Saturday, February 27, 2016

This Deserves an Asterisk

Until now, the Daily Herald -- the gray lady of Lake County newspapers -- has been a Paddock Publication. Henceforth it could be known as the No-Shit, Paddock Publication.

Haha, as readers of this blog are aware ...
Guano Trouble
yesterday, your LakeCountyEye scooped this scatological headline & story off of the Daily Herald website:

Senator on GOP backing Trump: 'Party has gone batshit crazy'
But anyone visiting the website today will discover that the Herald has subsequently eaten its words:

Senator on GOP backing Trump: 'Party has gone bat***t crazy'
On source told your LakeCountyEye: "Sure the Daily Herald has a shit detector. But it hasn't been plugged in since 1968."

Friday, February 26, 2016

Guano Trouble

An actual unretouched headline, lede and screencap from Lake County newspaper of record, the Daily Herald:

Sen. Lindsey Graham is disgusted with the GOP's embrace of Donald Trump: "My party has gone batshit crazy."
Senator on GOP backing Trump: 'Party has gone batshit crazy'
Dr. I.M. Bhatschidtkhrazzi was unavailable for comment.

Note: Dr. Bhatschidtkhrazzi, the Professor of Abnormal Scatology at the College of Lake County, is currently on assignment, covering the Trump for President campaign.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Political Divisions

Those who heard the crowd roaring ...
Hold That Line!
Hold That Line!
this week, were not at a Chicago Bears tailgate party. No, they were at a Senate District 26 election rally.

The new Senate District 26 negative campaign attack ad has hit the mailboxes and, uh-oh, the barbarians are at the gate:
Lake County backed Barack Obama, a Democrat, in both 2008 and 2012, so the Republican perimeter may already be compromised.

Where is the Lake County Republican perimeter today? Your LakeCountyEye asked a political cartographer (who works cheap in Indonesia) -- and seeing is believing. That Republican perimeter has flat-out retreated to the southwest corner of Lake County:
Ahead of a huge March 15 Illinois primary, it should be no surprise that the Trump for President campaign has contacted the Lake County GOP. And candidate Donald Trump himself is promising to build a wall around the Republican perimeter.

Who's Gonna Pay For The Wall?

Cook County!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The Fake News

Who says old media is dead and dying? Lake County has a new dead-tree newspaper, the Lake County Gazette ...
Erstwhile newspaper of record, the Daily Herald, has the story:
A new newspaper started landing in some suburban mailboxes this week with articles about state government and politics that emphasize the points of view of certain Republican candidates running for seats in Springfield. The Lake County Gazette is one of eight papers statewide mailed by Liberty Principles PAC and is intended to support candidates for office. Liberty Principles PAC is run by conservative radio host and former GOP candidate for governor Dan Proft.
Newspaper run by Dan Proft's PAC hits Lake County
Countywide, the reaction has been swift and severe. Community leaders are demanding an immediate investigation out of the State's Attorney's office.

Haha, j/k. Countywide, it's been all like the Zion Nuclear Plant: No reaction.

One media watchdog explained it this way: "So someone is peddling another rightwing newspaper in Lake County? That would be like bringing a Confederate flag to a NASCAR race. Who's going to notice?"

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Register, Vote, Repeat

How many times has this happened to you? You show up to vote on election day, only to discover you aren't registered to vote.

If you are like your LakeCountyEye, too many times!

So it is probably no coincidence that your LakeCountyEye received this Email reminder from the County Clerk:
The County Clerk encouraged your LakeCountyEye to log onto LakeVoterPower.info and confirm that, come election day, everything will be A-OK.

Your LakeCountyEye immediately checked, and may happily report is good to go:
Note to Ops: Did you know the Lake County Clerk is Carla N. Wyckoff?

Your LakeCountyEye did not know that!

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Who Put the Ram in the Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong?

It's a good thing Lake County has some 30,000 acres of Forest Preserves -- because the County will need all those trees for the election in Senate District 26.

