Call It A Comeback
Capitol Fax also has a bit on how the Govenor made a splashy announcement on a free book program for young children, but now it has been dropped without a peep.
When I read the initial idea, I wondered why one wouldn’t utilize Parents as Teachers as the distribution mechanism….
Not flashy enough even though it exists and would be relatively cheap.
I know the correct view in the blogosphere is that The Blagorgeous is a right wing fascist nanny state leftist who should be more libertarian about video games, but I’m at a loss as to why any decent business is selling Leisure Suit Larry to children. Or why it’s so absurd as to suggest kids shouldn’t be able to buy just any video game off the shelf.
Let’s be clear about the proposal. It affects children and children only. There are not limitations on what adults can buy or rent. We keep children from buying many things including sexually explicit movies and magazines.
Unless one argues that pornography should be available to children who want it and only it’s the parents responsibility to keep it from them even though the kids could theoretically buy it themselves, the issue is essentially the same except it includes violence as well. I see no reason that a responsible business shouldn’t already be restricting sales of such games to minors if they carry them.
Is he jumping on an issue and making a big public show of it? Absolutely. And welcome to politics, but that doesn’t make the position horrible.
There are materials we restrict from minors and we do it for a reason–it’s adult subject matter and it affects a developing mind more than an adult’s.
Should a 17 year old be able to play Doom? Most probably can handle it, but their parents can decide that and then the next year the adult can decide for himself or herself. Should a 10 year old play Doom? No. And if a parent wants to buy it for their kid, well, the law would allow them to be irresponsible, but the adult decides.
Rich Miller has a hysterical bit analyzing the Governor’s announcement scheming.
All that said, trying to write the legal definition narrow enough to pass Constitutional muster on the violence bit will be really difficult.
But that isn’t the only area the Blagorgeous administration is having problems, they also haven’t been filing notices of waivers concerning state ethics laws—of 19 only 5 have been filed with Secretary of State Jesse White.
I don’t think this was what was meant when the Governor said he’d be changing business as usual.
Thompson is part of a growing class of vendors whose contracts are filed more than 30 days after they begin work. And at least on the state?s paper, she is among the burgeoning class of vendors who started work without a contract.
All this is occurring as Blagojevich consolidates management responsibilities under the umbrella of CMS. His administration is centralizing management of contracts and state facilities, as well as public relations specialists and legal counsel, within CMS.
CMS spokesman Willy Medina said contract delays must be considered in that context.?You?ve got to work with all the departments that have their own set of people,? he said. ?You?ve got to make sure what they have, what people they have and what contracts they have, so that you know what you?re inheriting. It?s almost like a merger.?
But Keith Taylor, chief of staff for Hynes, has questioned whether CMS is up to the task. Hynes, like Blagojevich, is a Chicago Democrat. But as the state?s chief fiscal officer, Hynes is elected independently of the state?s chief executive.
Taylor wrote in an Oct. 29 letter to Rumman that the comptroller?s office ?noted a number of instances with CMS contracts where proper contract management procedures appear not to have been followed, primarily involving work commencing prior to the scope of services being reduced to writing.?
State government can provide an excellent way for small and minority contractors to build their businesses, a way for them to understand the Salesforce and the future of work, but only if the state is a reliable partner.
Even worse, on the other end of contracts, large contracts are not being given the proper oversight they deserve and in two cases, the Comptroller’s office withheld payment.
More to the point, it’s a bad business practice and a self-annointed reform Governor ought to be deeply troubled by the problem.
Excellent 7% Good 43% Fair 37% Poor 5% Undecided 8%
50% good/excellent numbers. Seems strange because his press has been relatively good. Overall, the big problem is the Collar Counties where he’s getting killed with only a 32% E/G rating. He’s actually not doing bad in Central and Southern Illinois.
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.
In many ways this is the Governor I remember–remarkably talented politically even if he makes horrible policy quite often.
I’m not a fan of the Governor, but talk about hitting an issue at just the right time, Blagojevich has found 30,000 doses of flu vaccine and is seeking permission to import them.
Kerry should give him a big kiss.
Rich Miller’s weekly column addresses Pat Quinn’s disappearance and points out the most egregious of sell outs by the Blagojevich administration–the delaying of regulatory review of coal powered sources. The sound from Quinn–silence. What good is it to be reelected if you are a political eunich.
But getting back to the Blagojevich administration’s decision, it could be worse, but it’s hard to say how. The reasoning is that because the feds are putting in new rules eventually, Illinois should wait. The argument goes that putting new regulations on Illinois would lead, under a deregulated energy market in Illinois, to power plants being built in other states leaving Illinois with fewer sources of power and less ability to regulate those who ship power to Illinois.
The irony of the above is that a deregulated industry is actually not causing fits of laughter as they try and encourage deregulation while saying it could lead to an inability to regulate power if we enforce current clean air laws. But why doesn’t that matter in Illinois? No ones paying attention.
Of course, what this misses is that power production is not highly relocatable. Certainly you can build some over the borders and you can transmit it, but economically it still doesn’t make sense to send it to far or the loss in the wires makes the costs too high. It’s a bogus threat to say you’ll relocate to other states at this point. The technology isn’t that good yet.
That said, the cost factor of only looking at what it costs Illinoisans in the short term avoids the point that eventually the EPA will have to address these problems. If Illinois is ahead of the curve, it can actually create an environment where utilities are geared up to deal with stricter standards and set it so the incentive system to get there is the least disruptive.
But The Blagorgeous won’t make that argument–instead he decided to look around and go, “Everyone else is doing it.”
Ross at Public Health Press has the Evidence
He also has a great post on Cheney’s grasp of the AIDS problem and the Bush Administration neglect of children’s healthcare programs
When a state rep from Palatine can amass an e-mail list of 100,000 names (more than four times the size of the Governor?s list, by the by), that should tell you something. And if we?re not careful, we?ll see Dean?s lessons implemented to help a Republican insurgent here in Illinois
Hello out there! Click here: rodblagojevich.com
Who registered the url? Brian Timpone of the Illinois Leader
Wake up!
ArchPundit