"Big City" NBC Chicago Bashes Tea Party

Well, well, well, it's a "bloodfeast". We Tea Partiers have fangs.

NBC coverage at the Chicago Tea Party was pretty fair, (but I would add that the Arrest Bush guy was being disruptive--he was supposed to stand on the perimeter, which is why the police eventually led him away.) In the beating heart of the Big City. But this Ward Room piece follows this kind of a pattern.

Take a look at the Tea Party in this other town, other bankrupt state:

One of the best recent representations of that old defiant spirit can be found in the past couple of weeks in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell, a poor mostly Latino city of about 37,000, where about 2,000 city residents showed up and forced the resignation of worthless city officials after they learned about the way they had enriched themselves at the expense of city taxpayers. As one Bell resident said after a council member gave a self-serving justification of her $100,000 part-time salary (council members typically earn about $8,000 a year): “You were a crook yesterday, you’re a crook today, and you’ll be a crook tomorrow.”

That’s a simple idea most of us can rally around! The crooks are ripping us off.

Sound familiar?

Maybe you could do some actual reporting around here. Wow what a cool site. So jam-packed with substance.

And as the fangless Peggy Noonan notes, conservatives are not fringe. Nor are independents.

Reagan won Illinois. There are a lot of Reagan Democrats here still who are upset now. Even in the "Big City". There are young people looking for jobs.

And there are lots of Moms and Dads concerned for the future of their children.

P.S. Related. For the record, let's recall:

Liberal blogger Eric Zorn is already attacking presumed GOP candidate for governor Bill Brady as too extreme for Illinois. Given drowning in debt sister state Blue New Jersey just elected a conservative Republican governor, this is a year for fiscal know-how, not social issues, but let's take a quick look.

One issue, the conscience clause. Scott Brown had a similar stance on ER medics and won in Democrat Massachusetts. This kind of clause is also in the Senate healthcare bill. I think extreme is too extreme a word and should be retired. It was in Massachusetts. And spending millions on controversial, experimental (unsuccessful) stem cell research was not a good use of Illinois funds. That was a Blago initiative.

As far as healthcare mandates anyone with any common sense knows that one of the reasons healthcare is unaffordable and prices people out is because of rigid one-size-fits-all policies. Maybe you are in the market for mammograms and pap smears but most people would rather find a policy that suits them.

The most important issue for Illinois is jobs, jobs, jobs. The next one is putting the state's fiscal house in order. Because what good are all those Dem promises and programs if we're stiffing healthcare providers now? And what good is a state that loads debt on the backs of citizens that aren't even born yet to pay for public employees who retire early on our dime? What kind of cheap, posturing morality is that--it's like Blago all over again.

Illinois needs a new day.

P.S. This is on Drudge and Memeorandum. Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution? If it does, most of the conventional ("wisdom") media will miss it.

P.P.S. Chicago Daily Observer: Channel 5’s Ward Room Cites Definitive Source on Young Republicans: Channel 5 Ward Room Read it all, but here's a snippet:

We are going to get more stories of Republicans as women-haters and the like. Brady’s recent impressive performance with female voters, has the incumbent media, a long time left-wing adjunct of the Democratic party quivering...

This is why we blog. This is why we are fed up. This is why we don't read or watch the crappy old lying media any more. This is why the Tea Party has such broad-based support and momentum.

Oh yeah. Republicans are women haters. What a fool. Who is attacking women these days.

Related: A Hopeful Tea Party Santelli and Beck. Jonah Goldberg with more. And previous post: Big Tent Tea Party

Crème Brulée for a Hot (Sox) Day

I even just like to look at it. Vanilla bean into cream. Rich.

And Go Sox. How bout that rookie win:)

Some new hope just north

On Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Senate: Johnson (R) 48%, Feingold (D) 46%

Wisconsin Governor: Walker (R) 50%, Barrett (D) 43%

TWS on the Johnson surge:

Polls show a tight race developing between Democrat Russ Feingold, the three-term incumbent, and Ron Johnson, an Ayn Rand-loving, pro-life Lutheran, plastics manufacturer from Oshkosh. Johnson led Feingold 48 percent to 46 percent in a July 29 Rasmussen poll.

Democrats thought they had dodged a bullet when former Republican governor Tommy Thompson decided in April not to run, but Johnson has emerged as a formidable candidate. First, he doesn’t have Thompson’s baggage of having been both a Washington lobbyist and a Bush administration official. When Johnson delivers brief remarks to the 200 Republicans aboard the boat, he makes it clear he didn’t like the spending spree of the last administration. Republicans were racking up “$300 [or] $400 billion deficits. But now we’re talking $1.5 trillion. And our national debt is $13 trillion. That’s simply unsustainable. It’s intergenerational theft. It’s wrong. It’s immoral. And it’s gotta stop.” The crowd cheers enthusiastically.

But it was the passage of ObamaCare that impelled him to run--he wants to repeal it:

His “personal motivation” comes from his family’s reliance on rapid medical advances when his daughter—now a neonatal nurse—had heart surgery as an infant in the 1980s. Obamacare will “lower the quality of care and lead to rationing,” Johnson says. “There’s a reason the premier of Newfoundland came down to America to get his heart surgery.”

The Wisconsin primary win put Obama on the path to the presidency. It's a key swing state and it's going right. That big-spending old liberal Rep. David Obey bowed out--now it looks Dem. Sen. Feingold may get trounced in November.

Ron Johnson for Senate

Scott Walker for Governor

The GOP still has a primary on Sept. 14th but these look like the eventual winners.

