Congressman Mark Kirk - Speaking Truth To Anyone Who Will Listen

US Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) from Chicago's North Shore had this to say upon his recent return from China: "We heard across the board -- in private -- substantial, continuing and rising concern."

If it matters I attended grammar school and high school with Mark.

Bear Fan Rep. Mark Kirk Blasts House Leadership: "We Know Who Won the Super Bowl"

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) blasted the House leadership yesterday afternoon for focusing the House of Representatives on the Steelers Super Bowl victory (HR 110) instead of the serious economic issues at hand. Anne Schroeder Mullins of Politico talked to Mark afterwards and it sounds like he was still steamed, talking of the few people who were in the House chamber at the time Mark said “Originally they looked at me like, ‘what a guy from Chicago want to say about this? This is Pittsburgh vs. Arizona' but my point is bigger. Why are we talking about this and not talking about the stimulus?" To insure that his point was not lost he told Politico "(t)hree thousand to seven thousand Americans are watching CSPAN right now wondering what are these guys working on? We know who won the Super Bowl. And no, it’s not sour grapes, [The Bears] lost a long time ago."

Here is Rep. Kirk's floor speech:
I might just ask the leadership why we are debating this resolution, taking time away from serious debate on the hidden stimulus bill. Why, as the economy tanks, congressional leaders are voting to borrow $2 trillion but we’re debating National Engineers Week and a football resolution? Now I watched the game and it was a good game but it's not our core mission. We should be debating the $2 billion appropriation for "neighborhood stabilization" available to organizations currently under criminal scrutiny like ACORN, a new wellness fund, or a government medical effectiveness board now with powers to override decisions of you and your doctor. When we take up resolutions like this, it's because we are trying to distract members and the American people for knowing what they cannot read in the stimulus bill. We can debate the Super Bowl but the results are not in doubt. What we ought to be debating is should we borrow $2 trillion on behalf of the American people and does anyone have that cash? We debate Engineer Week instead of asking the Fed, when you "monetize" debt, doesn't that really mean you're printing money? It's resolutions like this that weaken the reputation of the U.S. –

Hat Tip: Backyard Conservative

Impeach Blagojevich - Now!

How did the sun go down on Illinois today with Rod Blagojevich sitting in the Governor's chair? And who the hell is Candidate #5? Mort Kondracke just mentioned Mark Kirk (IL-10) as a possible Senate candidate, wow.

Rep. Mark Kirk is One of the Smartest Members of the House

That's what Fred Barnes just stated on Brit Hume's show. He listed a few members whom he considered the smartest members of the House, the list was short and it included Mark. Congratulations to Rep. Mark Kirk of the Illinois 10th Congressional District. It is nice to see that others are realizing what those of us who have known Mark have known for years, he's a pretty sharp guy.

Mark Kirk's Iranian Idea Gets More Notice

North Shore Republican Congressman Mark Kirk's idea for dealing peacefully with Iran is getting more notice as the world starts to get their collective minds around the fact that Israel will not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. It can be assumed that Israel would act with extreme prejudice. In this New York Sun piece Mark said "(e)ither we leave this to the United Nations and that is a slow path for Iran getting a nuclear weapon; or the second option is an Israeli attack which is unpredictable and expensive." That is a very sober and realistic assessment of Iran's nuclear ambitions and outside reactions to it.

Mark's idea is to cut off gasoline shipments to Iran, it sounds very counter-intuitive due to Iran's membership in OPEC, they are sizable crude oil exporters. However Mark wants to exploit the fact that Iran does not have the refinery capacity to supply their own gasoline needs, Iran only supplies 40% of their own gas, they even had riots over an abandoned gas rationing plan earlier this year. The linked article is an interesting read.

Mark's opposition in this year's election is the same lightweight he beat 19 months ago, while Mark Kirk has been doing the heavy thinking Dan Seals has been standing on the corner of Milwaukee and Half Day giving away gas and campaign literature while causing a lunchtime traffic jam. The choice between the two is a no brainer.

Hey Dan, Check the Oil, Will Ya?

What is going on up in Illinois' 10th Congressional District? Democratic Congressional candidate Dan Seals spent Thursday's lunchtime handing out $20 bills on the corner of Milwaukee and Half Day Road. Okay, he actually used donated campaign funds to sell motorists $41.49 worth of gas (10 gallons) at a Marathon station at that corner for $18.50. They used to just give out bottles of wine on election day around here, I guess that times change.

