On July 19th, President Obama held a Rose Garden event to plead for the extension of unemployment benefits.  He brought forth three unemployed individuals whose benefits were about to run out. 

Meet Lesle Macko, one of the three introduced by Obama.  Obama told her sob story.

"We need to extend unemployment compensation benefits for women like Leslie Macko, who lost her job at a fitness center last year, and has been looking for work ever since. Because she’s eligible for only a few more weeks of unemployment, she’s doing what she never thought she’d have to do. Not at this point, anyway. She’s turning to her father for financial support,” Obama said in his speech.

Guess what?  Here's the rest of the story on Ms. Macko. 

In 2009, Macko was convicted of prescription drug fraud, at which point she lost her job as an esthetician in the spa at ACAC.However, on July 19, Macko was seen standing next to President Barack Obama as his example of the needs to extend jobless benefits.

The White House, having "fully vetted" Ms. Macko had this convicted drug felon standing next to the President on the White House lawn.

Did you see this story on any where else? Our country is in the very best of hands.........

From 1982 - 1993, Thursday evening TV included the "must see" TV show, "Cheers".  
Do you remember the lyrics from the theme song? 

                    "Where everybody knows your name, 
                    and they're always glad you came. 
                    You wanna be where you can see, 
                    our troubles are all the same 
                    You wanna be where everybody knows 
                    Your name."
 
Imagine living in such a world!  Well now you can.  It's not found in Boston, but 442 miles further west - Washington, DC.

Former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel has been found to have violated a host of federal and state rules, including:
        1. Failure to pay income tax for more than a decade on income from his Dominican Republic condo.
        2. Accepting FOUR rent controlled apartments from a NY developer.  Created to keep housing costs in check, rent controlled apartments are limited to ONE per person.  Rangel had FOUR!
        3. The sudden appearance of previously undisclosed assets on his financial reports
        4. Improper solicitation of funds from his Congressional Office.

  And, these are just the items that the NY media has uncovered!  His actions include the violation of both state and federal law.  (I would suspect city of NY laws were broken, as well) Most violations were discovered more than 2 years ago. And in 24 months, no criminal charges have been brought against the Harlem Democrat.

    Now, Congressman Rangel is "negotiating" with the House Ethics committee on these charges.  There's a chance he'll only get a reprimand from the committee and keep his seat.  And the charges will never be revealed to the public. 

    WOW!! Wouldn't you love to work for such an employer?  A place where you can violate all kinds of laws, the charges are kept under wraps, and you can "negotiate" what information might be released!!  

    We should be outraged that this is what DC has become - a place where rules are violated without consequence.  And if you are caught - you get to negotiate your way out - without the charges being revealed.  

                    You wanna be where you can see, 
                    our troubles are all the same 
                    You wanna be where everybody knows 
                    Your name.

Lots of stuff going on out there.

This is very scary - The latest financial bill exempts the SEC from complying with freedom of information act requests.  

Jeff Threadgold is a leading economist.  He offers a great recap of all the other nations that have succeeded with their own form of Obamacare.  

Finally, for every day of the Blago trial, freelance journalist, Susan Berger provided up-to-the-minute tweets from inside the courtroom.  Since June, she's been getting up at 4 am to secure a seat.  Her efforts were incredible.  Here's her recap of the trial .  It's worth reading.    

Her name was all over the news last week.  The release of a partial video of Shirley Sherrod speaking at an NAACP meeting turned into a "he said", "she said" moment. 

The White House issued orders that the woman be fired, blaming it all on Fox News, who had yet to report the story.  It's all been debated ad nauseam.

Even the Sunday morning talk shows were discussing the issue.  But across all the channels; all the talking heads and the myriad of guests on the topic - one person was conspicuously absent - Shirley Sherrod.  Not one network opted to have her on to speak about her experience.

Held up as the modern day Rosa Parks on Thursday - Shirley Sherrod has been denied airtime by the major networks by Saturday.  Of course, her newest bitter racial statements didn't help.  Within 48 hours, this bastion of racial virtue has suddenly been shuffled off, stage left.   She can console herself by talking to Cindy Sheehan, perhaps.

..................Speaking of Cindy Sheehan, it's interesting that all the media, that so hounded George Bush for the access to photograph the coffins of the war dead - have suddenly gone silent.  The media suddenly aren't interested in publishing those photos, that were so critical to our freedom of press when Bush was in office. 

Yesterday's discussion with members of a national accounting firm was a little frightening. I asked for their perspective on the economy.  They responded, "A majority of our clients are so stressed over the next shoe to drop from Washington that they are too afraid to do any hiring, etc."  We don't even know the effects of Obamacare, and the new financial reform act is put in place.  We are trying to muddle through the 2,000 pages of the financial reform act, and Obama wants to vote on Cap and Trade.  Right now businesses feel helpless to the seemingly endless new laws which necessarily increase the cost of operating. 

The economy will improve when Washington stops acting. 

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Finally some good news -Cedra Crenshaw - the African American housewife, that's running on the Republican ticket, here in Illinois, was restored to the ballot yesterday .  The efforts of the Illinois Democratic Party to keep this woman off the ballot had made national news.  I'm guessing they are now wishing they hadn't put up the fight.   

