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Daily Dolt: Calling Bullshit on Dan Proft

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Not that it’s that hard to do, but in Dan’s latest hysterical (double meaning intended) column he states:

Next year, “Muhammad” will be the most popular baby boy’s name in England. The radical elements of the Muslim world have been welcomed into European societies that subordinated their sense of self-preservation to an empty-headed commitment to value-judgment free diversity. No need to blow the front door off when it is unlocked.

Not so much. Mohammed comes in at number 22 and Muhammed comes in at number 44. Looking at past years, Mohammed hasn’t cracked number 20 ever. IOW, Dan’s making shit up.

But it goes a bit further. The variants on Mohammed both standout compared to the girl’s list where there are no clearly Islamic or Arab based names on the list of the top 50 meaning there’s something else going on–namely, Muslim parents of all ethnic backgrounds use the name Mohammed far more frequently than any other name. And so the number 22 and number 44 placing of the names don’t mean that there are that many new Muslim babies as much as a very high percentage of the boys are named one or the other.

Illinois Congressional Races

Challenging Lipinski

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Challenging Lipinski
THE LANDMARK VIEW

It is far too early, and in the midst of this August heat, too, to think seriously about the Democratic primary next February. Though The Landmark will never suggest who you might vote for as a presidential candidate, we will, eventually, be hot and heavy in the race for the Third Congressional District. That’s the seat bequeathed to Dan Lipinski some three years ago by his generous-but cynical-father, William Lipinski.

In a hand-off that made Todd Stroger’s ascendency seen downright democratic, Lipinski the Elder anointed his son after winning his party’s 2004 primary and then promptly announcing that he was retiring. Bill Lipinski had pre-greased the wheels with the Democratic committeemen of the Third District on his son’s behalf.

Voila. Dan Lipinski goes to Washington.

Can you tell that it still sticks in our collective craw?

Among the many reasons Chicago and Illinois politics are so corrupt and corrosive is the rampant nepotism at play. This is, after all, a democracy, not a kingdom with royal lineage.

So we’re happy to see that a legitimate challenger is rising up for the February primary in the person of Mark Pera. A Western Springs resident, Pera is known in these parts for his service as president of the Lyons Township High School board. Pera is showing his stuff in two ways. First, he is raising significant cash to take on the lobbyist-larded Lipinski. Pera has even taken out a second mortgage to loan the proceeds to his effort. That though is not the sum total of his fundraising. He has built a network of early support, both financial and grassroots. Second, he is clearly differentiating himself from Lipinski’s political positions on issues such as the war and social issues such as abortion.

It is a good start to what we hope will be a vigorous campaign. Finally Dan Lipinski should be forced to win his seat in Congress legitimately.

Illinois Congressional Races

Bring on the Crazy

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Berkowitz tells us who is running the Oberweis’ campaign and ta-da

Bill Pascoe reemerges! 

One can only hope he likes commercials with helicopters. Or he’s ready to have his candidate lead a siege on the election authority in Kane County. Pascoe, along with Dan Proft brought Keyes to us.

On the other hand, Chris Lauzen, CPA, has received the support of Jack Roeser from the Family Taxpayers Network.

Given the location of the fight, we can only count the days until someone who John Zahm is working for sues someone.

More seriously, Lauzen is siding with the loony wing of suburban politics, while Oberweis appears to be working the inside angle with Berkowitz reporting rumors that Hastert is leaning towards Oberweis.

That’s some legacy he’s leaving behind.

G-Rod

It Only Takes 2 on JCAR

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The Blagojevich folks think they can get a few of the proposals around JCAR–I don’t buy that, but that’s for the courts to decide. However, on a couple issues everyone is in agreement that JCAR must sign off on the rule changes. For Blagojevich to get the rules changes he needs 5 votes in his favor–meaning out of six Democrats, 2 defecting Democrats can stop the rules. Unless there is a Republican vote to pick up, and that seems highly unlikely.
I’ll go out on a limb and say Fritchey is going to say no–and good for him.

House Republicans

Hassert Romeoville–strong Cross ally
Leitch–Peoria

Mulligan–Des Plaines

The only way Hassert switches is if Cross got behind some sort of deal, but that deal would have been made previously.  Not now.  Mulligan is slightly vulnerable as she is in the Northwest suburbs and in theory it could be an issue against her assuming she’s challenged by a Democrat this cycle.  The problem–running with Blagojevich in the Northwest suburbs would be an act of political suicide for any challenger. The one advantage good Democratic Lege candidates have is that they can run against the Governor since he’s essentially his own brand separate from the Democrats.