The Seals campaign stated that they chose the $1.85 price because that was the price of a gallon of regular back in 2000 when Rep. Mark Kirk (R) was first elected to congress. Something tells me that Mark will not be running on the dramatic drop in computer prices during the past eight years, but that would be just as dumb as the Seals stunt. Mr. Seals has a problem with the price of gas, he is a typical liberal Democrat. Mr. Seals is the type of Democrat who has passed laws and enacted regulations that snuffed out oil exploration in the most productive areas while stifling the growth of refining capacity. Add to that the byzantine fuel regulations that we have and there are gasoline problems galore before you throw in crude oil going from the mid-$20 per barrel to the mid-$130 per barrel in the last 8 years.

It was not clear in the linked Chicago Tribune piece what exactly Dan Seals and his campaign are trying to say with this stunt, the article focused on the obvious illegality of a candidate for the US House of Representatives giving random motorists in the district $22.99 worth of free gas while plying them with campaign literature. Complaints have been filed and nothing will be done until after the next time that Dan Seals runs against Mark Kirk. However I am interested in why they wanted to make this an issue when they can't articulate what Mr. Seals would do to change the market or why Mr. Kirk should be held responsible for world-wide market forces and Democratic policies.

It's not just Dan Seals, it is a problem throughout the Democratic Party, I heard sound clips of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) haranguing some oil company CEO with another one of his "unconscionable" speeches, in this one he demanded lower gas prices. What Senator Durbin, a lawyer neglected is the fact that those oil company CEOs have a legal fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders not to voters. So in addition to nationalizing the evil oil companies the Democrats want publicly held companies to subsidize our gas bills. Maybe Dan has a radical new energy idea, his donors will subsidize our gas bills.

Prayers Go Out to Mark Kirk and His Family

 A mutual friend just called to inform me that Rep. Mark Kirk's father has passed away. My prayers go out to Mark and his family. 

Dan Seals vs the English Language

Democratic congressional primary candidate Dan Seals has an interesting sentence in his silly e-mail that I missed when I first read his note. One paragraph begins with "Our Congressman, Mark Kirk...", that is amazing. Dan Seals' congressperson is Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), a notoriously wacky and shrill loudmouth who is hard to miss. Why is Dan Seals lying to his potential constituents before he has even won the primary?

Does Dan Seals Hate Veterans?

As Flying Debris mentioned in this post, candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Illinois 10th US Congressional District Dan Seals really doesn't get it. Earmarks were last year's Democratic issue, to be used during the campaign that Mr. Seals lost last year. As TA from Team America's Tenth District Blog pointed out in this excellent post over 71% of the dollars that Mr. Seals is complaining about in the e-mail below is for a Veterans Hospital in the 10th District. This is a sentence that I find amazing, "(a)gain, I am sure that there are good projects in there." As TA points out in the post linked to above, it's part of the public record, and come on, Seals hasn't worked in years, you would think that he'd have learned how to use that Google thingy by now.

It's that time of year again. The snow is on the ground, the holiday spirit is in the air, and the gift-giving is underway.

And nowhere is this gift-giving more apparent than Congress' most recent spending bill, which gave billions of dollars in pork to the big special interests and lumps of coal to our children, grandchildren, and future generations to come.

That's right. Just this week, Congress sent a spending bill to the president that contained a side-splitting 9,000 earmarks, pet projects of individual members of Congress that are slipped into legislation at the last minute, financed with taxpayer money, and never debated or scrutinized before being signed into law. Given that we as a nation are already in debt, future taxpayers, like my kids, will pick up the bill.

Some of these earmarks surely go to good projects. But too many of them don't. The problem is that the process of earmarking doesn't give us any way to tell. That's because the decisions about what gets funded and what doesn't get made behind closed doors and without debate. That is an invitation for waste and abuse.

The Democrats that took control of Congress in 2006 point out that they have taken steps to reform this process. They have not gone far enough. The system of earmarks should end. 9000 earmarks isn't a victory for anyone, but it is a definite loss for the taxpayer. I can think of no good reason why we should continue supporting a system that encourages waste and abuse.

Our Congressman, Mark Kirk, can apparently think of 140 million reasons. He asked Congress for a staggering $140 million in pet projects to be funded by taxpayer dollars. Again, I'm sure there are some good projects in there. But if so, why not bring them into the light and have them voted on? The only one who has anything to lose is the project that shouldn't receive any funding in the first place. And that's the way it should be. But this is Congress, where it is better to take than to give. It's one more reason why we need a change in Congress.