P.S. Apparently Feingold is trying to portray himself as an outsider and Johnson as an extremist (the Dem anti-Tea Party template, despite the fact that the Tea Party is mainstream, concerned primarily with fiscal issues, encompassing many independents). Don't think that's going to work, as even the liberal press is not taken in.

Related: Bell Rings in Tea Party Spirit Big Government via RCP. Obama approval here.

And this--high speed rail between Madison and Milwaukee. ObamaRail idiocy. American Thinker.

Previous posts: Tea Party Takeover Wisconsin Senate?, Is Feingold Toast?, Potemkin on the Potomac: Feingold Bolts, Obama to the left of Feingold

Eclipse on the Beach

That Kon Tiki Easter Island fascination. APOD.

#ChevyVoltSlogans

politicsoffear

Chevy Volt. Because any other car would be racist. #ChevyVoltSlogans

newsbusters

RT @alanagoodman: Ha. RT @keder: WINNER! RT @MattCover: #chevyvoltslogans: took my chevy to the levy and the battery died

Here you go:
P.S. If looks could kill...

P.P.S. Defeat another menace to society. Ruby Slippers: Ten Buck Fridays: Patricia Sullivan Patriot to defeat Alan Grayson

Brady Exposes Quinn's Duplicity on Tax Hikes

From Brady for Illinois:

BRADY STATEMENT, FACT SHEET: QUINN SUPPORTS SAME RECORD TAX HIKES HE DISAVOWS

Blames Budget Director, Media after Fall Out from Both Parties

Chicago – Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady today released the following statement in response to yesterday’s tax hike doublespeak from Governor Pat Quinn:

“Governor Pat Quinn’s song and dance number yesterday proved its still Christmas in July for tax and spenders in Illinois.

While the Governor denounced his budget director's words and the media for announcing the same record level tax hike he supported just last year, one thing is clear: Pat Quinn is going to raise our taxes.

Let me be clear – Pat Quinn’s plan to raise taxes is a job killer for Illinois, and I stand firm with taxpayers, business and community leaders on both sides of the aisle in opposing it.

While Republicans, Independents, and even Democrats stood firm in opposing his Administration’s plan to enact the largest tax hike in history, Pat Quinn’s bumbling response proves he’s lost control of state government.”

Brady for Illinois also today released the following Fact Sheet outlining Pat Quinn’s clear record of promoting the same record level tax hikes he disavowed during a news conference yesterday, while proposing the same education cuts he wrongly accused Bill Brady of supporting.

FACTS ON PAT QUINN’S TAX HIKE PROPOSALS

1/29/2009 - Quinn takes office

2/5/2009 – Quinn: Tax increase can't be ruled out (ABC 7 video)…

“One week after taking office, Governor Pat Quinn says he cannot rule out an increase in the state's income tax. The governor inherited a $9 billion dollar budget deficit and says all options will be considered to fix it.” http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6643089

3/14/2009 - State income taxes: Pat Quinn downplays proposed increase: (Chicago Tribune Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)…

The Tribune disclosed in Friday's editions that Quinn was considering increasing personal income taxes by 50 percent, boosting the rate from 3 percent to 4.5 percent, while also looking to increase the personal tax exemption, currently at $2,000, to as high as $6,000.” http://smart-grid.tmcnet.com/news/2009/03/14/4056003.htm

3/18/2009 - RFIRST ON WGIL: Moffitt, Risinger React to Quinn's Budget Address (WGIL)… “Risinger tells WGIL the public shouldn't believe how Quinn sold the proposal. “I don't like (Quinn's) tax increase proposal,” Risinger said. “And, contrary to what he says, it’s the largest tax increase that the State of Illinois has had.” http://www.wgil.com/localnews.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=032009&newsid=221

5/31/2009 - Lawmakers pass makeshift budget; no income tax hike,

(By Ray Long and Monique Garcia)

“A plan to raise the Illinois income tax by 67 percent and broaden sales taxes was approved by a panel of House lawmakers today…Gov. Pat Quinn, who proposed a smaller income tax increase, testified today in favor of the bigger one at the contentious committee hearing…After the hearing, Quinn would not say whether he preferred a proposal for a temporary, 50 percent income tax increase or the permanent 67 percent increase that also imposes a sales tax on services. ‘I'm for any bill that can balance the budget,’ Quinn told reporters.”

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/05/legislature-headed-for-midnight-taxhike-showdown.html

3/22/10 - Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed sales tax bottled up in fees, coffee, sweet tea, could leave sour taste: State, local governments pile on 'nickel and dime’...

(Chicago Tribune Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)… “Buried deep within the massive budget proposal Gov. Pat Quinn presented last week to lawmakers was a caffeinated jolt to the bottled tea and Frappuccino crowd. Quinn wants to apply the state's sales tax on soft drinks to the coffee and sweetened tea products in grocery stores, adding a quarter for the state treasury for every $5 six-pack of sweet green tea. While his proposal for a 50 percent increase in the income tax got the headlines, the tea and coffee tax is among a pocketful of nickel-and-dime tax increases the governor is seeking in a comprehensive effort to overcome the state's looming $11.5 billion budget deficit. He also favors higher fees for driver's licenses, license plates, hunting and fishing licenses, cigarettes, tickets to the State Fair and even adding the state's sales tax to some shampoo and personal hygiene products.” http://smart-grid.tmcnet.com/news/2009/03/22/4074312.htm

