are helpless and voiceless in the womb.

So, it is simply a fact. I state that fact because I believe that one has to stand before people, speak the truth with integrity, and really let the chips fall where they may.

Illinois Senate

Crossfire Transcript

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Via The Truth About Keyes

“When voters listen to Alan Keyes, they get the perception, wow, this guy is stone-cold nuts. And they run home to hide their children. We Republicans are the free market party, so let’s look to Keyes’ prior history in elections and trust the market.”

If that’s what Republicans think about you, what are the Democrats going to say, Mr. Ambassador?

KEYES: I’ve got to confess that quoting some pro-abortion Republican who is engaging in a fit of name-calling hardly constitutes a question worthy of respect. I think it’s disgraceful that in the media these days, some people, not all, because I’ve been counting some pretty good people here in Illinois, but some people seem to think that casting a name-calling session in front of somebody constitutes asking a question. So I would simply say, where is the question in that? I’ll be glad to answer it when you ask one.

Small problem, Murphy is pro-life. In the death of irony category, Truthgirl points out his most recent nickname for Obama, Blustering braggard.

Begala takes him to task on the Providence line:

KEYES: What I was pointing out is an objective fact and I know that folks like to run away from them. That at the heart of terrorism lies this principle of evil, a disregard for the claims of innocent human life. At the heart of…

BEGALA: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) sending us a message on September 11.

KEYES: At the heart of abortion lies this principle, a disregard for the claims of innocent human life. If we go into a war against folks who are violating that principle, and stumble across the truth that we ourselves are violating it, consider the moral confusion, the demoralization that that represents in terms of our commitment…

BEGALA: So Providence was trying to tell us something?

KEYES: …to what is necessary in order to safeguard our security. I think I am justified in pointing out that if we don’t address the moral evil that’s at the heart of abortion really…

BEGALA: Instruments of God’s will. They were God’s messengers, were they?

Yes and no answers from Dear Alan are difficult, but I’ll take that as a yes.

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