Thanks to a local blogger for passing on the Seals e-mail, the mystery blogger desires anonymity, I think.

EL Rider Confronts Speculation - Hat In Ring for 10th District Run

After weeks of speculation (all of it unwritten and unspoken) that I, the EL Rider, would run for the United States Congress in the upcoming election, I have decided to end the guessing game. I will run as a write-in candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Tenth District seat in the United States House of Representatives. This will likely come as a shock to my two opponents who thought that they only had each other to worry about; now they have to worry about history. I will run on the John F. Kennedy platform from 1960, lower taxes and strong national defense. Oddly that platform would make my opponents some sort of two-headed Nixon.

Some would say that I cannot run for that seat because I live outside of the district, poppycock I say. Of my opponents only Jay Footlick actually has a residence in the district, he rented a pied-a-district last July and my other opponent Dan Seals has never lived in the district. However, it should be noted that both have dined in the district. On the other hand, like the sitting Republican Congressman Mark Kirk I grew up in the district and have played on ball fields up and down the length and breadth of the 10th district. Further I have been gainfully employed in Chicago during the past three years and for decades before that, something neither of my opponents could honestly state.

As a nod to the Clinton campaign of 1992 my campaign committee has been organized in the manner of a "war room" (the term is also used in the trading business) but it will be referred to as the "war room without Carville or Stephanopoulos" or WRWCoS for short. The WRWCoS has advised me that although I currently live in the Chicago neighborhood of Lincoln Park, one if the many diverse Chicago neighborhoods that made up the "Seals Coalition" during the last election, that I should consider moving into the 10th district. Some (well, one) have suggested that I move back in with my mother, who lives in the district (thanks Mom) but I have decided to put down more permanent roots. So later this week I will be looking at an apartment above the Glenview House, I plan to sign a one year lease on my own pied-a-district that will terminate months after Mr. Footlick's lease. As a big nod to the personal life and career of Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts I will also be on the, er, lookout for one of those super-rich North Shore divorcees to shack-up with.

As a further tribute to the Clinton campaign of 1992 I will effectively refuse to release any tax returns or any information concerning any futures or option trades that I may or may not have placed at any time until well after any election that I may win. I will however state here and now that I have not traded any cattle futures during this century. If pressed I will offer access to "original trading records", that's right, "original", meaning the paper that I scribble on. I am legally required to keep those records for five years and the first ones that I would find today would be from the fall of 2002. Thank you Mrs. Clinton. I'd like to give another shout out to former Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO, Democratic Senator and current New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine who has inspired me to state unequivocally that I will make no statements concerning any corporations, partnerships, holdings or hedge fund interests that I may own or may be partner to. Thank you Mr. Governor and best wishes with the recovery, I know how bad the cold weather can be to bone injuries, my prayers are with you.

Some have asked, "hey EL Rider, why didn't you just turn in petitions like everybody else?" That is a great question and frankly the answer doesn't make my faith in the WRWCoS look very well placed; they ordered the phone books for Lake County, Indiana. The WRWCoS had planned on using the popular "Link Method" of sequential petition listing. At the last minute we had to regroup and run as a write in, something that Lake County Democratic Party Chairman Terry Link nearly had to do. Later events showed that certain bloggers are starting to catch on to this popular ruse, so maybe the error was a blessing.

As an attempt to not alienate or offend anybody I promise that I will not speak any language other than English. I am Irish Catholic but I swear that I will not send out any pamphlets containing anything written in Gaelic or any images of Irish people drinking beer on St. Patrick's Day.

To my two opponents I say, more to follow.

El Rider For Congress - I Don't Live There Either!

Suburban Democrat Wants You - Dead

I try not to wander over to the pit of ignorance that is Ellen's Tenth... due to the fact that like petulant, spoiled third-graders they bring nothing to the table. Well the head dip Ellen Beth Gill has another in what must be an unending string of boring posts that blame Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) for everything bad that has ever happened to anybody Ellen has ever met, and her psoriasis. Only joking about the possible psoriasis, that may be the one thing that Ellen has not blamed on Congressman Kirk.

