“Yeah, that one,” he responded. “I sent that piece to my neighbor who voted for Hultgren because he is a Christian. I thought she would see this as the betrayal of Christian morals it actually is.”
“But she didn’t see it that way, Ellen. I don’t get it,” he continued. “Didn’t we learn the Golden Rule? You know, do onto others as you would have them do onto you?”
by Downtowner, posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Nor is it an earthquake, or a series of lethal tornados, or any other sudden disaster. It is rather a natural disaster in slow motion, creeping and steady and relentless, and apparently not photogenic enough to merit your standard-issue disaster-type media coverage.
They’ve got maps – along with a twelve week history rolling history of this drought unfolding – right here.
Along with juicy tidbits like “Looking Ahead: In general, July 4 – 8, 2012 doesn’t look promising in terms of relief, though the intense heat should subside somewhat.”
Here’s what intense heat subsiding somewhat looks like where I’m at:
Today Jul 5
101°F
77°F
Mostly Sunny
Chance of rain:20%Wind: W at 12 mph
Fri Jul 6
102°
74°
Mostly Sunny
Chance of rain:10%Wind: WSW at 7 mph
Sat Jul 7
95°
67°
Isolated T-Storms
Chance of rain:30%Wind: N at 15 mph
Sun Jul 8
83°
63°
Partly Cloudy
Chance of rain:20%Wind: NNE at 12 mph
Mon Jul 9
83°
60°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: NE at 8 mph
Tue Jul 10
84°
63°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: NE at 8 mph
Wed Jul 11
86°
68°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SE at 8 mph
Thu Jul 12
89°
66°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: S at 8 mph
Fri Jul 13
89°
68°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SW at 9 mph
Sat Jul 14
90°
71°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SSW at 9 mph
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 at 7:01 am
“I have a job and I have health insurance,” Representative Hultgren (R IL-14) said, and then paused for a moment proudly emphasizing the Republican spin talking point that when one has a job, one automatically has health insurance. It’s as if life is that simple. If you work, the spin goes, you have insurance. He was attempting to say that if we have jobs, we don’t need a national health insurance plan. We don’t need “Obamacare.”
The subtle part of this ‘argument’ is that not only is it flawed logically, it blames the victim. If you don’t have insurance, it’s because you don’t have a job. A job will furnish good insurance. And if you don’t have a job, it’s because you’re either not looking, or—to serve the Republican spin even further—it’s because Obama won’t do what the Republicans want so people can have jobs. So therefore, we can all blame Obama.
But this time his audience at the Oswego Town Hall meeting was not buying it as I noticed they have in the past. No one applauded. No one said, “Yeah!” There was silence as Hultgren paused and looked around for support he did not get.
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 at 7:00 am
Representative Randy Hultgren (R IL-14) showed typical Republican spin at his Oswego Town Hall meeting recently. When asked direct questions regarding taxes, healthcare, social security, and Citizens United, he was long on spin, wrong on facts, and empty of solutions.
One frustrated attendant who tried to get a direct answer on healthcare, commented after the meeting that Hultgren “…seemed detached and unfeeling. His voice was just so syrupy and sweet he appeared unbelievable and unconcerned.”
His comments on Social Security were a surprise but shouldn’t have been, given the Republican Party’s relationship to corporate money and financial companies wanting to gamble with social security investment money.
“I’m not planning on Social Security,” Hultgren said. “Most people my age aren’t planning on Social Security.”
by Pam Verner, posted on Monday, June 25th, 2012 at 7:00 am
It was 1921. He was a young man with a bunch of hopes and dreams, just barely twenty, and entering this country from Sweden with a trunk as his only possession. He came from the farms of Sweden hoping to some day buy a farm in America. Someone there had told him it might be possible to own a farm here. It was a wild dream really, but one in which he believed.
In Sweden he knew it was an impossible dream. All the farms and all the land was owned by a small group of large moneyed families and rented out in parcels to tenants. Reuben’s family had been tenant farmers for generations and generations, able to eke out a living but never able to build a secure foundation from which a family can grow. As far back as records can document, no one in his family had ever owned any of the land they farmed.
And so for over two decades in America, Reuben toiled the land. Milked the cows. Learned to read and write English. Fell in love. Married a farmer’s daughter named Rose. Had three boys. And did buy that farm.
by VideoNewsService, posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2012 at 8:55 am
The Northern Illinois Jobs With Justice Coalition held a rally in front of the Illinois State Capitol Building on Tuesday May 29th. The purpose of the rally was to point out the failure of Gov. Quinn, Speaker Madigan and the Democratic Party to lead the state toward a positive solution to the teacher pension issue. In addition, the speakers also pointed out that no one in the House or Senate are broaching the subject of the only real solution to the debt problems of the State-new revenue. The Coalition has put forward several proposals to generate the revenue needed to fund our States’ budget. They include a “graduated income tax”, a “transaction tax” on the Commodities Exchange among other solutions. For more information please contact: www.nijwj.org.
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Monday, May 28th, 2012 at 7:00 am
You could identify the politicians at Illinois’ Capital Building by their demeanor. And the same for the lobbyists who were courting their attention. Watching them all was like watching ‘Singles Date Night’ at a local country club. Only instead of alcohol being the drug of choice, it was power and influence. But if you didn’t have the power and influence of either a politician or a lobbyist, the politicians treated you like a peon.
Last week during Illinois’ General Assembly session, people came to Springfield to speak with their Senators and Representatives. They were requesting a seat at the table where changes to the Illinois’ pension system and Medicaid system are being made.
Most of them were teachers and state mental health workers, all worried about cuts their Senators and Representatives were rumored to be planning for their jobs and their pensions. They were easy to identify given they wore green shirts printed with the letters of their union, AFSCME.
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 8:19 pm
“We don’t lower taxes here in Illinois,” State Representative Tim Schmitz (R) 49th district, said. “I’ve been here for fourteen years and we’ve never done that.”
“Even if it means lowering those taxes would bring in more than $6,300,000,000 in revenue for Illinois?” she said she asked.
She could hardly believe her ears. Perhaps he didn’t understand. So she explained how a graduated income tax would work for Illinois. She pointed out that forty-three states already have this kind of tax, that it would provide relief for middle and low-income residents, and that research has shown it boosts consumer spending and the local economy.
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 7:00 am
It was a simple ride with a stranger on a train. She and I were both carrying signs from the Nurses United Rally in Chicago held on Friday, May 18. By our signs, we both knew we were on the same side of the political ‘discourse.’
Of course, the word ‘discourse’ is such a polite word that it implies what is going on in our national political blood fest is polite. It is anything but. And that is exactly what we were talking about.
“What can they be thinking?” I asked, thinking there is no real answer.
“That’s the problem,” she replied. “They’re not.”
And for the first time in a long time, I had the opportunity to think out loud with another person who was also thinking out loud about the nastiness, vitriol really, that is going on in our national political scene.
For the first time I began to understand. I began to see the big picture of how and why people can so easily be influenced to believe and act in ways that are so contrary to their own self-interests.
