I’ve always thought of Turning Left as a dark place screaming to the light.
For what it’s worth.
Haven’t posted in a while. With the 2012 presidential election heating up, it’s time to get back into action.
With that comes a new look with some of our old colors from our previous look.
Heading to 2012, my friends. Let’s get to work.
The Weird Right is stranger than ever.
I really don’t care for Chicago politics. Let me start with that disclaimer.
I don’t understand how there are churches in the Chicagoland area that can be so overtly political, while others work overtime to keep the pols out of the pulpit.
I don’t understand how Carol Moseley Braun can vanish so completely from the public eye affter leaving office, and then return only to be christened in a church as the leading black candidate for mayor in Chicago.
Don’t get me wrong. I supported Moseley Braun when she ran for the United States Senate. Even joined her and Senator Durbin for a morning gathering of coffee and rolls with others from Illinois.
That was more theater than substance.
And that is pretty much my impression of Carol Moseley Braun: more theater than substance.
I will watch the mayoral drama unfold from 30-and-some-odd miles south of the Loop.
No desire to be a part of it.
I don’t care if you’re in the Democratic Party, Republican Party, Coffee Party, Tea Party or any other party. If former president Bill Clinton offered to campaign for you, you’d let him.
Wouldn’t you?
Come on, now. Of course you would. Bill is an excellent, excellent campaigner.
Which is why it appears the sanctimony runneth over in Chicago these days as former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun (where, exactly, has she been these past several years, only to rise from the dust and run for mayor of Chicago?) and Rep. Danny Davis decry Bill Clinton’s offer to campaign for Rahm Emanuel.
Carol. Danny. Come on.
Come on.
If Bill Clinton offered to campaign for you, would you really turn him down?
Really.
We are not a patient people.
Liberals, conservatives, moderates: we want our pudding, and we want it now.
These past two years, I have been impatient, watching and waiting while my liberal dreams for the United States were postponed — or so I thought. Why did President Obama channel former President George W. Bush and simply push a liberal agenda through the United States Congress and let the conservatives be damned?
I held back, however, and refused to play along with the liberal cacophony screaming for everything and anything to happen yesterday. They collectively screamed "I told you so!" when Democrats lost seats in Congress, losing the House of Representatives. All this screaming in spite of the fact that such losses had long been predicted, indeed, from the moment President Obama was sworn in. That was an easy call. We may be impatient, but we Americans are quite predictable.
A wee bit more than two years into the Obama presidency, I have to say, I’m quite pleased with what the president has done.
Health insurance reform was a start. No, it did not go far enough. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: the best reform for the health of the country would be to simply forbid health insurance companies operating on a for-profit basis. Let them insure all the widgets they want to for profit, but hands off human lives.
Still, health insurance reform was long, long overdue. And over the past few weeks, we’ve seen some wonderful things happen. For one, "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" is on its way out. Next, today saw the near ratification of the START treaty, with a vote likely this week.
There’s more.
What do I appreciate most about President Obama?
His patience, a quality many of us in the media lack. From the insipid "Round Table" on ABC’s "This Week" to the endless drone of CNN, the media is so full of prognosticators who get it all wrong 99% of the time and more.
I’ve often said this in my elected life, and I’ll say it again here, "I don’t make predictions. I just work hard to achieve results."
President Obama is patient, looking, I’m convinced, two or three decades down the road. This is not a man likely to bark, "F— Saddam. We’re taking him out," as President Bush did in March 2002. If nothing else, the president is patient, weighing his decisions carefully because he knows — he knows — that everything he does has global repercussions.
I don’t know that he’s doing everything right, or wrong. I still remain careful. I remain critical. I still read Paul Krugman and hope for a Keynesian revolution in Washington.
But I like the President, even as I hope and pray for patience.
Why does the media flock around a failed pol? I really don’t get it at all. I can see Fox News or Glenn Beck, but CNN?
CNN has officially become the media’s official gossip station.
Some recent news flash items from CNN. Sorry, I removed the links back to CNN. It’s not worth the trip. Really.
Here they are:
McCain compares Palin to Reagan
Rove calls Palin move ‘smart’
Palin delivers a gaffe-filled message
Palin hits back at Barbara Bush
Obama doesn’t think about Palin
Palin kicks off book tour amid fresh speculation of a White House bid
If Palin runs for president, should she agree to Couric interview?
Obama doesn’t think about Palin? Oh no! Will Palin sit down with Katie Couric for another winning interview? Will she pardon a turkey?
Years ago, when I was a child, CNN used to do news.
I remember.
I heard his father speak years ago at the University of Notre Dame. In the spring.
I got into the speech with the NBC film crew.
The topic in 1985? Abortion.
I don’t think his dad’s views were nuanced enough. Too simplistic.
All other issues aside, I look forward to hearing from this Governor Cuomo, the man who will define the role for himself.
ABC News projects that Democratic candidate Andrew Cuomo will defeat Tea Party favorite Carl Paladino for the New York gubernatorial seat, in what has been a violent campaign of mudslinging from both sides.
