April 2005
ArchPundit
Aren’t There Sanctions for Scurrilous Complaints?
In a fascinating Washington Post article, records of allegations of abuse my Michael Schiavo are reported.
In at least one case, the caller found the evidence of Terri Schiavo’s alleged abuse on the Internet. In January 2004, a female caller reported that Terri Schiavo had an infection on her stomach, at the site of her feeding tube, that was not being treated. But, when questioned, she said she had no first-hand knowledge. She “stated that her information on current infections and lack of treatment was from Yahoo chatline,” the report said.
I’m pretty sure if I were to try this on 911, on a slow night I might get a visit from a police officer who would explain the purpose of 911 to me in a not too polite way.
What strikes me as well is that Michael Schiavo has the material for several thousand libel lawsuits if he so wished.
Organizing Home Child Care Workers
Ramsin has a great piece up on the SEIU’s efforts to organize home child care providers. I have some reservations about giving home child care workers too much leverage given the most recent work suggests that stable Center based care is superior, but anyone who understands the industry knows that home child care providers will be around for some time as states rely on them to provide adequate slots.
Roughly 83 percent of the workers chose SEIU Local 880 as their union. Childcare providers were now union workers. We had crossed a threshold ? no going back. Those tens of thousands of providers, dedicated over the last decade, sacrificing time and resources, had helped change the definition of work forever.
SEUI deserves credit for it’s early work on this issue. Providing adqequate and safe child care is essential to getting people off of welfare and providing children the ability to grow up with productive parents. Home child care providers provide a large number of necessary slots for the state to pull off moving welfare recipients to work.
In Illinois, SEIU’s early work paid off for child care providers.
Below is a picture of the difference in the state reimbursement rate for infant care per day (infants cost more to take care of due to being labor intensive). It comes from the Missouri Department of Social Services:
Illinois’ rate of reimbursement is probably high enough to actually cover costs. One of the dirty secrets well known within in the industry is that most states pay such low rates, providers come in and out of existence rapidly. This exacerbates the problem of providing quality care because stability is a big determinant of that. SEIU worked to increase that reimbursement early on and achieved it before even formally representing workers. That is to be commended.
Illinois still has issues in that those with relatively low incomes aren’t covered as much as in other states, creating a gap of coverage for those who work, but can’t afford care.
The American Prospect covered the subject here
The Nation also weighed in on what is considered a resounding success for organized labor.
And because I lost some e-mail, I lost an update from someone else from the SEIU, if they could contact me again, I’d greatly appreciate it.
UPDATE: Okay, found the e-mail which included some more background
SEIU’s United To Win Blog has a home child care provider discussing what the win meant for them. More from them on the general issue
Nathan Newman offers up a big picture take on the issue
Bitch. PhD offers up a personal story I can relate to given I was in a home child care setting through 2nd grade. One setting that was very good–one setting that wasn’t.
For those wondering if it is a good investment, two researchers at the Minneapolis Fed have been doing some very strong research on the subject which is overwhelmingly positive
As a disclaimer, I’ve done some evaluation research that addresses some minor issues of providers in Metro East, though most of it centered in Missouri.
Where Does G-Rod Stand
The best overall analysis is done by IlPundit who offers up a good analysis. My view is that the bills are coming due about 18 months before the administration expected and now he’s stuck in a situation a lot tougher than he thought–and the press turned on him.
Pascoe and Proft Being Considered by Rauschenberger?
Does God Love Me That Much? Jeff Berkowitz has the scoop and a good discussion.
I generally like Rauschenberger though I’ve offered up a healthy dose of ridicule over his taking part in the Keyes debacle. Joining together with those who thought up the entire debacle could not seem like a worse idea for a guy whose best quality is being the serious guy to go to for comment on the state budget. The disconnect only gets worse for anyone who has read Pascoe’s overwrought fact sheets to press members during debates.
Timpone does a good job on web sites from what I’ve seen, but the other two attract exactly the kind of coverage you don’t want. For example, they are a story when you think of hiring them. Instead of showing a good hire, it ignites discussion even from Jeff Berkowitz who is a conservative Republican.
The first rule of all campaigns is that staff shoudn’t be making news* or if they are mentioned, it should be reflective of the candidate’s good judgment. Starting off with questions about judgment from a hire is a sign it’s a bad idea from the start.
Frankly, both sides would seem to do well by running away from each other even if they like each other. Putting Keyes in the past would be best for everyone. Reminding everyone of the man who seems to have left us mercifully is just bad.
*This applies equally to Democrats as well.
On the Other Hand
The Governor’s Team deserves ridicule for serving up this stinker:
The administration this week asked eight top state employees who have nothing to do with education to enlist friends and relatives in a letter-writing campaign to newspapers. Now the administration is being criticized for possibly coercing some of its employees into working for the governor’s aggressive public relations machine.
“This is more of the all-self-promotion-all-the-time that this administration seems to go for,” complained Charles N. Wheeler III, a state government expert at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “To have this kind of stealth grass-roots propaganda campaign … strikes me as something over the top.”
With some minor alterations, Meneghetti’s newspaper piece sticks closely to the form letter Blagojevich deputy chief of staff Brian Daly circulated Monday to the eight high-level employees at the Department of Central Management Services, an agency that manages state property and supplies.
The memo encourages the employees to have “friends and relatives” send letters to newspaper editorial pages across the state as part of the administration’s “outreach efforts” and to make sure to show copies of those letters to their boss at Central Management.
And I think we all know, CMS employees probably should be focusing on other priorities as the Register Star pointed out.
What’s most disturbing about this is that CMS seems to be one of the most politicized state offices when it should be the model of good management practices. That puts nearly all of the Governor’s efforts to reform state operations in question. Just as the auditor’s reports pointed out.
