In which Illinois Rep. Ron Sandack, a Republican, gets booed for supporting marriage equality but sticks to his convictions anyway. That’s how it’s done. (via Buzzfeed)
Yes, I am about to suggest that you do something that rail against often. But to adhere to purity ignores the reality of how politics work as they are right now: money moves campaigns.
This Northern Chicagoland district isn’t a gay haven as far as I know. I don’t know how representative this mob that Sandack is confronting in this video is of his district, but they do seem comfortable enough to spew anti-gay bigotry in the daylight. The best way to support someone holding office taking an unpopular position that you agree with, particularly if they are a member of the anti-gay Republican party, is to contribute to his re-election. Yep, you need to put your money where your mouth is.
Atta boy messages from far outside of the district don’t win elections yet.
Vigorously support women's rights by fully engaging in efforts to ratify the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government
There are currently 35 states that have ratified the ERA and legal analysis suggests we may need just three more states for women to have equal rights under our Constitution. We ask you to support our efforts nationwide, particularly in the states that have not yet ratified the ERA: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, N. Carolina, Oklahoma, S. Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. We also ask you to place your full support behind Congressional legislation to eliminate deadlines on the original 1972 ERA. It is time our Constitution protects the rights of women, and women need and deserve active participation in ERA advocacy from the White House.
On the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 23, Katrina A. Smith, age 30, of Machesney Park, Ill., was reported missing by her husband to the Roscoe Police Department.
Smith reportedly was last seen by her husband late Monday night, Oct. 22, leaving home to run an errand.
At approximately 7:50 p.m., the same evening, Smith’s vehicle was found unoccupied at the intersection of Obispo and Ventura in Machesney Park. The vehicle is a blue 2012 Chevrolet Cruze four-door with Illinois plates. It was observed by neighbors at that location during the daytime hours.
Anyone with information about Katrina Smith should call the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department at (815) 319-6400 or Crime Stoppers at (815) 963-7867.
It is clear that Tammy Duckworth makes Joe Walsh feel inadequate. Whether it is because of her military service, because he has nothing comparable to run on or talk about, or simply because she is a woman is unclear. However, his “Ashleigh, Ashleigh” extravaganza strongly suggests that it is women who make him feel inadequate. In any case, it follows a pattern that indicates that Walsh has severe issues with women. Personally, I suspect they make him feel inadequate because he is inadequate.
I suppose since Walsh is done batting around a woman who has born him a child, he has to move on to batting around other women.
Do the people North and West of Chicago here
have any sense of shame?
Wolf Blitzer Chastises Tammy Duckworth for her treatment of Joe Walsh
BLITZER: I agree that the differences on substantive policy issues are what the two of you should be debating about. He’s used some nasty words. But you’ve also suggested among other things that Walsh is an extremist loud mouth for the Tea Party.
Back in April, you said there’s not a crack pot Tea Party idea that he hasn’t embraced. Is that appropriate to use that kind of language against the sitting United States congressman?
What does the fact the he’s a “sitting congressmen” have to do with what he said? Or that Joe Walsh is a first-rate jackass?
DUCKWORTH: I think it’s appropriate against a gentleman who says that he wants to be the poster child for the Tea Party. He actually gave that quote to “Time” magazine.
He’s told the people in the district you’re not going to get squat from me, his words. And that he is going to Washington to shout from the mountain tops and he’s not going to compromise.
He’s not going to work with anyone. He is there it to be a poster child for the Tea Party. Well, if he’s proud of that, then he needs to embrace that because the people in the district are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington.
What? Do you have any more false equivocation, Mr. Blitzer? Have you forgotten this turning point in American Politics?
Boy With Autism Missing From Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois Since June 19, 2012 Please Help Find Kahil Gray.
A 15-year-old boy with autism went missing Tuesday from the University of Chicago Medicine’s Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago, police said.
Kahil Gray was last seen around 4 p.m. at the hospital wearing a white shirt with blue stripes and light-blue jean shorts, according to an alert from police. A hospital representative said Kahil was not a patient, but rather was at the facility with his father to pick up forms.
“Once notified, we immediately activated our system and responded to assist the police and the parents to locate the child,” said Mona Sonnenshein, chief operating officer of the University of Chicago Medicine, in a statement. “Our officers canvassed the campus and nearby areas looking for him.”
Sonnenshein said footage from hospital video cameras shows Kahil leaving the facility and heading toward South Cottage Grove Avenue.
