Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Got a Room!

Greetings from Mundelein!The Republican National Convention is full swing down in sunny Tampa Florida. This volatile mix of reporters and newsmakers might tempt some operatives to suspect there would be a crowded field vying for top honors in this week's LakeCountyEye Get a Room!™ competition. And if that is what some ops did indeed suspect, they would have been right.

This week's winning Get a Room!™ player comes from the pages of the Daily Herald. The lucky contestant was so confident she would nail this week's Get a Room!™ competition, that she went ahead and already booked the room!
Greetings from Tampa! Or, I should say, Clearwater Beach. The Illinois Republican delegation's hotel is a solid 45-minute drive from the convention center, which for me means a shuttle bus "bonding session" with the Illinois delegates each day.
Postcard from Tampa: Blue state blues
All of which is good enough for your LakeCountyEye.

Your LakeCountyEye's Get a Room!™ competition is open to any MSM journalist for whom even the pretense of objectivity should not stand in the way of a story. Or, for that matter, a week in Florida.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Conventional Forces

the Love Boat promises something for everyoneGreetings from sunny Tampa Florida, the site of the 2012 Republican National Convention. Your LakeCountyEye hitched a ride down to the Sunshine State with the Antioch Rescue Squad, who will be on hand for the festivities.

While typically focused on the party's Presidential nominee, this year's convention buzz is all about Mitt Romney's opponent, Hurricane Isaac. Your LakeCountyEye has been told that Romney has taken a personal interest in tracking the storm, particularly as it passes over the Cayman Islands.

The mood down here, though, is generally upbeat. Gay Festive GOP conventioneers are cocked, locked & ready to party, and seem to be unconcerned about the impending storm clouds over the horizon. One Lake County delegate asked your LakeCountyEye "you're talking to the owner of the Libertyville Wind Farm -- why should some pipsqueak hurricane scare me?"

The general consensus among conventioneers is that predictions of bad weather are like global warming -- junk science foisted on a gullible public by the lame stream media:
The Disconnect Between American Liberals and Africans in Tampa's Methodist Convention
Nonetheless, your LakeCountyEye has learned that GOP prayer circles have been organized to pray the Hurricane away. Also, every conventioneer has been given an action plan to follow in case of an emergency. For instance, in the event of a rising storm tide GOP conventioneers are cautioned not to cling to their guns -- because that will only cause them to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

One notorious convention no-show, who will be high and dry this week, is Lake County's comical congressman, Joe Walsh. Walsh who was disinvited to opted to skip his party's convention, cited difficulties he would face finding a teevee camera in Tampa to talk to:
Congressman Joe Walsh to Skip Republican Convention
Chooses constituents over politics – Calls on opponent to do the same
A spokesperson confirmed to your LakeCountyEye that Walsh's opponent will be skipping the Republican convention as well. A major concession to our very own banty rooster, Joe Walsh!

In the meantime, look for your LakeCountyEye blogging this week from the same place where your home mortgage is held: underwater.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Chick Lit

Peter Roskam must be a ladies' man. One could draw that conclusion judging from the 6th District Congressman's newest mailer:
The four-color professionally produced brochure, hand-delivered to the mailboxes of Sixth District voters, has all the appearances of campaign lit targeting female voters. Did you know that Roskam was named 2012 "Best of Congress" by Working Mother? Your LakeCountyEye did not!

Roskam, who with Todd Akin sponsored the controversial No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act -- which redefines rape as "forcible rape" -- may fear he is staring down a widening gender gap. Who will the women of the Sixth be voting for on election day? Your LakeCountyEye advises ladies of the Sixth District to look for many more valentines signed by Peter Roskam between now and November. Just watch for those seven magic words ...
prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense
where you would expect to see a postage stamp:
For the record: Congressmen are are permitted to exercise their franking privileges up until 90 days before an election. Which happened to be on August 8, this year. Your LakeCountyEye has learned that Roskam's mailer was delivered to Sixth District mailboxes on, haha, August 18.

Like the typical ladies' man, Congressman Peter Roskam arrives late. And leaves you holding the tab.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

A Frank You Letter

Your LakeCountyEye just received a gorgeous four-color offset brochure. Printed on glossy card stock, the epistle measures a full 8½ by 22 inches and opens to four-panels. Judging from the professional layout job and stock plus original images of happy suburbanites at work and at play, no expense was spared on this marketing effort. In fact the brochure is so wonderfully mesmerizing that your LakeCountyEye was compelled to contact the marketer to get signed up right away.