Good For Brady, Laughable for Pat
O’Malley ties with largely unknown State Senator Bill Brady in a 10th District GOP Women’s forum. LaHood wins.
It should be telling to the GOPsters out there that moderate GOP women aren’t enthralled with fire breathing True Believers (TM) like O’Malley. The good news is they didn’t run out of the auditorium I guess.
Even though Topinka wasn’t there, that should be her audience.
LaHood emerged fairly well and I think his low key approach might surprise a lot. Strong activists may dislike him, but even in the primary that isn’t the winning coalition. The danger for the right wing is that they are so divided that either Topinka or LaHood (who is pretty conservative, but seen as moderate) emerge from bitter infighting on the right flank. LaHood probably does the best in such a scenario with the conservative votes and moderate demeanor, he’s probably the strongest general election candidate along with Rauschenberger–who isn’t even certain to make the race.
Post-Dispatch Attacks G-Rod
And it’s unfair. Because Dick Mell yelled, everyone seems to be jumping about the Governor’s including a provision to force divestiture of holdings by family members of Illinois Government officials.
First, is that a horrible standard? Here’s the selected text
(415 ILCS 5/22.52 new)
25 Sec. 22.52. Conflict of interest. Effective 30 days after
26 the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 94th General
27 Assembly, none of the following persons shall have a direct
28 financial interest in or receive a personal financial benefit
29 from any waste-disposal operation or any clean construction or
30 demolition debris fill operation that requires a permit or
31 interim authorization under this Act, or any corporate entity
32 related to any such waste-disposal operation or clean
33 construction or demolition debris fill operation:09400SB0431sam001 – 15 – LRB094 09305 RSP 44857 a
1 (i) the Governor of the State of Illinois;
2 (ii) the Attorney General of the State of Illinois;
3 (iii) the Director of the Illinois Environmental
4 Protection Agency;
5 (iv) the Chairman of the Illinois Pollution Control
6 Board;
7 (v) the members of the Illinois Pollution Control
8 Board;
9 (vi) the staff of any person listed in items (i)
10 through (v) of this Section who makes a regulatory or
11 licensing decision that directly applies to any
12 waste-disposal operation or any clean construction or
13 demolition debris fill operation; and
14 (vii) a relative of any person listed in items (i)
15 through (vi) of this Section.
16 The prohibitions of this Section shall apply during the
17 person’s term of State employment and shall continue for 5
18 years after the person’s termination of State employment. The
19 prohibition of this Section shall not apply to any person whose
20 State employment terminates prior to 30 days after the
21 effective date of this Amendatory Act of the 94th General
22 Assembly.
23 For the purposes of this Section:
24 (a) The terms “direct financial interest” and
25 “personal financial benefit” do not include the ownership
26 of publicly traded stock.
27 (b) The term “relative” means father, mother, son,
28 daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, husband, wife,
29 fatherin-law, or mother-in-law.
I can think of one time I’d like to have seen a similar rule. Remember when Dan Carlisle was charged with the largest manure spill ever? And his sister was Becky Doyle–head of Illinois’ Department of Agriculture?
The Post-Dispatch takes on the Governor for his most recent dust-up with his father-in-law, but forgets that Mell was the one who made a stink.
I’m no stranger to criticizing the Governor, but this is a good bill and bitching at G-Rod for doing the right thing because Mell has a thin skin helps no one.
I’ll admit that instituting such a rule might cause problems in places like Ag, but it isn’t as absurd as everyone is making it out to be.
Now, y’all need to stop it because I’m feeling awfully weird defending the guy over this.
Minor Point: Rich Miller says the following in this weeks column:
There’s no problem with the law if a member of the governor’s family owns stock in a regulated monopoly like ComEd or SBC. A family member could be a state licensed cosmetologist, real estate agent, or even a horseshoer.
If a relative listed above only owned stock in a landfill, the prohibition wouldn’t apply. In this case it’s set up that the ownership has to be direct–and that, to me, makes it far different.
I can imagine significant problems in Agriculture if this was applied because families usually farm that have a member on Ag–that said, direct regulation like a mega-hog farm like Carlisle’s is a far different standard and under far more direct regulation. The rule may need to be tweaked, but why wouldn’t expanding it be a good thing?
It’s On IL-6
Illinois 6 is an open seat for 2006.
In 1985, served as a Legislative Assistant for Health Care and Education for Congressman Tom DeLay.
Any pictures of that service?
He’s also endorsed by the Illinois State Rifle Association–you remember the group that was highly critical of Jim Ryan for being against Concealed Carry legislation—how will that play in a suburban district like the 6th?
And of course, he gets a 100 from the Illinois Family Institute that to call anti-gay would be to downplay the vigorous level of bigotry they espouse.
On the other hand, with virtually no elected Dems in a District that went 46% Kerry, Christine Cegelis looks to be the likely Dem nominee and is already amassing campaign funds and volunteers–in case a special election gets called if Hyde moves on to the Vatican or something like that. Be sure to help her out with time or money.
One of my sharpest critiques of her 2004 campaign was that she didn’t raise enough money. I’ve been assured that isn’t problem this time around and will be addressed by the campaign. She’s already raised about $40,000 and that’s a great start.
Overall, she still has some issues that are not quite consistent with that District, but pulling in 44.2% of the vote should tell us all that District isn’t as conservative as it used to be and as an open seat this is a special opportunity.
What Happened Up There?
An interesting column in the Register Star about the Doug Scott race–a race I was utterly clueless on so had little to say.
Chuck Sweeney covers Morrissey’s plans for Rockford with a bit of cynicism.
And the What Happened Up There? line was reused from an earlier Sweeney column.