October 2004

That was a performance

I’m still laughing. In fact, I can’t stop. I’m going to bed and will catch up on the ‘debate’ and thank yous to those who donated.

But thank you! Through this site, over $2500 was raised to help the DCCC. With the Dems having a nine point advantage in the generic ballot, we will hopefully see a wave coming for Tuesday.

Put Up or Shut Up


Pulling out the big guns–I’ve added a new picture of the girls because I hear it is pulling at heartstrings
. How can you resist. Let’s shoot for at least $200 more before 7 PM (let’s face it my readers will be watching the debate).

Liberal Oasis and I have issued our final fundraising pleas for the Majority Makers contest put on by the DCCC.

For the last few months, I’ve tried to cover the three race in Illinois in some detail and I hope I have been at least a central place to find information. But today is one week out and it’s now or never. Currently, the Republicans are protecting a corrupt Majority Leader in the House of Representatives:

Tom DeLay, whom Roy Blunt serves under and presumably so will Matt given DeLay’s forays into state politics, has been admonished for three different actions including
1) “raising concerns of “using governmental resources for a political undertaking” for asking the Federal Aviation Administration to track the missing Texas House Democrats in May of 2003″

2) “creating the “appearance of impropriety under House standards of conduct” for holding an energy interest fundraiser while crucial energy legislation was pending before a congressional conference committee”

3) “. Last week featured another letter of “admonition” for the Bug Man from the House ethics committee, following close behind an earlier one in response to his strong-arming the Medicare vote last November”

But deferred is the juciest bit to come:

The committee deferred action on the most serious charge ? that the Sugar Land Republican had used the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC to “‘funnel’ corporate funds to Texas state campaigns in 2002” in violation of Texas law ? pending the outcome of the ongoing TRMPAC criminal investigation in Travis County. There was news this week on that front as well, as the TRMPAC players Jim Ellis, John Colyandro, and Warren RoBold took their first perp walk in an Austin courtroom, amidst more published reports that when they were working campaign donors, the group might as well have been called “TOMPAC.” And there is also the little matter of a congressional (and potentially criminal) investigation of DeLay associates Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, who apparently traded on their connections with the majority leader to scam six Indian tribes (including the El Paso Tiguas) to the tune of $66 million.

To make matters worse, DeLay is claiming he was exhonerated and threatened a Republican on the Ethics Committee.

Remember to donate to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to ensure that Tom DeLay won’t be Majority Leader again. So far, I’ve raised $2275 from readers and friends. Donate $25 or what you can whether it be $10 or more. Contest ends at 8 PM Central Time.

Ginny Schrader Walks Out!

Sweet

Ginny Schrader, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House seat from Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, left a debate with Republican Mike Fitzpatrick, saying she was angry over a GOP mailer that criticized her screening of a controversial film at a fund-raiser.
Sponsored by the National Republican Congressional Committee and sent out Saturday, the mailer criticized Schrader’s decision in July to screen Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which is sharply critical of President Bush and the war in Iraq.

The mailing, headlined “Ginny Schrader: The Hate America crowd has found their candidate,” claims Hezbollah, a group of Lebanon-based guerillas identified by the United States and Israel as terrorists, has offered to distribute Moore’s film.

“Let me assure you, I don’t hate America,” Schrader said in her opening remarks Monday. “This mentions Hezbollah. Half my family is Jewish. This is totally unacceptable.”

She also asked Fitzpatrick to apologize. Fitzpatrick, who sat stoically next to the standing Schrader, did not respond.

She’s on the left hand side!

Holy Unhinged Batman

Jill Stanek was off her rocker last week, but this week, she’s in need of some professional help.

Almost 32 years ago these gods decreed themselves the right to abort the very young people they now demand pay for their Alaskan cruises and bingo games, if they somehow managed to survive. Incredible.

If I were a person born after January 22, 1973, I would say, ?Let them eat dog food.?

As more and more baby boomers reach retirement age, they will continue to reap what they have sown. They have already suctioned, dismembered, and decapitated their very own children, and by so doing decimated their own bodies, minds, and souls.

Now, another of their pitiful harvests will be the lack of young workers paying into the Social Security system. Approximately one-third of them have been aborted.

And it?s not just aborted children who will never pay Social Security. Some of their children would now be nearing entry-level work age, but they have been offed as well.

Abortion just doesn?t kill children; it kills family trees.

It gets better

My solution to alleviate the crisis is to add a couple questions to Social Security retirement registration forms.

The first would be, ?Are you pro-choice??

Applicants answering yes would have their SS benefits reduced by a sliding scale that multiplied the number of years they condoned abortion by the number of children aborted during those years.

The second question would be, ?Have you ever had an abortion?? for women, and ?Have you ever coerced your partner to abort or stood by silently as she made that ?choice??? for men.

Applicants answering yes to that question would have their SS benefits reduced by a sliding scale that multiplied the number of their abortions by the number of years ago they aborted.

But pro-choice seniors face more than financial woes. There is now also a critical shortage of health care workers, because they, too, been aborted.

Cegelis Debate Watching Parties

They’ll be watching the debate at these events.

