Author Archive
by Downtowner, posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I received an e-mail this morning from a friend who is a breast-cancer survivor and a person I admire beyond my ability to describe. She requested that I sign a petition to help stop drive-through mastectomy.
The text of the e-mail is copied below – please follow the link and sign the petition. This sort of “cost control” is inhumane – and a prime example of why we – the wealthiest nation on earth – rank 37th in health care, well after much poorer nations like Morocco, Costa Rica, and Columbia and certainly after every single other industrialized nation. And it isn’t me who says so – it’s WHO.
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Tags: breast cancer, health care, insurance, Lifetime Television, PNHP, reform, single payer
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by Downtowner, posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
First, an apology – I’ve been incredibly busy since this blog launched, mostly living as a road warrior for work, but also providing necessary grandmotherly support for the birth of not one, but two, new grandchildren. Jane Danger, who arrived in this world at about the same time this blog did, and Joseph (aka “Joe-normous”) who appeared exactly one month later. So since January 1 or so, if I haven’t been hanging out helping their Moms – my daughters – I’ve been on the road in Michigan, Iowa, Oregon, wherever, for work. All of which means I’ve spent about a grand total of ten minutes a day on-line since January 1 – hardly the most efficient way to launch a new blog – so my apologies to those who’ve been checking in and finding me absent.
Which leads me to my “followers,” or in this case my Twitter followers. There aren’t really that many. I think I’ve spent about ten minutes total on Twitter in my life, and don’t think I’ve even uttered a tweet yet, but there are a few followers – mostly people I know. One I picked up very recently particularly caught my attention, considering the juxtaposition between said follower’s occupation and what was going on in my real life at the time.
So follow me, if you dare (and have a fair piece of time to spend – this will be loooonnnng) into the Tale of Two Health Care Systems.
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Tags: health care, Illinois, insurance, reform, single payer
Posted in The Front Page | 2 Comments »
by Downtowner, posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Laesch had it first, but the Daily Herald is now reporting that Ethan Hastert is exploring a run in IL-14.
Lovely. We can now look forward to a run by a guy whose two greatest claims to fame are:
a.) being the son of the Speaker-from-hell who presided over the gutting of the checks and balances that we should expect from the People’s House in order to serve instead as the Cheerleader in Chief for a criminal administration
b.) working for the only person, Scooter Libby, actually convicted from that administration
Just charming.
UPDATE (already)
Andre Salles at the Beacon has it here.
Tags: 2010 elections, Bill Foster, Dennis Hastert, Ethan Hastert, IL-14, Illinois, U. S. House
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by Downtowner, posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
While I had planned to be at home today, focused on both Obama’s inaugural appearance in DC and the inaugural appearance of this blog, I am neither at home in Illinois blogging, nor in DC.
I am in Phoenix, not focused on much of anything but the inaugural appearance of my newest grandchild. Jane Danger (yes, her middle name is Danger) arrived on January 16th, despite her mother’s determination to wait and thus ensure her firstborn child did not enter the world while George W. Bush was president.
But no matter, Amanda, my daughter, and Jane, and I are watching the Inauguration on TV in between and around the necessity of admiring Jane.
Downtowner, from Phoenix, the birthplace of Potus 2044 (depicted below)
Tags: 2008 Presidential Inauguration, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Jane Danger
Posted in The Front Page | Comments Off on On inaugural appearances
by Downtowner, posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Originally posted at Fireside 14, Prairie State Blue, Open Left and MyDD.
What happens in Podunk shouldn’t stay there. Or at least if it does, the Democratic Party Establishment, the corporate wing of the Democratic Party, the Blue Dogs among us, will have won one more unrecorded battle against those of us who want real change.
What’s happening most immediately in the IL-14 corner of Podunk (a term I use here to describe anything not directly inside the DC Beltway) is a primary and a special primary on Tuesday, between the DC insider “pick” for our district, an attorney who is a relative newcomer to both politics and our area, and John Laesch, the nominee against Denny Hastert last time out, and the only progressive in the race.
At this point, I’d call it a significant bellwether for the upcoming Congressional elections that virtually no one outside of IL-14 is paying much attention to in the glare of the presidential race, as well as a bellwether event in the battle for control of the party. So while I don’t expect this diary to get much attention, I want to leave a record of what has happened in this primary. Bellwethers, however unobserved at the time, sometimes have a way of becoming useful history for those who follow.
