The Daily Caller reported on a poll today that gave a rather remarkable result: it showed Barack Obama ahead of Mitt Romney 49 to 37… in Cook County, Illinois: which of course includes the City of Chicago. Being under 50% in what can be considered the ultimate Democratic stronghold is not good news for the President. In 2008 Cook County went for Obama over McCain | Read More »
IL-02 is the district of Jesse Jackson Jr… we think. I’m not exactly being facetious, here: Congressman Jackson essentially went into seclusion three weeks ago, and nobody knows where he is. I mean, seriously:, the continued absence of the Congressman is making the local papers and television; the reason given is ‘exhaustion*’ – which is not the same as ‘looming indictment.’ You can tell the | Read More »
Will this be the 2012 election map? If the Obama administration keeps up their War on Coal (literally: they consider coal more dangerous than terrorism), quite possibly. And it may be at least partially because of coal.
I know that Neil covered this in passing, but I wanted to highlight this situation. Background: last year Illinois (read, Illinois Democrats, led by Democratic Governor Pat Quinn) decided to try to force Amazon.com to start collecting sales tax on purchases made by Illinois residents*. Arguments were made at the time that this was a futile gesture, given that Amazon.com would simply end its affiliate | Read More »
OK, if you followed the debate in Arizona last night then you got to see Newt Gingrich consume a moderator’s liver for what may be the last time. The topic? Double standards in the media, particularly when it comes to ‘extremist’ positions. The transcript is as follows: GINGRICH: But I just want to point out, you did not once in the 2008 campaign, not once | Read More »
No, really: all three African-American Congressmen from Illinois are loudly complaining that the current redistricting map as drawn may be in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Illinois Republicans are currently suing to have the map overturned, largely on the grounds that under the usual interpretation of federal law the new map needs to have more than one majority-Hispanic district. As this | Read More »
The above is from Governor Pat Quinn (Democrat, although it’s fairly obvious from the quote) of Illinois; and it tells you everything that you need to know about Quinn’s mindset – not to mention the mindset of the Democratic party in general, too. Here’s the background: the Sears Corporation has its headquarters in Illinois, and has been bribed offered incentives to stay in Illinois, despite | Read More »
The Illinois Combine, for those unfamiliar with the term of art, refers to an unfortunate reality in Illinois politics: to wit, Illinois is not precisely a two-party state. There is a Republican Party of Illinois, and there is a Democratic Party of Illinois – but the party bosses of both more or less ignore everybody else and run the state to suit themselves. Case in | Read More »
Background: Ken Snider, Illinois state trooper and former regional head of Quinn’s security detail, abruptly resigned both positions (among others) last month. Turns out the resignations are allegedly related to Snider using a racial epithet – the racial epithet, in fact – towards an African-American college student, as prelude to a fight (it would be stretching things to call what happened next a ‘brawl,’ but | Read More »
It got overshadowed by recent events both foreign and domestic, but last week Governor Pat Quinn (D, IL) signed legislation declaring that in-state affiliates for online sellers count as ‘a physical presence’ in Illinois, thus theoretically allowing the state to require those online sellers to collect sales tax information. This is usually called the ‘Amazon tax*,’ as it is largely aimed at Amazon.com**. This is | Read More »
This is yet another reason why the United States of America is the greatest nation on the planet: our collective eye on the main chance. Is there a group of Democratic state senators out there grimly determined to make themselves – and the Democratic party of Wisconsin – look like hilariously incompetent buffoons? Well, one person’s idiocy is another person’s economic opportunity… and if you’re | Read More »
…For Illinois businesses, that is: the new Governor is doing everything that he can to encourage a mass corporate exodus to Wisconsin, short of actually calling out the local National Guard to provide covering fire for the refugee columns. This is less of an exaggeration than you might think: the official slogan that Governor Walker is using is “Escape to Wisconsin.” They’re kind of serious | Read More »
It’s certainly looking that way: the Democrat-run (Democrat-dominated) state legislature has just passed a bill to tax online purchases (via Points and Figures, via Instapundit): the bill is just waiting for Governor Pat Quinn’s (D) signature, which is almost certainly inevitable. In fact, the state of Illinois is going to raise taxes across the board – because that’s what Democrats do. Business is good; raise | Read More »
You know, in some ways I’m going to miss this miserable ignoramus, once he’s gone: Phil Hare’s such a marvelous chew toy, and the ones that I had expected to be savaging this season were unexpectedly unsatisfying. Alan Grayson? Too slimy; I wanted to take a shower every time I saw him in the news. Carol Shea-Porter? The room-temperature IQ problem made it kind of | Read More »
It does not get any clearer than this: If you can’t see the video, here’s the summary: over in IL-08 they had a debate between Rep. Melissa Bean and Joe Walsh, run by the League of Women Voters. Somebody in the audience interrupts the beginning to ask if they were going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. The moderator – stupidly, stupidly, stupidly – | Read More »
Bobby Schilling is of course the guy who is making the Democrats futilely throw money down the Phil “What’s the Constitution?” Hare rathole: he’s currently ahead in the polls and is heading towards a victory in two weeks. HE CAN STILL LOSE. Remember, folks: we can’t count on anything, and this is Illinois. That’s why the moneybomb: it’ll help keep Bobby in the race for | Read More »
Mark Kirk? The video at this link? It’s your next campaign ad. “If I knew then what I know now, these are not the kind of people that we’d do business with,” he added, “but that’s not how banks work.” Asked again if he knew that criminal figures were the recipients of some of those loans, Alexi Giannoulias (D-IL) said again, “I didn’t know the | Read More »
That’s not an euphemism, by the way: Bobby Schilling‘s new ad shows him making a pizza. An interesting skill to have, and frankly more useful than the skill set exhibited by his opponent Phil Hare, which these days mostly seems to involve lying about his opponent and being in deep, deep denial about the federal debt. Moe Lane (Crosspost) PS: Interestingly, the bipartisan John Deere | Read More »
Let’s look at Illinois. IL-02: In wake of Jesse Jackson Jr’s being rather spectacularly accused of seat-buying-and-adultery, the NRCC is upping their support of Republican Isaac Hayes. Because when you’re given a free shot, you should of course take it. IL-08: QuincyNews.org is going to release [has released] a poll that shows Joe Walsh and incumbent Melissa Bean tied among registered voters. Guess that she | Read More »
Well… actually, if you can you’re one up on the Illinois Republican party, which is in the novel position of running a fundraiser for a candidate whom nobody can find. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady announced that the Party will host a fundraiser for Patrick John Ryan, the “Republican” candidate challenging House Speaker Michael Madigan in the race for State Representative in the 22nd | Read More »
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