Goo-Goos Are Not a Working Man's Pal - Claypool Rolls the Bus Over CTA Employees

Policy killed politics. Politics is what made government effective. Politics responds to people's needs. Policy is the pathway to power.

The goof who first said, "There ought to be a Law" opened the door to government for Progressives. Progressives entered that smoke filled room and immediately went shopping for judges to get smoking banned; the rest is government that pads the few and pounds the rest.

Witness this swell photo of Armani clad CTA Brahmin ( appointed, n'cest pas) Forrest Claypool standing on the platform for a CTA L Train, clad in his Progressive Work Clothes. Shucks, he's just like folks.

However, folks seem to scan for the train in the correct general direction that the train will take.

Working Folks are about to get another world-class, transcendent, post-racial screwing, from Goo-goo Progressive Forrest Claypool.

Fifteen minutes of paid “coffee time” before the start of each shift. Twenty-minute paid bathroom breaks for customer assistants with easy access to washrooms. Paid lunch breaks for CTA rail operators and Sunday bus drivers. Paying workers convicted of drunk driving to do nothing for 180 days while they appeal and attempt to get their driving privileges back. Starting the clock on emergency overtime when employees get the phone call at home instead of when they arrive at work.

Those are some of the CTA work rules that CTA President Forrest Claypool wants to change in order to fill a $277 million shortfall in the CTA budget without raising fares or cutting service.

Yeah, taking a leak is killing this City. Thus, always the way of reform. It does not matter that policies begun by people like Frank Kruesi and continued by Forrest - people who have absolutely no working experience in the field of transportation -and deals cut to make a few people rich and not a bathroom break has crippled the Chicago Transit Systems. Did we really beg for accordion buses? Green buses? Faux Parisian benches?

Forrest Claypool never drove a bus, or a train. I doubt if Forrest Claypool has ever been on the business end of a janitor's broom, mop, or brush. I'd venture to offer that, Forrest Claypool does not drop by CVS, Jewel-Osco, or other fine venues to purchase a CTA Red Pass at a modest $85.00 good for a full month of rides anywhere in Chicagoland.

I have one in my wallet. In fact, I ride the CTA in order to ease my carbon-footprint off of Mother Earth's back and to save a few shekles. I generally get on the 5:06 Bus at 104th & Western to 79th Street Terminal and grab and east bound ( Red Line) to 79th & Morgan and legendary Leo High School.

I have never seen Forrest, or Rahm on that run. They keep different hours.

I am a working stiff. A College and Graduate school degree'd mope. I ride the bus with a Mr. Duckworth ( 'Duckie') a Coast Guard Veteran who works at Calumet Harbor, Vanessa, a cook at Perspectives ( formerly Calumet H.S.) and Bertina, a nurse at Jackson Park Hospital. We are very happy with the working men and women at the wheel who not only safely and promptly get us to work, but also maintain command presence and authority over drunks, crack-pipe artists, thugs and idiots. They (Bus and Train drivers) are in harm's way, all day and every day, and do not wear Kevlar.

Driving in Chicago traffic is a bitch and a half on a good day; driving a bus is a labor fit for Greek Gods. God Bless Our CTA Folks!

Sorry for your looming troubles, folks.




Then there is the Goo-goo appointee - Forrest Claypool who gets conveniently slotted into an elective spot when someone dies and his opponent is in an iron-lung, or more commonly appointed to a six figure salary. Forrest Claypool is the Rula Lenska of Chicago*. One always wonders - "What exactly did he/she do?" Rula was the sexy Limey broad who did Clairol commercials staged in what was supposed to be a theatrical dressing room. Forrest Claypool bounces from Parks, to Staffs, to Hospitals, to Boards, to Executive Suites.

The guy can't keep a job.

Forrest is a Goo-goo Brahmin - that is a life-long sinecure - he is a professional 'Ain't He Great-er' and therefore will always collect a huge paycheck.

American Labor, like the Democratic Party has snuggled up to the Goo-goos for forty year. Why? God only knows. Unions are now learning what Old Time Ward pros have known all along. Goo-goos ( Mike Quigley, Pat Quinn, Forrest Lenska, Deb Shore, Sheila Simon, Quentin Young, Dawn Clark Netsch, Ralph Martire, Terry Cosgrove, and always hilarious Jan Schakowsky) are not friends of working people.

When a Goo-goo, Reformer, Progressive, Activist, Mobilizer, or glue-sniffer gets power, grab your ankles, make sure you have a good athletic mouthpiece firmly fitted between your uppers and lowers, and wait for the screwing of the Ages!


