Reagan warned us in 1964

A great speech from 1964 has many relevant points, even today. Obama isn't Johnson, although the Chicago way of politics is much like Johnson's was, and O isn't Jimmy Carter although they have much in common, like knowing what is best for you whether you like it or not and increasing the nations "misery factor."

Illinois State Fair - Bills and Prizes

Illinois has money to pay for the State Fair, but not to pay its bills.  Hmmm. Scott Reeder, in his story at The Southern Illinoisan brings up good points about prize money doled out for "flower arranging" and other vastly important activities and contests. He differentiates between the prizes given to adults and those given to children, their lambs and 4H and other such educational venues.  Since the 944 dollars in prizes at the first State Fair in 1853, prizes awarded have had a growth rate of 36 times the rate of inflation and now top out at over $883,500.
"Separate line items exist in the budget for youth programs like 4-H  and FFA..." ($786,400 for 4-H) and ($325,000 for FFA).

The 4H and FFA prizes make some sense. The other 3/4 of a million plus do not make much fiscal sense in a state that can't make ends meet.

Evacuation of Illinois continues

Illinois metals company moving operations to Indiana

Last one out, turn off the lights. If there are any lights left.

Illinois citizens: Disarmed, overtaxed and tightly ruled by incompetent and dishonest politicians north of I-80 and their helpless accomplices to the south/downstate. It is not surprising that more and more companies are abandoning this state. Indiana will gain nearly 100 jobs, Illinois loses more, continuing its destructive cycle.

"Shovel Ready" President O's Joke on US

Riding the Unicorn, We will not rest...

Chicago Communists Join Wisconsin Rally

Wisconsin public sector union protesters now have Chicago Communists on their side.

What a wonderful thing to have such allies.

Illinois - Destination of Choice for Dems on the Lam

Wisconsin, and now even Indiana Democrat lawmakers are hiding out in Illinois to avoid their duties. Welcome to Illinois, you constitutional cowards! Like you, Illinois Democrats have been avoiding their fiscal public duty for years. You'll no doubt be made welcome by our Chicago governor, Mr. Quinn, who won't have you arrested and returned to your own state. He may just borrow some more money and pay for your stay.

Money For Nothing

Money For Nothing
Mark Knockoffler sings the ObamaCare blues with his band Dem Strait

Illinois Debt

Make Illinois work for the people, not the politicians.
Brady doesn't want Illinois democrats to dig a deeper hole.

What new control tax is next?

Note to sweet tea and soda drinkers who are also anti-smokers:

When the dot gov do-gooders came after my tobacco and taxed it to both cut use AND raise revenue, you didn't care, and it seemed like a great idea to you, considering that you couldn't bring yourself to realize that the slippery slope of government intervention in personal matters loomed ahead.

Sweetened drink taxes are the new "sin taxes" of today. What will the next target be? Will you care?

Change Nobody Believes In

From the Wall Street Journal
Change Nobody Believes In
A bill so reckless that it has to be rammed through on a partisan vote on Christmas eve.

Climate Conspiracy

Hide The Decline - Climategate

Congress may probe faked global warming data

meanwhile... Rome burns...

Barack Obama 'vows major greenhouse gas emissions cuts'

And...
Overheard in Tam's Hallway

More Climategate links

Cash For Clunkers-Japanese and Korean Style

Top ten trade-ins - Cash for Clunkers
1. Ford Explorer
2. Ford F150 Pickup 2WD
3. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4 WD
4. Jeep Cherokee 4 WD
5. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan
6. Chevrolet Blazer 4 WD
7. Ford Explorer 2 WD
8. Ford F150 Pickup 4 WD
9. Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2 WD
10. Ford Windstar FWD Van

Top ten new car purchases - Cash for Clunkers

1. Toyota Corolla

2. Ford Focus FWD

3. Honda Civic

4. Toyota Prius

5. Toyota Camry

6. Ford Escape FWD

7. Hyundai Elantra

8. Dodge Caliber

9. Honda Fit

10. Chevrolet Cobalt
The top ten trade ins are all American brands, but the top 10 models purchased with U.S. taxpayer subsidies include 5 Japanese models and a S. Korean. This may be yet another of the unintended consequences of yet another "taxpayer supported bailout" for auto manufacturers and dealers. Using a blunt instrument like this legislation to attempt to shape consumer buying by using government subsidies (the giveaway of taxpayer dollars) shows that central planning by our government is not the way to go for the U.S. economy.

