August 2010

Four On Ballot for US Senate

ArchPundit August 30, 2010 0 Comment

Libertarian makes the ballot for the US Senate, Constitution Party knocked off:

The Senate candidates are Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, Republican Mark Kirk, Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones and Libertarian candidate Mike Labno of Oak Brook. Removed from the ballot today were Randy Stufflebeam of the Constitution Party, frequent candidate Andy Martin and independent candidate Corey Dabney of Aurora, election officials said.

Labno is pro-gun, and very anti-abortion only allowing for it in the case of the woman’s life being in danger.   He doesn’t appear to have an obsessive hatred of teh gay, but he pretty obviously is also against a carbon permit system so he meets three of four wingnut complaints about Kirk.  Now we just need the idiot from Carpentersville to throw some  money at the guy.

Half-Assing High Speed Rail

ArchPundit August 30, 2010 0 Comment

John Hilkevitch has a very good column on high speed rail and the problem with upgrading tracks that freight will continue to share:

Union Pacific agreed to allow 110 mph passenger trains on the tracks being rebuilt mostly with federal stimulus funds between Chicago and St. Louis only because it inherited the obligation when it bought the track along the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1996. An earlier Southern Pacific agreement allowing the Illinois Department of Transportation to run faster trains was part of a grandfather clause.

“If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be doing this investment (in high-speed rail),” Union Pacific Chief Executive Officer James Young told the Bloomberg news agency in July. “We need to focus on freight for our good and for the good of the country.”

Sandoval said Illinois “can’t sell the real benefits of investing in freight and Amtrak service on the back of the bullet train.”

“Our current state strategy falls short because it relies on the Union Pacific to deliver to the people more round-trips, more reliability at faster times without any guarantees. This investment in the UP is not the bullet train the people want,” Sandoval said. “We should be upfront with the people of Illinois.”

He is right about no guarantees. The Union Pacific has not agreed to allow for increases in passenger service once the 110 mph track upgrades are completed on the 284-mile line between Chicago and St. Louis. So a huge investment is being made to operate only a few trains a day?

It also doesn’t help to go really fast only to have to pull over for a freight train and wait.

General JC Christian Calls the Militia

ArchPundit August 30, 2010 0 Comment

Effing Brilliant

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6dH7uqK1t0[/youtube]

Gen. JC Christian, patriot: Yeah, they don’t know how to take on armor. What you gotta do is get a CCI .22 stinger in your rifle and you shoot right straight down the barrel. What that does is it compresses the [spent] uranium in the round, and it causes a small nuclear explosion and destroys the tank. People don’t know that kind of stuff.

Prince Shannon: Yeah, I tell you. I don’t know that kind of stuff.

Full transcript and more at his website

Calling Pat Robertson

ArchPundit August 30, 2010 0 Comment

God’s pissed about the Ground Zero Mosque*:

The forecast track has been nudged to the west again, putting the storm perilously close to the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Thursday and moving less than 300 miles east of New York City on Friday, potentially as a Category 2 or 3 system.

*It’s, of course, not a mosque and not at Ground Zero, but Pat has never been a stickler.  And it if misses, it was a warning to change their ways…

Figuring Out Rod Blagojevich

ArchPundit August 26, 2010 0 Comment

Eric really identifies the problem with trying to figure out Rod Blagojevich.  (Hint:  It involves the Princess Bride)

The Blagojevich Paradox.

Even if it contradicts everything else about his personality, he always does exactly opposite of what he says!  Except when he doesn’t.

Hinz on Park 51

ArchPundit August 25, 2010 0 Comment

Absolutely correct:

The America I know lets other countries hate, lets others discriminate on the basis of religion. It knows how to distinguish between radicals and civilians who are just trying to live their lives and can be our friends if we do not go out of our way to insult them.

America is about to send a message to hundreds of millions of people — including the folks who live and work in those Istanbul highrises.

What message will it be?

Will it be that the West is just as petty and grudge-filled as some Muslim jihadists?

Or will it be that the West opens its doors to those who are willing to follow the rules of civilized society?

Someone who hopes to become a member of the United States Senate — known to some as the world’s greatest deliberative body — ought to know how to not to pander, ought to know that setting policy requires drawing lines between true enemies and potential friends and acting accordingly.

It’s Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, who supports building the mosque and community center in lower Manhattan, who’s on the right side of this one.

Which America will it be? Will we be better than other countries, or let our own anxieties needlessly cut us off from a growing outside world?

That’s what’s at stake.

I’ll give Brady a little bit of credit too–he avoided it reasonably as a candidate for office in the State of Illinois, but he didn’t demagogue it which I found impressive.

Rasmussen 46 Brady 37 Quinn

ArchPundit August 24, 2010 0 Comment

Taken before the latest fiasco with his Chief of Staff.

The only sort of good news:

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Illinois voters approve of the job Quinn is doing as governor.  Sixty percent (60%), however, disapprove of his job performance.

Brady is viewed Very Favorably by 19% of the state’s voters and Very Unfavorably by 17%.  Quinn earns Very Favorable marks from 10% and Very Unfavorable reviews from 31%.

Brady still is not well defined so if there were a consistent message to hit him it could do some good.    Quinn, while he has low approval, has okay favorables meaning people don’t hate him personally at least like a certain former Governor.

The survey of 750 Likely Voters in Illinois was conducted on August 23, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

How Does Bill Brady Feel about the Stem Cell Decision?

ArchPundit August 24, 2010 0 Comment

Mark Kirk’s out there on it–how about the Quinn campaign get with the program and get a message on it…

Beware of the Greens

ArchPundit August 24, 2010 0 Comment

Laura Washington gives the Green Party an ego boost they don’t deserve:

Alexi Giannoulias is loath to admit it, but LeAlan Jones could become his gnarliest nightmare.

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Jones has no political or governmental record, paltry cash and scarce name recognition — plus a monstrous helping of chutzpah. He owns one unmistakable asset — he is African American. Jones may be a Green, but the color of the moment is black.

So far, the Green Party has gained little traction in the ‘hood. Most black voters view them as a bunch of Birkenstock-clad wonks who connect more with global warming than job creation.

Wow, that is a quite a nightmare he might be facing.

The problem is there is absolutely no evidence the Greens can reach out to groups beyond their own small group of activists.  They don’t appear to take raising money seriously and my bet is LeAlan will do far better with whites than with blacks, though not real good with either.  For someone to be a threat they have to actually demonstrate some sort of plan to achieve some recognition and then create support out of that.  So far the Greens have issued some nice press releases, but that’s not going to do it.

Baby Killer Kirk

ArchPundit August 24, 2010 0 Comment

LOL.  Illinois Review is very upset with Mark Kirk:

Despite the base of the Republican Party and the Party’s platform itself being staunchly prolife, Congressman Mark Kirk, also the IL GOP’s nominee for U.S. Senate, continues to hold firm on his commitment to despicable and up-until-now non-productive human embryo experimentation.

This response sent out by Kirk campaign to the U.S. district judge’s decision to strike down President Obama’s stem cell executive order is disappointing and disturbing, because it assures us where a U.S. Senator Kirk would be if presented with a decision on the ever-important issue of the sanctity of life.

I hear there’s a pro-life libertarian to vote for….