My Vote - This November 4, 2014 in Precinct 23 of the 19th Ward of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

 

Poll Watcher - "Make sure you fill in the whole circle where you vote, Mr. Hickey."


       This will be the most contrarian vote of my citizenship in these USes of A.  I have voted in every election since I cast my first vote for Tricky Dick in 1972 - thanks so muckinfuch Michael Shakman, Jesse Jackson, Abner Mikva and Billy Singer.

I voted Democrat in every Presidential Election from Carter up to Obama '08.

We have evolved, we are told and my evolution as a voting citizen requires that I choose many fatuous blowhards over more complete blowhards, feebs and dummies.

                                   This is the La Brea Tar pits of Electoral Evolution!


How I will cast my ballot in th early voting follows - my votes are underscored.

                                              General Election Candidate List, November 4, 2014
                                                         Punch No. Party Status Candidate
United States Senator 
1 Democratic Richard J. Durbin Candidate
2 Republican James D. "Jim" Oberweis Candidate         
3 Libertarian Sharon Hansen Candidate

Illinois Governor

Governor & Lieutenant
Democratic Candidate
Pat Quinn &
Paul Vallas

Republican Candidate
Bruce Rauner & 
Evelyn Sanguinetti

 Libertarian Candidate
Chad Grimm &
Alexander Cummings


Attorney General 

Democratic Lisa Madigan Candidate
Republican Paul M. Schimpf Candidate
Libertarian Ben Koyl Candidate


"What is taking him so long?"

Secretary of State 
Democratic Jesse White Candidate
Republican Michael Webster Candidate
Libertarian Christopher Michel Candidate

Comptroller 
Democratic Sheila Simon Candidate
Republican Judy Baar Topinka Candidate
Libertarian Julie Fox Candidate

Treasurer 
Democratic Michael W. Frerichs Candidate
Republican Tom Cross Candidate
31 Libertarian

U.S. Representative, 3rd District 
Democratic Daniel William Lipinski Candidate
Republican Sharon M. Brannigan Candidate

State Senator, 18th District

Democratic Bill Cunningham Candidate
Republican Shaun Colin Murphy Candidate

State Representative, 35th District


Democratic Frances Ann Hurley Candidate
Republican Victor C. Horne Candidate

Unopposed Candidates to County Board -I'll do a write-in where needed; same to judges

Referenda

 General Election Referenda and Local Options

"Shall the minimum wage in Illinois for adults over the age of 18 be raised to $10 per
hour by January 1, 2015?"

Yes

 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Shall any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides prescription drug coverage
be required to include prescription birth control as part of that coverage?"
Yes
 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to require that each school district
receive additional revenue, based on their number of students, from an additional 3%
tax on income greater than one million dollars?"

Yes
 No

To the Voters of the State of Illinois:

"Shall the General Assembly of the State of Illinois appropriate additional funds to
provide necessary mental health services for the people of the State of Illinois?"

Yes
 No


                     To the Voters of Cook County:
Friday, September 05, 2014 Page 23 of 25

"Shall the Illinois General Assembly enact the Illinois Public Safety Act (Senate Bill
3659) which would require universal background checks for firearm transfers and
prohibit the sale and transfer of assault weapons, assault weapon attachments and
high capacity ammunition magazines?"

Yes

 No

To the Voters of Cook County:

"Should the Illinois General Assembly amend the Medical Cannabis Pilot Program
Act to give local municipalities a role in the siting of medical cannabis dispensing
organizations and cultivation centers in its neighborhoods?"

Yes
 No

To the Voters of the City of Chicago:

"Should the State of Illinois account for concentrations of at-risk students living in
poverty or who speak English as a second language when determining how state
resources for education are allocated?"

Yes
 No


There!  I am so happy I could spit.

Andy "MICROPHONE!" Shaw of BGA Shills for Himself (naturalment) and the Election Mapping Grifters of CHANGE Illinois

quel dommage!



Imagine spending quality time with Andy Shaw.  Imagine.

I am old enough to remember when serious people, busy people, gifted people, other-directed people and competent people would give softballs, ninnies, grifters and egoists the air.
Over time, serious people, busy people, gifted people, other-directed people and competent people were asked by persons with authority over them, or somehow allied to them, to give softballs, ninnies, grifters and egoists greater opportunity to air their plans, policies, pet projects and polemics the same courtesy as people who could actually accomplish a task, follow through a promise and do so without consideration of their future power, purse stuffing or personal attention.

Today, aspiration and transcendent will trumps ones ability to legislate, budget, instruct, cut pipe, clear a homicide, or back a 40' tractor trailer up to a loading dock without calamity. Caring, really really caring and hammering home that titanic nail of care into the public policy coffin is the litmas test for seriousness.

