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November 17th, 2009
Not all Republicans have lined up in opposition to the federal government buying Thomson state prison and using it as a federal maximum security prison with a separate wing for Taliban and Al Qaida terrorists currently housed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Obama has pledged to close the U.S. prison in Cuba by the end of the year.
State Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, represents the Thomson area. The career FBI agent, now retired, strongly supports the plan, and in unusually blunt language.
“If we pass up this opportunity I think we’re buffoons. We have a state of the art facility designed as maximum security prison that is the second largest expenditure for a building in the history of th state of Illinois. It has been sitting mostly vacant for eight years,” Sacia said.
“We have an opportunity to bring 2,000 to 3,000 good jobs to Illinois, and the prison would be doing exactly what intended to do. If President Obama, is going to do this, we are literally idiots if we don’t pursue this opportunity.”
The government plans to use most of the 1,600 bed prison for regular federal inmates, around 100 would be the Taliban and Al Qaida terrorists. They would be housed in two to three wings of the prison, and that part would be operated by the Department of Defense, not the Bureau of Prisons.
Sacia said he respects U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, who is strongly against the government’s plan.
“He and IÂ had lengthy conversations Monday and Sunday, and I see this significantly different form the congressman, We already have 340 (convicted terrorists) in U.S. prisons; there are 40 at Marion, 40 at Terre Haute, Indiana, and there is another prison in Illinois that has approximately 40.
“I listened to (U.S. Rep.) Mark Kirk say this will be threat to Chicago. For (God’s) sake, this is 150 miles away. A terror target? What a joke. I almost have to laugh at that. Why would it be any different from any maximum security prison in this country?”
Sacia noted that in Savanna, which is close to Thomson, “up until 15 years ago we had more nuclear weapons stored than anywhere in the world, and nobody blew us off the map.”
“Here we have an opportunity to bring significant economic development to northwest Illinois. Usually we hear 5 jobs here, 10 jobs here., and we have an opportunity for 2,000 to 3000 good paying fed jobs and we have people trying to kill it,” Sacia said.
“I take strong issue with Congressman Manzullo,” said Sacia, who spent three hours Monday talking with federal authorities in Thomson to investigate the prison site. “The Gitmo prisoners will be housed totally separte from other inmates. We have a lot better terrorist targets than (Thomson.)”
“All this coffee shop conversation that these people are going to be released in Thomson, Illinois and be treated in our hospitals is a lot of hooey. These are war prisoners, detainees.”
The prison, built at a cost of over $140 million in 2001, is only used for 100 to 200 minimum security prisoners now.
As to the issue of threats to security, Sacia noted that in World War II, “we had 400,000 POWS in the U.S. including hard car Nazis, SS members, and we dealt with them.” Rockford had its share of those Nazis, too, housed in the prison camp at Camp Grant. POWs were taken daily on trucks to work on area farms and in local industries.
November 4th, 2009
Before anyone starts crowing about Democrat Bill Owens’ win in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, he did win with 49 percent, a large minority, but still a minority.
This was more a grudge match between moderate and conservative Republicans for the soul of the party; Owens was the beneficiary by default.
This district, closer to Montreal, Quebec than to New York City, has been reliably Republican since there were Republicans, which was just before the Civil War. (1861-65)
When the Republican congressman John McHugh resigned to become secretary of the Army, party leaders in the district selected Dede Scozzafava, a state legislator, to be the Republican candidate in the special election to fill the remainder of McHugh’s term.
But Scozzafava was too liberal for many national Republican chiefs and opinion leaders to stomach. From Sarah Palin to Tim Pawlenty to Dick Armey, the rightist pundits and poo-bahs weighed in with support for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Over the weekend, Scozzafava dropped out and threw her support to Democrat Owens.
Hoffman, who does not live in the 23rd district, came close to winning but couldn’t do the job because Scozzafava, whose name remained on the ballot, took about 6 percent of the vote. Other Scozzafava fans certainly followed her lead and voted for Owens to punish the GOP for essentially kicking her out of the party.
