Get this Madigan joke out of here! along with Obummer, and Quinn! Take Rahm too

Rock, I couldn't find the tens of thousands of dollars you mentioned going to Kelly.. Where can this be found. I agree Madigan needs to go.

Recent history shows Madigan can be beat.
Kelly Burke, the Evergreen Park woman who represents the 36th House District, sent Madigan's candidate packing in the 2010 Democratic primary. The two-term library board member prevailed despite the formidable arsenal of Madigan campaign workers toiling on behalf of her opponent, which included female ghost candidates with Irish surnames, efforts to smear her on her property tax payments and threats to get her law license revoked for being a tax cheat.lease

Fred, it's documented on the Illinois Board of Elections Campaign disclosure page.

The link for her finances is

http://www.elections.state.il.us/CampaignDisclosure/CommitteeDetail.aspx?id=22410&pageindex=1

Look at the periods prior to the primary in March, 2010 and the General Election in November of 2010.

You'll see very different contributor lists. She made a "deal with the devil" (Madigan) after the primary and was well rewarded for her fealty.

Madigan directly controls Democratic Party of Illinois cashbox, and
NO ONE who hasn't "kissed the ring" gets a nickel from that.

Also, virtually every transfer from another campaign and union contribution is directed by Madigan. The unions tell Madigan how much they'll bribe...err.."contribute", and Madigan tells them which candidates he wants them to send it to, as well as how much.

There's no doubt she's a wholly owned subsidiary of "Madigan Inc."!

One other thing to remember was that the primary wasn't about having different policies and vision for Illinois, it was about personal political ambition.

Burke's support of the tax increases and factors that have created the culture of corruption and mismanagement in Illinois were virtually the same as Madigan's and her opponent.

She wanted the seat for herself, she worked hard and earned it and won the respect of Madigan for the General Election support she needed. Of course there were strings attached, but her election wasn't about fixing Illinois, it was about her becoming part of the advantaged political "club".

Can someone who doesn't want a political career, desperately wants to repair Illinois for the greater good, and has no intererest in the associated patronage beat a Madigan candidate? We'll find out in November!

Hey Rock, You are right a lot of union support but Kelly is a dem so its expected. Seems like a lot of friends and family too. Didn't look as bad as some I've seen in the papers. Good website thanks. http://votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/116630/kelly-burke

Sent an email ; kellyb@ilga.gov ==Kelly, it seems that OakLawners want to know more. Could you please help us to learn more about your ideas.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Fred Wiese

???????
Kelly Burke's deadline for submitting the 2012 Political Courage Test has passed. Project Vote Smart is currently entering data and verifying the responses. Results will be available shortly.

Lorraine, how can you represent Patch when you are a Democrat operative?

Ray, you noticed that too.

Ray, this is normal ,get used to it.

I know Kerry. They have several bloggers who post under Patch logo who defend the indefensible Democrat policies. They are hostile to anything contrary to liberal ideology according to The One. They are owned by Time-Warner, aka HBO, CNN, Huffington Post.

It does usually a Lawyer misfit and relative or friend of a contractor that Madigoon got in office at the expense of the rank-file .usually pays the homage maybe a little incense and myrrh for desert.
Madigoon has enough salted away to be a CAYMAN ISLAND GOP CORPORATION.

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul who helped keep Newt Gingrich's failed presidential campaign alive during the Republican primaries, has now reportedly donated $10 million to the super PAC supporting the presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney.

Yea Marianne, keep right on punishing the Republicans for being too conservative!!
You just stick with Mike.
#1 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-met-oak-lawn-mjm-20100626,0,6319109.story

#2 6-9-12
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-08/news/ct-edit-madigan-20120608_1_speaker-michael-madigan-firm-clients foreclosures & more dirty deals

#3 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-madigan-rules-justice-20100925,0,7476955.story?page=2

Eric,
Government agencies order in bulk to save money and have a reserve on hand. They aren't Barney Fife with one round in their pocket. If you are alleging some government conspiracy to violently subdue law-abiding civilians, that's quite a reach.