What did they sell your LakeCountyEye ... a retirement condo on Tower Lake? Haha, nope. The Brochure is some election lit from Congressman Peter Roskam:
Now that Joe Walsh has gone totally off the rails, Roskam is in competition with Robert Dold as to who will be Lake County's next tea-party Congressman. If he wins in November, redistricting would give Roskam the lower left corner of Lake County. And judging from his brochure, Roskam is one Congressman who spares no expense when it comes to reaching out to the voters:
Roskam may be one Congressman able to spare no expense because his gorgeous brochure was, haha, franked:
prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense
Some lucky Lake County voters -- those who live in the southwest corner of the county -- will be getting their money's worth out of their Congressman if Peter Roskam is elected in November!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Return of ... Get a Room!

watch dogThe judges are unanimous in their decision and are pleased to announce this week's winner in your LakeCountyEye's Get a Room!™ competition. The winning entrant, courtesy the News-Sun, is an unabashed summer valentine dispatched to GOP heartthrob Paul Ryan, SWAK:
He is a rock star to his supporters in Kenosha, Walworth and Racine counties, and parts of Rock, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. He has enjoyed seven terms in Congress, easily defeating any opponent in this normally Democrat-leaning part of the state. He is so popular here that many of his supporters last year urged him, even begged him, to run for president. On his Web site Ryan describes the residents of the 1st Congressional District of Wisconsin as "hard-working, straightforward, warm and generous." He's simply describing himself.
GOP 'rock star' Ryan humble Kenosha congressman
Your LakeCountyEye's Get a Room!™ competition is open to anyone with a reasonably broad media platform at their disposal, and is not shy about using it to garner the attentions of the object of their unrequited love. Your missives should be sent to lakecountyeye@gmail.com. The winning entrant in next week's competition will receive an all expenses paid weekend on Blarney Island.

Remember: The more you play, the more chances to win!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Return of The Blog1

Indescribable...Indestructible! Nothing Can Stop It!Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Island Lake, The Blog1 has resurfaced. According to the Daily Herald ...
A controversial blog created — and then ended — by Island Lake Trustee Laurie Rabattini has been relaunched by a new writer. A former part-time Island Lake police officer named Wayne Schnell now is at the helm of www.theblog1.com.
Island Lake blog relaunched
In its salad days The Blog1 was known for its daring innovations with grammar, punctuation, spelling. The Blog1 coined many terms, some of which remain in circulation, e.g. REBUTTLES:
No Ifs, Ands or Rebuttles
Hard experience has taught your LakeCountyEye that while The Blog1 was often imitated it was never equalled.

How will The Blog1 fare in the hands of its new fabricator? Only time will tell:
The August 9 village board meeting room was filled with standing room only after residents attended a meeting to learn what is going on with plans to build to lease a new combined village hall, police station and public works facility.
Village Meeting fills room of angry and confused residents
Meet the new Blog1, same as the old Blog1!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Mea Culpa!

Athos, Porthos & AramisThe informed sources were as confident as they were all unanimous. He would be a middle aged white male Republican congressman who sleeps in his Washington office. He would represent a district in an economically declining rust-belt state. A district that went for Obama. He would be a vocal proponent of extreme right-wing/libertarian policies. Like privatizing Medicare. And he would sink a presidential ticket faster than you could say You Betcha!

If you were told that, you would assume that Mitt Romney chose Eighth District Congressman Joe Walsh to be his running mate. Wouldn't you? Well your LakeCountyEye did and as readers of this blog are mistakenly aware ...
Romney / Walsh in 2012!
it was reported here that Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, picked Joe Walsh as his candidate for Vice President.

Well, there happens to be more than one middle aged white male Republican congressman who sleeps in his congressional office and represents a district in an economically declining rust-belt state that went for Obama and who is a vocal proponent of extreme libertarian views like privatizing Medicare. And he happens to be Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan.

Who knew?

Your LakeCountyEye regrets the error.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Romney / Walsh in 2012!

dynamic duoMitt Romney will announce Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) as his running mate, two sources with knowledge of the decision have informed your LakeCountyEye.

Walsh is a bold pick who will energize the Republican Party, but putting him on the ticket is fraught with risk and instantly puts Walsh's reputation as a loose cannon with a lit fuse front and center in the 2012 campaign.

Romney will announce his choice tomorrow, Saturday morning at the beginning of a bus tour through key battleground states. One conservative blog reported that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has been asked to be ready to make the case for Walsh beginning Saturday.

Romney's alliance with the 51-year old Walsh will be the most dramatic development of the 2012 presidential campaign. Romney had been presumed for much of the last few months to be set on a safe pick, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), or former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But now, Romney, who is 43 years older than Walsh, will signal that he is willing to roll the dice. President Barack Obama's reelection campaign and Democratic political groups have been eager for Romney to pick Walsh, the kind of shoot-from-the-lip high-profile small-time player who Democrats believe is political kryptonite.

Both liberals and conservatives will be thrilled with Romney's choice.