The latest Illinois Senate District 26 mailer arrived today ...
Did you know that Casey Urlacher is a former St. Louis Ram?
Your LakeCountyEye did not know that!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Carded

No Way, José There is an old saying in Lake County politics:
You Can't Play If You Don't Have A Card
... the card in question being your voter registration card.

Perhaps the single most important piece of identification in your wallet, the Lake County voter registration card is everything from your picture-ID for cheap beer at the VFW to your stay-out-of-jail-free bond card for that long drive home up Route 12.

So naturally your LakeCountyEye takes notice when Operatives report that the County Clerk has been mailing out new voter registration cards. One News-Sun correspondent (who registered to vote in Lake County more than 20 years ago) was surprised to find a new voter registration card in his mailbox. He assumes the card was sent ...
for one or more of three reasons: Because my old card, issued in May 2004, was turning yellow; because information like my Congressional district and/or state legislative districts had changed since 2004; or because the statement about my card being "issued by Willard R. Helander, Lake County Clerk" was out-of-date, even though the name had been written in boldface type, seemingly intended to last until the end of time.
New voter registration cards, same old process
Now, there are more than 410,000 registered voters in Lake County, an historic high. And there is another old saying in Lake County politics:
Voters Are All Like Cattle
... and when the herd grows to a certain size, your LakeCountyEye suspects there may be another reason, hidden behind the cards, and overlooked by the News-Sun:

Reason #4 ...
  1. Mail Out New Registration Cards
  2. Post Office Returns a Bunch of Cards Marked Addressee Unknown
  3. Thin the Herd
Note to Ops: you may already be disenfranchised.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Empowering Communities to Create Sustainable Environments


Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy
Molly Flanagan, Vice President Policy, Alliance for the Great Lakes; Eleanor Revelle, President Citizens' Greener Evanston; Beth Drucker, Co-Facilitator CONSEG (Consortium of North Shore Environmental Groups) and President, Board of Trustees, Go Green Wilmette will share information about grassroots coalitions on combating climate change. We can celebrate the decision of 196 governments at the U.N. conference in Paris to work together by taking collaborative actions here at home to control flooding, drought, polluted aquifers and waste management while improving the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.
  • Sunday
    February 21, 2016
    2:00 pm
  • The Stevenson Center on Democracy
    25200 N St Mary's Rd
    Mettawa (Libertyville), IL 60048
    773- 281-0378
  • $15
    No Charge for Students
  • Coffee and Conversation Afterwards

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Urlacher on the Concept

If you are an Operative and you are occupying a Federal Post Office, you can withdraw and go home now. The new Casey Urlacher campaign mailer has finally arrived.

Casey Urlacher, the Mayor of Mettawa and Chicago Bear lookalike, is running for the Illinois Senate in the 26th District. And as knowledgable readers of this blog will know ...
More Than One Can Bear
this new Urlacher mailer arrived one day after the old Urlacher mailer:

"Casey excelled in athletics. He played on his school's state champion football teams alongside his brother, and future Chicago Bear star, Brian."

Your LakeCountyEye has filed the mailer under:
Since when did Republican mean Brian Urlacher's Brother?

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

More Than One Can Bear

The Chicago Bears did not send anybody to SuperBowl 50 -- but da Bears may be sending two players to Springfield this year. The Urlacher Brothers -- Brian and Casey -- besides being former Chicago Bears -- have something else in common. Both Urlachers are running for the Illinois Senate in District 26.

Two Urlachers running for one legislative office? Ordinarily, your LakeCountyEye would be quick to report that not since Cain slew Able during the Civil War has anyone foreseen a battle dividing brother against brother of these epic proportions. Sadly however, your LakeCountyEye no can do. The simple fact of the matter is more astonishing: Brian and Casey Urlacher are not running against each other. No, the two Urlacher Brothers are running together, as a team, for Senate 26.

Operatives, nodoubt, will be skeptical.  Your LakeCountyEye would be in total disbelief as well, were it not for this campaign mailer from the Urlacher Brothers:



Urlacher Brothers
Morning Workout in Mettawa
Seeing is believing.  This dynamic duo -- Brian and Casey Urlacher -- want you to send them both to the Illinois Senate.