In what was once a close race, Cuomo, the current attorney general, slowly crept up in the polls to take a double digit lead over Paladino, who was plagued by controversy in the final weeks of his campaign.
The Republican candidate was dogged by reports of racy emails he sent out containing inappropriate images and racial slurs. Paladino also made headlines when he threatened a New York Post reporter.
Cuomo will succeed the "accidential" Gov. David Patterson who did not seek re-election after Gov. Eliot Spitzer left office in 2008.
Good luck to Governor Cuomo. The new guy.
The League of Women Voters is clearly patriotic.
Glenn Beck is clearly insane.
I am a member of the League of Women Voters of the Park Forest Area.
Glenn Beck is still insane.
From Elisabeth MacNamara, President of the League of Women Voters:
It is unbelievable that anyone would suggest that the League of Women Voters is unpatriotic, but it is happening, right now. And frankly, it’s a bit scary.
League offices and League volunteers are receiving threats because of the League’s nonpartisan role in sponsoring and moderating a congressional debate in Illinois.
We are just not going to stand for it. With your support we will stand proud, “Making Democracy Work” in our fair and nonpartisan way.
Here’s the almost unbelievable story: someone in the crowd at a Congressional debate hosted by a local League in Illinois called for the Pledge of Allegiance, and when told that this was not part of the pre-negotiated agreement reached by the candidates, many stood and recited it anyway.
One of the candidate’s campaigns put the video up on the Internet soon afterwards—so it was likely a planned stunt. And now, fueled by Glenn Beck, conservative extremists are calling in threats to League offices and local League volunteers’ homes, accusing us of opposing the Pledge and being unpatriotic.
But you and I know the truth.
The League of Women Voters and our members are patriotic to their core—in the way that makes a difference each and every day.
Like you, we are average citizens who put our time and money into making democracy work in our communities.
We sponsor nonpartisan debates. We publish nonpartisan voters’ guides. We assist in voter registration. We are active in our communities not only at election time but throughout the year.
No matter what craziness Glenn Beck and the misled and misinformed circulate, the League of Women Voters and our members will continue our important work.
These far-fetched attacks are just a distraction from next week’s pivotal midterm elections.
Please help us keep the focus on making democracy work. Please make a contribution today.
Thank you for helping us keep the discourse civil and advancing our work to engage citizens in meaningful and productive ways.
In yet another bizarre turn in a campaign that has brought us Democratic U.S. Senate candidate for South Carolina Alvin Green, Christine O’Donnell steps in it again on Good Morning America, ABC’s morning fluff show.
Republican Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says she regrets making the campaign ad in which she declared “I’m not a witch.”
Speaking to ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview broadcast Thursday, O’Donnell said the ad was meant to put to rest the controversy surrounding her past statements as a TV commentator but instead simply brought it up again.
Good Morning America, now home to George Stephanopoulos and his mile-wide inch-deep grasp on politics.
Retire from Chicago politics in style.
Keep your campaign contributions.
Mayor Daley isn’t the only elected official who could retire from Chicago city government and take a pile of money in campaign cash with him.
Twenty-two of the city’s 50 aldermen also would be eligible, when they retire, to keep some or all of their campaign funds, a Chicago Sun-Times review finds. The amounts they could walk away from office with range from as little as $629 to $2.4 million.
When he retires next year, Daley can keep nearly $1.5 million or, if he chooses, do whatever he wants with the money, the Sun-Times has reported.
The amount of campaign money that the aldermen could keep is largely a matter of whether they took office — and took in campaign contributions — before June 30, 1998.
An Illinois law enacted that year barred state and local officials from converting campaign funds to personal use but also left an exception: Anyone who had money in their campaign accounts as of the 1998 date could keep the amount they had in the bank then whenever they eventually might retire.
Like Daley, four aldermen have announced they won’t run for re-election next year.
Too bad for those of us who contributed before 1998.
The numbers are incredible.
Never in a million years did I ever think I would be writing this. Never.
I was quite disturbed when Chicago Heights Mayor Anthony Deluca was named a state representative by Bloom Township Democratic Committeeman Terry Matthews. I wrote about my disappointment, calling Anthony a “faux Democrat.”
He has passed the test, many times over, apparently.
Deluca votes with the Democrats, according to a state senator and other colleagues of State Rep. Deluca in the Illinois House.
And he will vote with them on social issues. Anthony, a Catholic, will vote to preserve a woman’s right to choose.
Not sure where he stands on civil unions between people of the same sex. He would be well advised to vote in favor.
God, after all, gives us a choice as to whether we sin or not. Government does not have the right to take that choice away. (That’s not from me. That is from a local conservative black Bishop.)
I don’t know if Rep. Deluca is voting with the Dems so he can stay in office. I don’t think he would violate his conscience just for an office. He has a nice gig in Chicago Heights if he loses. He doesn’t need the money.
Here is my endorsement: State Rep. Anthony Deluca should remain a State Representative.
Vote for him.