In this post from Wednesday I asked:

How many people should die in order for some of our fellow countrymen to not feel any discomfort? Would the allegedly virtuous among us trade the lives of the murdered Cantor Fitzgerald employees in order to make themselves feel better about themselves? How about the murdered employees of Marsh McLennan? How about the murdered employees of AON Insurance? How about the lives of the WTC janitors and support staff? How about the lives of all of those courageous firemen? How about the lives of the murdered Pentagon employees?


In that post I stated that the strange Democratic leader Harry Reid supported protecting those who would murder Americans in order to make himself and his fellow travelers feel more righteous about themselves. I guess that Ellen and her crew have been feeling a wee bit down about themselves lately (well, not just lately) and they need to buck themselves up by supporting terrorists. Lovely people.

While reading the drivel that passes for insight up in Ellen's hell it struck me that those folks have absolutely no clue concerning strategy of any sort. Not really a shock but notable. What are those people willing to do to protect Americans? Well, if we catch the culprits after they kill Americans the Democrats may be willing to make you pay for the terrorist's lawyers. Are they willing to make a terrorist uncomfortable for 35 seconds? No. Screw you. And screw yours.


Last week I wrote a few posts on the disgraceful Democratic Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias who ripped off an 83 year-old woman who did not qualify financially for the $1 million mortgage (as he admitted under cross examination), could not fill out a mortgage application while using a mortgage scam run through his family bank with the help of convicted mobsters. The mobsters have felony records including bookmaking, prostitution and one of them had been convicted twice of bank fraud. Mr. Giannoulias claimed "I know nothing" repeatedly in court. That strains credibility unless the Broadway Bank of Chicago is in the business of making loans to 83 year-old ladies and their mobbed-up associates in order to perpetrate frauds. Additionally the pompous Mr. Giannoulias was elected with the help of "squeaky clean" Barack Obama. Where is Ellen when her friends, with the help of their mob associates are ripping off senior citizens with mortgage scams and getting elected to public office with the help of Barack Obama? The last linked post even includes a Barack Obama commercial for the mortgage scam artist. Where is Ellen? Nowhere, that's where she is, nowhere.

She's a real nowhere girl
Living in her nowhere world
Making all her nowhere plans
For nobody

But I digress. This is the Democratic world in a nutshell: they will endanger your life and the lives of your friends and relatives so that they don't have to accept the world as it is. That might shatter their carefully crafted world of delusion. They live in a fantasy world where everything is wonderful except for that evil Bush (Kirk) who brought all of this Islamo-fascism to the world. If it weren't for Bush (Kirk) those jihadists would be making beautiful rugs for orphanages around this wonderful world of ours. Additionally the mortgage problems that we have been experiencing during the last year are the fault of Bush (Kirk). You know, he (they) own(s) property so it must be his (their) fault. The mortgage problems really, really, really have nothing to do with mortgage scams and frauds run by Democratic leaders. Heaven Forbid.

Illinois Democrats Now Trying to Ruin Metra

They have done a heck of a great job ruining the Chicago Transit Authority so now they have turned to Metra, Chicago's local commuter rail service. Suburban Republican Congressman Mark Kirk (US 10th) had this to say: "(t)he bottom line is this: California, Florida [and] Texas do not suffer from this kind of political gridlock," Kirk said. "Our inaction in Springfield could lead to a huge windfall for other states."

The congressman's statement pretty much says it all about our state, the political gridlock is the Democratic Party.

Dems Diss Ellen's Pet Bill!

Last Wednesday, Ellen over at Ellen's Tenth... blamed the continuation of the Democratic 1969 jealousy inspired tax law known as the Alternative Minimum Tax, the AMT (see a great run down on the tax here) on Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) who was in the fifth grade when this nonsense was implemented. Ellen has not informed her readers and it is unlikely that she will inform her readers that some Democrats played hard-ball politics in the House with the AMT bill. That bill's failure is a failure that Ellen blamed on Mark Kirk. Well the Wall Street Journal has this interesting story concerning the ability to sue the Salvation Army. You read that right, the ability to sue the Salvation Army. Steny Hoyer had this to say during the House floor dust-up, "How dare you destroy this party? This will be the worst loss in 10 years."

See Flying Debris' take on the opinions on this issue over at Ellen's Tenth here, here and here.

Hat Tip (on the WSJ article): Instapundit

Ellen's History for the Dumb

How else to describe the people who congregate over at Ellen's Tenth...blah,blah... Ellen, writing from some pathetic swamp is now blaming the AMT on Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL). Hey Pythagoras, he was in fifth grade when the Democratic Party decided that this piece of ignorant, jealousy-inspired, Democratic garbage should be enacted into law. I can attest that Mark Kirk was not in Congress voting with those idea-challenged Democrats of the late sixties. Just as a little hint to Ellen, Mark was also not in Congress during the Seventies, the Eighties or the Nineties. In 1969 Mark and I were doing multiplication tables in Mr. Monts' class you ditz!