I taught with a some grifters, all too briefly, who found life employment as education administrators, activisists and high-paid consultants.  One such paragon of care sold grades for snow tires and returned to obligation to students by selling NASA space ice cream crystals from the back of his trunk. Another self-professed spiritualist who taught PE and organized Christian discussion groups at  a Catholic high school with a very orthodox and competent religion department, while trysting with a sophomore girl who was large with child, before the 1st Semester exams, despite the high-minded predator's own family of three snactioned by the United Church of Christ.

These grifters were immediately sent packing.  The former died of a massive heart attack, while changing his snow tires in the blizzard of 1983 far from his former place of employment, but with a trunk full of Astronaut Ice Cream.  The later became a public school superintendent in deep southern Illinois and collected a magnificent pension in 1999.

There were women on the grift as well.  One sold a book written entirely by her students.  Another became a well-compensated criminal justice activist after being cashiered for not correcting tests -at all among other shameful deeds.Then, there is the Rev. LIE BERRYAN-PROFITUS who takes up a collection of cash money from students and new faculty members for for every conceivable heart-breaking tale of human suffering ( most imangined), or recognition of Birfdays, Onnahs, Wedins and Ged Wells, yet can not account for purchased gifts, honoraria, bequests.  My saluation was largely "Take it on the heel and toe, grifter," upon coming into proximity with this Dewey Decimal disaster.

They cared deeply, male and female, but laughed out of the faculty lounge and the classroom.  Gradually, the new civility trumped, " ARE YOU OUT OF WHAT PASSES FOR YOUR #$%^ing MIND?" Like the English teacher who dressed up like a gondolier, a waiter, and Gertrude Stein had ballet mirrors installed in his classroom after convincing someone that his resume included not only graduate work under Wayne Booth at University of Chicago, a pending PhD. from Loyola University, editorship of PMLA and two years with the Joffrey Ballet. He cared.

I am very often, and no doubt correctly, criticized for being caustic and cynical, hateful and bitter, cranky and judgmental.  I am.  I have the exact temperament of highly skilled tradesman saddled with a supervisor who does not know that an eighth is larger in measure than sixteenth, notwithstanding the fact that there are twice the number in a sixteenth.  A good electrician, pipe fitter, stationary engineer, carpenter or machinist, not great mind you, would and is fully justified in declaring the Alderman's nephew a complete unexpurgated moron.

People on watch, on task, on guard and on the job are saddled with more work for less pay, while cretins feebs, dummies and platitude preaching footpads with great hearts screw up the labors.

Nothing is more screwed up than Illinois government.  Some say, where it once had to do with people not paying their fair share of taxes (read Ralph Martire - an epic grifter), it now is all about legislative voting maps. Could be.

About a week ago, I rubbished a Chicago Tribune editorial ( read Bruce Dold -an epic ninny) trumpetting the massive grift planned by CHANGE Illinois, which lists Illinois epic softball/egoist Andy " MICROPHONE!" Shaw of BGA on its board of directors.  Today, Andy, the  former ABC go-to-goof who once demanded to know what was going on of a Chicago homicide detective crouching over the body parts of a Tech 9 dismembered Gangster Disciple, who replied, " We suspect foul play," is now openly shilling for his work on remapping Illinois and reforming, once and for all, politics as we know it.

In some districts the Dems fielded stronger candidates or ran better campaigns, but in others gerrymandering made the difference.
And that helps explain why so few races are competitive, or even contested, and why incumbents rarely lose.
Is that healthy for democracy? Of course not.
So how can we clean it up?
Well, lawmakers can pass a bill replacing gerrymandering with computerized mapmaking based on geography and population, not politics.
Say what? Elected reps making it easier for opponents to beat them by unrigging the process?
Next.
Voters, as in “we the people,” can reform the system by referendum. They can sign enough petitions to put an apolitical redistricting plan on the ballot, and then pass it.
The League of Women Voters gave it a valiant try two years ago but fell short.
This year CHANGE ILLINOIS, the reform group that pushed campaign finance limits through the General Assembly, is leading a new drive that, if successful, gives us a healthier redistricting process in 2020, and a leveler and more competitive playing field in the 2022 elections.

That’s a long way off.

At one time, I might believe that Andy, but these days?  I'd allow Eldridge Gerry,  his own bad self. to salamander up Illinois before the pack of grifters among whom you number your gifts, Andy.  I 'd have Jimmy the Two Headed Boy fix my air conditioner, before I'd allow this pack of villains to get their mitts on anything.  Shucks, I'd have Pork Chop Louis Farrakhan over to a Passover picnic on my deck in Morgan Park, before I'd allow these goofs any nod of agreement from my tired old forehead.

Andy the new courtesy has removed the fools cap from your noggin and Velcro'd the laurels of public gravitas on your scalp.

You are no longer the giggle button of ABC, but the policy THE pronouncement foghorn of the Illinois BGA.

There I go being all improbus, crudelis, et duro, again.   I could always suffer fools gladly, but never seriously.

Quel dommage!
http://www.suntimes.com/news/bga/20307012-452/election-reform-boring-not-really.html