Archive for June, 2009
June 30th, 2009
“Passing partial budgets is not what adults do.” Gov.Pat Quinn, June 30, 2009.
Wrong, governor. You are acting like the old Pat “Gadfly” Quinn who stands outside the Capitol and shakes his fist at the evildoers inside.
You are the governor, now. But you’re saying that if you don’t get your own way, ie., your tax increase with no additional cuts, you’ll veto the budget the General Assembly sent you.
What we need is a budget that recognizes reality, and makes across the board cuts instead of punishing private, nonprofit agencies who serve “the least of these,” a phrase you will know since you like to quote Scripture.
June 26th, 2009
The appalling “cap and trade” bill comes up for a vote in the U.S. House Friday. Disguised as an environmental bill, this is actually a huge tax on Americans, who ultimately will pay thousands of dollars a year for the forced reduction in carbon emissions. And we don’t even know if Carbon Dioxide is a pollutant. It’s never been thought of as one before now.
This bill will drive unemployment up and cause companies to go out of business. And they want to do it in the worst economic slump in 75 years.
Here’s what the Heritage Foundation says about cap and trade:
“An analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill (as reported out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce) by The Heritage Foundation found that unemployment will increase by nearly 2 million in 2012, the first year of the program, and reach nearly 2.5 million in 2035, the last year of the analysis. Total GDP loss by 2035 would be $9.4 trillion. The national debt would balloon as the economy slowed, saddling a family of four with $114,915 of additional national debt. Families would also suffer, as the bill would slap the equivalent of a $4,609 tax on a family of four by 2035.”
For the 16th Congressional District of Illinois (that’s us) Heritage calculates that the average personal income loss districtwide would be $485 million in 2012. To read the whole article, go to this site
If cap and trade takes effect, we won’t have to worry about pollution, because most people except EPA bureaucrats will be out of work.
Folks, we need to be putting Americans to work, not sending even more of our jobs to China. And cap and trade is a job-killer.
June 25th, 2009
Way back in 1969, I was turning 20, and lamenting the breakup of The Beatles, which I blamed on Yoko. One day, my sister, who was 10, got a record (remember them?) of a new group called The Jackson Five, fronted by a 10 year old boy named Michael.
“1-2-3, easy as 1-2-3,you and me, that’s how simple love can be,” sang the kid with the soprano voice.
“What is this crap?” I wanted to know. I dismissed the peppy tune as another example of bubble gum music.
“You are so stupid,” my little sister said. Then she slammed the door to her room and turned up the record player.
Over the years I learned to like some of the Jackson tunes, and years later, when the “Thriller” video came out, way back when MTV actually played music videos, I thought it was about the best video I’d seen.
But I remained and still remain a Beatles fan. I was shocked when John Lennon was assassinated. There were candelight vigils for him all over the world — even here in Rockford. I was saddened when George Harrison succumbed to lung cancer, and angered when that witch suckered Sir Paul McCartney into marrying her, then took millions of his hard-earned money.
Now, Michael Jackson is dead of a heart attack. The national news is consumed with the story. I don’t quite understand why, but I’m sure my sister does.
It’s been quite a week. Ed McMahon. Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.
Who’s next?
June 24th, 2009
Now we know why South Carolina’s Gov. Mark Sanford disappared over the weekend and went to Argentina without telling anyone, including his family. Read about it in The State.
June 24th, 2009
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who has his eye on the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, has some ’splainin’ to do, first to his wife and children, then to the people of South Carolina, and then to the rest of us.
The governor, who tried to reject federal stimulus funds, only to be reversed by the legislature, split town Thursday after the legislature ended its session.
He didn’t tell anybody where he was going, even his wife and kids. He left them hanging on Fathers Day weekend.
There was a report he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail, something he told one of his staffers he might do. But that wasn’t true. Instead, he flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Why? He hasn’t said.
Sanford is now back in SC. But his erratic behavior should end his presidential chances once and for all.
June 23rd, 2009
I was wondering when the Rockford School Board would get cold feet on charter schools. It approved three of them in a rather routine manner, then, Tuesday night, reversed course and voted down GreenTek, 5-1, and voted down Sigma Beta in a 3-3 tie.