This fight isn’t over, just taking a break. In 2010 I think Hoffman will be back, with full GOP backing, trying to defeat Owens, who will no doubt have strong funding from the Democratic Party. Certainly this will be a race to watch. Conservative Republicans are boasting that they banished a liberal from their ranks in NY23, and promise to run primary candidates against other GOP’ers who don’t pass the conservative test.
Someone who is skeptical of this purge of moderates and liberals is Newt Gingrich, who supported Scozzafava because she was the pick of the local GOP in NY23.
Gingrich knows something about winning: He led the House Republicans to a 52-seat pick up in 1994 and returned the party to majority status after 40 years in the wilderness. He knows that to win nationally, the Republican Party has to be attractive to enough voters to attain 50 percent plus one in most elections. If every candidate is required to run the Rush Limbaugh-Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin gauntlet, the GOP will become a mighty small party in the future.
That’s a shame, because the country really needs a robust, market-based alternative to the Democrats’ programs. If the Democrats do not have to fear losing control of Congress because Republicans have become too extreme, the donkey party will do whatever it wants, which means enacting a plethora of job-crushing new taxes, regulation and other nanny-state laws that stifle creativity and curtail liberty.
November 3rd, 2009
Tuesday’s off-year election victories for Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey should send a caution signal to Democrats who run Congress and President Obama: You’ve gone too far left, come back to the center-right, where the majority of the country’s voters are.
Frankly, I’m horrified at the Democrats’ idea of health care reform. And their cap and trade energy bill is even worse.
Both bills will punish the middle class as well as the small and medium sized businesses that employ them. New taxes, reductions in Medicare and mind-numbing bureaucracy are not my idea of reform. Millions of jobs are at stake. And their health care bill does not come close to covering everybody.
At this point, “No” is the appropriate answer to Democratic bills on health care and energy. I think that’s what voters in Virginia and New Jersey were saying. (Results from NY 23 congressional race have not come in yet.)
October 30th, 2009
Congressman Don Manzullo, R-Egan, has filmed a video of himself, commenting on the House Democrats’ 1,990 page health care reform bill. Manzullo doesn’t like what he’s reading. The bill contains a hefty tax on medical appliances, which will add to the cost of health care for everyone, he says. It also has a dis-incentive for state’s to pass malpractice reform, saying the federal government will reward states who do not have caps on jackpot settlements. This, too, will drive up the cost of health care, he says. So, instead of ignoring the need for malpractice reform, this bill actually encourages lawyers to file more lawsuits!!!
See the video here
October 30th, 2009
Excellent Oct. 29 column by Peggy Noonan on the inability of government to be imaginative enough to solve problems. In short, whether it’s state, local or federal, our leaders dont’ have a clue. Read it HERE:
October 29th, 2009
Want to read the new, House of Representatives health care bill? It was just introduced today. The new bill has nearly doubled in page-count from the old one. The new bill, which does contain a mild version of a public option, is a whopping 1,990 pages.
And if you have a free weekend and nothing to do, here’s a link so you can read it yourself:
http://kingston.house.gov/Components/Redirect/r.aspx?ID=32748-1147446
October 27th, 2009
Andy McKenna, who quit the Illinois Republican chairmanship last summer, has joined the race for governor in the February 2010 GOP primary.
McKenna comes with a pre-packaged lieutenant governor running mate, state Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine. McKenna says he’s against raising taxes and says the state must make serious spending cuts. According to the Sun-Times he criticized spending $2.5 million on the lieutenant governor’s office even though the post is vacant.
Here’s a hint, Andy. Have your running-mate vow to quit the lite gov’s office if elected — because there’s really nothing for the lite gov to do except wait for the governor to be removed from office — and then reallocate the lite gov’s budget to debt reduction.
Meanwhile: I expect former attorney general and 2002 Republican governor candidate Jim Ryan to run again for the GOP nomination. He has a website, www.jimryan2010.com, and on it are printable petitions.
Ryan could have a good shot at the nomination because voters may feel guilty for snubbing the quiet candidate in 2002. Instead they went for the Elvis-singing, basketball-twirling, fast-talking Rod Blagojevich, and the rest is misery.