Conservatives believe Walsh is one of the loudest, in-your-face legend-in-his-own-mind campaigners who can with a straight face articulate a case for limited government while simultaneously arguing that a less expansive bureaucracy and a revamped entitlement system is the best way to preserve government aid and benefits for the poor, indigent and elderly.

Haha.

Walsh's public rhetoric and his proposed changes to programs like Medicare will now be central issues that drive the presidential campaign for the remaining three months. It is one way for Romney to turn a campaign that has turned ugly and personal, often to his detriment, into a heated debate over policy.

The battle to define Walsh and his atavistic ideas will set off a messaging war between Democrats and Republicans, the likes of which has rarely been seen.

If Romney were to win with Walsh on the ticket, he would have a mandate to make sweeping changes not only to the size of government, but to programs like Medicare and Medicaid that are products of former President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program.

For conservatives, putting Walsh front and center will satisfy their desire to have a full-throated debate about the entire spectrum of issues that they feel are most pressing: the size of the federal government, the government's role in people's lives, the impact of the national debt on the middle class, and how to maintain a social safety net without creating a "culture of dependency" in which too many citizens receive government benefits.

For liberals, Walsh represents a chance to not just defeat Romney, but an opportunity to discredit, on the biggest stage in politics, the most wide-ranging expression of conservatives' governing principles put forward in recent political memory. Liberals will say that Romney and Walsh want to cut government spending in a way that will hurt the economic recovery and cut assistance to those who need it. Obama himself has already attacked Romney for wanting to "turn Medicare into a voucher program," a reference some asinine thing Walsh said in public someplace or other.

Source: HuffingtonPost.com

Thursday, August 9, 2012

We Never See a Headline About a Breadline Today

We're in the money.The LakeCountyEye Bed-and-Breakfast -- fka the LakeCountyEye compound -- is now open for business. As readers of this blog are peripatetically aware, Lake County tourism revenues are breaking records ...
What Happens in Lake County Stays in Lake County
and your LakeCountyEye is looking to cash-in on the action.

One blighted area that will not be cashing-in on the Lake County action is McHenry County to the west. The agrarian McHenry County's predominant agricultural interests have long dismissed concerns about climate change as junk science. And haha now that global warming has kicked in full-throttle, according to the Northwest Herald ...
McHenry County has joined the 50 percent of all counties in the U.S. designated as drought disaster zones.
McHenry County declared a disaster area
Unsurprisingly, breadlines are already forming in McHenry County. Tent cities have sprouted overnight at Chick-a-Fil fast food restaurants where free food will be distributed. Read all about it in the Northwest Herald ...
Chick-fil-A opening could draw crowds
And in the Patch ...
'First 100' Camping Out, Awaiting Chick-Fil-A Grand Opening
The global warming deniers at the McHenryCountyBlog have chronicled, firsthand, the effects of their handiwork with pictures of the too many devastated lives waiting for their handouts:
Chick-fil-A "Occupied" by Tent City of Free Food Seekers
It is unclear to public health officials which presents the greater threat to McHenry County: Starvation and famine? Or obesity and heart disease? Oh the humanity!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Q the Eye/08.05.12

Dear LakeCountyEye,

I got a headache that could drop a bull elephant with titanium tusks. Just between us infallible political commentators, do you got any oxy?

Limbo Lower Now
Dear Rush to Judgement,

Ὥρος HōrosYour LakeCountyEye could make a call and get you a sack of 20mg OxyFasts. But that would be wrong.

That's the opinion, at least, of Lake County's pro-business Congressman, Robert Dold, who is on the frontlines of the prescription drug epidemic. According to the Daily Herald, while OxyContin and Vicodin and other prescription drugs are too-readily available on the streets, Dold says ...
that minimizing the number of prescriptions being written for these drugs, and discouraging doctors from prescribing them for moderate pain, will help the situation.
Congressional group takes on prescription drug abuse
For the record, the pharmaceutical companies aggressively market their products, and get physicians to overprescribe with incentives like off-label use for their drugs. And to make sure these practices aren't scrutinized by the government, they lobby and contribute to pro-business Congressmen, like Robert Dold.

