Saturday, October 4, 2008
State has mountain of unpaid bills
This article is about the huge amount of bills that the state has not paid. The Illinois government does not have the money to pay all the bills that it has. They are still trying to pay bills from July, it is not October. The article says that it will only get worse but of the terrible state of the economy. Also not helping is that last year's Medicaid bill was just paid in July which added a lot to the backup of bills. This affects everyone in Illinois not just the people that the government owes money too. The people who are not receiving the money they usually do from the government are having to cut programs all over the state in order to save money. This is a nasty situation and the solution to this is very difficult. Also there will keep being a backlog of bills because the economy is so bad and the government is in debt.
Illinois representatives change bailout vote
This article talks about how when the bailout went through a second time there were three Illinois representatives that changed their vote. They thought that the revised bill was good and choose to support it. There were six that did not change their vote. They felt that the bill was not adequate. The ones that changed their vote still weren't entirely happy with it but thought that something needed to be done and the second bill was better than the first. The fact that this bill passed and it was people in the Illinois government that helped pass it affects everyone who lives in Illinois. The current economic crisis affects everyone. Hopefully the bailout will help and our representatives did the right thing.
Immigrant voting push strong
This article is about the recent push by immigrant groups to register immigrants to vote. There has been a campaign throughout Illinois to register Latino voters to sway votes in the Electoral College. This is relavent because it affects the Illinois government as well as the national government. They are going to vote to put people in office who will create the immigration policies that they want. They are really trying to make sure they are represented the way that they want to be.
Did Rezko pay for Gov's house rehab?
There is a federal inverstigation going on that is looking into Blagojevich's new $90,000 home. The feds think that recently convicted Tony Rezko paid for the governor's house. The work was done just after Rezko got his friends contracts for state projects. Rezko has started to cooperate with the feds recently so the thruth about this porject might come out soon. There are lots of hints of evidence that show that there is a very good chance that corruption had a big role to play in thius project. This is relavent because the Illinois government is not in a good place right now. There are many investigations involving coruption surrounding our governor. We should not have to deal with a corupt governor. We should be able to trust our government and believe that they are doing things in our best interest not in the interest of themselves.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Blago on Ata money: 'I didn't pay attention'
This article is about the money that Blagoevich recieved from Tony Rezko who is on trial for corruption. Blogoevich has a large sum of money from him that he is supposed to return but hasn't yet. If the money was obtained by corrupt methods he can't have it. The money was donated to his campaign and he has not used it. Blagoevich says he didn't realize that he still had the money and will take care of it in the appropriate way. This is relavent because it shows the corruption of the government. You don't just forget that you are holding on to thousands of dollars. The courts are trying to make the situation right and he is not being cooperative.
School ordered to return $1M mistakenly given by state
This article is about the $1 million dollar grant that the Blagoevich's administration gave to Lab School in Chicago in 2007. The school has 30 days to return the money. The school violated the grant agreement. The director of the program had a felony conviction, the schools didn't open classes where they said they were going to because they didn't obtain the proper permits and the school didn't disclose a Human Rights Commission sexual harassment judgment against it. Because of these things the money is being taken back. This is relavent because it shows that the government will not always look past things. There are requirements for programs and if they are not followed there will be consequences. It shows that people and institutions cannot always get away with whatever they want.
Lawmakers slam governor, side with Obama on ethics bill
This article is about the ethics bill that recently came up in the Illinois State Senate. The goal of the bill is to ban supporters people seeking state contracts worth $50,000 or more from donating to statewide officials who give out those contracts. Gov. Blagojevich wanted to change certain things in the bill. The senate wouldn't allow his chages. The changes he was making seemed to be aimed at railroading the bill. The senate voted and the bill passed. It will become a law in January. This is relevant because it is going to help stop corruption and favoritism in our state government. It is a very good bill to be passed. It is blatant favoritism when big contributors get big state contracts. The people who the contracts go to should be the best ones for the job not the biggest contributors.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Still without a bridge, Alaska town gets its 'road to nowhere,' thanks to US taxpayers
This article is about the bridge that was supposed to built in Alaska, instead they got a road. The road is supposed to help the people in Alaska with future development. McCain has been against the bridge from the start. Palin originally supported the bridge. It first came about when she was running for governor in '06. She now is against the bridge and did what she could to fight it. Instead of a bridge there is now a road. This article is relavent because it shows what she really believes in. I think that this article and this issue both benefits and hurts Palin. It shows that she will fight for what she believes in and it works, she got the bridge to turn into a road, which did not cost taxpayers as much. It shows that she is against the same little pet projects that McCain is against. She does not want tax payers to pay extra for extra things. But it also shows that she changes her mind and flip flops. She originally supported it but shortly changed her mind. There may be good reasons for changing her mind but on the surface it does not look good. It looks as though she flip flops. But in a case like this there may have been some very good reasons for changing her mind on supporting this project. Although it does seem as though this bridge is really going to help people living in Alaska. It may end up being a good thing for them and not jsut costing tax payers a little extra.