1/15/2010 - Illinois Gov. Quinn still wants 50 percent income tax rate increase; Republicans assail it…The Associated Press
“Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says he's committed to raising the state income tax to come up with more money, even though he never used the phrase "tax increase" during his recent State of the State speech. Quinn said Friday his proposal to raise the tax rate 50 percent is the best plan. He wants to lessen the impact on poor and working families by increasing the personal exemption. The Chicago Democrat believes lawmakers will pass a tax increase during the first quarter when they return to work after the Feb. 2 primary. The state deficit is likely to top $11 billion this year. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9573881

3/16/2010 - Quinn tax hike: Gov. Pat Quinn to detail tax increase: Governor calls tax hike 'the least bad option' (By John Keilman and Rick Pearson), TRIBUNE REPORTERS

The Tribune has reported that sources familiar with the governor's budget speech on Wednesday say Quinn is considering raising the state's personal income tax rate, to 4.5 percent from 3 percent. Quinn aides have said the standard exemption may rise from $2,000 to as much as $6,000. Such a plan would mean families of four with a $75,000 income would pay $285 more in taxes and a family earning $100,000 would pay an extra $660 to the state, based on gross income and absent any other credits or deductions.” http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-03-16/news/0903150176_1_tax-hike-income-tax-tax-increase

2/24/2010 - Ill. Gov. Quinn considers $2B in budget cuts (By JOHN O'CONNOR), Associated Press

“It suggests a needed $2.2 billion cut in spending -- mostly in elementary and secondary education, where funding would drop 15 percent even as school districts are already struggling with late state payments.

Even then, Illinois would end the 2011 fiscal year with an $11.5 billion deficit.

The state's budget director, David Vaught, introduced the budget Web site, where taxpayers can make suggestions, and reiterated Quinn's support for an election-year income tax increase, which could generate $3 billion to $5 billion.

"Absent other action, these are the kind of figures we're going to have to deal with," Vaught said. "I'm sure we'll hear more from the governor. He's no shrinking violet on the need for a tax increase."”

3/9/2010 - Gov. Pat Quinn budget proposal: Borrow $4.7 billion

Ballooning debt, cuts in education, services could be opening gambit in bid to raise taxes

By Ray Long and Rick Pearson, Tribune reporters

“Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday unveiled a caustic budget plan that would borrow billions of dollars to stay afloat and push even more debt down the road, hoping to persuade leery lawmakers to instead raise taxes in an election year.
Quinn aides warned the plan would cost some 13,000 teachers and staff their jobs, cut off poor seniors from help in paying for costly prescriptions and shut down some health care programs for the indigent. But even after about $2 billion in cuts, the state would still be $11 billion in the hole.

Citizens for Bill Brady
P.O. Box 5314, Bloomington, Illinois 61702
309.664.8544
www.bradyforillinois.com
(A copy of our report is or will be available from the State Board of Elections.)

Democratic One-Party Dictatorship

Democratic one-Party dictatorship, rule of law with social stability as its top priority, an authoritarian government for the people, a state-controlled market economy, fair competition dominated by the central government-owned enterprises...

...Is it Illinois or America? Nooooo
P.S.

To every one of the supporters of these government projects who claim to have created some number of jobs, I encourage the reader to ask a simple question--who was using the money before the government diverted it, and how many jobs were they creating?

...
Woman, 25, dying of blood poisoning texted photos of deadly rash to her mother as doctors ignored her

I am so heartsick and angry

Of course, our government lawyers wouldn't let us take WikiLeaks down. We won't even go after Mr. WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, whose release of this data will facilitate Taliban war crimes and assassinations.

***

We have writers for publications respected by the "mainstream" media who are so vicious and dishonest that they would suggest randomly throwing around charges of racism without a shred of evidence -- a charge made the more despicable because one of the named victims of the smear happens to be one of the nicest, most decent people in all of Washington punditry or politics.

We have a national debt exploding so rapidly, by deliberate design of the president, that one almost believes he is trying to implement the Cloward-Piven strategy of manufactured crisis. Cause a political and economic cataclysm; use it as an excuse for radical executive orders and proto-martial law; that sort of thing. Again, I did say "almost." But we are getting to a point where it almost doesn't matter what the motivations are; the reality being created could have the same effect whether by intention or by autocratic reaction to the fruits of the leader's own incompetence.

...Yes. I'm angry now.

...

Help Wartime Veterans and Families

Project New Hope. A retreat to get them back on track. It started in Minnesota.

Maybe you and your group can start a chapter in your state.

Fire this guy, and his boss, Gov. Quinn. NO to Alexi

Illinois Probably Raise Income Tax 67% From 3% to 5%, Budget Director Says

What good are these people--kneejerk raising taxes rather than cutting spending in a recession.

Why are we even paying their salaries? And what's this--same old same old corruption.

P.S. From the Kirk campaign. They've got a point:

Dear Friends:

Yesterday, the governor’s budget director revealed the Quinn-Giannoulias solution for Illinois’ budget crisis: a 66% state income tax hike.

Earlier this year, Alexi Giannoulias said Illinois needed a tax increase – he just didn’t say how much. Now we know.

The Quinn-Giannoulias tax hike would make Illinois even less competitive and put our economic recovery at risk. But it’s not too late to stop them.

Watch Congressman Kirk speak about the Quinn-Giannoulias tax increase

You can send a strong message to Alexi Giannoulias and his plan to raise taxes by contributing to our campaign today.

Let’s turn the page from the failed Quinn-Giannoulias policies and restore fiscal discipline to Illinois.

