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Egregious Violations of Religious Funding in the Budget

ArchPundit July 21, 2009 No Comments

I tend to find Rob Sherman a bit of a gadfly, but he’s also often correct.  Eric Zorn has a round-up of funds going directly to religious institutions for what are not solely secular purposes:

Here are the three worst examples of blatantly unconstitutional expenditures that I’ve found, so far:

On page 170, a grant of $700,000, your tax dollars, to St. Malachy School for “costs associated with capital improvements.” There can’t possibly be a single legislator in all of Springfield who doesn’t know that Article X, Section 3, of the Illinois Constitution prohibits grants of tax dollars to parochial schools, yet there are dozens of similar grants throughout the Bill.

On page 54, a grant of $150,000, your tax dollars, to Keshet for “costs associated with construction of a cabin at Camp Chi,” a Jewish camp IN WISCONSIN!  It’s bad enough that the legislature is making unconstitutional donations to religious organizations, but now they’re making donations to religious facilities in OTHER STATES!  Hey, I went to Camp Chi one year in the ’60s.  It was right around when I was Bar Mitzvahed.  It’s a great camp, but you can’t go taxing people to support a place where children are sent to have a religious experience, particularly when the place is out-of-state!

Here’s the most outrageous of them all:  On pages 335 and 336, a grant of $140,000, your tax dollars, “to Catholic Bishop of Chicago” (that’s Cardinal George) “for general infrastructure at St. Martin de Porres Church.”

My only criticism is of this comment:

There can’t possibly be a single legislator in all of Springfield who doesn’t know that Article X, Section 3, of the Illinois Constitution prohibits grants of tax dollars to parochial schools, yet there are dozens of similar grants throughout the Bill.

I’m betting there are many.

More to the point, these sort of funds are very different from allowed grants that go to religious institutions that are providing social services.  In those cases they cannot discriminate and they must not actively proselytize while providing services.  Obviously, a church and a Catholic school are all about proselytizing and thus it’s an inappropriate use of public dollars.

The Jewish camp in Wisconsin is bizarre by even Illinois pork barrel project standards.

Waterloo

ArchPundit July 21, 2009 No Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvvy0pydeyY[/youtube]

Kirk Cannot Beat McKenna in a Primary

ArchPundit July 10, 2009 No Comments

Unless there is a third serious contender on the right wing, Kirk is simply not pure enough for the Republican base.

He’s pro-choice, pro-gun control, not anti-gay at least, and doesn’t deny science.  If McKenna primaries him one on one, McKenna takes that race.  The only minor problem for McKenna is the Jack Roeser wing which hates him might put up another candidate that could make the race somewhat messy.

Another Damn Hamlet

ArchPundit July 10, 2009 No Comments

Pretty impressive ping pong ball there Congressman Kirk.

Considering it…

ArchPundit July 10, 2009 No Comments

http://www.rollcall.com/news/36689-1.html

Kirk Says He’s Still Mulling Senate Race

July 10, 2009, 4:18 p.m.
By Shira Toeplitz
Roll Call Staff

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is still considering running for Senate, despite a report Friday afternoon that said he was taking himself out of the race in order to avoid a primary with state Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna.

Kirk told Roll Call over the phone Friday that he was still discussing the race with McKenna going into the weekend and that a published Washington Post report that he was dropping out of the race was incorrect.

Kirk and McKenna met with the Illinois delegation this week to gauge support for their campaigns. At the time, it was unclear who the delegation would back — in part because of Kirk’s vote for the controversial cap-and-trade bill that passed the House recently.

Kirk told Roll Call that he and McKenna would continue to discuss the race over the weekend.

Purity of Essence Branch Was the Push, though The Situation is Unclear on Kirk

ArchPundit July 10, 2009 No Comments

Cilizza

Update, 4:17 p.m.: Although Kirk has already told several national Republicans today that he will not run for the Senate, there is an ongoing effort now to convince him to re-think that decision, according to several sources close to the discussions. Pressure is now being brought to bear on Andy McKenna, who, according to knowledgeable sources, had told Republicans insiders that he would not run if Kirk got into the race. Once Kirk signaled he was indeed running, however, McKenna reconsidered and made clear he would in fact stay in.
The plot thickens…

Original Post

Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk (R) will not run for the open seat of Sen. Roland Burris (D) in 2010, a stunning reversal from just 48 hours ago when Kirk signaled to National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) that he would make the race.

Kirk’s decision, a blow to Senate Republicans’ chances in Illinois, came in the wake of Burris’ formal retirement this afternoon.

It also followed a meeting of the Illinois Republican congressional delegation on Thursday in which his colleaguesrefused to back Kirk in a primary against Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna due, in large part, to his vote in favor of President Barack Obama’s climate change bill.

Kirk’s move makes McKenna the almost certain Republican nominee against either state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias or Merchandise Mart CEO Chris Kennedy next fall.

Global warming denial is the only appropriate position in today’s GOP.  Hilarious.

There’s Only One Man Left for the GOP

ArchPundit July 10, 2009 No Comments

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

Kirk’s OUt

ArchPundit July 10, 2009 No Comments

More in a sec….

Fizzled

ArchPundit July 10, 2009 No Comments

“As you know, there have been many marquee names thrown out for this seat and so far they have all fizzled,”

Changing the Face of the Statewide Campaign Announcement

ArchPundit July 10, 2009 No Comments

Merc Strategy:

For years, the traditional means of announcing a statewide political campaign in Illinois was the tried-and-true “fly-around” — an all-day (or multi-day) affair in which a candidate hops on a plane to do a series of press conferences and rallies in major cities around the state.

A fly-around has its place and we still may do one. Today, we effectively employed a different strategy.
Our firm was proud to spearhead the online component of the announcement of DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett’s campaign for Illinois Attorney General.

In fact — the online component was the centerpiece of the announcement.

We taped a brief, candidate announcement video (please see below) that we first sent to key Illinois blogs, followed by distribution via the Twittersphere.

We then emailed the video to our list of more than 25,000 voters in Illinois.

That was followed by the campaign press team pushing the story out to the traditional media — where the story spread quickly on news sites across the state.

We also simultaneously launched a new Facebook fan page for the campaign.
Bottom line: the online announcement allowed us to control the news, cost-effectively and directly reach voters across the state, create buzz, and drive news coverage.

A few years ago, the main tools of a campaign announcement were a plane, a car and a phone.

Today – we used YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Below is our announcement video. We prefer candid, casual videos — not even editing out small slips of the tongue — to ensure an authentic feel and to prevent the candidate from appearing stiff or stilted. We’re quite pleased with how it turned out:

The timing was still bizarre, but it appears otherwise Merc did a good job.