*"

Who the hell is Rula Lenska?" The question was first asked on the air by Detroit TV News Anchorman Don Lark, then echoed in print by Washington Post Columnist Roger Rosenblatt. She is, as many TV watchers know, a glamorous redhead who appears regularly in commercials for Alberto VO5 hair spray. She tosses her long locks, identifies herself as R-u-ula Lenz-z-zka and speaks of herself as though she were a famous actress. But, as the newscaster asked, who is she?
Chicago Adman David Lewis knows the answer, and he is telling everyone who will listen: Rula Lenska is the 31-year-old daughter of a Polish émigré count and lives in London. She was featured as a rock singer in the British TV series Rock Follies and as a character in a never released film, Queen Kong. What fascinated Lewis, who had nothing to do with the hair spray commercials, was this obscure actress's hopeful pretense of being a famous star. As a lark, he founded the Rula Lenska Fan Club—and soon found that some 600 other people were ready to join the cult.
In London, "The Fair One," as she is known to her U.S. fans, confesses to be "stunned and astonished" by her unexpected fame but more preoccupied with the imminent birth of her first child. Lewis urged fans to "name the nipper." The winners: Octavia and Llewellyn.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920557,00.html#ixzz1aCK9sxop

Responsible Budget Coalition of SEIU Wants More of Our Dollars - Time For Gov. Pat Quinn to Put Down The Illinois Easter Bunny!

I like Pat Quinn and will more than likely vote for him. Governor Pat Quinn is personally honest, liberal to a fault, as loyal as Harry Truman, and as generous a man as God ever made.

Pat Quinn also, like too many of my fellow Democrats, believes in the Easter Bunny.

The Easter Bunny drops pellets as well as treats. The Easter Bunny in Illinois is dropping turds the size of Bill Ayers' swelled and pampered head -that was a gratuitous insult . . .my pleasure. The treats no longer exist. Illinois is broke. The basket has been looted by Coalitions.

These smelly Bunny Budget Boulders are the result of all the Coalitions for More Money from Working Stiffs to Redistribute to Non-Working Stiffs in the Name of Caring and Tender Mercies. Praise . . .uh . . .Praise Jane Addams and all of her Girfriends!

Ralph Martire of Center for Budget and Tax Accountability is one such Bunny Belly Sweller.

Here's another from Progress Illinois ( SEIU Comic Book) where every Lefty's Kid finds work as a columnist and editor.

The Responsible Budget Coalition will celebrate its one-year anniversary this coming week. It's a milestone the group --which includes community organizations, social service providers, unions (including the SEIU Illinois Council, which sponsors this website), and faith-based organizations -- would have preferred not to reach.

This wallet lifting Coalition is run by Jon Bouman who looks at working people's wallets like a glutton looks at the Food Channel.

Jon Bouman also runs the Sargent Shriver Center for Every Lefty Cause and is also the selected House Mouse of SEIU. Bouman, like elected officials lives off of tax-dollars, because philanthropy is also being murdered by Coalitions. Charitable Giving as well as Business Incentive, is down, because of taxes. Coalitions bully for tax-dollars and charities sseem to hang on like lamprey eels. Jon Bouman whines to the heart strings with that great 70's tune FEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeLLLIIINNGS moaning in the background. Have a Heart! Pay More Taxes You Racist Class Warriors! He's wonderful!

Click my post title and see just who is looking into Illinois working family wallets - There are good causes coalesing with Tax Gluttons. More gluttons than baquet goers.

The St. Vincent DePaul Society is a very good and deserving charity, as is El Valor, as is Gadshill, as is . . .however, the list is front loaded with deadbeats and Leftist PACS and Abortion Happy Harpies.

Governor Quinn, listen to a plumber, a pipe fitter, a laborer, a 150 Operating Engineers, a Hoister, a Housewife and allow the wax to build up in your ears when you see Jon Bouman shilling for SEIU, "The public will tolerate [the changes] and understand it if they are lead." - Jon "Bunny Boy" Bouman.

Pat put the Bunny down - "put it down." Like at the Vet's.

Illinois Fatuous Ninny - Ralph Martire Explains That the Taxes He Demanded Of Illinois Pols and Got Have Nothing to Do with Our Debt!

Illinois is in the jackpot it now enjoys because Dawn Clark Netsch and every other Goo-goo syrup-dripping phony and Marxist-in-Demo-Drag bully ragged gutless elected officials into more Taxes. More Taxes for -
1. The Children
2. The Hungry
3. Old Folks
4. Pensions
5. Fish & Sierra
6. Green Everything
7. Stan Ikenberry and Chris Kennedy
8. Assorted Race-baiting scams
9. SEIU
10. HI -Speed Rail Adventures of the Future!

These stupid and wasteful measure that did very little good were pie-charted by Ralph Martire - the most dangerous dweeb in Illinois.

Today, Ralph whines that Pensions are a symptom and not a cause -

That’s because the state’s outsized pension debt is actually a symptom of the state’s fiscal problems — not their cause.

Let me explain. For decades, annual state revenue growth has been insufficient to cover the growth in the cost of providing the aforesaid core public services, adjusting for just inflation and population growth. So for decades, legislators and governors engaged in the irresponsible fiscal practice of diverting revenue that should have been used to make pension payments, to instead cover service delivery, effectively using the pension system like a credit card.

As noted in a recent letter issued by the Chicago Federal Reserve Board, it is this decades-long failure to make employer contributions to the pension systems, coupled with asset losses caused by the recent recession, that in fact created the state’s huge unfunded liability. To be clear, the unfunded liability was not caused by generous benefits, high costs or even high head counts. But facing that reality is uncomfortable for politicians because it points the finger directly at them — and their irresponsible fiscal stewardship.