Police described Kahil, who lives near 92nd Street and Stony Island Avenue, as black with a medium complexion, standing 5-foot-6 and weighing 130 pounds.
“We are very worried,” said Vaughn Gray, Kahil’s half-brother. “He is very friendly, will give anyone a hug but doesn’t speak well. He says very few words.”
Kahil’s parents told the hospital he can recognize his name, though he doesn’t speak. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 312-747-8274.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling Tuesday involves a dispute at Neuqua Valley High School. A teen sued in 2006 after school officials blacked out the words “Not Gay” on her T-shirt. The incident happened the day after a “Day of Silence,” which was held to draw attention to the harassment of gay students.
Yep, that’s the cream of the crop of The Indian Prairie School District 204. You’re doing Naperville proud…you might even eclipse Skokie.
Not to worry, Chicagoland, you’ll always have the Phelps family in Topeka, KS to point at as worse than you.
Prohibition-Industrial Complex profiting from poverty
sonderweg replied to your quote: A state lawmaker wants random drug testing of…Hi, Could you explain why you think this is a terrible idea? I live in Rockford, IL and a similar debate is happening here. I dont really have an opinion, people sell food stamps for drugs here, but I havent heard from people against drug testing.One: Why should we treat everybody on public assistance like they were potential criminals?
Two: Where do we get the money for this drug testing? I’d rather more families become eligible and have some of the money go to drug users than spend millions of dollars on weeding out the drug users.
Follow the money: Who could make money off of the testing?
Prove my hunch wrong: look up the names attached to the businesses linked above and tell me you can’t find them here.
Three: Who cares if some families are taking food stamps and selling them (HOW, BTW? It’s not like you can withdraw money from SNAP with your LINK card. You can only use it to get cash benefits like TANF) for drugs? I don’t care. I mean, really? You care?
Four: Isn’t this a horrible invasion of privacy? Collecting government benefits is already a mind-numbing, soul-crushing, humiliating experience as it is. Now we’re gonna start stealing their precious bodily fluids because a couple folks are addicted to drugs to the point where they are choosing drugs over food for their kids?
What is wrong with Americans? For the life of me, I have been watching Fourth Amendment rights be eroded for decades (Just Say No, Nancy Reagan), but we don’t make the tough choice to stand up for our rights, like they are too esoteric and pinko to give a shit about.
Five: I can’t really stress this enough, WHO CARES? Governments waste money all over. Public assistance is going to have a certain amount of money going to “undesirables.” There’s not going to be anything to stop that. There will be fraud and abuse. But there’s fraud and abuse every damn where in all government programs. Why is it that we focus on the ones that help poor people?
six - it’s bullshit to penalize people for drug use without providing them any meaningful ways to stop it. there are virtually no rehab services available to people who can’t pay the extremely high prices for private rehab facilities are left either to wait for spots to open up in county run facilities (could take years!) or to go to largely unlicensed sober living houses with little or no oversight which are primarily a ploy to bilk people of their limited public benefits. additionally, there’s often years long legal battles about potentially siting new rehab facilities, so nobody is expecting supply to increase anytime soon.
Wouldn’t it be something if drug rehabilitation or vocational education professionals were as well organized as corrections officers? There are power in numbers, kids; together they stand out in state budgets, divided you fall in to the unemployment lines….
seven - this is straight up differential enforcement targeted at the poor. i know a lot of upper and middle class white folks who have been routinely engaged in recreational use of illegal drugs for years. they get benefits from the government, albeit delivered less directly than in individual cash payments, but home ownership incentives, provision of public services, and other government benefits go to them, also. but their privacy is constitutionally protected. needing to rely on food stamps shouldn’t erase that constitutional protection.
i’m sure there’s more.
I hate Illinois Nazis.
Chicago-based Haute Campe may exhibit Nazi costumes at Comic Con.
Welcome to San Diego, assholes. I’ve smelled your ilk on the web before.
All I can deduct from looking at their website is that they have a real fear of being dragged out in to the streets of Chicago, then being tarred and feathered because they don’t have a either their street address nor a mail box listed to send them mail attached to their site. Bigots are like that: just ask the NAACP how much hate mail they get that has a return address with a full, real name attached to the message.
While the Haute Kampf grüppen is in town, let me suggest a place by the beach that they should go drink at; yes, drink like having a fire hose stuffed down their throats.