Very truly yours,

Mark

Related posts: Baghdad Bob Pete Giangreco an Alexi Hire, Calculate your Dem TAX Pain, Paul Ryan Schools Chris Matthews

Amish Expand West

AP NewsBreak:

"They are sort of challenging some of the mainstream assumptions about progress and how you achieve the good life and happiness," said Elizabethtown professor Don Kraybill, the study's director. "They're not merely surviving; they're thriving, and growing at this very rapid rate."

The highest rates of growth over the past year were recorded in New York (19 percent), Minnesota (9 percent), Missouri (8 percent), Wisconsin (7 percent) and Illinois (7 percent). High-growth areas for Amish in the past five years also include Kentucky, Kansas and Iowa.

The newest state to get an Amish settlement is South Dakota, after a group of at least six families bought several farms near Tripp in the southeastern part of the state. They have planted forage for their cows, built barns and established a weekly bake sale.

Well, at least we have a reservoir of knowledge on simple living.

You never know when it might come in handy.

The View Falls Flat

Our president Barack Obama touts the silly greenie Volt as a big success and trots out the traditional Dem mantra at the end: HEEE (Health care, Education, Energy and the Environment)

He got applause for health care, claiming everyone will be covered. Haha.

Education, a smattering of claps. Does anyone really think this administration will make our schools better? Just look at DC school choice snatched away by the teachers unions with Dem complicity.

Energy, well, not a winning issue.

The thud of silence on the environment. Dead birds and even more lost jobs come to mind.

Nice try Barack. All those inaugural clips remind people how hollow are your words.

As for being a uniter, no red, no blue, we are all Americans, puhleeze. Demonizing the mainstream Tea Party as raaaaacist and suing Arizona for enforcing the law the Feds won't--you can't get more divisive than that.

Even the sympathetic View audience had their skeptics.

According to recent polling Obama has lost college-educated women. He has his work cut out for him. Going on The View is not it.

P.S. Cover it live on The View. My Bill Ayers No Dream posted by a commenter. Traffic shooting up. Barack Einstein myth falling apart.

More. Drudge headers:

Obama appears on daytime talkshow because Michelle 'actually watches'...
Calls African-Americans a 'mongrel people'...
Blames media for racial firing...

Uncle Barney Goes Ballistic

Does this illustrate the Left's sense of entitlement or what? A public tantrum over a dollar:

Congressman Frank's net worth is almost $2-million dollars and the man quibbles over a dollar? It appears Franken had the brazen effrontery to cause a scene over not receiving a $1 senior discount while boarding the ferry on his way to "Fire Island's popular gay haunt, The Pines."

He didn't have the required senior card.

A witness claimed "Frank made such a drama over the senior rate" the stranger "contemplated offering him the dollar to cool down the situation."

A very charitable impulse under the circumstances. As we know with liberals they think other people should always pay, and the rules they stuff down our throats are for everyone else--and don't solve the problem.

Is Barney too big to fail? Sadly, no. I'm sure his district will send him back to represent them in Congress no matter what he does. Meanwhile his top aide is going to tax-evading Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner's office to do PR.

Related. 70% disapproval of Congress. VDH: Why Are We Beginning to Hate Congress? Our self-absorbed Congress should start to reform, fast.

When questioned, our representatives — reminiscent of the old French court at Versailles — act like they live in a rarified, untouchable universe.

The Gray Lady's Bland Face of Evil

Those who were named now face the prospect of reprisals by the Taliban, including having their ears or their heads cut off. What is therefore becoming quite significant is the fact that the Times, as a price for getting advance access to the documents, sat for weeks on the most explosive revelation of all: Namely, that WikiLeaks was poised to publish material that held the potential to cost the lives of hundreds of people.

Does that make the Times complicit? If the Times had reported the news despite whatever promises it made to WikiLeaks, could the terrible outcome have been averted?

Related: J. Michael Waller: Special Ops Forces Should Snatch WikiLeaks Founder, Counterspy Says Big Peace

Damn right.

And on legitimate stories they are silent, cover up, and the rest of us are supposed to just shut up. JournoList: Shame of a Nation: ‘Empire of Silence,’ ‘Empire of Lies’

The NY Times should be stripped in the public square and put in stocks.

Related. Jonah Goldberg, The New Journalism

Shirley Sherrod Got Her Reputation Back, Who Will Apologize to Tea Party?

More. Via RCP. Troops Are the Real Victims of War Leaks - Ralph Peters, New York Post

Rot in hell NY Times. I know you don't believe in it but I do. And who knows, you might be wrong. Or are you figuring you'll get the 72 virgins.

More. Threat & Attack Against The Synagogue Of Malmö In Sweden.

Dear Mayor Bloomberg A few questions you might want to ask before approving a mosque for Ground Zero.

Previous post: Is it WikiTreason

Maybe Barack and Michelle Should Switch

He's the man of glam.

latimestot

Leno:Big day for Obama Thurs. On The View 2 talk econy. Then General Hospital 2 talk healthcare. Then Tyra Banks for a total makeover.

You know, make a trade.

No Cause Too Small for First Lady Dear Leader O

On second thought, never mind. What's the difference.

President and First Lady Broccoli.

I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it."

P.S. Not Molotov cocktails but cocktails. Well, maybe veggie smoothies when that chic First Lady Broccoli...

Marbella, home of graft, tack and ostentation, is everything the Spanish costas should not be. Overbuilt and brashly flaunting its wealth...

...is around. (But she's not at this one.)

HT Memeorandum on Kurtz.