So, rather than honestly confront their own fiscal mismanagement, many politicians find it more convenient to demagogue this issue. And what better way to distract voters than by telling them the problem can be solved by switching from the state’s current defined benefit system to a 401(k)-styled defined contribution system — just like many voters have in the private sector. This has the advantage of sounding reasonable because it appeals to voters’ own personal experiences. Now, that may be good politics, but it’s horrible policy.

Right Ralph they are a symptom of Stupid Progressive and the hired Pie-Chart Pirates like you.

Thanks for Clearing things up.

If I were Bill Brady I would say Ralph Martire every third sentence.

If I were Governor Pat Quinn I would say "Ralph Martire is now a resident of Utah! I helped Ralphie pack!"

Cicero's Dictum on Government, Hanlon's Razor and Hickey's Corollary

Ralph Martire spoke in Kankakee on Taxes!

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 BC

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Hanlon's Razor
However, Illinois Government listens to Ralph Martire*, believes that SEIU is a labor union and appoints Julie Hamos and Sheila Simon to Illinois Pensions; thus, stupid malice, or malicious stupidity! Hickey's Corrolary
*

There are many common culprits that politicians, interest groups and the public blame for Illinois' current budget crisis. But according to Ralph Martire, executive director of the Chicago-based Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, few are the real reasons for the $13 billion deficit.

Martire was the featured speaker Saturday at a town hall meeting on the state budget crisis in Bradley sponsored by state Rep. Lisa Dugan and state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, both Democrats.

While wasteful spending, fraud and high taxation are often perceived as the problem -- the real issue is Illinois' tax structure. In front of about 200 people, the trio attempted to address some of the key misperceptions of the problem . . .
Martire had some interesting things to say -- things he has said before in this area when he spoke at the Kankakee Public Library. But things that probably bear repeating.

He said the crisis is not being caused by high spending, the burden of high taxation, the cost of pensions or health care programs for low-income residents, or by fraud, waste and abuse.

Ralph, keeps cashing them checks, though! Hell, at least I'd wear a mask and pretend I had a gun.

School Vouchers Good for Illinois - SEIU and Ralphie Martire Are Against It!

Ralph Martire and Rev. Senator James Meeks in happier times - before Senator Meeks got wise to the opposition to School Choice.


The same idiots who pushed Illinois over the fiscal cliff - SEIU's Tax Ingesting Boondoggles and Pie Chart Vampire Ralph Martire are dead set against Senator James Meeks' victory in the Illinois Senate for Illinois Families and Tax Payers - School Vouchers

Ralph Martire has Pie Charted and Parsed every bone-headed tax-increase since Dawn Clark Netsch stamped Ralph's ticket.

Ralph and his Center for Tax and Budget Accountability is clearing house for cover to dimwitted and gutless politicians. Too strong, Hickey?

Hey, Sally, wait until you see Illinois go all Arnold Schwarzenegger's California!

School Choice - Vouchers - is the only real hope for Chicago's public schools and many other districts as well. Where there are strong Catholic Schools Like Fenwick, there is a solid public school. Leo High School helps Simeon stay competitive - though we attract Simeon students. Now, Simeon Moms and Dads might be able to afford Leo, or Fenwick, Governor Quinn.

If Ralph Martire is against anything it must be a great idea and SEIU's graphic novel (comic book) Progress Illinois is already huffing and puffing against Vouchers.

The Center on Tax and Budget Accountability's executive director Ralph Martire echoed those sentiments, adding that there is no guarantee that a private school must accept disadvantaged students, either.

Meeks bill now moves over to the House, which will take up the measure after the spring recess. Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Union is pushing back against the bill. And Gov. Pat Quinn has indicated that he's not thrilled about any idea of draining any more resources from already-struggling public schools.

"The concept of public education is that every child, regardless of where they grow up, can get a quality education," Martire tells us. "If you don't have the resources to hire more and better teachers, to put technology in the classrooms, to have enrichment and afterschool programs to extend the school day ... how is competition [with the private market] going to make schools any better?"

Ralph, you are a caution!

Competition makes Principals go Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!


Mmmmmmmmmmmm, time to unload the dead weight!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, new blood might help!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, teachers are not showing up on Mondays and Fridays, but they are at St. Werque-Ethiks!


Baby steps, Ralph! Come on Big Boy!!!! You CAN do it Ralph! One Step! That a boy, Ralph! You'll get the hang of it!

Illinois Entrenched School Lobby Ain't Ready for Reform

Senator Meeks is out in front for Genuine School Reform. That is a reform that begins and ends with Vouchers - the only means of getting real Accountability and Competition for Public Schools. Public Schools are Un-Accountable and Compete with no one.

Public Schools are enthralled by the Illinois Public School Lobby - a Gordian knot of Teachers Unions, Ralph Martire Industries ( Pie Charts=More Taxes R Us), Public School Vendors, Bus Companies and hundreds of tax-funded satellite Education sucker fish - our Cook County Superintendent Charles Flowers* in their many manifestations.

