Bean Day!
ArchPundit
First, review what I’ve previously written on the race including this piece on the Stakeholder
As well as this profile of the race
In addition, this search will take you to more.
2004
What Would You Concentrate on at the Illinois Agricultural Legislative Roundtable
Normal people would talk about farm policy almost exclusively. To Keyes credit he did mention it, but,
Keyes devoted much of his speech to criticizing abortion and gay marriage. He praised Illinois farmers for valuing family and morality and urged the crowd to speak out against policies that could “represent the collapse both of our system of freedom and of our civilization.”
Keyes promised to seek a seat on the Senate Agriculture committee if he is elected.
Yeah, because that’s just what the Ag committee needs–riders on abortion and gay marriage.
And, umm, Obama defended free trade against Keyes
Keyes, the Republican nominee, said the United States should move away from negotiating multinational trade agreements, arguing the country can cut better deals by bargaining one-on-one and imposing tariffs on countries that undercut American farmers with cheap products.
“Why is it in American economics that you say ‘tariffs’ and everybody thinks you cursed,” Keyes said. “We need to make sure we get a fair deal.”
He also called for complete elimination of the inheritance taxes, as well as the income tax.
But Democrat Obama said Keyes’ ideas could lead to trade wars that would harm farmers, who are always looking for new markets willing to buy American crops. He said the United State should continue to work with the World Trade Organization and pursue deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the country must be more aggressive about protecting American interests.
Perhaps explaining this unexpected development. I bet he votes for Kohn.
My Fine Father Makes the Leader
I’m not kidding. Read Joyce now:
My friend reminded me about the time Larry Handlin, a boy who lived on a neighboring farm, my brother, and a few other teenage boys from our rural community found a frozen skunk on their way to school one morning that had been run over. Temptation overtook them, so they slipped the frozen skunk into the big assembly hall and placed it behind one of the steam registers.
I don?t have to explain what happened as the morning went on and the skunk thawed. The boys didn?t get by with their prank, and life was quite miserable for awhile. They had detentions at school, but there was no peace at home as the parents failed to express their good country humor over the incident. They were embarrassed their sons had done such a thing.
My father is a proud and partisan Democrat by the way. As is my grandmother who probably used the switch on him even though he was a senior in high school. My Great-Grandmother Black was also a partisan Democrat and I knew her well. And my Grandfather Handlin told the story with a smile many years later–also a proud New Deal Democrat. And let me just say, using my Father as evidence of how Christian values are important is a bit, um, let’s say bizarre given his views on organized religion.
He has confirmed the story. I am distantly related to Joyce. Oh shit.
Remember Coburn?
As I mentioned before Tom Coburn was the sole member of Congress to endorse Alan Keyes for President in 2000. I mentioned recently Coburn called his battle for the US Senate in Oklahoma a battle of good versus evil. More on that comment here
You can contribute to Carson there as well.
The Only Poll That Matters is the One on Judgment Day
Alan is going to lose because people don’t want to be awakened. uh-huh.
Newcom Nukes Keyes
Lee Newcom lets Keyes’ campaign have it.
I’d take this as a sign Lee knows he’s in trouble in one of the more conservative counties in Illinois. He was in trouble before Keyes and this makes it worse. He beat an old line Republican who was incompetent, but then it came out that he has all sorts of financial irregularities in his organization–and he’s running for a financial office. So the old line folks hate him, the swing voters think he is incompetent, and the County Board members hate him because he was a pain in the ass so he absolutely needs good party turnout to win on straight party voters–Keyes may be the final nail in the coffin. I tend to think Lee Newcom is everything wrong with politics–someone who espouses morality, but believes he can do anything to win so there is no loss here and lots to gain as one watches the far right turn on one another.
Tomorrow….
I promise to have Bean Day!–today isn’t working out–there will be posting, but I’m too swamped to do anything in depth.
Five Easy Questions
For those interested in me and how the blog got started and continues, Eric Zorn has posted my responsed to Five Easy Questions along with some nice words about me. Thanks Eric.
From Chillinois
Blogger sucks. I wasn’t able to post all day Tuesday because Blogger sucks and won’t work. I want to write about Jesus and Keyes and Kitty Kelley. Perhaps God is punishing me. Or protecting me from myself.
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Heh. I remember that pain.
For those discovering the crappiness of Blogger, let me suggest two alternatives. Blogstudio was my second stop in the blogosphere and is generally pretty reliable. I had good luck with them.
Second, and one Eric Zorn has suggested is Bloghorn which is developed and run out of Saint Louis and is an excellent user friendly interface and hosting service.
The Complicit Media
Michael at the Chicago Report asked:
Keyes is criticizing Obama for threatening to give him a “spanking”. Who called this press conference? At first I thought that Keyes must have covered something else … that our car wreck hungry media just didn’t want to talk about health care or taxes or other issues of substance. But not even the Illinois Leader had any substance. Who’s running this campaign? I hope it’s Keyes himself. I’d hate to think that someone is actually making a living in this business holding press conferences like this.
Actually Michael, it looks like Keyes called it:
Keyes, who will be greatly outspent, relies on free media in his campaign against Obama, Kay reported. As a result, he frequently calls news conferences to respond to responses. First, he criticizes Obama. When Obama responds, Keyes calls a news conference to respond, which is what he did on Tuesday.
Though I’m sure the dynamic duo of Pascoe and Proft are involved in such decisions too.