The AMT, the Alternative Minimum Tax, was implemented by a Democratic Congress in 1969. The Democrats implemented this nonsense to force several tax payers who had somehow avoided paying taxes to pay a minimal amount of federal tax. In their utter ignorance the Democratic Party decided that the tax needn't be indexed for inflation and they have rhetorically fought against any such indexation in years past. They even regularly stated that they wanted the revenue.

So as a hint to Ellen, the people who you support gave us this ridiculous, jealousy-inspired tax law. Now that the tax is affecting some of Ellen's compatriots (though surely not Ellen herself) she is blaming Republicans for a Democratic law. Delusion, Thy Name is Ellen's Tenth.

Leftists Call Rahm A "Racist"?

Okay, if it takes a "member of the vast right-wing conspiracy" to defend Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) then things are not going all that swimmingly over on the other side of the pool. Yesterday, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos asked whether Rahm Emanuel is a racist. A few weeks ago I read a comment stream on Ellen's Tenth... concerning Rahm and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) that was bizarre even for those folks. So what the heck is going on?

Methinks that some folks are trying to move any blame concerning the current congress away from the more outwardly liberal Pelosi and toward the more centrist Emanuel. Some commenters over at Ellen's place and on the regressive Daily Kos don't seem to understand what Rahm did last year. He recruited good centrist candidates in vulnerable districts around the nation and not only were those candidates successful but they gave the Democratic Party its current House majority. Amusingly one or more of the commenters thought that Rahm had attended high school with Mark Kirk, Rahm attended New Trier West at the same time that Mark attended New Trier East, so to answer one commenter, no Rahm did not beat up Mark in high school.

As I have noted a few times on this blog I have met and talked politics with Rahm on numerous occasions as we have mutual friends. In addition, as I wrote here, I have voted for Rahm, he is my congressman. This is in no way an endorsement of most of his policies but rather a statement that Rahm is generally reasonable, I certainly have taken him to task on this blog but I have also been supportive where need be.

More to the point, last year I talked to Rahm about the world of political blogging in general and the Daily Kos in particular, I wrote about that conversation here and here. The first time that I wrote about that conversation was before the 2006 election and I noted:

During our recent conversation we discussed the then upcoming Connecticut Senate primary and the involvement of certain blogs in the race. The conversation was private so I will not divulge anything past what one could reasonably discern from his public statements. Mr. Emanuel was animated at the mention of those blogs and he genuinely seemed to understand the possible problems that some of those bloggers and their readers could pose for the image of the Democratic Party. We were in a public place so those comments were made to me with a somewhat hushed voice; this district has a very large population of committed left wing moonbats.

A few days later I had a chance to speak to one of our mutual friends, a man who is one of the original Friends of Bill (Clinton), and we both agreed that although Mr. Emanuel uses the red meat rhetoric of the left wing, he was much more practical and down to earth than he often sounds. This gentleman (the FOB) said that he wasn’t surprised that Mr. Emanuel was leery of the left side of the blogosphere and that he was trying to blunt their effect on the party, Mr. Emanuel has always struck this Southern gentleman as more down to earth than the leftists who are in ascendancy in the Democratic Party.

After the election I wrote:

Last summer I had the chance to discuss politics with my Congressman, Rahm Emanuel; during that conversation (see this post) we discussed the problems that the unhinged left could cause for the Democrats. He clearly understood those problems and voiced serious concerns about them. As it is now after the election I feel less constrained to discuss our largely private conversation. He was very animated while discussing the folks over at the Daily Kos, saying that they had never won anything; on that point he sounded like a conservative blogger. Because Mr. Emanuel worked so closely with the Clintons I had no problem bringing up that issue with him, after all the triangulation strategy also relies on the center and the right. I believed then, as I believe today that the nation is better off without one of our two political parties going off of the deep end. He understood my concerns and as I said, he was as animated as one could be as an office holder in a public place in an area populated by very liberal people. At the end of our conversation I wished him well in his attempt to bring the party towards the center. Clearly Mr. Emanuel’s strategy was to find candidates who appeared to be centrist; they also seemed to lean towards former servicepersons. He certainly was successful.