Yesterday, Chicago Daily Observer's President John Powers posted a great report on the legislation by Illinois Senator James Meeks to reform Illinois Public Education.

His voucher proposal would allow parents of students in the academically lowest 10 percent of Chicago Public Schools to have the option of sending their children to a private school, if space is available.

Meeks, formerly a strong advocate for improving Illinois’s public schools, said his plan comes as a result of violence and increasingly poor test scores in CPS schools.

“Right now, our General Assembly rules actually lock a kid into a low-performing school,” Meeks said. “And we have no plans to get the kid out.”

Teachers unions and parents are opposing the proposed legislation, saying that taking the students out of public schools will hurt the school system. When Meeks outlined his legislation last week to a Senate committee, the opposition was ready to speak up.

Opposition to the Meeks efforts come not from African American Legislative leaders who in the past have supported the Illinois School Lobby,. . .

State Sen. Rickey Hendon, D-Chicago, serves on the Senate committee and supports Meeks’ plan. Although vouchers have historically been a Republican idea, Hendon said he believes the city of Chicago needs this option.

Hendon said CPS is failing the students in the bottom 10 percent of schools, and that he is tired of seeing the violence.

“We’ve been saying we’re going to educate out babies. We’re going to fix the schools. We’re going to find solutions,” Hendon said. “And nothing has changed. Absolutely, positively nothing.”

State Sens. Bradley Burzynski, R-Sycamore, and James Clayborne, D-East St. Louis, also voted to move Meeks’ proposal forward. It now goes to a Senate education subcommittee, where it is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday.

. . . but from the Blue Stocking Lobbyists.

Ben Schwarm of the School Management Alliance said the program is not realistic because of funding issues. He said there is no way to know how many students will participate in the program until the school year starts.

“We don’t know how many of our students are going to leave our district,” Schwarm said. “We don’t know how many students from other districts are going to come to our schools on enrollment day because they don’t live here. And for planning purposes, setting a budget and so forth, that raises some problems.”

Well done Senator. Hammer them!

* Supt. Charles Flowers:

The Daily Southtown newspaper wrote a detailed article exposing the corruption and failure of Charles Flowers as Superintendent. Here's the article and reporter contact information below:

When Charles Flowers took over the reins of the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education two years ago, critics were skeptical of his baggage.

Flowers, a former special education teacher and administrator, has a history of questionable financial dealings from his days as board president at west suburban Maywood-Melrose Park District 89. But he came into office in 2007 vowing to root out corruption and bring reform to Cook County public schools.

Once he became regional superintendent, Flowers hired relatives and friends and then began giving employees salary advance loans. Then he went to Cook County government for an emergency loan, which the regional office has yet to repay.

In April, the regional office couldn't make payroll and earlier this year the department didn't pay its group health insurance premiums on time, leading the company to temporarily cancel workers' health benefits.

So where's the money?

http://provisoinsider.blogspot.com/2009/05/daily-southtown-exposes-regional.html

Ralph Martire and The Endless Illinois Snow Job

Ralph Martire, the mouthpiece for Tax Increases in Illinois, is everywhere! He is like the endless 'Chance of Snow -100%' warnings for Illinois.

If it is snowing and it is - now, yesterday, and tomorrow - it is up to Illinois residents to grunt and strain and heft and heave the burden. If it is Tax Increases, and it is -now, yesterday, and tomorrow - its the work of the Snow King, Ralph Martire who has pie-charted and schmoozed the media since he took his sheepskin. It is, however, for the Illinois resident to grunt and strain and heft and heave the burden of taxes.

The Civic Federation has linked arms with the Snow King and calls for more Illinois Taxes.

Ralph Martire snows on Illinois about entitlements, infrastructure and education.

Here is Ralph Martire pie-charting and parsing about Illinois Education as reported by the tough and fair minded Jeff Berkowitz:

Ralph Martire, a liberal and Executive Director of the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability, contends the evidence shows vouchers don't work. He cites, for example, to a federal government funded research study that Martire contends supports his view. However, Martire's favorite study to cite on education simply compares private and public schools, it doesn't study the impact of school vouchers.

Peer reviewed credible studies on school vouchers

Moreover, Tillman says that Martire is wrong and that there are many studies that demonstrate that vouchers work well. Tillman argues that based on all the peer reviewed credible studies on vouchers, they work extremely well. In short, Tillman believes that choice improves outcomes. That's true with charter schools and school vouchers.

When consumers have choices, they can benefit from competition, resulting in more efficiency and innovation. Producers, in this case schools, offer improved quality and services, and at lower prices. In response to Martire's argument that school vouchers don't work, Tillman said if that is the case, people wouldn't use the vouchers, that is, they would simply stay in the public schools, so "what do we have to lose by trying school vouchers? What, indeed?

Click my post title for more Snow melted by Jeff Berkowitz. Nice, Jeff!

The Chicago Media Ten Cent Head Club never connect Ralph to the endless snow jobs.


What indeed? More Snow of course! Ralph Martire is taxed with giving 'scientific' cover for Tax-A- Holic Progressive boondogglers.

Here is Ralph Martire - Googed by your humble helot hack/blogger - pie-charting and parsing for more heavy, wet miserable Tax Blizzards!