Marianne, while you are voting for those who represent your interests on social issues, those candidates are woefully incompetent on economic issues and inept on corruption.
While Illinois will soon be a bastion for abortion on demand and gay marriage, it will be a wasteland of shuttered businesses, weakened schools, and overtaxed citizens.

Does this guy really represent your views? He represents HIS views, period!
http://openline.blogspot.com/2012/08/chicago-and-illinois-political-mafia.html

Mr. Blah Blah Blah, when will you be moving to Alabama where it seems your views would be more in line with fellow extremist. Illinois is a BLUE BLUE State and will stay that way. I hear taxes are low there and they get tons of our tax dollars as they are a "Welfare State".

Mokena Voter, Chicago is a very BLUE city (in more ways than one) and a few suburban townships, that's it. In 2010, the Dems were blown out in IL outside of Chicago and certain twps. The GOP targeted 4 congressional districts and won 5!
You must be a product of the tremendous education system the Dems built or one of their patronage workers to think high taxes are a good thing.
How do you think your liberal attitude of "Give me, give me, give me" and "Free, free, free" attitude will fly with your Mokena neighbors? Not so BLUE is it?
Simple economics, the larger the tax base, the more revenue for government, lower the taxes, the larger the tax base. No crazy spending on bloated pensions, enlarged payrolls, 1/3 of our society on welfare, 1/2 on food stamps, 1/5 underemployed or worse. You Dems are a disaster!
Look at the performance of Dem domination in Springfield for the last 10 years and Washington for 4, unmitigated catastrophe.
BTW, typical liberal bias taking cheap shots at the South. Take a look around the standard of living is going down consistently around here.

Mr. Blah Blah, the only disaster was the Boosh/Cheney one, which the country will be digging out from for the next 20 years. You can watch all the "Faux" you want, but we just survived the worst admin in HISTORY.

Mkena Voter you need to go back to history class. If you truly believe that Bush was the worst president in 236 years, your ideology has trumped everything else.

Mokena, if you've lived through the Carter and Obama administrations, as I have, you've lived through the TWO worst adminstrations in history!

Seriously, just about the only financial problems that were created under Bush were the "subprime" loans traded and sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , which "mysteriously" avoided major reform under Obama. Maybe it's because his cronies like Mayor Rahm made about $15 million by allowing the corruption to continue unchallenged.

Here's a challenge for you, Mokena. Througout the subprime mess, the House and Senate banking committees had the responsibility for banking oversight on subprimes and risk assessment. When Dems took over after the 2006 election, THEY had responsibility for regulating the banks givning and trading subprimes. Barney Frank had the House committee leadership. Find me ONE quote from him identifying the subprime storm approaching and recommending tightening credit worthiness requirements before 2007 when it hit the fan, and I'll believe that Bush was at fault for not listening to him.

If you can't find such a quote, you're lying to yourself about this being a "Bush" problem. It's a Bush, Pelosi, Reid, Frank problem, and the House and Senate leadership shoulder as much blame as Bush!

Marianne, BOTH parties know what needs to be done to solve this economic mess. It's a matter of character rather than brainpower. To attract companies to create jobs, our business costs, including the Dem "corruption tax" must be no more than adjacent and competitive states. We need to show ALL businesses that they'l be treated fairly if they come to Illinois. We CAN'T have a level playing field when fatcat campaign Dem campaign contributors get hindreds of millions in tax breaks, and the small businesses that create most of the jobs don't.

We need to reduce the unfair burdens of Illinois government for families and small businesses. We can't unfairly demand taxpayers pay about 40% above average wages and benefits through "prevailing wage" laws instead of paying the lowest qualified bidders to do public capital work to create more fairly paid jobs and get more done for the peoiple of Illinois. We need to get a sustainable, fair public pension system developed so that businesses and professionals won't leave the state from fear of this "ticking time bomb".

Both parties bear some responsiblitiesfor this disaster, but it went form being a problem to a crisis due to inaction, and a corrupt Dem dominated GA working against the interests of the people of Illinois under Balgo, Madigan, EMil JONes and Cullerton over the last decade.

There are no signs that Madigan and Quinn will stop sucking this state dry if they retain power.

If you keep electing these corrupt pols so that Illinois can continue funding Planned Parenthood, you're short sighted and part of the reason we're in the tight spot we're in.

