The recall legislation was defeated in the Illinois senate today.   There were not enough votes to reach the 60% needed to pass the legislation.   Senator Bill Haine voted no.  Senator Frank Watson voted yes.   What do you think about the legislation and the vote?

This question has been asked before, but the issue of the levees and the sales tax to support their repair is moving closer to happening.  What will be the impact on the communities above to bluffs on paying the extra 1/4 per cent sales tax?  Is there a better way to fund the improvements? 

There will be a number of contested county board races this election cycle.   The Republicans have an opportunity to pick up some addtional seats and strengthen their position in the county.  What board district races will be the most interesting?  What will be the main issues? 

Was it Reverend Wright’s infamous and much publicized condemnation “God Damn America”?  No, that didn’t do it. 

Was it Reverend Wright’s public statements that the United States Government deliberately infected African Americans with AIDS?  No, not that, either. 

Was it Reverend Wright’s pronouncements that America is a terrorist nation and 9/11 was simply “America’s chickens … coming home to roost”?  No, he was still “like family” to Sen. Obama when that one made the rounds. 

Could it, perhaps, have been when Reverend Wright dared to suggest that Sen. Barack Obama, Presidential Candidate for two of his three years in the Senate, was nothing more than a Politician??  Bingo!

And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing. Anybody who knows me and knows what I am about knows that I am about trying to bridge gaps and that I see the commonality in all people…   

Well, I want to use this press conference to make people absolutely clear that, obviously, whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright has changed, as a consequence of this.

I don’t think that he showed much concern for me. More importantly, I don’t think he showed much concern for what we are trying to do in this campaign and what we’re trying to do for the American people and with the American people

Senator Barack Obama, 4/29/08

So, to summarize, attacking America, A-OK, attacking Barack Obama, unacceptable.  It certainly helps to know what a candidate’s priorities are! 

Speaker Pelosi’s multi-purpose “Bible” quote, used to support all of her ultra-left-wing agenda items, is simply made up, according to Biblical scholars.  I guess the Bible really doesn’t support massive redistribution of wealth after all. 

Biblical Scholars Challenge Pelosi’s ‘Scripture’ Quote
By Pete Winn
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
April 23, 2008

John J. Collins, the Holmes professor of Old Testament criticism and interpretation at Yale Divinity School, said he is totally unfamiliar with Pelosi’s quotation.

“(It’s) not one that I recognize,” Collins told Cybercast News Service. “I assume that she means this is a paraphrase. But it wouldn’t be a close paraphrase to anything I know of.”

Claude Mariottini, a professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, told Cybercast News Service the passage not only doesn’t exist - it’s “fictional.”

“It is not in the Bible,” Mariottini said. “There is nothing that even approximates that.”

Other scholars agree that nothing remotely resembling it can be found in any version of the Scriptures - Old Testament or New Testament.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tax freedom’s all too brief

Rejoice, taxpayers. Today is Tax Freedom Day — according to the Tax Foundation, the day you stop working for the government and start working for yourselves. It’s three days earlier than last year thanks in part to the federal tax stimulus plan.

But while the tax burden is slightly lighter, it’s still incredibly heavy. The Tax Foundation calculates that people spend more time working to pay federal, state and local taxes (113 days) than they do to pay for food, clothing and housing (108 days). That’s just too many taxes.

Of course, it’s still not enough for Democrats. If they have their way, they will end the Bush administration tax cuts. It’s easier to collect more money to spend than to curb their excesses. For Democrats, taxation is an addiction.

When Democrats took control of Congress, they promised Americans all sorts of positive changes. Unfortunately, they have accomplished little to none of their agenda.

But one promise they will keep if given the chance is to raise taxes. For them, the later Tax Freedom Day comes, the better.

Edmund Burke venerated tradition as the democracy of the dead. The late Chicago Mayor Richard Daley famously practiced a literal version of the democracy of the dead, extending the dead the right to vote for favored Democratic candidates. Andrew Malcolm notes that Barack Obama comes from the Chicago school of politics and is reviving the Daley tradition. Malcolm reports:

The Los Angeles Times’ campaign finance expert Dan Morain has found Obama campaign records reporting a $50 donation by Roy Scheider, who lists his occupation as actor and his home as Sag Harbor, N.Y. Remember him from many great movies including “The French Connection” and “Jaws” and the immortal line: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”? 

According to the campaign records, Scheider made the donation on March 10 last month.

Trouble is, Scheider died exactly one month before that, on Feb. 10 at the age of 75.

Malcolm adds: “Scheider was unavailable for comment. “

This was the real thing.  Not the movie on tv.  It appears physical damage was minor.  Damage to ones mental well being???   How prepared do you feel government is to responding to disasters, whether man made or natural?  

Years of discussion and votes, and Madison County being in the shelter care facility  business appears to be over.  The people wanting services of a shelter care facility will be best served by having their needs met in the private sector.   Does this vote represent a change in the direction of politics or policy in Madison County?   Only time will tell.  

Well, another tax day come and gone.  Another year of feeding the governments insatiable appetite.  What would be better?   Reducing government spending or reducing taxes?   Give us your thoughts and reasons why.