Okay, so Rahm Emanuel is too centrist for Markos of the Daily Kos and the average leftists in the Democratic Party, that is a dog bites man story, or as President Clinton might say, that dog won't hunt. The interesting aspect is how this internecine warfare will affect the next election, which by the way is 51 weeks from next Tuesday. Rahm's concerns during the last election cycle centered around the tendency of some in the Democratic Party to undertake unproductive political projects and to be, for the lack of better phrasing, somewhat obnoxious. He also repeatedly pointed out that "they have never won anything."

Rahm left his post at the Democratic Congressional Committee and is currently the Chair of the Democratic Caucus, it is his actions in that office that currently have him in hot water with the Kos crowd. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) is currently in charge of the Democratic effort to keep control of the House so he may be the next one under the Kos gun.

Update:
Welcome Instapundit readers and thanks to Professor Reynolds for the link. After what I consider a less than successful audition at Second City Friday afternoon (sometimes improv doesn't work) it's nice to get an Instapundit link.

Hat Tip: Instapundit

The Fun I Missed!

A few weeks later the blogger gets back to the keyboard! My excuses? Many. I started out preparing for an hour-long final show on the Main Stage at Second City Chicago after spending a year at the Second City Training Center's year-long Improv Program. In addition to that show and watching the pathetic Chicago Cubs during their post-season swoon I had a guest in town. An old girlfriend came to Chicago and stayed with me for a week. She lives outside of Boulder, Co., so as you the reader can only imagine we approach the world very differently. That's the beauty of America, a neo-con and a neo-hippy can be best of friends and actually talk about our world. However a few more weeks out of the mountains could actually be therapeutic for her.

While I was otherwise busy some of the usual nonsense of the blog world continued, including the fact that Ellen Beth Gill, the lawyer who writes Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District (blah, blah, blah) Blog (Flying Debris discussed her blog here and here) has banned comments from those pesky people who disagree with her and her fellow North Shore Democrats. I was given the heads-up on the issue by Team America, an occasional commenter here and a regular commenter over at Ellen's place, he has been banned and low and behold, so had your humble correspondent. Well Team America has decided not to take this affront laying down and he has started Team America's Tenth District Blog. From what I could discern from his comments and the first few posts he is a sharp and sharp witted Republican lawyer from Lake County, IL. What is it with all of those legal bloggers anyways?

As a self described moderate Republican I would expect Team America to cover the upcoming campaign of my childhood friend Rep. Mark Kirk (IL-10), a Republican moderate who has flown missions over Iraq as a Reservist while serving in Congress. Mark's last opponent Dan Seals, the son of Bear great and former Board of Trade member George Seals has been running again since last June, Mr. Seals has been running for office rather than working for a few years now. His father George Seals is a great guy, when I was just starting out on the floor of the Board of Trade I darted out of a pit into an aisle right as George Seals, the former Bear offensive guard was running to the soybean pit (it was less than a minute before the markets opened), those who know me in person also know that even as a young man I was going to lose to the former Bear. I picked myself up and went on to do whatever I was in such a hurry to do, Mr. Seals never broke stride. I knew that I was in the wrong, I didn't look when I jumped out of the pit but George Seals later came over to apologize and make sure that I was in one piece (I told him that it was my fault and that although I ached a little bit it was a real experience to be run over by a Bear), he is one of those real class acts. I hope that his son follows his father's lead this time around as far as his campaign goes, last year's version was not exactly a high point for the Democratic Party.

What Would the Left Do?

What would a lefty blogger do with the hysterical pictures above? A couple of weeks ago I was driving up the Edens Expressway when I came across the woman pictured above. She had part of her car dragging behind her and it was attached to a bumper that held a sticker for last fall's (and a current) Democratic candidate for Congress in the Illinois 10th Congressional District, Dan Seals. Well if the shoe was on the other foot and the car had a bumper sticker for 10th District Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) you can bet that those photos wouldn't have languished inside of an iphone but rather they would have been trotted out to show how heartless, stupid and yes dangerous those evil Republicans are. I did no such thing concerning those funny photos, Dan Seals and the Democratic Party because it would have been stupid.