Daley orders more budget cuts
Medill Reports: Chicago - Jessica Q. Chen, Aaron Stern - ‎Feb 11, 2010‎
"It's hard to fathom given how lean things are … that this won't impact services," said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget ... Lawmakers advocate unlikely bills
Peoria Journal Star - Brian Feldt, Doug Finke - ‎Feb 20, 2010‎
“It's purely pandering,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “It's evading the issue. ... Despite budget woes, lawmakers push tax breaks
Rockford Register Star - Brian Feldt, Doug Finke - ‎Feb 19, 2010‎
“It's purely pandering,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “It's evading the issue. ... School Vouchers-School Choice: The Obamas, hypocrisy and social justice
ChicagoNow (blog) - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎
Ralph Martire, a liberal and Executive Director of the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability, contends the evidence shows vouchers don't work. ... How The State Budget Crisis Imperils Lower-Income Students
Progress Illinois (blog) - ‎Feb 12, 2010‎
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability's Ralph Martire tells us that those families in lower-income districts are likely to get hit with higher ... Unfunded mandates bill part of larger school funding push Posted By John Myers ...
Catalyst Chicago - ‎Feb 19, 2010‎
... as many as a dozen, says Ralph Martire, executive director for the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and a school finance expert. ... Memo From Turner: Could it Have Changed Scott Lee Cohen Outcome?
Chicago Daily Observer - ‎Feb 7, 2010‎
No one in our state, except possibly Dawn Netsch, Paul Vallas or Ralph Martire understand economics and budgeting as well as Dan does. ...

Memo to our Media Dim-bulbs - Ralph Martire is the Illinois Tax Snow King! Shucks,Girls, let's give Ralph Martire his Props for all the Taxes Now and to Come!

http://news.google.com/news/search?um=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=ralph+martire&as_qdr=m&as_drrb=q&cf=all

Ralphie Martire! Keep the Duck!

The MUCH respected Civic Federation ( Fanfare of Trumpets Please!) wants Illinois Tax-payers to kick in more dollars that they don't have to pay for what Ralphie Martire* demanded and got from 2004 on!

Hey, The Sun Times said so!

That same tax increase has been advocated since 2004 by another civic watchdog group, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

Allow us to soften the sticker shock of such a tax increase by putting it in context:

Ralph Martire takes money from people who earn salaries and provides cash, goods and services to people who do not.

In 2004. Ralph Martire, as he has done so all of his career, poached income from the Illinois Taxpayers, with the say-so and go-ahead of Illinois Progressives like his Chinaman Dawn Clark Netsch.

Akin to shooting a duck that lands on a farmer's land:

Ralph Martire shoots a duck out in the country - Kankakee,or Papineau, Illinois let's say. As he's retrieving it, a farmer walks up and stops him, claiming that since the duck is on his farm, it technically belongs to him - like his income. After minutes of arguing, the farmer proposes they settle the matter "country style."

"What's country style?" asks the city boy Ralphie.

"Out here in the country," the farmer says, "when two fellers have a dispute, one feller kicks the other one in the balls as hard as he can. Then that feller, why, he kicks the first one as hard as he can. And so forth. Last man standin' wins the dispute."

Warily the Tax Hawker Ralph Martire agrees and prepares himself. The farmer hauls off and kicks Ralph a good 'un in the groin with all his might. With now three Adam's Apples in his gullet Ralph Maartire falls to the ground in the most intense pain he's ever felt, crying like a baby and coughing up blood. Finally he staggers to his feet and says, "All right, n-now it's–it's m-my turn."

The farmer grins. "Aw, hell, you win. Keep the duck."

When every wage earner and tax-payer in Illinois gets to line up and go Country Style on Ralph Martire and the fine folks of the Civic Federation, a Doomsday Tax Increase will be just jake with me.


* January 1, 2001
Ralph Martire is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability ( "CTBA"). He also serves as a regular columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, the State Journal-Register and The Herald News on issues involving government accountability, tax, fiscal and budget policies. Ralph served on the budget advisory board to Governor Rod Blagojevich's transition team, where he acted as chairperson of the state revenue subcommittee. Ralph was the principal author of a study CTBA produced that identified revenue enhancement proposals to address the 2002 fiscal crises in the state of Illinois. Five of the proposals identified in that study ultimately became law. Ralph also was a key member of the research team that produced the groundbreaking "State of Working Illinois" report, which detailed industry, employment, wage and benefit trends in Illinois over the last 15 years. A joint project of CTBA and Northern Illinois University, the State of Working Illinois has been featured in over 150 media (print and broadcast) placements nationwide.
Ralph was the recipient of the 2004 Ben C. Hubbard Leadership Award, presented annually by Illinois State University to an individual whose leadership has significantly benefited education in Illinois.

Illinois Needs to get Wise to Gentry Liberalism - Avoid the California Rush to Ruin

Back in 2007 Joel Kotkin and Fred Siegel coined the phrase Gentry Liberalism. The Main Stream Media has avoided this term; this condition that afflicts America.