Related: Barack Obama, Red Star Radical, The Rise of Barry Obamski

Baghdad Bob Pete Giancreco an Alexi Hire

Let's get this out there, shall we. After Blago spokesman made Baghdad Bob look like Honest Abe, BO was so offended he hired him

Some more good old quotes from Mr. Giancreco, currently working for Slimy Alexi Giannoulias.

Alexi's having trouble retiring his primary debt. Gee, why is that.

How about reaching into your own pocket Alexi.

As for Giangreco, who worked for Blago, then Barack Obama, and now Alexi Giannoulias--what a pack of liars. And Alexi wants us to elect him Senator.

P.S. Woman To Blago: You Would've Been Good President. Ex-Gov Replies; 'It's Either The White House Or The Penitentiary

P.P.S. Obama's coming to Chicago this time to fundraise for Alexi.

More. Illinois Review: Kirk: "Giannoulias watched Illinois' financial situation become nation's worst"

Calculate your Dem TAX Pain

warnerthuston

Tax Calculator Tells You What You’ll Pay With and W/O Bush Tax Cuts http://bit.ly/aCF8tC

Schlocky Blago & Team

It's in God's hands.

WWSS: What would Sam say?

...the accidentally corrupt governor?

There's no smoking gun, but there are a lot of bleepin tapes.

P.S. Yes, but, how come they didn't arrest Jesse Jr. And another jab by the defense: Sam Adam Jr. accuses Barack Obama's transition team of negotiating with Rod Blagojevich

Barack Chooses The View over the Scouts

It's the Boy Scouts' 100th anniversary, but our President Barack Obama has opted to join the ladies of The View rather than speak to the Jamboree. Nice Deb. No Sheeples. Carol's Closet.

I happened to be at Reagan National last week--no sight of Barack's buddy Bill Ayers at Starbucks but the Boy Scouts were coming off planes in impressive numbers.

Many of us have been Girl Scouts, then leaders ourselves, den mothers of Cub Scouts. We've seen the boys off to their first aid meets and campouts, helped with pancake breakfasts and merit badges and listened to the stories of a night or two spent stargazing. The self-reliance and teamwork are life lessons.

When I was a little girl I remember my parents driving us all up in the summers to drop off my older brothers at camp for two weeks. The road wound through the woods and around each bend there'd be another sign with a Scout Law, until we reached our destination.

Trustworthy

Loyal

Helpful

Friendly

Courteous

Kind

Obedient

Cheerful

Thrifty

Brave

Clean

and Reverent.

The Boy Scouts are too manly an enterprise for the Barackstar.

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez.

P.S. S.E. Cupp. Showmanship, not leadership.

Man of the People Magazine

Heritage: 100 Days Later, Obama Still Failing the Gulf

NRO: The Obama Administration’s Strange Approach to Special-Needs Families

Fiscal Corruption and Vote Fraud Hand in Hand

Should a city manager from one of Los Angeles County's poorest cities earn twice as much as President Obama? Reason, with tax revolt video.

The L.A. County D.A. is investigating allegations of voter fraud in the suburb of Bell where city council members voted themselves $100,000 salaries. Via Morning Bell.

Is it WikiTreason

The AfPak Papers. The real story is how closely these documents reflect official views of the Afghan war. WSJ, in part:

Another, more important, disclosure is how closely Iran has been working with the Taliban, as well as with al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists. This makes logical sense, given Iran's support for terrorists in Iraq and its general desire to chase America from the region. But the evidence should discredit those who think Tehran can be made peaceable by diplomatic entreaties. [snip]

Then again, we also know that Pakistan has shifted its behavior in a more pro-American direction in the last 14 months as the Taliban began to threaten Pakistan's own stability. Responding to a surge of terrorism against Pakistani targets, the Pakistani army has pushed Islamist insurgents from the Swat Valley and even South Waziristan. It has taken heavy casualties in the process. Islamabad now actively aids U.S. drone strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in the mountains along its Afghan border.

Pakistan can and should do more to pursue the terrorist enclaves along the border, as well as in Quetta and Karachi. The question is what's the best way to persuade their leaders to act. U.S.-Pakistan cooperation has been one of the Obama Administration's foreign policy successes, and it would be a tragedy if the leak of selective documents, often out of context, would now poison that cooperation.

More on Iran: What the WikiLeaks Documents Say About Iran-al Qaeda. Intelligence reports pointing to collusion between the mullahs and al Qaeda are persistent. TWS. There may be a North Korean connection as well. Bad guys linking up.

Is it WikiTreason. More of our own will die as a result of these operational details leaked.

I suggest this guy infiltrate the Taliban in the interest of transparency.

P.S. Bret Stephens:

The Cambodian genocide is especially worth recalling today not only for what it was, but for the public debates in the West that immediately preceded it. "The greatest gift our country can give to the Cambodian people is peace, not guns," said then-congressman, now senator, Chris Dodd, by way of making the case against the Ford administration's bid to extend military assistance to the pro-American government of Lon Nol.

In the New York Times, Sydney Schanberg reported from Cambodia that "it is difficult to imagine how [Cambodian] lives could be anything but better with the Americans gone." Mr. Schanberg added that "it would be tendentious to forecast [genocide] as a national policy under a Communist government once the war is over."

A year later, Mr. Schanberg was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, though not for tendentiousness.

All in all, America's withdrawal from Southeast Asia resulted in the killing of an estimated 165,000 South Vietnamese in so-called re-education camps; the mass exodus of one million boat people, a quarter of whom died at sea; the mass murder, estimated at 100,000, of Laos's Hmong people; and the killing of somewhere between one million and two million Cambodians.