The Urlacher Brothers certainly have contrived a novel way to ask for your vote.  In a time when the headlines are often about sports-related head injuries, two heads may indeed be better than one.

Can two individuals collectively run for the same Illinois legislative office, much like an Australian tag team would? One Illinois Constitutional scholar was surprisingly unconcerned: "If they don't mind having to share a spot in the Senate parking lot, I don't see anything to stop them."

The message is clear: A vote for Urlacher is really two votes in one. Just like voting early and often -- and without having to do either!

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Too Close to Home

Ask Siri Talk ordinarily is cheap. Talk is not cheap, however, when the services of a court reporter is required for a transcript. According to the Daily Herald ...
Hoping to move along a court case involving a dispute over the fate of the old Midlothian Manor property in Ela Township, a unit of Lake County government has paid an outstanding $6,000 cost for a public hearing transcript and is looking to residents who opposed the project for reimbursement.
County wants $6,000 from Lake Zurich-area homeless opponents
The dispute has spilled over into small clams court, and is scheduled to be heard this Tuesday.

One unhappy resident told your LakeCountyEye: "The County sure knows how to spend money. $6000? Give me a break. If they crowdsourced the job out to a designer in Indonesia, they could have gotten the same document for pennies on the dollar!"

That's all your LakeCountyEye has. Now go home.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Designing Women

Ceci n'est pas une jorke. Nodoubt following in the footsteps of Gauguin (who went to Tahiti) the Village of Gurnee has acquired its new logo from a designer in Indonesia:
Rather than a strike a traditional contract with a design firm of consulting company, Gurnee used the crowdsourcing website 99designs.com to start what turned out to be worldwide competition to design the village's new logo.
How Gurnee's new logo came from Indonesia
The artwork was obtained via the services of a crowdsourcing website -- where a buyer posts graphic specifications on the Internet, and then purchases a design from out of a collection submitted by remote designers.

In related news, two employees of the Lake County Circuit Court Clerk were arrested this week for altering court documents:
Two sisters working in the Lake County circuit court clerk's office have been charged with altering court records for "personal benefit," prosecutors announced Friday.
Two court employees charged with altering documents
Now, Photoshop may be a powerful imaging tool, but one software expert was candid with your LakeCountyEye: "Those two suspects should have just outsourced the job to Indonesia. They'd have saved themselves time and money. And on top of that, good luck with finding or extraditing someone in Indonesia."

That's all your LakeCountyEye has. Make like Vincent Van, and Gogh.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Land o' Swooshen

That giant sucking sound you heard was not the Lake County board in executive session. No, it was the sound of jobs leaving Lake County. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the ...
Lake County, Ill.-Kenosha County, Wis., area reported a 5,100-job loss (1.2 percent)
Little change in area unemployment numbers
Ordinarily those Lake County jobs would be siphoned into Kenosha. But, if those statistics are to be believed, either those jobs are fleeing back into Lake County from Kenosha -- or they are going somewhere else.

Your LakeCountyEye investigated, and can exclusively report that these jobs are going to Indonesia. The Daily Herald has reported that ...
In need of a fresh logo quickly and at low cost, one Lake County town put out a request online -- and had it filled by someone in Indonesia. Rather than a strike a traditional contract with a design firm of consulting company, Gurnee used the crowdsourcing website 99designs.com to start what turned out to be worldwide competition to design the village's new logo.
How Gurnee's new logo came from Indonesia
After sifting through 325 proposals, the Village of Gurnee chose for itself a new logo from an Indonesian designer -- a logo that featured ...
a swoosh incorporated into the "N" of Gurnee.
How Gurnee's new logo came from Indonesia

Indonesian workers are no strangers to the iconic swoosh. Chances are your athletic shoes were made in Indonesia:
Note to Ops who plan to kiss goodbye that minimum wage job in Kenosha, for greener pastures in Indonesia: Set your clocks backward -- Indonesia is not on Central Standard Time!