After months of publicly jabbing the General Assembly for its hidebound ways, Governor Rod Blagojevich is now aiming his sharp political elbows at his fellow constitutional officers, including his most likely re-election rival.
Media critics often say that visual images trump words. The claim makes some sense: Pictures have major impacts on how we see the world. And we're apt to pay less attention to photo captions or the voice-overs that accompany news footage on TV screens.
Recent comments from individuals and the Quad-City Times editorial last week have raised false choices. While the city council is working hard to try to avoid service cuts, that may not be possible.
Talk about a week filled with heavy-duty irony. Christian conservatives rallying for lower casino taxes and Governor Rod Blagojevich doling out George Ryan's pork money. Early last week, a coalition of conservative groups held a press conference.
Mainstream talk shows, whether radio or television, are becoming as irrelevant as their print counterparts. Interestingly, the majority of these are conservative in nature amidst what is widely considered a liberal media.
"We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship," Grover Norquist recently told the Denver Post. Norquist runs a group called Americans for Tax Reform, and his organization was scheduled to participate in a Chicago press conference last week that was called to attack Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for his anti-business proposals.
In a world of pervasive apathy, where citizens feel politically powerless to effect change in their communities, comes a group of real live civic heroes to prove that nothing could be further from the truth; the power is still most definitely with the people.
House Republican leader Tom Cross and Senate Republican leader Frank Watson weren't exactly on the same page during the spring legislative session. As a result, there is serious tension between the two Republican caucuses.
Had I mused for days I could not have conveyed the shortsighted mentality of area developers more perfectly than our own real-estate attorney/developer Steve Schalk in a recent Quad-City Times article on the city's plans for developing Prairie Heights, the property it owns at 53rd Street and Eastern Avenue.
I'm not a superstitious person, but I'm starting to believe that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's life has been blessed by a kindly leprechaun, a lucky star, or an influential guardian angel. Take your pick. He was elected to the Illinois House after a new legislative map gave state Representative Bruce Farley (D-Chicago) the opportunity to be kicked upstairs to the Senate by Blago's politically powerful father-in-law.

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