Well none other than Illinois 10th Congressional District Democratic blogger and Dan Seals supporter Ellen Beth Gill, the blogger at Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog that I wrote about here, has written a post concerning a woman who allegedly drove through a stop sign "in the city" (I would presume Chicago) while using her Blackberry-type device. Ellen has blamed the incident (that occurred "in the city") on President George Bush and the North Shore Congressman Kirk. This has got to be one of the most ridiculous posts I have ever read. I must ask, does this nonsense represent the left side of the blog world? I must also note that she has no photos of that neo-con outrage "in the city."

One would think that a resident of one of Chicago's suburbs would know that the residents of the city of Chicago are overwhelmingly Democratic and the women are even more so. Especially if said suburbanite is part of * the local suburban Democratic Party. Frankly, if the event described actually occurred the driver was likely one of Ellen's compatriots who was driving-while-blackberrying "in the city". Maybe it was even a lady on an iphone reading one of Ellen's posts.


*It is well worth noting that the link for "part of" is to the Illinois 10th Democratic Organization. When I was a child I did a lot of work for Democrats in that area for the New Trier Democratic Organization (NTDO),some of it for the Mikva campaigns mentioned on the 10th site and that my late father was once a force in the NTDO; along with the late yachtsman Lynn Williams. I cannot speak for Mr. Williams but my father recognized the problems that his party has been having with the far left long ago and would have appalled that the 10th District Organization has become so closely aligned with the Daily Kos types and their yearly convention. The Yealrly Kos will be the same weekend as Lollapalooza, go figure.

Big Hat Tip to Publia of the Wilmette blog who noted the ridiculous post in the comments section of my original post on Ellen's Tenth.

Last night I incorrectly wrote that I had worked for the IL 10th Democratic Organization and have since corrected the post.

Many thanks to the wonderful Dr. Sanity and her Carnival of Insanities for inclusion again this week. Go read her blog!

Update: Thank you Team America! You are right that link was incorrect, I thought that I doulble checked it after posting; I blame Dick Cheney! The correct link is now posted, thanks again.

Bridge to Nowhere Finds a Supporter

Yep that's right, while reading some of the the worst of the blogosphere yesterday I found what could be the only supporter of Republican Senator Ted Stevens' infamous "Bridge to Nowhere". The pork-barrel project that became a cause celebre to both fiscal conservatives and power hungry Democrats has had little to no open support from anybody in the lower 48 states and the earmarked spending has become shorthand for all that is wrong with congressional finances.

Strangely this single supporter is a Democrat. Maybe not all that surprising after reading her blog, Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog (succinctness is not a strong point over there) has been maintained by attorney Ellen Beth Gill who was a representative to the 2004 Democratic Convention from the IL 10th. Ms. Gill (if I may call her that) is currently blaming her, um, nemesis Congressman Mark Kirk, the Republican who currently represents the IL. 10th. Ms Gill has something to blame on Mr. Kirk nearly every day (sort of pathetic but hey it's her life) and last weekend she has resurrected a post from June '06 in order to blame the Republicans in general and Mark Kirk specifically for the, ahem, infrastructure problems of South East Alaska. Ms. Gill was helpful in pointing out the post from last year as it is hysterical; the post is titled "Imagine, no way to get to O'Hare".

Comparing the air field in Ketchikan, Alaska to one of the world's busiest airports is utterly inane but a few peeks at her comment sections show that she knows her readership, very well. On Sunday Ms. Gill blamed Mr. Kirk for helping to defund a bridge for 20 people a day but is now very happy that our nation may, in the end, spend millions of dollars to save time for a few Alaskans and a few wealthy tourists.

As a friendly note to Ms. Gill; O'Hare is a serious piece of infrastructure that affects millions of people in the tri-state area and around the nation; and I'm not even talking about the air travelers. To see an example of O'Hare's importance to the non-traveller Ms. Gill and her cohorts may want to take a drive along the southern boundary of O'Hare Airport. Drive down Irving Park Road west of Narraganset and take a look (to the north) at the traffic coming out of the O'Hare shipping terminal. For some further education they should trail those trucks that leave O'Hare and follow them down to the Joliet area, a booming trans-shipment are for the entire Midwest. It could be an educational field trip of sorts. Then they could try the same excercise in Ketchikan, the amount of industry that is reliant on airtransport is underwhelming and it is hard to imagine the industry that would rush to take advantage of easier access to the Ketchikam airport other than tourism. I guess that somebody has to stick up for the wealthy fishermen of the 10th district and their desire to catch (non Lake Michigan) salmon and Ms. Gill fits the bill.

If it matters I attended Joseph Sears School and New Trier East High School with Mark Kirk.