Ryan’s web site features a 2002 TV commercial that says, in part, “He’s faced his share of challenges. Some he could prepare for, some he couldn’t. But he never quit, and he never let us down. A man of integrity and strength, a governor who will make us proud. ”
The campaign could re-run that commercial, with the added words, “Remember what could have been? It still could be. Jim Ryan. For Governor.”
Ryan still has campaign consultant Dan Curry on board.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Elmhurst, another gov candidate, has hired Rockford native Wes Bleed as his communications director. Wes was, until recently, the longtime news director of WGN radio in Chicago.
October 23rd, 2009
U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, makes it official Monday: He’s running for another term. Manzullo was first elected in 1992 and has been easily re-elected every two years since then.
Manzullo has no opposition in his party. Last week, Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp surprised everyone — especially Manzullo — when he said he will run for Manzullo’s seat as a Democrat.
October 23rd, 2009
Soupy Sales, 83, has died.
The slapstick comedian who threw whipped cream pies in people’s faces, was watched by millions of Baby Boomers on TV. I never cared too much for Soupy, but I did watch him sometimes. I think his show was on Saturdays at noon. (I was more of a Lone Ranger fan.)
However, I must confess to attending a performance starring Soupy Sales in “Hellzapoppin 67.” Soupy was appearing in the show at Expo ‘67 in Montreal, Quebec.
My friend Steve Anderson and I traveled by bus to Montreal to go to the fair, a fantastic experience. No, not the bus ride. We hated that 24-hour ride (changed buses at Toronto) so much we turned in our return tickets in Montreal and bought train tickets back. Changed trains at Toronto, but the ride was much better.
We stayed for two weeks at my Aunt Maggie’s house in Dorval and took the CP commuter train every morning downtown, then rode the Metro and light-rail trains to Expo. We’d come home late at night and order chicken delivered from St. Hubert Bar B-Q. (The popular Quebec chicken chain started in Montreal in 1951, in a small shop on rue St. Hubert.)
Soupy’s death ironically brought back fond memories of a wonderful two weeks at what was probably the last really big-time, world-class World’s Fair. It was the era of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union and U.S. tried to outdo one another with competing pavilions. The Soviet one featured a simulated ride into space, an exhibit called  “Atoms for Peace” and exhibits describing Soviet life as the Soviets wanted it shown. Outside the steel and glass building with a sweeping, curved roof, was a giant hammer and sickle and the numbers 1917-1967. The U.S.S.R. was 50 years old in 1967.
The U.S. pavilion was completley different: a 250-foot high Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome that featured American pop-culture as well as science and technology. I recall an Elvis guitar, Andy Warhol paintings and Hollywood movies. We put our space technology on show, too.
Oh, and did I mention that the Trinidad-Tobago-Grenada pavilion had a superb steel-drum band that performed on an island in an artificial lagoon?
October 22nd, 2009
Here’s a news release Rockford Legal Director Patrick Hayes just sent out. It’s written in a language I’m calling “Purple Hayes”:
ROCKFORD – October 22, 2009 – The Rockford Police Department announced the
withdrawal of electronic control devices from daily use by the department effective
on the commencement of today’s afternoon shift at 4:00 p.m. The announcement was
in response to the supplier’s revised warnings, which modified the preferred target
area. The notice was received Wednesday afternoon, and the City took action today
following internal meetings on the content of the bulletin.
The modified warnings will require extensive review and potentially revision of
policies and training if the device is to be re-deployed. The police department will
continue its review of the bulletin, but in the interim determined the best course of
action was to withdraw the units from daily use.
Now, here it is in Chuckster’s English: Rockford Police will stop using Tasers at 4 p.m. today because the manufacturer advised police agencies not to aim the 50,000 volt weapons at people’s chests. Taser officials said Wednesday there’s a low risk of what they called an “adverse cardiac event” when people are hit in the chest.
The RPD will study whether to change the target area or whether to even use Tasers again.
See, Patrick, that wasn’t difficult, was it?
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