Tag: Politics
Auditing with intent to prosecute
Forensic audit is apparent cornerstone of Tea Party efforts in fading Illinois. Forensic audit?
Application of accounting methods to the tracking and collection of forensic evidence, usually for investigation and prosecution of criminal acts such as embezzlement or fraud. Also called forensic accounting.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/forensic-audit.html#ixzz179Ul6ty3
From which you may gather why the state’s politicos do not favor it, same ones who favored such an audit of Medicaid in Illinois. In the one you endanger politicos, in the other docs and patients.
On the other hand, docs said in 2008 they were being paid too late.
Chicago Tea Party at Blackie’s
The Chicago Tea Party gathering on Wednesday night 12/1 at Blackie’s, in the South Loop, was worth the (quick) drive down Ike and two blocks over, at Clark & Polk. Adam Andrzejewski was the star attraction, speaking in a party room next to the main bar-restaurant which has the look and feel of a friendly neighborhood joint and not a downtown watering hole.
Andrzejewski ran for governor last time, lost in the Republican primary to Bill Brady, who lost last month. But as soon as Andrzejewski lost the primary, he set up a political action committee, reinstating his citizen watchdog group For the Good of Illinois, apparently mostly with his own money, and set about being a political operative of no mean achievement.
This night he named four state legislative districts he deemed winnable, in each of which Republicans lit fires, losing to the Democrat/Mike Madigan “fire wall” in only one. In the process, he and others trashed the Madigan reputation up and down the state, leaving Madigan, Illinois House speaker, “pissed.” But Republicans lost the governorship.
Asked what went wrong, he cited Brady’s running as a “trust me” candidate — in Illinois, where a politician should know better — and opponents’ inability to “light enough fires” so that the Madigan fire wall wouldn’t stop them.
One he did set was persuading Cedra Crenshaw to run in a south suburb for a state rep job long held by a Democrat wheelhorse. She, a black woman with Tea Party support, drew $1 million of Democrat money into the district — the sort of distraction and using up of money that puts a party on the defensive — and in the process even forced vice-p Biden to go on TV to distance himself (and Obama) from (rampant) allegations of Tea Party racism.
Crenshaw was at Daley Plaza last April 15 for a different kind of Tea Party event, a noisy outdoor rally featuring speakers spouting defiance of Mayordaley II (the point was made, don’t call it Daley Plaza but Civic Center Plaza) and led by a formidable self-described community organizer from Oak Lawn, Catherina Wojtowicz.
For the Blackie’s event, the leader, contact man, introducer of speakers, etc. was such a different type of operative as to wonder how the twain could meet — South Side rally-leader and South Loop m.c. This is Steve Stevlic, whose internet office is at www.teapartychicago.org, Twitter @landofdafree. He ran things quite nicely, using a handheld mike given to each speaker in turn, all easily heard in the longish party room with bar along one side . Q&A were crisply handled.
Andrzejewski:
* He’s oldest of 7 kids, his father taught history 36 years, would grill them at dinner on principles of government. Has 3 of his own, 2,4,6 yrs old, asked oldest where she gets her rights, she said China: he knew then he had to spend more time with family. Did so, 2nd child to similar question gave good answer.
* Congressional winners in recent election ran boldly. Important point. (Later, asked why Bill Brady lost, said in effect he didn’t.) In process “we tarnished [Mike Madigan’s] name, and now he controls the money, the map, and he’s mad. “Tough times are coming” for the state.
* The winners “ran on ideas.” They forced Dems to spend $6 million in four congressional races, winning 3 of them, “impossible races” which Repubs made competitive. These were “public policy campaigns,” the only kind to run, on issues such as TIF transparency, term limits (which neither party wants), a gerrymandering amendment.
* There’s no one else (but Tea Partiers) to save the state from insolvency, Illinois being “systemically corrupt,” as Communist Poland was when his friend Lech Walensa, who also faced an impossible situation, said when A. brought him to Chicago.