Gentry Liberalism -Today's ascendant liberalism has a much different agenda. Call it "gentry liberalism." It's not driven by the lunch-pail concerns of those workers struggling to make it in an increasingly high-tech, information-based, outsourcing U.S. economy -- though it does pay lip service to them.

Rather, gentry liberalism reflects the interests and values of the affluent winners in the era of globalization and the beneficiaries of the "financialization" of the economy. Its strongholds are the tony neighborhoods and luxurious suburbs in and around New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and West Los Angeles.

These are folks who have nothing to lose - jobs, income, health. Needless to say they feel great - about themselves, but the rest of us? Not so hot. We tend to be fatter, have many more children, remain married, cling to religion
, work and pay taxes. We are Helots and they are Progressive Olympians - not the athletes the folks on that big hill in Greece.

Gentry Liberalism loves Advocacy Politics ( Gay, Black, Hispanic ( whatever the Hell that is), Abortion Happy/Women & etc.) and Marxist PACS SEIU/ACORN & etc. You know - like every time Ralph Martire opens his yap? More taxes.

Gentry Liberalism means Taxes for Helots.

Illinois needs to get wise to Gentry Liberalism - Progressive Political Olympians.

We can start by getting wise to Kotkin and Seigel. Click my post title.

Obama's problems stem primarily from gentry liberalism's class contradictions. Focused on ultra-affluent greens, the media, Wall Street and the public sector, gentry liberalism generally gives short shrift to upward mobility, the basic aspiration of the middle class.

Scott Brown's shocking victory in Massachusetts--like earlier GOP triumphs in Virginia and New Jersey--can be explained best by class. Analysis by demographer Wendell Cox, among others, shows that Brown won his margin in largely middle- and working-class suburbs, where many backed Obama in 2008. He lost by almost 2-to-1 among poor voters and also among those earning over $85,000 a year. He also won a slight margin among union members--remarkable given the lockstep support of their organizations for Brown's Democratic opponent, Martha Coakley.

Geography played a role, of course, but class proved the divider. Coakley did well in the wealthiest suburbs largely north and northwest of Boston. But Brown's edge in the more middle- and working-class suburbs proved insurmountable.

Quinn Pumps a Dry Well in Illinois

Gov. Pat Quinn is Dry Pumping Illinois.

"This is jobs. This is Illinois recovery. We've got to get our economy back on track," Quinn said at the bill-signing at Marshall High School on the West Side.

"And, as Franklin Roosevelt said a long time ago, the best way to do it is to prime the pump with public works where the government steps in and builds buildings and builds a lot of other things that the people need," the governor said.

People need it good and hard, sayeth Quinn!

Okay!

1.Start pumping the Double Saw-Bucks into Video Poker! Done that ( illegally) and lost beau coup Bucks! Now, Illinois Budget Commandos can straddle a stool and go home to the wife and kids and proudly proclaim, " I invested this month's mortgage in Illinois Infrastructure Improvements! Oh, I tossed in the Mount Carmel tuitions and groceries, but I expect to have a much better day, once I swipe the new Visa Gold and head back to the Bucket of Blood with a fistful of Dollars! . . . What????"

2. Spend more for shampoo, candy, beer, wine, bottled tea ( Kids -Meet Captain Lipton and the Big-Ass Pitcher)!

3. Pony Up at the Currency Exchange for Title Transfers, Illinois Plates, Stickers and Fees!

4. Line-up for Shovel Ready Jobs ( pay for your Laborers Card first . . .Oh, and that big sharp metal thingy, there; that goes into the clay-thick Illinois Soil - You grab the long wooden shaft - that's the working end of the Shovel) and see who gets hired! As Foxy John Cullerton says this Dollar Give-away ends "the practice of using out-of-work Illinoisans as political leverage while also removing a major roadblock to bipartisan cooperation and trust among political leaders." . . . And the Easter Bunny lives under my deck.

5. Oh, and this nugget was missing from the Progressive Independent Voice of Chicago ( Sun Times) account, but found down low in the Chicago Tribune Budget Bonanza! Say good-bye to $ 3.6 Billion Dollars Governor Rookie Quinn will 'borrow' -

Quinn's latest budget plan would include borrowing up to $3.6 billion to pay public-employee pensions. Quinn helped defeat a similar proposal in May as he tried to force a tax increase.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-quinn-capital-spending14jul14,0,4384338.story

You feeling me, Illinois? You will! Ralph Martire Budgets and We get to pay for it! Hey, Ralph, how about spotting me and the kids an inch or two of Grants, or Jacksons until summer is over? Invest in my Children! Ralph, The Children!!!!!

But the Mighty Quinn says no Illinois Income Tax . . . yet. Well, I have just enough Irish Chapstick ( Preparation H) to see me through October.


Here's the deal. When there ain't nothing to Pump Up, the well is bone dry!

Ralph Martire's Monster Budget - Ralph, Illinois Policy Institute Trims the Budget Blubber . . .And No One Dies

Rock-Solid By Gummy Illinois Son of the Soil -"Mrs. Illinois, not to be rude but Ralphie Rod Blag-Budget has gotten just a tad past chubby; now, I suppose that it's none of my business, but perhaps . . . maybe . . . Ralphie Rod might like a nice Soy Snack - 'stead a that thar Hershey's Dipped Deep Fried Oreo Wheel?"