Challenge to McCain’s Eligibility Is Dismissed
I thought that this article was quite amusing. The article is in response to someone filling a lawsuit that John McCain is not actually eligable to be president. The lawsuit was requesting that McCain be taken off the California ballot. I thought that this article was very interesting. It amazes me what people will do in order for someone to not have a chance to be elected. The republican party would not have nominated someone without checking into their background and making sure that they were completely eligable. If the republicans picked someone who was not eligable they would be shooting themselves in the foot. They would have no chance in having a republican president.
John McCain defends Sarah Palin over foreign policy experience
This article is about Sarah Palin and the amount of experience she has with foreign policy. The article talks about how she does not have much experience in dealing with other countries. The McCain campaign defended Palin by saying that she does have experience because she was the commander in chief of the Alaska National Gaurd and her son is in the army. Although saying that she is the commander in chief of the Alaska National Gaurd sounds good, her duties were limited to making decisions about deployments in times of crisis. She never actually made any decisions in regards to other countries. This article is very relevant. The U.S. has become involved in many foreign affairs. We need the people who are running the country to know what they are doing and how to deal with other countries. Just because Palin has a son in the army who has been deployed does not make her extremely knowledgable on foreign affairs. That is like saying that any of the hundreds of mothers of children in the army are qualified to have a hand in running our country. We need people in power who are truly qualified.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Barack Obama's Democrats accuse John McCain campaign of telling lies
This article discusses that attacks that the two campaigns are making on each other. It has only gotten worse since Sarah Palin has joined the Republican ticket. Obama's campaign is accusing McCain of lying about Palin's record and the number of people who have been attending rallies and McCain's campaign is accusing the democrats of being in a state of panic. Although I am not a huge fan of all the accusations flying around, I do believe there is some validity to each of them. Obama has been saying a lot of negative things lately and I think this seems out of charecter for him. In the past few months he has not seemed like one who was big on talking negatively about his opponents but talking positively about himself. Therefore I do believe that the democrats are getting a bit worried but I also believe that they are trying to show the people what his opponents are really like. I would also like to know the truth about Palin's supposed trips to Iraq and other countries. Also, there has been a lot of rumors about the truth on what her stance of the Bridge to Nowhere is. I would like our countries leaders to be honest with us about the things they support and have done and about the numbers of people that are really supporting them.
www.telegraph.co.uk/newsnewstopics.uselection2008/johnmccain/2958832/Barack-Obamas-Democrats-accuse-John McCain-of-telling-lies.html
Palin's Religion Energizing GOP Faithful
This article is about Sarah Palin and her religion in relation to her public policy views. The writer of the article lets us know that she is very religous. She is against abortion, believes that creationism should be taught in schools and that abstiance-only sex education should be taught in schools. She has never let her views on these topics affect her policy making but they are a large part of her life. She has preached at her church and believes that God is guiding her and is in complete control. Now don't get me wrong, I am not trying to say that it is a bad thing to be that religious. I am very glad that she has not let this affect her policy making in Alaska but if she becomes vice president then she may let those things have more of an effect on her stances on legislation. I feel very strongly that religion should be completely kept out of politics and out of public schools. Like I said, I am happy to hear that her religion has not affected her policy making in the past but I am still weary that it will affect it in the future. My religion is not one of the most popular ones in the country and any legislation that would be affected by a leader's religious beliefs would most likely not take into account my or any other minority religion in the country.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5759555&page=1
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