Now Illinois corruption has gone nationwide!

Corruption in Illinois Costs Each Family $109 as Reform Stalls

Researchers at the University of Illinois-Chicago tallied the price of corruption to state taxpayers: at least $500 million a year. Based on prosecution costs and estimates that 5 percent of state contracts go to the politically connected, that equals $109 per family. The total is enough to pay the average salary for 8,214 public school teachers.

The university’s May 13 report found that during the past four decades, graft convictions of elected officials or their cronies averaged three per month. Illinois ranked 18th per capita for the number of convictions on federal public- corruption charges from 1998 through 2007, according to an analysis by USA Today.

Now the Illinois political machine is running the entire country.

I'm thrilled to see you go

Obama 'thrilled to have' Specter

President Obama talked to Sen. Arlen Specter at 10:32 this morning from the Oval Office, said Dems are "thrilled to have you," according to a White House aide.

Obama was informed of Specter's decison to switch parties at 10:25 this morning while receiving his daily economic briefing in the Oval Office, according to a White House official.

Obama was handed a note by an aide that read: "Specter is announcing he is changing parties."

The president reached Specter, one of only three Republicans to support his stimulus package, on the phone at 10:32 and told him "you have my full support." He added that we are "thrilled to have you."

What Democrats dont understand about States Rights

Gov Perry of Texas is taking some heat over his comments yesterday. We are Americans but we all live in separate states with their own laws and customs. The Federal govt is intruding increasingly into states rights issues and is becoming more of a burden to some states than a help. Its obvious from this Congress that they are enjoying asserting more control over the states but they still work for us. Maybe they are spending too much time in DC and not in their home states.

Are the Democrats that attended the Tea Party offended by their Speaker?

House Democrat Leaders: Tea Partiers Are Racist, Nazi, Gun Nuts

But in an interview on Fox TV in San Francisco, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP grass-roots effort as “AstroTurf.”

“This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grass-roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class,” Pelosi said.

Other House Democratic leaders took a different tack: One senior aide has been circulating a document to the media that debunks the effort as one driven by corporate lobbyists and attended by neo-Nazis...

In addition, the tea parties are “not really all about average citizens,” the document continues, saying neo-Nazis, militias, secessionists and racists are attending them. The tea parties are also not peaceful, since reporters in Cincinnati had to seek “police protection” during one of the events, it states.

Is your Speaker out of touch with her voters?

Personally I think she is out of touch with reality.

Ralph Peters on DHS Vet Threat

THE VET 'THREAT'
GOV'T IDS PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1


DHS is obviously in the very best of hands.

Small town Kentucky Tea Party

Madisonville's T.E.A. Party

Sounds like there were as many fed up Democrats as there were Republicans. So much for the theory that this was orchestrated by the GOP and FOX news.

Only the Hopkins County Attorney showed up? Where was the Mayor and County Judge Executive during all this?

Dr. Rand Paul at Bowling Green KY Tea Party

Related media coverage: Bowling Green Tea Party Draws Hundreds

Dr. Rand Paul on Foreign Policy

My sign from the Lima Ohio Tea Party

Yeah my art sucks but the best I could do on short notice. I have seen mentioned various places that this is a Right wing or Ron Paul driven event. That was not the case where I was. The people are fed up with wasteful spending, high taxes, and the increasing debt from both parties.

Lima Ohio Tea Party Protest

A few pictures I took at the Lima Ohio Tea Party today at the Town Square. Not sure on turn out but for 50 degrees in misting rain I think it was pretty good.

Kumar goes to the White House

Actor Kal Penn joins White House team

White House spokesman Shin Inouye said Tuesday that the actor who had a recurring role on Fox's TV show "House" and has starred in several movies would join the staff as an associate director in the Office of Public Liaison. His role will be to connect Obama with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities, as well as arts groups.

They should make him Treasury Secretary he couldn't do any worse.

Newt states the obvious

Newt: U.S. at greater risk under Obama

Gingrich also called the administration’s response to the North Korean missile launch a “vivid demonstration of weakness in foreign policy.” He said Obama’s proposals for a resumption of nuclear arms limitation talks reflected “a dangerous fantasy that runs an enormous risk. ... Not since Jimmy Carter have we had an administration this out of touch with reality.”

The second coming of Jimmy Carter. I think I said that last year.

Can George Obama beer be far behind?

Ass Tax?

Prostitution Tax Proposed In Nevada

Well there is a sin tax for you.

New Obama spokesman Baghdad Bob

The Obama Witnesses are coming to your house

Post-Rush: Obama's message war

The Obama grassroots network—now known as Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee—has launched an e-mail pledge drive on MyBarackObama.com in which supporters sign their e-mail address to the statement: “I support President Obama's bold approach for renewing America's economy.”

The pledge drive was announced with a video called “Ready for the Fight.” Plouffe e-mailed supporters over the weekend with a challenge labeled “The next few weeks”: “In the next few weeks we'll be asking you to do some of the same things we asked of you during the campaign—talking directly to people in your communities about the President's ideas for long-term prosperity.”

This is not an easy message war for Democrats. Obama's budget calls for the largest deficit in U.S. history and a doubling of the national debt to $23 trillion in 2019. That is a big, juicy target for the GOP, which plans to hit this theme relentlessly all spring.

Yes please stop by my house and convince me that doubling the national debt is a great idea. I can show you my new chainsaw.

A book returns

While looking for something else I ran across a book I first read around the time I was forming my own political identity Revolution X: A Survival Guide for Our Generation by Jon Cowan and Rob Nelson. While it is now very much out of date I think the sentiment behind their organization Lead or Leave is still timely as the national debt is staggering.

On a related note check out the age break down of the 111th Congress: List of current United States Senators by age and generation

GI Generation 1901–1924 4 4D, 0R
Silent Generation 1925–1942 35 16D, 1I, 1ID, 17 R
Boomer Generation 1943–1960 54 32D, 22R
Generation X 1961–1981 6 4D, 2R
Generation Y 1982–2001 0 0D, 0R

If my grandparents were still living it would worry me if they drove so why are we putting people of that age in office?

Draft Peter Schiff to run against Chris Dodd?

http://www.schiff2010.com/

If you don't know who Peter Schiff is he is one of the few who saw this economic collapse coming. He tried to warn people but the pundits laughed in his face.



I hope that laughing prick Mike Norman lost his ass in this mess and is living in a cardboard box. In the video Payne suggested buying Washington Mutual but I wonder if he invested in them. Meanwhile I see that Art Laffer still owes Schiff that penny.

Wouldn't it be ironic for the idiot Dodd who helped run our economy into the ground had to run against one of the few on the planet who said this was going to happen?

Something to amuse you for the next 4 years

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on our Obameter. We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.

Quick links at the top or you can read through all 500.

Thmubs up for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

Kirsten Gillibrand, SandyTreadwell both Endorsed by NRA

“I come from a family of hunters, and preserving this strong upstate tradition is a priority of mine in Congress,” Gillibrand said. “I will continue to oppose legislation that will restrict the rights of responsible gun owners and I will continue to advocate for policies that will keep our rivers, land and air clean, so that future generations can enjoy hunting and wildlife in our region.”

TMI about President Obama's sex life?