SEIU Human Activists - "Coward! Ralphie Rod Has Feelings and Will Die Without Those Empty Calories! Call the Coalition! We are marching on this man . . . what's that? Oh, Woman. Sorry. Are you Gay? That would make a huge difference, . . .Oh, you were laughing at us! Youare a Man a Breeder! No Doubt against Womens Reproductive Health and a Theocrat. Nice. but the child needs his snack!"

John Tillman's Illinois Policy Intitute's Report and Recommendations shows legislators how to trim the lard from the State Budget without raising taxes.

In fact it gives very specific recommendations of just where to slice and dice wasteful spending - Chicago State University* for example, where its former President went on a taxpayer funded personal spending junket for years, is given only a modest cut in appropriated spending dollars.

No blood. No Fire. No Nothing. Just a reasonable taxpayer cash diet.

The report concludes:

If Illinois had enacted an expenditure limit in 2004 that limited spending growth to population plus inflation, the state could have cumulatively
saved $13.7 billion over the past six years. That’s money that could have
been put in a rainy day fund, applied toward the unfunded public employee
pension liabilities, or even refunded to taxpayers. Budget Savings from
Establishing a Spending Limit in 2004 An expenditure limit could have helped to
prevent the $11.606 billion budget deficit . . . state faces today. If Illinois had adopted an expenditure limit in 2004, the budget for fiscal year 2010 would be $29.1 billion. Given that the state is expected to bring in $26.9 billion
in revenue in 2010, the “diet” budget of $29.1 billion is much more in tune with reality than the actual 2010 base budget of $34.2 billion. Illinois has a good opportunity to prevent future runaway spending growth by immediately passing an expenditure limit based on inflation and population growth.

Purple T -Shirt give-aways are a nice way to get folks passionate about shouting at lawmakers and marching under the Capital Dome, but real solution to Budget Bloat is Fiscal and Fiduciary Fearlessness.

Legislators who voted down the tax-increase showed just that - Courage.

Ralph Martire sold Tax Bloat to Blago and others before him. Sensible Law makers said no. People like Patti Bellock, John Fritchey, Jim Watson, Debbie Mell - Yep Deb Mell, Kevin Joyce, Kevin McCarthy, and Jim Brosnahan are the only people telling Illinois Budget Blubber Boy, Ralphie-Rod, 'Drop that Elephant Ear, Son! My God it's the size of a Harvester!'

Ralph is still hawking the lard. It's getting pretty tough to squeeze into those purple T-shirts - metaphorically speaking.


Cut the Bloat! Say No to Taxes!

Feel like Marching!



* Click ,y post title for the full report! Nice work John Tillman!
Check out Table # 3 on page 2 of the Illinois policy Institute Report
TABLE 3: Eliminating Governor Quinn’s
FY 2010 Spending Increases (general funds)

Voting Against Illinois Tax Monster is Not Cowardly, Ralph Martire - It is Your Monster, Ralph, You and Your Pal Blago. Get a Leash

"Avoiding a tax increase vote because you are concerned about your political career. That is cowardly," said the Center on Tax and Budget Accountability's Ralph Martire. SEIU Graphic Novel -Progress Illinois

Graphic Novels are what the Hep Cats call Comic Books these days. Ralph Martire is a career Academic Appointee who helped Gov. Rod Blagojevich buy fleets of PACE SUVs to help 'seniors' get around. That was nice. Grandma Donahue lived at 63rd & Kilpatrick near Midway and got around just fine on CTA. Seniors now ride free.

Old Lawyers from DuPage ride free. Blago sent his wife to Costa Rica and awaits more paper from Fitzy. Ralph Martire is still getting a handsome salary from one or more of the many Coalitions, that he handsomely manages to get appointed to, and shouts out scripted screams that tax-payers need to pay more.

Ralph, we're Tap City, Son.

My legislators voted against the Swelled-Like-A-Tick Budget that Ralph Martire helped Blago bloat. Ralph was Blago's Budget Big-shot ( Ralph has been Illinois' Mr. Programs since Dawn Clark Netsch first appointed Ralph to do some Coalition building).

Ralph is going around with Progressive, Fair and Efficient Charts and Numbers to make sure folks that who do not understand how a balance a check book can get all worked up over money that other people have earned.

http://www.kankakee.lib.il.us/podcasts/images/tax.pdf

Ralph is good for SEIU, Good for People who benefit from other people's tax burdens.

Ralph is not really good for people with mortgage payments, tuition burdens, and jobs ( for the moment) in Illinois. Ralph is good to people who appoint him to swell paying jobs and positions on boards. Ralph has not held elected office.

SEIU is going after Representatives voting the way the people (tax-payers) demand that they vote -

Up first was a trio of south suburban Democratic Reps. -- Kevin McCarthy, Jim Brosnahan, and Mike Zalewski -- who all voted against a temporary tax increase last month. They were paid a visit by dozens of state workers, including home health care aide Gwendolyn Vaughe, who asked the Representatives how they could justify the life-or-death cuts. "What does this mean for our seniors?" Vaughe asked. "Are they going to be left to die?"