Do the right thing this November. Vote against the Madigan candidates!

add ED BURKE and family and the infamous Bridgeport family that are the poor man's BUSHEVIK clan, they all hate each other as much as NEWT hates TWIT but u are 100% on this a lot of Dem's especially those who had their jobs (patronage) stolen by MADIGOON who repays them by sending his looter offspring to their town it is Medieval serfdom but the recipient gets the privilege to speak to the speaker not Steve Brown or some other gopher don't expect to many miracles with the living dead.

Sir John Paul, let's assume the TeeParty takes control of Illinois General Assembly. What actions have they proposed to fix the fiscal mess we find ourselves in?
As far as under funded pensions, what role did Thompson, Edgar and Ryan have as they controlled the Gov's office for 26 years?

Mokena, there are no "Tea Party" Candidates in the race, only candidates that may be supported by them.

To answer your question, though, first we'd have to identify "needs" and "wants" in the state budget, and eliminate, or defer, all expenditures that are "wants". The needs include things like life safety capital work to keep our roads safe, not building unnecessary "Rec Centers" that would be nice to have, but that we simply can't afford.

We need to use the economies to pay off existing pension liabilities and state debt.

Pensions are the 800 pound gorilla, of course. The "need" is to protect current retirees' pensions for those who are TRULY reitired, not just early government retirees who start work the next day, at age 54, at another government job or as a "consultant". If a retiree is eligible for health insurance at a new job, we shouldn't be subsidizing it through the pension funds. We also shouldn't be paying 3% raises on pensions for "Retirees" who really haven't retired. Once they stop working they should be eligible for COLAs, but NOT an excessive 3% bump.

Anything there about which you disagree? If not, WELCOME TO THE TEA PARTY! If so, welcome to the being the driver sending our state off the cliff in the "Madigan Corruptionmobile"!

i'll write this slowly so that you can understand, Mokena.

When you eliminate of defer unnecessary spending, you use the money that WOULD have been spent frivolously on making pension contributions, paying deferred pension contributions, and paying off the massive bonding debt in Illinois.

If you consider that "nothing" then you obviously have NO understanding about the battle for common sense in Springfield!

Maybe you're too young to remember this, but Illinois revenues SKYROCKETED in the late 1990s during the great GOP economic expansion of that period. The budgets were balanced in Washington and Springfield, Ryan, certainly not a favorite of mine, blew a lot of these resources in his pork laden "Illinois First" Capital program instead of paying off pension obligations as was appropriate.

What is this about "my party" not balancing the budget in the last 60 years? In case you didn't notice, the Dem party has dominated Illinois, with a great deal of corrupt help from "RINOs" like Edgar, Ryan and Thompson, over virtually all that period.

Sorry, but blaming the GOP for an inability to force Madigan, Emil Jones, Quinn, Blago, and Cullerton to balance the budget is just, well, WACKY!

Mr. Bobster Rock, The Reagan Boom! How many times Did Reagan raise taxes on the middle class? I think what Bill Clinton did was raise taxes on the fat cats like Mittens Romney and the "WHOLE" country benefited. You must love the garbage Paul Ryan is feeding you Teebaggers! The last Republican (Remember That Party) to balance a budget was Eisenhower. Why don't you check where tax rates were then. You guys are not fiscal Conservatives, never have been, just talk.

How about a flat tax of 20%and 0 deductions on all income. Everybody pays their own way. All pay except poverty level and below. They pay zip. Any buyins?

Fred -- So, you're proposing to raise Mitt Romney's income tax by 54%? I just want to make sure I'm understanding your position, and that you're understanding exactly how unacceptable this would be to the Republican nominee and party.

Not just mitt. We all pay if we make over pov lvl maybe $25k or over. Gets rid of the cheets. I say thousands pf pages of tax codes SUCK. Put your income on a post card and you are done. Tax lawyers find a new career.

Butch, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Your posts remind me of the scene in the movie Billy Madison, "we are all now stupider for reading this."
First, the National Debt was approaching $7 trillion when Bush took office, $9 trillion when he left. The stimulus The One pushed accounts for $1trillion alone.
Tax cuts "not being paid for" assumes all money belongs to the government.