One recent townhall meeting for Dold, was hosted by Takeda Pharmaceuticals ...
U.S. Congressman Robert J. Dold (IL-10) spent the morning at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Deerfield touring the facility and holding a town hall meeting with employees. Dold visited the facility as part of his ongoing effort to listen to the job creators of the 10th District and take their ideas back to Washington.
Dold Holds Employee Town Hall at Takeda Pharmaceuticals
At another townhall, Dold was hosted by Astellas Pharma US ...
Earlier in the month, U.S. Congressman Robert J. Dold (IL-10) spent the morning at Astellas Pharma US, Inc. in Deerfield touring the facility and meeting with employees. Dold visited the facility as part of his Main Street Jobs Agenda and his ongoing effort to listen to hardworking people of the 10th District and take their ideas back to Washington.
Dold Holds Employee Town Hall at Astellas
But as cozy as he is with the big pharmaceutical companies, Dold is not taking the prescription drug epidemic lying down. He is a member of a government panel, the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse:
As sales of these drugs increase, so do the number of prescription drug-related deaths and people being admitted for substance abuse treatment. The bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse, which includes 10th District U.S. Rep. Robert Dold, has been studying the issue, and last week made recommendations to the Food and Drug Administration on how to control the epidemic.
Congressional group takes on prescription drug abuse
Haha, repeat as directed by your doctor.

If you are an elected official, or a previously elected official, or just a private citizen under indictment, send your political questions to Q the Eye c/o ... LakeCountyEye@gMail.com

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Willard's Law

Back in the day, when in Law School, your LakeCountyEye had to learn all the landmark laws:
  • Murphy's Law
    Anything that can go wrong will.
  • Moore's Law
    Computers will double in power every 18 months.
  • Poe's Law
    It is impossible to distinguish between a parody of religious fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism.
  • Hofstadter's Law
    It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law
  • Godwin's Law
    In the course of an online political discussion, the probability of a comparison to Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
Well, incoming law students are going to have to learn a new law, Willard's Law. According to the Daily Herald ...
Nearly two month s after a formal complaint was filed about Lake County Clerk Willard Helander's actions as a poll watcher during Wisconsin's recall election, officials there have taken steps to prevent similar problems. Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board, which oversees the state's elections, has released a two-page guide to voter rights and responsibilities. In part, the document delineates what election observers can and cannot do while at polling places.
Wisconsin issues voter rights guide after Lake County clerk incident
The State of Wisconsin was thoughtful enough to publish a Willard's Law website:
G.A.B. Issues Flier on Voter Rights and Responsibilities
Legal-eyed operatives may recognize some of the key provisions of Willard's Law:

 You have the right to challenge another voter's qualifications to vote if:
  • you are eligible to vote in Wisconsin
 Observers must do the following:
  • stay in the observer area
  • direct questions and comments to only the chief inspector
 Observers must NOT do the following:
  • talk to voters
  • be boisterous or disruptive
 When making a challenge:
  • you may not challenge voters because of their appearance or the language they speak
 Frivolous challenges will not be accepted or tolerated:
  • if you abuse the right to challenge by disrupting the polling place, the chief inspector may order you to be removed
Willard's Law is must reading for operatives of all stripes. The fulltext of Willard's Law can be downloaded here:

Willard's Law
It is unknown when a copy of Willard's Law will be available on the Lake County Clerk's website.

Friday, August 3, 2012

What Happens in Lake County Stays in Lake County

That's not funny.Your biggest employers have moved their businesses to Cook County. And all your farmland was sold to bankrupt developers. A recipe for economic disaster? Not if you're Lake County -- that's because Lake County is on the way to being Illinois's #1 tourist Mecca. According to the Daily Herald ...
Visitor spending in Lake County set a record in 2011 at $1.13 billion, according to figures released this week by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, office of tourism. The amount is nearly 7 percent higher than 2010. In travel spending, Lake County ranks behind Cook and DuPage counties, according to Visit Lake County formerly Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Lake County supports 9,970 tourism related jobs and about $24 million in tax was generated for local communities, according to the organization.
Record year for tourism in Lake County
Lake County, like Michigan and other Midwest epicenters of economic mass-destruction, is hoping to rebrand itself -- and cash in big as the newest must-see-before-you-kick-the-bucket tourist destination. But before Lake County can aspire to be the next Wisconsin Dells, it will have to start marketing its unique attractions. There are, by any conservative estimate, at least ten of these, in many of which your LakeCountyEye has personally taken the pleasure:

Ten Good Reasons to Vacation in Lake County
and Not Some Other Place Instead
  1. See the ancient ruins of Mo-To-Ro-La.
  2. Visit Mundelein's famous backyard barnyards and petting zoos.
  3. Springfield may have the horseshoe sandwich. But only in Lake County can you sink your teeth into a Chick-fil-A deluxe chicken sandwich.
  4. Play fantasy baseball at Fielders Stadium ...
  5. ... and fantasy golf at Fort Sheridan.
  6. Zip-Line through one of Lake County's roundabouts.
  7. Stay the night totally free in a Lake County hoosegow. Contact a Lake County State's Attorney to find out how.
  8. WillardWorld!
  9. Go parasailing at a Libertyville windfarm.
  10. Waukegan: Come for the casinos ... Stay for the shows!

Look for your LakeCountyEye looking for lost luggage.