The Left is on the prowl again for withdrawal. Stephens:

But somewhere in the bowels of the State Department, somebody might want to think hard about the human consequences of American withdrawal. What happens to the Afghan women who removed their burqas in the late fall of 2001, or the girls who enrolled in government schools? What happens to the army officers and civil servants who cooperated with the coalition? What happens to the villagers who stood with us when we asked them to?

What happened to it takes a village, Katrina. Behold the navel-gazing feminists of the American left in full flower. You might as well put on a burka and blind your eyes.

More. Newt Is Dramatically Refocusing Our Understanding of Sharia's Threat to the West. Andy McCarthy (who prosecuted the first WTC bombers)

...Can we ask again--

Who is Fatima Mohammadi?

Maybe you can interview her, Katrina. Maybe we can get some document leaks there too. We have a Wiki wish list.

More. It begins. WikiLeaks Reportedly Outs 100s of Afghan Informants

HT Memeorandum. Legal Insurrection:People Will Die for WikiLeak's Nobel Prize
Blackfive: WikiLeaks Aiding Collateral Murder

Come on Illinois--Support these Reformers

Kinzinger, Hultgren, Schilling 3 of 20 underfunded U.S. House candidates

Donate to these Republican good guys:

Adam Kinzinger, 11th

New Lenox




Randy Hultgren, 14th

St. Charles







Bobby Schilling, 17th

East Moline


We can do better for Illinois.

Video Short: Transformers Filming in Chicago

Michael Bay Dot Com in Chicago (Extended)

On the Magnificent Mile. Transformed:)

Paul Ryan Schools Chris Matthews

The video:)

Related: Illinois Has Nation's Largest Budget Deficit. Study Says Deficits For All States Together Will Total $83.9 Billion Next Year

P.S. Hey CBS--please don't make excuses for Gov. Quinn.

More. George Will: Not a State-Broken people. Not yet anyway:

Let's get a sense of the size of our debt. In 1916, in Woodrow Wilson's first term, the richest man in America, John D. Rockefeller, could have written a personal check and retired the national debt. Today, the richest man in America, Bill Gates, could write a personal check for all his worth and not pay two months interest on the national debt. By 2015, debt service will consume about one-quarter of individual income taxes. Ten years from now the three main entitlements - Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security - plus interest will consume 93 percent of all federal revenues. Twenty years from now debt service will be the largest item in the federal budget.[snip]

It is time for us to understand that the model we share - so far in attenuated form - with Europe simply cannot work. It states that we should tax the rich (a.k.a. the investing and job-creating class), while counting on spending the revenues of investment and job creation. No one has explained to the political class that it is very dangerous to try to leap a chasm in two bounds.

A Dark and Demented Media on Trig Palin

The Journolist expose continues. Powerline. Sarah Palin.

Barack Obama, Red Star Radical

Stanley Kurtz has a new book on Barack Obama coming out in October, right before the election. Thank you, God. Take no bows, Barack.

Kurtz was attacked by the Obamabots in 2008 when he helped to sound the alarm on Barack Obama's radical friends, the Rev. Wright, ACORN, and his collaboration with Bill Ayers on his only claim to executive experience--the massive failure of the Annenberg Challenge grant to reform Chicago Public Schools.

There can be no ambiguity on this biography.

HT Pundit & Pundette.

Related. A top sleuth on Obama's radical roots, New Zeal's Trevor Loudon's look at Journalist, lots of connections and questions:

Were the "Journolistas" really just a "chat group", or were they a conduit of information to and from the Obama Administration?

Did some of their members actually have some influence on policy and/or appointments within the Obama Administration?

Was JournoList, actually an intelligence and influence brokering network for the Obama campaign and Administration?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul

That decadent octopus. Telegraph:

He became an international star after predicting the outcome of all seven German World Cup matches accurately.

However, the Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading "western propaganda and superstition."

Put a burka on it, Mahmoud, all eight arms.

Let's unleash Ursula and her ilk on the guy.

P.S. The Brothel Named Iran, via Doug Ross.

HT Memeorandum. Thanks for the link.

Chicago gun lawsuit plaintiffs apply for permits

Tribune. CBS2:

Gun rights advocates have already filed lawsuits to nullify the new law, claiming that it still violates the Second Amendment. The Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers, and a Lake Villa gun shop owner who says he wants to open new firearms dealerships in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and on the Magnificent Mile, are among the plaintiffs.

The Chicago Police Dept. is targeting felons violating parole. What a good idea.

Chicago gang, narcotics and fugitive officers were paired with federal, state and county officers for the weekend, from early Friday to Sunday morning.

The operation was run in three districts — Englewood, Grand Central and Albany Park. In addition to the seizures and arrests, those districts reported no shootings or homicides all weekend, authorities said.

It was a rainy weekend, but Chicago Superintendent Jody Weis and other officials said they believe the operation played a role.

This new gun law also needs to be challenged, on constitutional grounds, and for our own safety. Because we can't count on the weather to prevent crime--or a constant police presence.

China on the Map

They hold our debt, they are building up their military bigtime--what else to do with all those extra males after they infanticided all those girl-- and look at their South China Sea claims. You can argue they don't want to rock the boat, as they hold dollars they don't want to trash and we are their biggest customer, (though their trade is diversifying) but still, that map is startling. Big Peace:

This reminds me of a statement by Sha Zukang, China’s U.N. ambassador, in an interview with a BBC reporter in 2006. I’ve never seen this interview reported anywhere else, but I transcribed this myself because I was so startled at hearing Sha screaming at the top of his lungs at the BBC interviewer.