Dems Deem Illinois 10th Dumb

How else to explain this ridiculous internet ad. The Democrats have cherry picked votes during Congressman Mark Kirk's (R-IL) years in the House to produce a commercial that states that Mark is bad for the military. By "cherry picking" I mean that certain bills may be voted against due to the fact that there is a better bill in the hopper that covers the same issue or the bill may simply not be a good bill for any number of (pork laden?) reasons. I also seem to recall an obscure issue some years back in which the VA didn't spend all of it's funds from the previous budget year and those left-over funds were counted as part of the then current budget year; I'm not sure if that is the issue that the Dems have going in this ad or not. I do not have time to investigate their citations this morning but I will do so next week.

The first problem with telling people that Mark is bad for the military is that he is actually, you know, in the military. Yes Congressman Kirk is an intelligence officer in the Naval Reserves, he is a Lieutenant on an AWACS plane and he has been flying missions over Iraq and Afghanistan as a sitting congressman. The guy being run by the Dems for the 10th District Illinois is Dan Seals. Mr. Seals lost to Mark less than 8 months ago, yet he announced his candidacy for that seat a few weeks ago. Mr. Seals ran last year as a "retired" thirty-something banker who lived outside of the district. Now I have no idea whether or not Mr. Seals has actually moved to the 10th district but this ad campaign is ridiculous. The Democrats are running this military themed ad in support of a guy who hasn't even worked for a good portion of this century and against a congressman who has been flying missions over Iraq.

If it matters I attended Joseph Sears School and New Trier East High School with Mark and consider him a smart, well rounded, level-headed guy, in fact much more level headed than your humble (ed. what?) correspondent. Mark is an impressive guy, at Christmas time the year that we got out of college I ran in to him on the El, I was just starting out on my journey through the Chicago Board of Trade as a bottom of the ladder runner. Mark on the other hand was living in London and working for a Member of Parliament. Mark was always like that, smart enough to open doors and savvy enough to do something with those openings. I was not surprised when I heard that Mark had joined the Reserves, they need sharp people too.

The 10th District of Illinois is a moderating, formerly heavily Republican district that has been represented by moderates for decades, Mark is a continuation of that moderateness but even in that very wealthy and well educated Midwestern district the folks on the left side of the spectrum have started to demand the liberal purity often demanded on the coasts. Last year I was surprised to hear some previously relatively moderate Democrats describe Mark as a "lap-dog to Bush". Having not even attended medical school I would shy away from some sort of diagnosis but it did sound a lot like Bush Derangement Syndrome. The Democrat's latest internet ad takes full advantage of some willingness on the part of the left to believe rhetoric over reality. I mean come on, the Dems want the people of the 10th to believe that the guy who would be good for the military is the one who was likely seated at the "kitchen table" in Charlie Trotter's at the same time that the sitting congressman who is supposedly bad for the military was doing 10 hour shifts in an AWACS plane over Iraq. Pathetic.

Big Hat Tip to Publia at the Wilmette blog, thanks for the e-mail!

Kirk vs the Loser - Round II

Last year Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL), a childhood friend of mine successfully defended his congressional seat against a carpetbagging Democrat named Dan Seals who lives outside of the 10th congressional district. As far as I could determine last fall Mr. Seals doesn't actually do anything, the guy is unemployed and has been out of work for a large portion of this century. The man's job is to be a Democratic candidate, like I said, he ain't working. He spent last year campaigning and the year before planning his campaign. Additionally he is another Democratic Candidate who refuses to live in his district. Last fall I wrote:

The Democrats of Chicago’s North Shore are angling to replace a man with qualifying experience with a guy who worked in a bank for ten years. Mr. Seals has spent the last year campaigning rather than working. This shows a real lack of seriousness on the part of the Democrats. Additionally one can assume that Mr. Seals is just another tool of the Chicago Democrats, and one would be correct. So if you want an empty suit who has no knowledge of our military at a time when the United States has been under attack from a new type of warfare by all means vote for the Democrat. After all, Seals was endorsed by al qaeda (as have all of the Democratic candidates). It seems that the best thing that Mr. Seals has going for him is his looks, a pretty shallow reason to vote for someone. If you want a centrist who actually understands both what is at stake and how to prosecute our defense you should vote for Mark Kirk.

Look, I know that the district is very expensive but maybe the guy could afford to live there if he, you know, got a job.

Hat Tip: I owe one big hat tip to Publia of the Wilmette blog