* Forensic audit of state books: Wld cost $60 million, save $3-5 billion. Entire legislature wanted audit of Medicaid, but that was of doctors and poor patients. This would be of politicians, office-holders. Tough sell.
Other speakers, warm-ups for Andrzejewski, three people, each excellent:
* John Garrido, CPD lieutenant (in uniform, on his lunch hour, he made clear), one of 8 candidates for 45th Ward alderman. Also a lawyer with office at Elston & Austin. “Fed up with machine politicians.” Asked about Rahm E’s promise of 250 new cops, said “drop in the bucket.” Down 2,000 now from needed 13,500. TIF money “basically a slush fund.” Would not keep Jody Weis on as commissioner. Hopes for “sweeping change” in city council. He’d be one of 50.
* Tonia Members, who introduced her husband as 17th Ward aldermanic candidate — “conservative, Republican [slight pause] and he’s black” — but not before urging listeners (all white that I could see, 50 or so men and women) to go door to door in black neighborhoods announcing themselves as Tea Party members, this even though there’s “straight hate” there for the Republican Party. At a rally, she said, one sign had Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and above them “Hate” and another with Obama and “Hope”!
* Antoine Members, a corrections officer, wants “lateral transfers” in the CPD, whereby there is rotation of officers (Garrido favored this too), and otherwise emphasized schooling that raises literacy levels among black citizens. His ward is South Side, encompassing or touching Englewood, Chatham, Chicago Lawn. One of eight candidates, he also urged door to door work, where people would listen to them, he said. Got applause with reference to right to bear arms. Asked about drug legalization and why black leaders do not support it, said in effect the money is too good, and it goes to politicians and others. Ministers? They too “have a piece of the action.” Gangs? Fight them, they fight back; provide alternatives.
Stevlic closed things out. Pushed the “Adopt an Official” program, whereby people sign up to be in effect citizen lobbyists, in regular contact with an official. To them Stevlic would supply with issue information, etc. Big issues coming up: public pensions and public sector unions: a Pension Task Force has been formed, headed by the mayor of Burr Ridge. School boards another category of big spenders.
Next Blackie’s meeting Jan. 5. It was refreshing to hear people talk sense at such a meeting.
Eating the rich
Noisemakers for Class Warfare, new group, passed on by Oak Park’s Coalition for Truth & Justice:
To Chicago area progressive [sic] groups:
MoveOn.org is sponsoring a protest rally against keeping the tax cuts for the wealthy this Thursday [today] at noon in the Loop. The idea is to focus on one single concern and make a lot of noise. Protesters are encouraged to bring signs and any implements that will be noisy (metal spoon or beaters with pots and pans, music instruments that can stand the cold, noisemakers, etc.).
. . . . All area groups that are interested are asked to notify as many people as possible, to make this a news event. Nearly 90 groups around the country will be doing the same thing.
The proverbial word to the wise is sufficient, or otherwise translated, Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
That can’t be right; later I will look it up. Meanwhile, look for the noisemakers on tonight’s tee-vee.
Liberalism explained
Let us now take note of liberals of old vs. those of now, in the words of economist and social philosopher Ludwig von Mises:
“Those who call themselves ‘liberals’ today are asking for policies which are precisely the opposite of those policies which the liberals of the nineteenth century advocated in their liberal programs.
The so-called liberals of today have the very popular idea that freedom of speech, of thought, of the press, freedom of religion, freedom from imprisonment without trial — that all these freedoms can be preserved in the absence of what is called economic freedom.
They do not realize that, in a system where there is no market, where the government directs everything, all those other freedoms are illusory, even if they are made into laws and written up in constitutions.”
Yes. They speak of economic freedom as if it’s on another, parallel track, which it is not.
#1
This guy shapes up as a public enemy.
WASHINGTONThe U.S. State Department made a last-minute push to press WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange not to release what’s expected to be around 250,000 classified documents, arguing it could endanger human rights activists globally, U.S. counterterrorism operations and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He wants the names of the endangered, but no soap. For some reason the State Dept. doesn’t trust him.