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Tags: 2008 elections, Bill Foster, Blue Dogs, Democrats, Dick Durbin, IL-14, Illinois, John Laesch, Pat Quinn, Pete Giangreco, Phil Hare, progressives, Rahm Emanuel, Special election, Steny Hoyer, Tammy Duckworth, The Strategy Group, U. S. House
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by Downtowner, posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Originally posted at Fireside 14, Prairie State Blue, MyDD, Open Left and Daily Kos.
Not long ago, I ran across this comment from a dedicated Foster volunteer and supporter:
This will be unpopular… (0.00 / 0)
…but you know I’m going to say it anyway!
I am much more interested in what goes on in Northern IL than I am in what happens downstate. With work, I get more than my fill of politics in Springfield and the rest of the cornfields in IL.
I just really don’t care what is happening in politics in Podunk, IL unless it’s really sexy and scandalous. Otherwise, I am bored. (emphasis added)
by: bridgetdooley @ Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 22:18:39 PM CST
As anyone who lives in Illinois knows, anything not in the City or collar counties is routinely considered “downstate” (aka “Podunk” to Ms. Dooley) even if it’s north of Chicago. The distinction here, if you are local, is that Kane and (parts of) Kendall, being collar counties, are typically considered part of the greater Chicagoland region, while everything west of the urbanized strip on the far east of IL-14 really qualifies as “downstate.”
Which would seem to imply Ms. Dooley’s term “Podunk, IL” represents the vast majority of the geographic area of IL-14, containing somewhat more than half of the voters in the district. (Of course, if you are a Chicago political insider, anything not in, oh, Chicago, pretty much qualifies as “Podunk.” Much in the way that, to a DC political insider, anything not in New York, Chicago, LA, or DC pretty much qualifies as “Podunk” but we’ll get to that later.) But maybe she really meant further downstate.
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Tags: 2008 elections, Bill Foster, DCCC, Global Strategy Group, IL-14, Illinois, Jefrey Pollack, Jim Mulhall, John Laesch, Keith Kincaid, Pete Giangreco, Special election, Squire Knapp Dunn Communcations, The Strategy Group, Tom Bowen, U. S. House
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by Downtowner, posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Originally posted at Fireside 14, Open Left, MyDD and Daily Kos.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I was in a public place, right here in St. Charles, Illinois, when I overheard a conversation that alarmed, but failed to surprise, me. The person doing most of the talking was talking complaining bitterly about her new job in an area public elementary school. Not a St. Charles school and not an educator. She’s a peripheral professional who has frequent contact with children however, and that’s bad enough.
Her major complaint? “All these Hispanic children.”
According to her, not only are “all these Hispanic children” unable to communicate, they are “aggressive and obnoxiously rude –
especially the girls.” I was supposed to be paying attention to what the person in front of me was saying and lost some of the conversation I was overhearing, but suspect her companion must have voiced some objections, because she started trying to explain herself dig herself in deeper.
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Tags: 2008 elections, Bill Foster, Dennis Hastert, IL-14, Illinois, immigration, Jim Oberweis, John Laesch, Rahm Emanuel, Special election, U. S. House
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by Downtowner, posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Originally posted at Daily Kos.
So I could say this:
Planned Parenthood betrayed me and all the women of IL-14 yesterday.
Some of you may remember this memorable DKos diary by Planned Parenthood back in September, when their new clinic in Aurora was under attack. Some of you may even remember that there was one Kossack/candidate here who stepped up.
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Tags: 2008 elections, Bill Foster, endorsements, IL-14, Illinois, John Laesch, Planned Parenthood, Special election, U. S. House
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by Downtowner, posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Originally posted at Daily Kos.
In case anyone is unaware, I want to state for the record that I worked for the Laesch for Congress campaign in ’06, I work for it now, I will work for it in future. But this diary is a personal story, not vetted by the campaign, although also an explanation of why, in fact, I started working for the election of John Laesch as my congressperson in the first place, why I’m probably going to drop in an ActBlue link in the end anyway, as well as why I am, oh, pissed off at the world today. Again.
Today Kate’s life is in danger. Again.
Kate is my late-twenty-something youngest daughter. She is herself the mother of two, my only grandchildren. Kate is smart, witty, charming, creative, funny, willful, stubborn, disorganized, proud, courageous, kind, and a free-spirit if ever there was one. I mention these things because, like most people with a chronic illness, she hates being defined by it so I don’t want it to be the only thing I say about her here, but Kate has Type I Diabetes.
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Tags: 2008 elections, Dennis Hastert, embryonic stem cell research, health care, IL-14, Illinois, insurance, John Laesch, rant, reform, U. S. House, uninsured
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