Another unintended consequence is the elimination of maybe half a million perfectly functional used cars that the economically challenged, young and old, can actually afford to own and operate to get to a job. The smaller number of used cars inventoried will now cost more due to supply and demand unbalancing. As another side track, the engine (which must be destroyed) contains some of the most valuable used parts of a scrapped vehicle, which will increase the cost for used motor parts for the most popular trade-ins. Take that track further, and the price of scrap metal will likely fall because of the sudden increased supply, damaging the scrap industry. The demand for the scrap may have to come from the Japanese, who will gain many of the benefits from this giveaway program.


The "environmental" angle is also a bogus add on, because much more serious emissions are produced during manufacturing than are being accounted for with this spin, recalculating for the drastically shortened expected life cycle of the vehicle. Maybe the program will be so successful that we can fire up a couple of extra coal power plants to manufacture some replacements. The employment side of that is arguable, but the "saving our environment" angle is phony.

Read the Bills Act

The light of day is still exposing some liberals as the hypocrites that they are. When the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee states matter of factly at a National Press Club luncheon that reading the bills before voting on them is useless, unless you have 2 days and two lawyers to explain it to you after you read it, then the bill is also going to be too complicated to work as planned, and will fail.

To stop this kind of nonsense, we should strongly consider asking our representatives to pass the “Read the Bills Act”

“No LEGISLATION without representation.”

We hold this truth to be self-evident, that those in Congress who vote on legislation they have not read, have not represented their constituents. They have misrepresented them.

This clip of Michigan's rep, John Conyers, husband of Monica Conyers, a convicted bribe taking Detroit City Council member, should make the average American quite angry with liberal "politics as usual."

Climate change crusade is all cost, and no benefit

In a Fortune interview, noted climatologist John Christy contends the green crusade to fight climate change is "all cost and no benefit."

"...The problem is that the solutions being offered don't provide any detectable relief from this so-called catastrophe. Congress is now discussing an 80% reduction in U.S. greenhouse emissions by 2050. That's basically the equivalent of building 1,000 new nuclear power plants all operating by 2020. Now I'm all in favor of nuclear energy, but that would affect the global temperature by only seven-hundredths of a degree by 2050 and fifteen hundredths by 2100. We wouldn't even notice it..."

Mr. Christy's testimony to congress is here.

"...From my analysis, the actions being considered to “stop global warming” will have an imperceptible impact on whatever the climate will do, while making energy more expensive, and thus have a negative impact on the economy as a whole. We have found that climate models and popular surface temperature data sets overstate the changes in the real atmosphere and that actual changes are not alarming. And, if the Congress deems it necessary to reduce CO2 emissions, the single most effective way to do so by a small, but at least detectable, amount is through the massive implementation of a nuclear power program. Other currently available alternatives simply cannot produce enough energy to be significantly noticed at a price and geographic scale that is affordable."

Al Gore, of course, did the math a bit differently, and calculated that his ascension to the role of the high priest in the new religion of Global Warming was well worth whatever the enormous cost to Americans and the world economy.

Thank you, veterans.

Sausage recipe - Porkulus

"Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." -- Otto von Bismarck, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire (1815-1898)

The Democrats certainly know this and they didn't want the ingredients known to the public before serving it up less than half-baked. This is not the way that laws should be made and our government representatives know better. There was such a rush to get this passed that the 1073 page bill was delivered, still unfinished, at midnight Thursday. At 2:24 pm, the House Democrats passed it. At 5:29, Senate Democrats passed it.
14 hours to read a 1073 page package, presented with hand written notes, insertions scrawled in the margins, and other interesting markings and immediately voting on it. My guess is that not even one House or Senate member read the entire completed bill before voting for it.
To further conceal the recipe, it was only made publicly available as a pdf file, which doesn't allow text search, making it even harder to directly access particular topics which are sprinkled and hidden throughout.