Reading Danny Davis in the morning
ChiTrib’s Eric Zorn does Danny Davis nicely today:
“We have to reassess the operation of city government and make some serious determinations about what our needs are,” said Chicago mayoral hopeful and Democratic U.S Rep. Danny Davis Wednesday evening. We must “see whether or not there are any additional revenue generators or enhancers, and then make decisions and determinations on the basis of that.”
I curled into the fetal position on the couch in front of the television and began whimpering as Davis’ interview with WTTW-Ch. 11’s Carol Marin continued.
The rest of it is right here.
Tom Roeser would object on at least one count. Zorn calls it Davis’s “magnificent baritone” voice; Roeser has it “basso profundo,” which I find more evocative but can’t say if more accurate.
Danny D. wants to be mayor, as most of us know. Zorn finds him not only vague and thus noncommittal on solving fiscal problems but also redundant, with his idea to merge Cultural Affairs with Special Events — Mayordaley II has that in his latest budget. At a savings of “less than a tenth of a percent of the city’s $6.15 billion budget,” by the way.
But that cornerstone of Danny’s fiscal strategy might not even make it in a Davis administration. Why? Because Danny D. embodies taxing and spending philosophy as perhaps no other elected official in the history of the republic.
It’s here, where his dismissal of financial worries over the not yet passed Obamacare is recorded. And will be recorded elsewhere in too-long-dormant accounts of his townhall meetings last spring in Oak Park and Westchester. For now, however, in the immortal goodbye of Porky Pig, th-th-that’s all, folks.
History lesson
What liberal Dem, progressive, etc. would object to this as a political platform?
“We ask that government undertake the obligation above all of providing citizens with adequate opportunity for employment and earning a living.
The activities of the individual must not be allowed to clash with the interests of the community, but must take place within the confines and be for the good of all.
Therefore, we demand: … an end to the power of financial interest. We demand profit sharing in big business. We demand a broad extension of care for the aged. We demand … the greatest possible consideration of small business in the purchases of the national, state, and municipal governments.
In order to make possible to every capable and industrious [citizen] the attainment of higher education and thus the achievement of a post of leadership, the government must provide an all-around enlargement of our system of public education….
We demand the education at government expense of gifted children of poor parents…. The government must undertake the improvement of public health — by protecting mother and child, by prohibiting child labor — by the greatest possible support for all groups concerned with the physical education of youth.
[W]e combat the … materialistic spirit within and without us, and are convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only proceed from within on the foundation of The Common Good Before the Individual Good.”
Probably not the educating-of-gifted part, based on this parent’s experience of public K-8 schooling in Oak Park IL.
But certainly not any of it, once the lib was told whose platform it was. See here for whose platform.
The end of Indian innocence
TelePrompter tales from New Delhi:
Obama will make history for more than one reason during the Nov 6-9 visit. This will be the first time a teleprompter will be used in the nearly 100-feet high dome-shaped hall that has portraits of eminent national leaders adorning its walls.
Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.
“We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact,” an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.
Obama is known to captivate audiences with his one-liners that sound like extempore and his deep gaze. But few in India know that the US president always carries the teleprompter with him wherever he speaks.
Teleprompters, also called autocue or telescript, are mostly used by TV anchors to read out texts scrolling on a screen and attached to a camera in front of them.
A modern-day emperor with no clothes.
Flying off to Cambodia
From Jim Geraghty at NRO-Morning Jolt:
Moe Lane, examining Democrat divisions: “Congressional Democrats are only going to be united by one person — the President — and just in case there’s still somebody who hasn’t noticed by now: the President is incompetent at leading people in directions that they don’t already want to go.
Which is not what the Democrats need right now. So there’s no solution in sight, unless of course the President wants to start learning all of those boring, practical political skills that he should have started picking up a couple of decades ago.”
But Cocky Locky doesn’t do boring. So that won’t happen.
Blithe Spirit 