He screamed: “The moment that Taiwan declares independence, supported by whomever, China will have no choice but to [use] whatever means available to my government. Nobody should have any illusions on that. … It’s not a matter of how big Taiwan is, but for China, one INCH of the territory is more valuable than the LIVES of our people.”

It's a reminder why they continue to prop up the heartless and menacing North Korea. They have a lot in common.

Blago's Kids as Props

Making a mockery of the classic pol with family photo. John Kass:

The jury and the kids listened as prosecutors recounted Blagojevich's famous line about selling that Senate seat: "I've got this thing and it's (bleeping) golden and I'm not just giving it up for (bleeping) nothing."

Patti made sure the 14-year-old daughter carried a Coach bag and wore a little black dress just like mommy.

Sitting next to them was the 7-year-old little sister. The child held her sippy cup, for the jury to see, as federal prosecutors called her daddy a liar, a crook, a schemer and a political weasel.

Well, they've heard a lot before.

And what great parents, extending the designer spending to their daughter.

Closing statement today from one of Blago's lawyers, perhaps not the flamboyant Sam Adam Jr.

Convicted felon Tony Rezko is missing from the witness stand--neither the prosecution nor defense called him up. The once reliable political fixer for Blago and Obama is too dicey for both sides to testify. Valerie Jarrett and Rahm Emanuel dodge a day in court as well. And despite his big talk for months, Blago (gee what about the president's phone call(s) himself won't defend his "innocence". A lot of what we hoped would be laid bare in this trial has stayed buried.

We the people are the props and the backdrop.

P.S. Blagojevich's Life-Size Elvis May Be Auctioned Off

Intrade on Blago.

Previous posts: Blago Judge Gets Emails. Guilty Jurors?, Barack on the lam

The One's Brilliant Appearance (of Genius)

The practice of the popular arts is as old as democratic politics. Only the names that designate its various techniques have changed. America’s Founders were partial to expressions like “playing the favorite,” “popular leaders,” “sycophants,” and (most often) “demagogues,” a term that connected their thought back to the classical treatments of popular government in Thucydides, Aristotle, and Plutarch. The category “demagogue” includes not only lowly rabble rousers who appeal to anger and fear (Cleon or George Wallace), or those who incite envy and gin up class divisions (Gaius Gracchus or John Edwards), but also, in John Jay’s wonderful description, “those brilliant appearances of genius [who], like transient meteors, sometimes mislead as well as dazzle.”

P.S. How did he get elected in the first place, how has he lasted so long? Here's today's Ramirez cartoon.

More. Outrage: Obama White House Intervened for Lockerbie Bomber's Release - Australian News Reports! And Robert Spencer. Obama's Lockerbie Problem. HT Pundit & Pundette.

The audacity of jihad: US ship named after Obama's book set to break Israel's self-defense blockade of Gaza

Obummer is going on The View to burnish his credentials. Daytime talk. Seriously. (And Sarah Palin's supposedly the one who is an airhead.)

Related posts: Putin Swaggers on a Harley, Obummer, Yes We Can

Singing Nuns: The enduring beauty of Gregorian chant

Reclusive Nuns Sign Major Record Contract

More:

A group of nuns from a remote region of France has signed a major record deal after winning a worldwide search to find the world's finest female singers of Gregorian chant.

The nuns of the Abbaye de Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation beat over 70 convents across the globe and their debut album 'Voices - Chant from Avignon', will be released in November.

Singing nuns celebrated once again. An order founded in the 6th century.

Related. The remarkable bishop of Darfur.

Spendthrift Quinn Business as Usual

Katie Brady on her Dad, Bill Brady for Governor of Illinois. Video. In case you missed it.

Another: Christmas in July and Pat Quinn is Santa

Rich Miller, no right-winger: Where should Quinn draw line between governing, campaigning?

Reading through the report, I saw the $8.28 spent by a retired Chicago woman for food at Treasure Island. The $17.67 that a Springfield homemaker paid for Mel-O-Cream doughnuts. The $5.56 shelled out by a DuQuoin High School teacher for food at Kroger's.

So, it's quite remarkable that the governor will not admit that he ought to reimburse taxpayers for at least part of the state plane flight he took to southern Illinois the other day. Quinn flew down from Chicago to tour a facility with Southern Illinois University honchos. He also took a group of parents who had lost sons or daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan to a minor league baseball game.

But during the same trip, Quinn sat down with Williamson County Democratic officials to talk about his fundraising efforts, according to the Bloomington Pantagraph. He also dropped by the local Democratic Party headquarters to give a short speech.

Pat Quinn--he has lousy judgment about spending our dime and punts on the important stuff--like ethics and the budget.

Illinois Policy Institute Spotlight on Spending

Out of Control.

But for this Dem governor it's business as usual. Let's shake up Illinois.

We want responsible governance and real jobs.

Putin Swaggers on a Harley

Dictator chic in black.

It's actually a trike.

Does he know Harleys are American? Maybe he's gunning to have 'em made over there.

Kind of a poke in the eye to The One, though:

From a podium, he described the motorbike as "the most democratic form of transport" and praised the bikers' free spirit.

Comments at Gateway Pundit on our biker president.