Here are the links to the sausage recipe that now is on our table, do you dare to read it?

The Democrat Stimulus Bill.
Porkulus Bill, part 1

Porkulus Bill, part 2

Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference, Division A

Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference, Division B

"All applicable provisions in the Act are designated as an emergency for purposes of pay-as-you-go principles."

This is how our Illinois Reps and Senators voted.
Yea IL-1 Rush, Bobby [D] Yea IL-2 Jackson, Jesse [D] Present IL-3 Lipinski, Daniel [D] Yea IL-4 Gutierrez, Luis [D] Nay IL-6 Roskam, Peter [R] Yea IL-7 Davis, Danny [D] Yea IL-8 Bean, Melissa [D] Yea IL-9 Schakowsky, Janice [D] Nay IL-10 Kirk, Mark [R] Yea IL-11 Halvorson, Deborah [D] Yea IL-12 Costello, Jerry [D] Nay IL-13 Biggert, Judy [R] Yea IL-14 Foster, Bill [D] Nay IL-15 Johnson, Timothy [R] Nay IL-16 Manzullo, Donald [R] Yea IL-17 Hare, Phil [D] Nay IL-18 Schock, Aaron [R] Nay IL-19 Shimkus, John [R]
Yea IL Burris, Roland [D] Yea IL Durbin, Richard [D]

Stimulus Pork Flooding

The lines at the Stimulus Pork Dollar feed lots are growing, even pet projects here in Central Illinois. Taking the federal dollar when it comes our way, but complaining if it goes elsewhere is a real problem. It is ALL coming out of our own pocket, and it certainly is not free. The cost of the bureaucracy will continue to drain the value of the taxes taken. Our economy needs to be weaned from the federal pork, not flooded by it. The "Stimulus Bill" will weaken our economy by rewarding the same "Give me mine" attitude that pervades the national liberal mindset that helped to create many of the economic problems we face. The solution to fiscal problems is not to add more debt, it is to produce more product or value added, enhancing revenue. Handing a huge debt burden to our children and grandchildren is an irresponsible solution.
If the promised "middle class" tax cuts that the President calls for are enacted, the balance of tax payers and tax consumers will tilt to over the 50% mark for the tax consumers. This is meant to be a way of growing government and ensuring a voter base tidal wave that will support the Democrats, which the DNC thinks will help grow their power base. After all, who would support tax cuts if most people didn't pay taxes at the time? The smaller number of economic producers that will still pay will not be equally represented by our increasingly socialism oriented elected officials. This state owned and operated economy would weaken the incentive for big businesses or the smaller ones who make up the REAL American economy, to grow or prosper. They will be too busy keeping the government pickpockets from taking nearly everything they work for to cover for the tax consumers who choose not to produce, and of course, the tax consumers will likely vote for the candidate who promises more of the same gravy.
How many jobs might the stimulus bill create?

$825 Billion, and Not One Job May Result
by Connie Hair
"...The creation of jobs is key to any stimulus of the economy, and House Republicans in the alternative are pushing for the free market solution of tax cuts to let working families and business who create the jobs in this country keep more of their own money to put back into the economy. The fundamental differences in the solutions to the economic morass offered from each side of the aisle could not be any clearer.I spoke with House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) outside the committee room about any Republican plans to try to bring some sanity into this effort. Cantor told me, “I am going to be meeting with the President next week with the Republican working group to try and lay out our vision of how we believe a stimulus bill should look, a bill that should be focused on the preservation, protection and creation of jobs. Given what Charlie Rangel and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and the rest on the Democrat side on the Hill are doing, I am very fearful that we are not going to get it right, which is why we have to all speak out and say, look, we can’t keep going borrowing money to spend on favorite pet programs just to put us trillions of dollars more in debt when what we could be doing is doing it the smart way by providing tax relief for middle class families, small business, entrepreneurs, so that we can get this economy going again. … It is very clear that the White House is going to be able to shape this, which is why it is very important that we go to the White House and bring the President our proposals to make this a bill that works.”...