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Have you kept on top of the Jounolist scandal?  This was a private web site for reporters. The site was created to allow journalists to communicate with each other on topics of the day.  Your Republican Reporter was never invited to join.  And now we know why.
The site was used by leading members of the media to coordinate their attacks against all things Republican.  Postings from the site are now being released to the public.  And it's downright ugly stuff.

"Esteemed" members of the media viewed themselves as "the unofficial Obama campaign". It was suggested that they use the label of "racist" against anyone that tried to bring up Rev. Jeremiah Wright during the 2008 campaign .  Today, we are learning, that within 24 hours of Sarah Palin being named as McCain's running mate, editors and reporters were plotting how to discredit her candidacy. 

These people had no interest in reporting the news.  It's disgusting reading and gives you a full sense of how today's media is in bed with the Obama administration. 

$25,000.  That's the amount owed by every household in Illinois just to pay off the state's current obligations.  The total (including pension obligations, etc.) is more than $130 billion!!  Thank God we have a constitutional requirement of a balance budget in this state.

If you are concerned about the direction of financial spending in the state, I encourage you to check out 

    Illinoisisbroke.com This group represents a broad spectrum of Illinois citizens that is capturing the attention of politicians from around the state.  The web site has great factual information and ideas.

Please check out the web site.......And get involved.

If you are afraid to speak out, then stop complaining about the current state of affairs.

(thanks to R.M. for the heads up on this)

For months, Rod Blagojevich has been stating that "he can't wait to testify" at his trial, so that he can "set the record straight."

Word out of Chicago, late this afternoon, is that Blago will not testify.  His brother, Rob, considered the more intelligent of the two siblings (hardly a fair contest), testified yesterday and today.  The prosecutor made mincemeat of him. 

Apparently, the former governor now realizes he couldn't withstand the cross exam.

So for all his talk, bravado and promises, our former governor is resting his case without a peep. 

Folks, it's getting out of hand............

Some quick items that are unbelievable to imagine:

What if Governor Blagojevich is found not guilty?  The trial has provided lots of salacious information on the Governor and his wife. They have an unfortunate use of the English language.  Their spending on clothes, in the face of financial distress, is unconscionable.  And while there's been lots of recordings of potential deals or stalled action, all revolving around political contributions, some commentators are pointing to the lack of a "smoking gun".  What if Blago gets off?  As abhorrent as this trial has been for state Democrats,  I think the prospect of a Blago acquittal may be even more distasteful to the Dems.  Voter disgust would rise even more against incumbent politicians and that anger would be directed at the controlling party - Democrats.  
 
Is Mike Madigan still in charge?  He's ruled Illinois for nearly 40 years.  Through his disciplined approach as Speaker of the Illinois House, Madigan is probably the single most powerful politician in the history of the state.  But, it was just pointed out to me yesterday, that Madigan is now having to serve a master other than himself.  
    Earlier this year, Madigan rushed through, IN ONE DAY, a pension reform package that seriously reduced pension benefits for future state employees.   The provisions, sweeping in nature, were an outrage to AFSME and other unions that were completely blindsided by the passage of the legislation in both the house and senate.  So why did he do it?
    The state was in need of cash infusion to cover both capital and operating costs.  As they got ready to float a bond, the political leaders were stunned when the bond underwriters said, "We don't like your financial position as a state.  We won't support the bond, And we'll recommend that other firms stay away from it as well."  Essentially, they threatened the state with a financial blacklisting, unless they showed tangible evidence that they would start to correct the financial morass of the state.
    Madigan blinked.  This may be a hopeful sign for Illinois.  Not that Madigan is a pragmatist, but rather, that we have some realists (in the form of underwriters) that are now calling the shots, rather than the politicians.

How bad is Illinois' financial condition?  Credit Default Swaps are a financial instrument used to "insure" against toxic investments.  Essentially, investors might own particular securities (corporate bonds, municipal bonds, etc.). CDS's are a form of insurance that the investor can purchase to protect them against a default or bankruptcy of the institution or state issuing the instrument.  
    Credit Default Swaps are the market gauge of the financial condition of the particular entity.  The higher a CDS price for a particular financial instrument, the more likely investors believe the issuing entity may fail.  The market price of the CDS's then allows us to compare the credit worthiness of various states.  It's not pretty.  
    In short, Illinois' Credit Default Swaps are the highest in the nation, as compared to every other state, including NY, California and Michigan.  Thus, Illinois bonds are considered the riskiest of every state.
    Even worse, when comparing Illinois to other nations, Portugal (who is considered the next riskiest EU country after Greece) has a CDS price that is 20% LOWER than Illinois.  The market is saying that Portugal is 20% less likely to default than is the great state of Illinois!  Scary........... 

Did you know that Israel launched some missles at Gaza City last night?  Me neither.
It seems that the US media focus on the middle east ebbs and flows based upon whether it's a slow newsday here at home.

Meanwhile a Libyan ship is on it's way to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Finally, Iran's population, suffering from new economic sanctions, is facing wildly escalating prices that has the citzenry enraged.

It's heating up and quickly.   If you'd like to stay abreast of the international news, I highly recommend: http://www.globalpost.com/