When we caught up with Rep. McCarthy in his Orland Park office, he told us that he's yet to see exactly what programs are at stake (department heads are still pulling together the specifics), but acknowledged "dire circumstances" are ahead. "None of my colleagues have blinders on," he tells us. "They see how important these cuts are." But do they?

They do, Sweetheart. People who stand for election have a Coalition - the voters. Let the Legislature and its Leadership cut through the Fat on Ralph & Blago's Monster. Save the SOB stories.

Ralph, you made the Monster Budget. You feed him.

Martyr Quinn for Ralph Martire'sSake? Blago Budget Bonehead Backs Bloat Boost!

Progress Illinois which hands me more laughs than The Onion ( without meaning to do so and that is even funnier) is all Progressive and Pouffe *over Ralph Martire's** imprimatur on the Illinois Tax Boost. Today's giggle is from Josh Kalven again and he wants Illinois to know that Mike Madigan is very, very smart and Lisa Madigan has ambition!
http://progressillinois.com/2009/3/16/the-one-to-watch

Josh, Honor Bright?

Progress is all Quinnish and Daisy Happy! More Taxes Mean more slots for low skilled and unskilled SEIU placements in the State Budget! PI Loves PQ! They want Speaker Mike Madigan to be the bad guy. They can not go after Lisa Madigan for the obvious PC reasons - she's a Female Girl Woman, but they can get all Boiled Beet Progressive on Daddo.

Pat Quinn, the Governor, wants to increase Illinois taxes - Pat Quinn wants a dramatic increase. Really Huge! Quinn has Ralph Martire in his corner - 'Cut Me Ralph. I can go the Distance! This is a Long Distance Race? Boxing? I thought it was Cross-Country, Ralph! Ralph? Ralph! where's the water bottle? Taxed? That Too? Sponge Me! This is supposed to be Long Distance Cross Country Running! No?'

No; it's Boxing Guv and this is Round One! You might get to Round Two. Oh, thats right, Ralph is in your corner. The canvass is not all that comfortable. You will be hitting it hard, by the way.

Ralph Martire is a career know-it-all-screw-up - a Progressive Professor with his snout plunged in the public trough. From Dawn Clark Netsch to Rod Blagojevich, Ralph Martire's slide rule reads 'Taxes.' State Government Spendathons! Lefty Agit-Prop and Meeks Shall Inherit the Works Coalition Building! Pat Quinn is toast.

This from Peoria!

"What should the state do to balance the budget? Cut spending or raise taxes and maintain spending," Martire said.

In fact, Quinn said last week, he plans to do both. When he delivers his budget speech Wednesday, Quinn plans to ask for an increase in the state income tax, something that hasn't happened in Illinois since 1993, when the current 3 percent personal rate was made permanent. Quinn also said he will announce more than $800 million in cuts to the budget.

Quinn hasn't said how large a tax increase he will seek, although some reports have said he will ask for a new rate of 4.5 percent, a 50 percent increase. An increase of that magnitude would raise more than $4 billion in new revenue.

However, Quinn also will ask for the state personal income tax exemption to increase from $2,000 to $6,000 to offset the impact of the tax hike.

Martire thinks the income tax increase should be even larger. What's more, he thinks Quinn also should adjust the state sales tax while lawmakers are debating revenue increases.

Ralph Martire, who helped Blago give away the Illinois General Store to tax salaried SEIU pals and allies,as well as the usual Pork Eating Capitalists, warns that trimming the Budget Bloat through . . .TAX Cuts !!!! Hopi Indians, Mildred, think of the Children! . . .might . . . might mind you lead to rising unemployment figures.

Yeah???!!!!!!!!!!! Tax-salaried employees put in the State Budget by you and Blago Ralph!

Martire will be a Huge help in Pat Quinn's Martyrdom! You can set your watch by dopes like Martire . . . I mean Distinguished Professors on the Public Teat like Ralph Martire.

* footstool - SEIU's footstool, ottoman, place to put feet on & etc.

** Ralph Martire:Ralph Martire is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (“CTBA”). He also serves as a regular columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, the State Journal-Register and The Herald Newson issues involving government accountability, tax, fiscal and budget policies. Ralph served on the
budget advisory board to Governor Rod Blagojevich's transition team, where he acted as chairperson ofthe state revenue subcommittee. Ralph was the principal author of a study CTBA produced that identifiedrevenue enhancement proposals to address the 2002 fiscal crises in the state of Illinois. Five of the proposals identified in that study ultimately became law. Ralph also was a key member of the research
team that produced the groundbreaking "State of Working Illinois" report, which detailed industry,employment, wage and benefit trends in Illinois over the last 15 years. A joint project of CTBA andNorthern Illinois University, the State of Working Illinois has been featured in over 150 media (print andbroadcast) placements nationwide. ( emphasis my own)

http://www.ctbaonline.org/All%20Links%20to%20Press%20and%20Reports/Contact%20Us/Ralph%20Martire.pdf