10 Jun 2010

Union Officers' Pensions Okay While Employees' Pensions Perish

By Kathleen McCarthy

Anyone with a a hint of common sense knows you can't spend (borrow and consume) your way out of debt into financial recovery, let alone prosperity. Secondly, the most recent jobs report indicated that of the 431,000 new jobs created via the stimulus bailout, 390,000 were government jobs, mostly for the Census Bureau, leaving a paltry 41,000 new jobs created in the private sector, which is the only sector that pays its own way. Furthermore, most of the 390,000 employed in the Census Bureau will be laid off this summer, because those jobs are coming to an end. This is hardly recovery.

09 Jun 2010

America Needs Union Competition

By Mark W. Hendrickson

I agree with President Barack Obama that we need more labor unions. However, I disagree with his approach.

Full disclosure: I have been a dues-payer to both the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the National Education Association (NEA) unions. My sympathies are heavily tilted toward the interests of the men and women who do the work that makes America go.

For that reason, I strongly oppose the dishonestly named "Employee Free Choice Act," which aims to deprive workers of secret ballots when voting for or against union representation. You don't benefit workers by stripping them of basic democratic protections.

06 Jun 2010

Both U.S. Senate Candidates Now Damaged Goods

By Rich Miller

Political reporters and pundits have a bad habit of saying, "If present trends continue ... ." The truth is, in politics, "present trends" almost always change.

Last week, Illinoisans were treated to a classic example of how that overused phrase can so often be horribly wrong.

Let's take a look back, shall we?

04 Jun 2010

Iowa Politics Roundup: Insiders Expect Branstad Win in Primary

By Lynn Campbell

Iowa political insiders and analysts are putting their money on Terry Branstad to win the Republican Party's top-of-the-ticket race in Tuesday's primary election.

One longtime insider to GOP politics predicted this week that Branstad will win with roughly 50 percent of the vote, with Bob Vander Plaats just under 30 percent and Rod Roberts at about 16 or 17 percent. That insider said he would be "shocked" if Branstad didn't win the nomination.

But Dennis Goldford, a political-science professor at Drake University, gives the social-conservative backing behind Vander Plaats a little more credit than that. "I'd be surprised if Branstad lost the primary, but I wouldn't be shocked," he said. "It may well be that Branstad wins. I wouldn't say he got it, [that] it's done."

01 Jun 2010

Cecil James Roth's Monthly Letter

By Cecil James Roth

Dear Representatives (Reps), and citizens, media, etc; May 1, 2010

I, Cecil James Roth, ProSeParty (Honesty FIRST), noticed that America's pillar institutions have revealed themselves to be corrupt, incompetent or both. That includes: our government (Executive, Legislative, Judicial branches); the media; the church; etc. A lot of corruption is caused by lawyers and Reps that have dishonored their oaths by looking away from reporting violations - required by law. Here are important and necessary changes:

Reps: #1) Show that you honor your oath by serving justly, and favoring laws to prohibit the taking of any kind of influence money, benefitting financially from representing citizens, and the appearance of dishonesty. Favor laws that prevent agencies from investigating their own, and laws that grant any citizen the right to appeal the denial of his rights. Advance laws that follow the Silver Rule. Publicly admit your mistakes and explain how you are going about to make corrections. Point out dishonest Reps and encourage citizens to vote them out!

30 May 2010

Borrowing Bill Separates Representative from GOP Caucus

By Rich Miller

Bob BigginsIllinois House Republicans had a universal message for Representative Bob Biggins (R-Elmhurst) last week: You are officially an outcast.

Biggins infuriated his fellow Republicans by switching his position and voting for a $3.7-billion borrowing plan supported by Democrats. The money would be used to make the state's annual pension payment. Without it, the state would have to slash programs such as education and human services and health care or delay the payment, which could cost the pension funds tens of billions of dollars in the long term.

28 May 2010

Iowa Politics Roundup: Senate Candidate Conlin Attacked Over Ties to Lobbyist

By Lynn Campbell

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Fiegen used a second televised forum Thursday night to attack opponent Roxanne Conlin, this time about her connection with a Monsanto lobbyist and her job as a trial lawyer.

About halfway through the forum (sponsored by IowaPolitics.com, Mediacom, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and the League of Women Voters of Johnson County), Fiegen was asked about flood relief -- an issue key to residents of flood-ravaged Cedar Rapids -- but instead decided to use the moment to launch the attack.

"I want to address the special interests," said Fiegen, a former state senator. "One of the things that Roxanne has run on is she's not taken any money from lobbyists. But one of her BFFs, that's best friends forever, [is] a gentleman by the name of Jerry Crawford. ... Since then, Jerry Crawford has received $150,000 as a registered federal lobbyist from Monsanto."

23 May 2010

What History Tells Us About Candidates Hesitant to Release Tax Returns

By Rich Miller

Twenty years ago, Secretary of State Jim Edgar and Attorney General Neil Hartigan ran for governor against each other. Both men released their tax returns without much fanfare.

Four years later, Governor Jim Edgar and his opponent, Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch, both released their tax returns. It wasn't much of a story.

Then, in 1998, gubernatorial candidate George Ryan released his tax returns for the first time. He had adamantly refused to do so while he was secretary of state. And Ryan continued to refuse to release anything other than his current returns. Most of what he eventually got busted for happened while he was secretary of state, which may be no coincidence.

21 May 2010

Iowa Politics Roundup: Active Republican Primaries Lead Early Voting to Tilt Toward GOP

By Lynn Campbell

With a contentious primary for governor and competitive congressional primaries, Iowa Republicans have surpassed Democrats nearly three-to-one in requesting ballots to vote early in the June 8 primary election.

Nearly 15,000 Republicans statewide had requested ballots to vote early as of Friday, compared with 5,305 Democrats, according to the secretary of state's office.

21 May 2010

New Legislation Points to Global Governance

By Administrator

Sooner rather than later, each of us will have make a decision about his/her national identity as an American. The question will be whether, as an American sovereign, you are willing to relinquish your status in favor of a merging with other sovereign nations, beginning with Mexico and Canada most likely, to form an entirely new form of international/global governance; hence the term "new world order."

This choice of national identity is no longer science fiction. The media has finally brought this grave issue into mainstream focus, and the evidence points conclusively to just such an eventuality. Every day, America is drawn further into the global financial meltdown through Washington's policies of intervention, financial aid, and our own out-of-control borrowing that forces taxpayers' participation on whatever level our international creditors dictate.

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