Candle Light Vigil, Thompson Center, Chicago, June 29, 2009. From across Chicago and Illinois, hundreds gather to mark the names and programs that will be cut out of the new budget in the final hours before the end of the fiscal year. This will eliminate vital community programs and devastate thousands of families.
Jeff Danklefsen, 41, of Geneva has thrown his hat in the ring for the Repub nomination in IL-14. Danklefsen is a tea-bagger who doesn’t think any of the candidates on offer in 2008 were conservative enough – either fiscally or socially.
An “also-ran.”
While n0madic has been pondering the mystery of whether or not Foster will be running again in 2010, Foster has been busy brewing a mystery for me to ponder.
Foster has signed on as a co-sponsor of Barney Frank’s internet gambling bill.
I don’t claim to be very familiar with this issue, but I can’t help but be aware that at least two large employers in IL-14, the casinos in Elgin and Aurora, are potentially threatened by the legalization of internet gambling.
So, yes, all other potential ethical questions related to gambling addictions, etc, aside, I’m more than a little surprised that Foster would sign on as a co-sponsor.
I asked for a statement regarding his co-sponsorship, and Shannon O’Brien, his spokesperson, has replied tonight by e-mail with this:
No, we have not made a public statement on this subject.
Best,
Shannon
So the mystery of why it seems like a good idea to Foster to put jobs in IL-14 in possible peril in these tough economic times abides.
UPDATE: 2,332 jobs to be exact
Someone at Foster’s office must have noticed this comment in n0madic’s post about Foster’s intent to run in ’10, because I received an e-mail from one of his senior staffers today informing me that his office in Dixon is indeed still staffed. Specifically, the staffer says:
We have two people working in Dixon (1 full timer and 1 part timer) who also staff Geneseo on Thursday. We will post our hours on the website. We actually work longer hours than most Congressional offices. We are here in Batavia from 8-6 M-F.
Thank you to Foster’s office for the clarification.
Chicago, June 18, 2009. Thousands responded to the “Doomsday Budget” which would deeply cut social service organization’s funding by the millions and devastate families by the thousands throughout the State.
When Ethan Hastert officially announced he was running for Congress a few weeks ago, a number of the stories made passing reference to Bill Foster’s intentions. Or perhaps I should say lack of intentions, because the impression that was initially given was that maybe Foster hadn’t decided yet whether he was going to run for re-election. Which seemed odd, because why on earth wouldn’t he? He just got the job, what, a little more than a year ago?
And yet, the first story I saw, in DeKalb’s Daily Chronicle, stated that “Foster said this afternoon that he hasn’t decided if he’ll run for re-election.”
The next story I saw, in the Kane County Chronicle, said Foster wasn’t undecided at all: “Foster is planning on running for re-election, according to a spokeswoman who released a statement Monday in response to Ethan Hastert’s announcement.” But all the statement itself had to say about whether Foster was or was not planning on running was this: “he is not thinking about elections right now,” which didn’t seem to unambiguously support the claim that he was indeed planning on running again. Washington Wire, a Wall Street Journal blog, quoted that same line from the official statement, but said nothing to indicate that he was nevertheless going to run again.
That Daily Chronicle story seemed pretty unambiguous. “Foster said … he hasn’t decided.” Where was the Kane County Chronicle‘s certainty coming from? Was it possible that some of these media outlets were running only a part of the statement that Foster’s office had released? “What’s the deal, here?” I wondered.
It appears that we are not done yet with the “English Only” silliness, so I feel compelled to note a few things.
1. Sorry, it does smack of racism and
2. It’s ridiculously unecessary – rather like getting worried about defending the Borg because they wandered into the same sector of space as a dozen random humans.
And this is where I whip out my little-used English degree to point out that English is the Borg of human tongues: all will be assimilated.
The Kane County Chronicle is reporting that Ethan Hastert has officially declared he will run for the IL-14 congressional seat formerly held by daddy Denny.
Meh – no surer way of ensuring Foster hangs on to the seat, imho.
Anyone who was paying any attention at all knows that Foster outpolled Obama in Kane County (which contains about 50% of all voters in IL-14) in ’08 – and anyone who is local knows damned well why that happened: Lauzen supporters voting for Foster as a means of getting even with the powers-that-be who got behind Oberweis and managed to leverage the nomination for him.
Which makes 2010 a repeat-in-the-making, because Lauzen will be Lauzen, will be Lauzen, ad nauseum: he’s so scary that moderates will vote for Foster (or whatever alternative is on the ballot) if Lauzen does get the nom, and his supporters are so violently pro-Chris, they will likewise vote for whatever alternative there may be to the Repub who beat Chris out for the nomination – exactly as they did in ’08.
Only way out of the spoiler-Lauzen scenario for local Repubs is if they can get Lauzen to throw his support behind someone like Ethan Hastert. And anyone who has followed Lauzen’s career knows there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.
So the Dem on the ballot in IL-14 in 2010 is elected by default: barring Lauzen getting struck by lightning or a random meteorite, it’s already done.
Most scientists, supported by concrete data, agree that the earth is heating up. Over the last ten years the average temperature has climbed about 1 degree Fahrenheit around the globe. And, even if you choose to reject science and the assessment that global temperatures and sea levels are rising, it would be difficult to ignore the economic recession. Rising gas prices compound the economic crisis caused by the mortgage meltdown and rising unemployment numbers
So, what do we do about it?
Do we all put solar panels on our roofs? Is it enough to replace our light bulbs with compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs)? Do we have what it takes to start carpooling to work, turning the thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer? I started asking myself all of these questions after being laid off from my last job as a carpenter at the LaSalle Nuclear Power Station (a touch of irony) in January of 2009.
Initially I came to the conclusion that we should focus our efforts on conserving energy or producing energy from non-carbon emitting sources like windmills or solar panels. It turns out that solar panels are actually a poor return on investment and wind only makes sense in rural areas. Nuclear invites controversy while we try to develop a better way of disposing of nuclear waste.
… you get your house painted?
Answer: Nowhere. Not when you hire a non-union painter to do the job.
So here’s the deal. A few days ago somebody slipped some photos under the cyber-door here at The Progressive Fox. Pics of a lovely home in Aurora getting spruced up with a little fresh paint. And it turns out that’s Vernon and Linda Chapa LaVia’s home.
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