Senate Republicans
Burzynski–Sycamore

Hultgren–Wheaton

Rutherford–Pontiac

Uhhh…no.  Rutherford will vote against the rules with a smile. He might even break into talking about himself in the third person again as he did when Blagojevich campaigned against him on an early budget vote in Pontiac.  The others would have no rational electoral reason to defect from Watson.

Senate Democrats

Crotty–Oak Forest

Clayborne–East Saint Louis

Silverstein–Chicago

I’d imagine Crotty and Silverstein go with Emil on this.  Clayborne may pull out the institutionalist card and vote against the rules if he’s offended by the method.

House Democrats

Fritchey–Chicago  Uh…no.
Holbrook–Belleville
Miller–Dolton

Miller expresses reservations in the Post-Dispatch.  He doesn’t have any real threats so backing Madigan with a no would not be a problem for him.

Holbrook made his play blocking a budget bill at the end of May with other downstate Members to argue for electric rate relief first.  The only other thing I know about him is he has a decent environmental record.  Unless he is especially close with Jay Hoffman I wouldn’t see him backing the new rules.

Meaning the Governor has to sweep the Democratic Senators and take two House members or Mulligan.  The Governor will have no electoral power over those he’s trying to persuade.  Fritchey and him already don’t get along.  Clayborne, Miller, and Holbrook are all relatively safe seats.  Mulligan is a House Republican and only Madigan has anything to do with any decision to target her or not.

I don’t see how he gets five votes in his favor.  Six are guaranteed against him.  Of the other six, only two have to be against the rules and one is already signaling that is his attention and another is a Republican.

Uncategorized

Zorn’s Four Year Anniversary

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In Honor From August 20, 2003:

Breaking Views

by ArchPundit . Filed under Uncategorized

Eric Zorn joins the Blogosphere with Breaking Views. A name he is already apologizing for. Two minor quibbles, he has no permalinks and one has to register to get to the blog. I am registered so no biggy, but it doesn’t fit the traditional blogosphere very well. Bill takes issues that he doesn’t have comments and points out he doesn’t understand why
Instapundit gets away without having them. Reynolds actually did have them, but got rid of them because managing trolls was simply too much. I imagine the same is true of a big media journalist at a large site. Another example of the problem is The Temple Report by former Missouri Democratic Executive Director Roy Temple. He faced some challenging trolls and while he seems to have it under control, not having comments will have to do for many new entrants. .

Otherwise, I think his Pundit Patrol will be a great niche to build off of–I’m already using it daily after two days. Zorn makes the most sense of any of the columnists at the Trib because he has a very conversational voice and has expanded that to his own web site. The blog was the next likely choice.

Wanting to take credit for it (like any good blogger regardless of how silly the claim) , I looked around my archives and find that I never did suggest him, though I did suggest the Red Eye incorporating Nathan Bierma as a blogger. Nathan does a fair amount of free lance work for the Trib.

Interestingly, Zorn had said it would be a great honor to get the Tempo slot vacated when the Trib fired Bob Greene. I think he may have found a far better gig in the long run. Especially with his conversational voice he should be a prime example of how a columnist can connect readers to the print and electronic editions of a paper and give readers a personal stake in the publication.

Up DATE: Butchered link and text fixed. Don’t blog on bleary eyes.

G-Rod

Stupid or Insane

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Krol has a very good update on what the Governor’s people are saying:

I just spoke to a Blagojevich aide who told me the plan is to take the $500 million vetoed out of the budget and spend it on health care. I questioned the constitutionality of that — it would seem once the line items are vetoed out, the spending authority goes away — but was told that the administration says that’s the plan. The spending authority is still there and the money is in the general revenue fund, the administration argues. Time to crack open the Illinois Blue Book and read the Illinois Constitution for the fourth time today.

I’m online and I can do the searches a bit easier in this case and let me say, bullshit.  They either are stupid or insane to believe such a thing.  This isn’t even a question a court would consider seriously.  I have no idea what the Administration is thinking, but at least the JCAR line was plausible, though I still think, but losing strategy as well. This is just making up crap and hoping it sticks to something.  Imagine the fun Jim Thompson could have had with this kind of authority.
Rich is, of course, tracking most of the reactions–forgot to link as I started to fire off missives.

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