Fred, I understand what a flat tax is. I'm just pointing out its consequences. In 2010, Romney's effective federal tax rate was 13%. Granted, he was unusually aggressive in tax avoidance. You're proposing 20%, a 54% increase. I'm also curious as to whether you've checked your effective tax rate. Most people confuse their marginal rate with their effective rate. Generally speaking, filers making less than $300K/year have an effective income tax rate less than 20%.

Just out of curiosity, what are you proposing w.r.t. payroll taxes (FICA, Medicare)?

And I'm very skeptical that the federal budget can be balanced on the basis of a 20% flat tax. What do you propose to cut?

Stu,$300K/year have an effective income tax rate less than 20%.++ Why = deductions up the house-kids and baby loopholes for the mittwannabe's. ++
What are you proposing w.r.t. payroll taxes (FICA, Medicare)? = Everybody pays their own way except poverty level and below. They pay zip. Maybe we should get back to the old family ways of taking care of our own.

Fred, your answer to the payroll tax question is unclear. I ask because payroll taxes amount to 13.3% for filers with a taxable income of less than $110K. Higher income filers pay a much lower effective payroll tax rate, both because of the FICA cutoff, and because the Medicare tax applies only to earned (vs investment) income. This point is often missed in contemporary discussion of tax policy, and it matters.

For filers making less than $100K, the average effective income tax rate is 15%, meaning that under the status quo, the average effective federal tax rate (including income and payroll taxes) is 28.3%. For upper income filers, the average effective income tax rate is 25%, so the average effective federal tax rate is less than 28%, and probably closer to 26% than 27%.

Your proposal appears to raise the average effective federal tax rate for the middle-class from 28.3% to 33.3%, while reducing the average effective rate on upper-income earners from 28% to 23%. Is this what you want? Why?

Stu all the cake,cookies,& sweets come out of the 20 or 25 or even 30%'s that all the above to pov lvl will pay to cover the necessities of our country. What don't you understand? Just because mitty pays 13% doesn't make him a hero. I'm 73 on SSI, in Medicare, and a small pension. I'm part of the lucky one's who can still buy food and pay taxes. For the future gen lets get rid of the thieves and whiney freeloaders. romney bama are the same. If BS was music they would be band leaders

Fred, I'm puzzled by your position because it seems to be very much against your own interest. You describe a modest income, just enough to get by, yet are pushing a proposal that would likely double your own income taxes. Moreover, you seem to be open to severe cuts in Social Security and Medicare, which would hit your income and expenses pretty hard. You wouldn't feel like "one of the lucky ones" in the world you're advocating.

And I'm hard put to see Romney and Obama as equivalent. You seem to be arguing that there are a lot of people (evidently including yourself) who are freeloading because their effective income tax rate is less than 20%. By these standards, Romney, with his 13% effective tax rate, comes off pretty badly, and Obama, by his 26% effective tax rate, is carrying considerably more than his fair share.

From my point of view, your Social Security benefits are earned. You paid for them through your working life by contributions, just as I'm paying for my future benefits today. I think it's good if everyone contributes to our common needs, but also that the rich pay more (even in proportion) than the poor. After all, the rich benefit more from common resources (defense, police, roads, etc.), and their quality of life is less affected by the taxes they pay. Even in highly progressive tax schemes, taxes hit the poor harder than the rich.

stu im tired of puzzil and clareity nothing will happen in my lifetime im glad i got wat i got but if a flat tax cums a long ill b happier I guessing that ur doing ok watever makes you happy go for it im dun buy buy

Stuart, first the "payroll tax" is not a tax. It is a pension contribution. Taxes are paid into a system in total and then spent for the general good. There is no connection to the benefits I receive compared to the taxes I pay. Your Social security benefits are based on your contributions. The more you pay in the more you get. Are the payments teachers make to their pension considered a tax? It is a withholding from their pay to the government for a future benefit?

Medicare is just large group health insurance plan. Both Social Security are Medicare benefits for the lower income individuals are subsidized by higher earning individuals.