Monday, November 1, at 7:00 PM, at the Bloomindale Public Library, 101 Fairfield Lane, Bloomingdale (just east of Bloomindale Road, about a mile south of Lake Street).

Thursday, October 28th from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm at 900 North Franklin Street, Suite 401, Chicago, IL 60610.

When you enter the building, take the elevator to the 5th floor and proceed to the atrium. Free parking in a lot directly behind the building facing Orleans St. For further information call (847) 797-8317 or the host (Andrew Gerhardt) at (630) 212-8475.

Fine Quotes of Hyde from the Debate

From the Cegelis Campaign

Henry Hyde on Fiscal Responsibility
?We have to restrain federal spending. I must say that the Congress does not know how to say no and we have to learn how to say no, so that?s very important.?
[30 years was not enough to learn how to say no?]

Henry Hyde on Energy Independence
?We haven?t built a refinery in 20 years. We need refineries and pipelines as well as sources for petroleum.?

Henry Hyde?s Bipartisan Spirit
?You?ll never get tort reform out of the Democrats, because trial lawyers are one of the biggest supporters of that party?

Henry Hyde on Increasing Jobs
?The jobs may be there but the trained people are not, so give more money to junior colleges targeting or training for these jobs.?
[We are losing jobs because we have no trained workers?]

Henry Hyde on Campaign Finance Reform
?As far as I?m concerned you?ll never get money out of politics because money is advocacy, it buys speech.?

Henry Hyde on School Funding
?Illinois got so much funding last year that they turned back 2 million dollars, they couldn?t think of how to spend it ? There are people, school districts are sitting on money, they can?t spend it, so its very well funded.?
[Schools returned No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds after they realized that the amount they got was far less than what they would need to comply with the NCLB regulations.]

Henry Hyde on Social Security
?There are six different bills pending in congress now to revise social security, I don?t know how that?s going to work [?] as to privatizing part of it, I wouldn?t rule that out but I don?t see much support for that because as Christine said the stock market has not been a tower of strength?

Henry Hyde on the Trade Deficit
?I don?t have a cure other than to, for us to sell more than we buy and we ought to be careful about what we buy, buy American.?

Henry Hyde on the Flu Vaccine Shortage
?Well I don?t know how you can control a circumstance where a large portion of the vaccine was tainted, it would take a magician would handle that situation. They?ve done the best they can.?

Henry Hyde on Minorities in the Armed Services
?On the draft, I just want to comment briefly I don?t quite understand the point about the minorities, it?s a volunteer service, nobody is dragooned into serving?
[His Response after Cegelis noted that a disproportionate amount of our soldiers are minorities.]

Henry Hyde on Foreign Relations
?Public diplomacy [is] the selling of America. This country created Madison Avenue and the advertising industry but we can?t sell young Arabs around the world that America is a good country and that they should help support it??

Henry Hyde on Why He Should Be Re-elected
?I am getting along in years I am not the kid I used to be. Maybe I?ve lost a step or two, I?ll be the first one to admit that, but I will say there are tradeoffs and one of them is experience, another one is judgment and the other one is influence [?]I think my judgment has been proven to be sound.?
[$80 million spent investigating Bill Clinton vs. $15 million spent investigating 9/11 ? an example of good judgment?]

And last but not least ?.

Henry Hyde on How He Spends His Time in Washington
?There?s a lot to do in Washington these days, homeland security needs attention and oversight, our relationships with other countries, the prime ministers, the defense ministers, the foreign ministers of most every country come and visit me in my office, some of them leave little presents. I?m going to have an auction sale one day, I don?t know what to do with them all but they?re there.?

Clean Sweep: Daily Herald Endorses Bean

Pretty much a clean sweep

Unfortunately, Crane has built another solid reputation in Congress that clearly is not admirable: That of a show horse, not a workhorse. After 35 years in office, he has accomplished little of significance.

Consider some of his Republican congressional colleagues from Chicago’s suburbs who became national figures. In less time in office, Dennis Hastert became Speaker of the House. Henry Hyde rose to chair the House Judiciary Committee that conducted the impeachment hearings of President Clinton.

Crane? His national claim to fame came in being unceremoniously rejected by his own party for the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. Crane’s tenure should have secured that powerful position, but his track record of nonperformance lost it.

Ouch.

By all accounts, it is a close race, and we enthusiastically endorse Bean as the candidate who will work hardest on behalf of the district and the candidate who best reflects the views of its residents.

G-Rod has Found 200,000 More Doses of Flu Vaccine

I’m glad that a first term Governor of Illinois with an attention span of gnat is doing a better job than the FDA.

Given I don’t have the expertise in this area:

The vaccine being offered by Ecosse has not been clinically tested on U.S. flu patients, though Blagojevich has said a review of the literature showed its properties are identical to those of the vaccine used in the United States.

Federal officials, however, warn that the vaccines might not be safe or effective because they may be made differently than the U.S. flu shot.

ROSSSSS!

In many ways this is the Governor I remember–remarkably talented politically even if he makes horrible policy quite often.