The board has a past history with Comprehensive Community Solutions, the folks who sponsored GreenTek. They tried to get a charter school started several years ago and the board voted them down; the case went all the way to the state board of education, which agreed with the local board.
The real disappointment to me was the rejection of Sigma Beta, a school designed by renowned local educator Patrick Hardy to reach hard-to-educate urban youth, particularly boys.
The strangeness of it all has to do with the board’s approval of the same Patrick Hardy as the district’s chief education officer, directly under new Superintendent LaVonne Sheffield. Maybe Hardy can begin to implement some of his concepts in the context of his new position.
And where was Bob Evans? The longtime school board member was, according to the rrstar.com story, in he midst of a five-week course at Rockford College, where he’s a professor. That’s a long time to be away from the board. His constituents were ill-served, as were all the residents of District 205.
Whether or not Evans would have voted to approve Sigma Beta, we don’t know. But his absence was sorely missed.
June 21st, 2009
The neocons are whipped into a frenzy over Iran’s nuclear program and Obama’s assertion that Iran, like other countries, should be able to develop peaceful nuclear power.
Know whose policy that is? Dwight D. Eisenhower’s, that’s who. Ike created the Atoms For Peace program in 1953, designed to help nations get started on the road to nuclear energy.
Read about it in The New Statesman
June 21st, 2009
Chicago Rockford International Airport impresario Bob O’Brien scored a coup when he garnered Oprah Winfrey’s 1,500 employee excursion to Spain. When the talk show diva has treated employees to trips in the past, the flights have originated at O’Hare.
But O’Brien convinced Oprah’s people that RFD is much more convenient for a charter operation.
What got the whole thing started? Bob was in China a few months ago and ran into Rob Binns, former president of now-defunct Trans Meridian Airways. Binns is now the head of World Airways, which is handling Oprah’s 5-jet charter operation. So, Saturday’s Harpo production came about because Bob and Rob chatted in China.
Bob took me through the passenger lounge area at about 6 p.m., just as the first jet took off, the second boarded, and a third jet landed. The passenger lounge was full, but not unpleasantly so. Each DC-10 seats 300, Bob said. Everyone seemed in a good mood, and the airport staff got rave reviews for the no hassle experience.
The airport moved Saturday’s Allegiant flights to the International terminal, and O’s passengers, bound for Barcelona, Spain and a two-week Mediterranean cruise had the main terminal to themselves.
Oprah hired an event planning company to handle the logistics. They had baggage check-in tents in the parking lots for people arriving by car. They had people at the entrances, they had people everywhere in lime green shirts. Probably that had too many people. Better to be safe than sorry, I guess.
O’Brien’s hope is that the fly-out went so well that Oprah will mention Chicago Rockford International Airport on her show.
With 1,500 people flying, at a vacation cost of $5,400 each, that’s about $8.1 million Oprah is spending on her employees and their families. No wonder they call it the “Trip of a Lifetime.”
June 20th, 2009
When the Show of Shows was ending late Friday night, master of ceremonies Mike Robinson warned people to stay away from the area of South Mulford and Sandy Hollow roads. Big train wreck, he said. Burning tank cars of ethanol, he said.
Right. As soon as the show was over I headed over there to see what I could see. I wouldn’t have learned much had I not tuned my radio to WNTA-AM. For the entire evening they abandoned their syndicated program format and went live, with anchors in the studio on SandyHollow Road, and reporters in the field. They provided up to date information when people, especially homeowners in the area or motorists, needed to know what was going on.
June 20th, 2009
The Phantom Regiment’s Show of Shows went on Friday night, sort of. After debating whether to cancel the drum corps competition because of monsoon-like rain that started a little after 6 p.m. and was still going on at 7:30, officials finally started the event at 8:30 p.m., but with a big twist.
Announcer Mike Robinson said each corps would perform in stationary positions on the Boylan football field, because the turf was drenched and may not have been safe for corps members to perform intricate field exercises.
So, the corps all performed in exhibition, meaning it wasn’t judged by DCI judges and didn’t count. Most corps performed either in partial uniforms or in t-shirts and shorts.
Who was best? Since we’re only able to judge sound, not marching and maneuvering, we can’t really tell. Sound-wise, my favorites were Phantom, Blue Coats and Spirit. I thought the Cavaliers and the Madison Scouts were not as good as I remember them being in the past.
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