Yes, individuals stop paying into social security at $110K of wages. However, my contributions are based on $110K of wages. So if I have wages of $500K and someone else has wages of $110K, we pay in the same and we get out the same, what is wrong with that? Also, the individual making $500K will pay tax on 85% of his social security benefits where a lower income person will not pay tax on their benefits. A taxpayer paying into social security at the maximum amount their entire life has a smaller after tax social security benefit than someone paying in at 50% of the maximum even though the higher earning taxpayer paid twice as much into the system.

Stuart

I would agree with you that taxes hit the lower income families harder if they were actually paying federal income tax. The majority of the under $50,000 crowd has no taxable income and in a lot cases gets back refundable credits or EIC. A family of four, two incomes, making $100K combined, relative itemized deductions, pays around 5% of their AGI in federal tax. $100K of income , based on 2009 IRS figures, puts them near the top 10% of all taxpayers. So about 88% of all working families are paying 5% or less in federal income tax. Please tell me how the idiots on MSNBC can claim that "middle income taxpayers" pay a higher rate than Romney? It is just a lie, as most things are on MSNBC.

Hope and Change, let me start with the last first. Let's consider your scenario. Take an AGI of $100K, subtract the standard deduction of $11,600 to get $88,400. Subtract exemptions of 4 x $3700 to get a taxable income of $73,600. The taxes, per the tax tables, are $10,656, for an effective tax rate of 10.7%, which is more than twice what you claimed. In order to get them down to the 5% you claimed, you'd need to get their taxable income down to $39,050, which corresponds to deductions of $46,150. That's severe audit territory.

Running the same calculation with an AGI of $50K yields $0 EIC, and results in taxes of $2,694, i.e., a 5.4% effective rate. That's a lot more than $0.

As far as I can see, your "facts" are false, and there's no clear argument made. Care to try again?

As for the MSNBC claim that "middle income tax payers pay a higher rate than Romney," I would argue that some do, and some don't. Romney claimed a 2010 effective rate of 13%. If we run the same calculation based on $120K of income, we get 13%. Is an AGI of $120K middle class? I'd say so. The definition of middle class is pretty squishy, but these days, a taxable income of $250K seems to be the cutoff. So there certainly are middle class tax payers who are paying a considerably higher effective income tax rate than Romney, although most don't.

Sir John Paul, it's refreshing to see at least ONE Republican admit that maybe their side had something to do with the situation. If Madigan is the problem, wouldn't it be fair for the Obama Admin. to place the same blame on John Boehner? I'm no fan of Madigan, but he's not the Governor. The buck stops with Quinn. As for Walker/Christie, what's so difficult about giving tax breaks to people who don't need them and cutting the middle class?

Mokena, I don't think you can compare the power that Madigan has in Illinois to what Boehner has in DC. Boehner doesn't get to draw the congressional districts throughout the country as Madigan does here. Also, Boehner doesn't control the GOP money nationally as Madigan does here. On top of that, Madigan also draws the Senate districts, as they are comprised of two house districts. US Senators are elected by state, and nobody can effect those boundaries.

As for your second point, how have the middle class been cut, unless they are puplic employees? And, who gets to decide who "needs" tax breaks? I look at taxes as something we are forced to pay. Some see after tax income as what the government is nice enough to let us keep.

Butch, speed kills. After reading this last post, all I can say to you is blogging and drug abuse don't mix. Get cleaned up, man!

Are you Ivent?

Gee, what made you think that? I guess you missed my " if it sounds like a duck post"...
Just as rock bobster is old Bob

Does a Leopard changes its spots

You are Ivent, stripes, nancy grace, and now butch. Different screen names, same blubbering.

Madigan = Satan

Same poor spelling, same overuse of caps, same ranting about government, same ideas about some kind of a conspiracy that only you are smart enough to figure out.
I thought that you would have had enough after you pulled all your nancy grace posts yesterday.
You keep posting your insane drivel and we will keep laughing at it.
See ya later, Butch/ivent/nancygrace/stripes.

Whatever you say, butch/ivent/nancygrace/strips.
I wish it was possible to figure out what it is that you are babbling about, but I guess that you have to be kinda "special" like you for anything you say to make any sense at all.
Thanks again for giving me something to laugh at but you better be careful spending so much time on the computer because they are watching.
Have a good night and don't forget to take your meds.

I think you are off your meds.