Former KGB operative and murderer by proxy Bad Vlad also apparently sang with the Russian spies deported from the US:

He said he had joined them in singing several songs, including "With What the Motherland Begins?" from the 1968 Soviet movie "The Shield and the Sword" about an undercover Russian spy in Nazi Germany.

"I'm not joking, seriously. And other songs with similar content," Putin said, adding that the songs were sung to live music, not karaoke.

The prime minister confirmed that Anna Chapman, the most well-known female spy from the group who married a British man and later divorced, also attended the meeting.

What will Anna do now. The tricycle has room for two.

Your Busted News

Two snapshots of the Old Media/Hollywood Axis:

Oliver Stone: 'Jewish-Dominated Media' Prevents Hitler from Being Portrayed 'in Context'

Looking Back at Schorr’s Goldwater-Nazi Axis CBS Evening News Hit Piece

Save A Life, Letter to Lisa Madigan's Office

We need answers Jan Schakowsky. We need an investigation, Illinois AG Lisa Madigan. From Lee Cary:

Robyn Ziegler

Press Secretary, Office of Lisa Madigan

Attorney General, State of Illinois

Robyn,

As you requested, here’s the first installment of information we’ve surfaced in our examination of the now-defunct Save A Life Foundation (SALF). The primary link in the posting below on the American Thinker (AT) website is to a spreadsheet (attached separately for your convenience) that the AG’s staff can use to navigate through the relevant FOIAs assembled in tracking government grant monies the foundation received from 1993-2009, with the exception of the early years when amounts were small and the granting agencies nowhere indicated.

The discrepancy noted, between what the granting agencies report as having given SALF versus what SALF’s Form 990s reported to the IL AG as having received, is based on the assumption that the grant totals supplied by the state and federal agencies involved are accurate.

Please consider this the first installment in that more information – not pertaining to grant numbers but relevant to your inquiry – will follow as soon as it can be presented in an orderly fashion for the AG’s consideration.

As I promised several weeks ago, in the AT article I’ve indicated that the $25K given to SALF by the IL AG’s office did not happen under the current AG’s administration.

I trust the AG’s office will find this information of benefit in the pursuit of thorough and accurate data concerning the Save A Life Foundation.

Lee Cary

Return to the Article

July 26, 2010

The Save A Life Foundation Story: Featuring $850K in Unreported Government Grants

By Lee Cary

This is about what happens when governments, both state and federal, pump money into a politically connected enterprise with little accountability on both ends. If you're an Illinois taxpayer, be advised: Reading this may raise your blood pressure.

On June 9, 2010, the American Thinker reviewed how the now-defunct Chicago suburb-based Save A Life Foundation (SALF) was founded under false pretenses, promoted by Chicago and national news outlets, and supported by some big politicians -- mostly from Illinois. AT also noted how SALF, with bipartisan political backing, tapped into several money rivers flowing from state and federal agencies.

Turns out, on further investigation, that not only were the rivers that flowed money into SALF deep, but they are also elusive to track. Here's that part of the SALF story -- the follow the money part.

If you add up SALF's required annual accounting to the Illinois Attorney General (AG)'s Charitable Trust Bureau throughout its lifetime (1993-2009) for government grant monies it received, the total is $7,856,869. Grant monies SALF got from private entities pale in significance and are reported under another headine.

But when you ask the four Illinois State granting agencies -- including $25,000 from the Attorney General's office during a previous administration, the state agency tasked to monitor Illinois charities -- and one federal agency, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC/HHS), how much they gave to SALF and add up the numbers, the total is $8,710,578.

In the old math, that was a discrepancy of $853,709, or about a 10% reporting error. That's if it is a reporting error, and not evidence of something more...well, more nefarious. But then, the corruption of public monies in Illinois is practically unheard of -- as rare as, say, road repairs on I-294 between Chicago and Indiana.

Want more details? Download this Excel spreadsheet and find these: the annual incomes SALF reported on its AG Form 990s and corresponding IRS Form 990s (except for the last two reporting periods when no IRS 990 was submitted to the AG, as is required); a list of the granting agencies, along with the e-mail addresses, of officials who responded to queries about grants to SALF from their agencies; links to documents (the longest is 472 pages) provided by those agencies in response to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests; and links to e-mail exchanges with agency officials who confirmed the total grant amounts their agency gave SALF. Enjoy.

Here's what you'll discover. Documentation of how SALF spent the grant money they received ranges from slim to none. Where it does exist, reporting narratives are replete with vagaries and unsubstantiated claims made by SALF. My wife retains better records from our honeymoon, which happened over four decades ago.

The Form 990s submitted to the AG by SALF contain significant internal inconsistencies. For example, here are two pages from their 2001 submission to the AG's office. Did the $870,000 grant received in fiscal year 2001 come from the IL Department of Commerce and Community Affairs (DCCA), as listed on one document, or from the federal CDC/HHS, as listed on another? Maybe it depends on whether you're reporting the numbers to the IL AG or to the IRS. And does anybody at the IL AG's Charitable Trust Bureau even read the documents that charities submit each year? Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Nowadays, the memory among SALF's former political supporters in Illinois is as sketchy as the granting agencies accounting of how SALF spend their money. When the critical light began to shine on SALF, the pols ran for the shadows. For example, just phone the offices of IL Democrat U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, IL Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate), and Democrat State Senator Donne Trotter, long a supporter of SALF in the Illinois Senate, and ask their staffs about their bosses' support of SALF. What little you'll be told, if anything, will fit on that tiny strip of paper inside a fortune cookie.

Is it any wonder that the State of Illinois is in financial trouble?