* In a somewhat strange turn of events, a couple of historically moderate Republicans, House Republican Leader Tom Cross and Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno, are co-hosting an ultra-conservative national event next month in Illinois. Andrew Breitbart and Glenn Beck are both speakers at the Right Nation 2010 extravaganza. From a press release…

Right Nation 2010 announced today that Andrew Breitbart will be joining fellow conservatives, Republicans and Tea Party Independents at the September 18 event. An outspoken conservative, Breitbart has built a reputation as a public figure unafraid to take on the liberal left or the controversial topics of the day.

The founder of Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and Big Peace, Breitbart is also a commentator for the Washington Times and various news programs, as well as an author and publisher.

Breitbart joins conservative icon Glenn Beck, Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Congressman Aaron Schock and Tea Party leader Herman Cain, as well as journalists Stephen Moore, John Fund, and others.

House Republican Leader Tom Cross has long had a reputation as a moderate, but he’s been pushing hard against that for the past year or so. The same goes for Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno. Both leaders are listed as hosts of Right Nation 2010. Several local tea party groups are listed as partners. Cross’ House Republican Organization is one of the sponsors.

* Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, an Associated Press survey of economists produced nothing new as far as I’m concerned…

State budget shortfalls pose a “significant” or “severe” risk to the national economy. The loss of tax revenue has forced state and local governments to cut services and lay off workers. […]

At the same time, state budget shortfalls have emerged as a major threat in the economists’ view. State and local governments cut their spending in the first three months of this year at a 3.8 percent pace. That was the biggest cutback since the second quarter of 1981, just before the economy entered a severe recession.

When states and localities tighten spending by trimming services and jobs, the cutbacks ripple through the broader economy, causing individuals to spend less, too. The drop in state and local government spending shaved about half a percentage point off the U.S. gross domestic product in the first three months of this year.

Nearly two-thirds of the economists view the states’ budget crises as a significant or severe threat to the rebound. [Emphasis added]

I’ve been saying for well over a year that the administration and the Congress screwed up badly by not giving the state’s a bigger helping hand. One of the reasons for the failure of the economic stimulus was that the states counteracted it with their spending cuts.

And, to be clear, I’m not necessarily saying that the stimulus should’ve been bigger, although many would. I am saying that more money sent the states’ way and less spent on things that barely stimulated anything would’ve been the smart thing to do. But, no.

* Our chart of the day is from the Rockefeller Institute and looks at quarterly state tax revenues for all states since the beginning of 2007…

* But even a little federal aid is looking less likely…

Reid said he is now more confident of getting a small-business relief bill through the Senate this week, including significant tax breaks for companies and a $30 billion Treasury-backed loan facility. But new budget problems Monday cast fresh doubt on the Senate’s ability to deliver on a White House-backed state and local aid package designed to avert tens of thousands of layoffs, including teachers, in the fall.

Just hours before a scheduled cloture vote Monday, the Congressional Budget Office informed Senate leadership that it was still about $5 billion short of offsetting the full $26.1 billion cost of the package. […]

Within the aid package, $10 billion is dedicated to protecting teaching jobs, and the remaining $16.1 billion is to help governors meet their state Medicaid payments for the first half of 2011. In both cases, the funds would essentially extend relief provided under the giant economic stimulus bill enacted soon after Obama took office last year. But Democrats have pledged to fully offset the costs through a combination of tax reforms and spending cuts, about $10 billion of which came from the recovery act.

* Related…

* ADDED: Democratic Surge In Polls Is Just Noise

* Economists Confirm: State Budget Cuts Threaten Economic Recovery: In fact, states’ actions to close their estimated $140 billion in budget shortfalls without more federal aid could cost the economy up to 900,000 public- and private-sector jobs. You don’t have to be a leading economist to realize that’s the last thing our economy needs.

* More Balance: So, claims that our analysis systematically understates costs for public employers are invalid on this basis. Similarly, claims that our study should have added the value of the entire unfunded liability (of state and local government DB plans) onto a single year’s compensation costs are completely off base. Any analysis that does so will reach conclusions that are equally inappropriate and flawed.

* Poll: Public Prefers Candidates Who Serve Pork, But Not Tea

       

78 Comments - Angry Chicagoan - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:09 pm: If the Republicans are all going to go full-on Tea Party, they’re part of the problem, not part of the solution. I don’t think what Illinois needs now is to have another batch of politicians in power who refuse to raise taxes and refuse to even identify spending cuts. And, ironically, the more Tea Party the Illinois Republicans get, the more they functionally (if not ideologically) resemble Madigan’s broken regime. - ZC - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:10 pm: I realize they probably couldn’t get any other day and were aware of this, but I find it a bit of poor symbolism, that they decided to schedule this conservative mega-rally on Yom Kippur. - Ahoy - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:11 pm: Are the Republicans even trying to win in Illinois anymore or are they satisfied with just keeping the few seats they still have? - Pembleton - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:17 pm: OK, ZC, I’ll bite: what is the problem with the Republicans holding the Right Nation rally on Yom Kippur? - Third Generation Chicago Native - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:21 pm: In this Blue state you are going to have this event that is so far off to the right? And Beck, is no different than his angry, bitter, way far off to the right collieges on Fox, who when they deliver their, I hesitate to say News, but program, they are all ready to blow a gasket, they are so wound up and upset. (e.g. Hannity, O’Reilly). - Willie Stark - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:24 pm: Pembleton, it’s the holiest day of the year for Jews. It would be like holding it on Easter. But, I’m ok with it, because it just shows what the Republican Party and its followers are all about these days. They’ve gone over to the crazy. For them, America is only a Christian nation and pluralism is bad and to be feared. Increasingly scary people in incresingly scary times. - ZC - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:28 pm: Pembleton, I think the symbolism is, “We’re not really interested in whether Jews in Illinois can attend this event, and thus help us take back Illinois.” Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, atonement, and synagogue attendance. I don’t think a lot of even secular Jews would consider it appropriate to attend a conservative mega-rally on this day. I’m not Jewish myself and if I am misinterpreting the holiday or what’s appropriate for observant Jews, anyone feel free to correct me. - D.P. Gumby - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:38 pm: It’s a shame to see Cross lose his last shred of integrity. - Anonymous ZZZ - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:41 pm: ZC - I used to staff a state task force for an elected official, and he scheduled a meeting on Yom Kippur. One of the task force members, who was Jewish, asked if it could be rescheduled, and the boss said no. This caused an uproar, and the meeting was rescheduled. I’m not Jewish either, but you are right - you don’t mess with Yom Kippur. To do so is a slap in the face to Jewish people. - Vole - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:55 pm: Connect the dots: 1. We send the bulk of our tax dollars to D.C. 2. We need some of those tax dollars back here. 3. The right wingers, the states’ righters, don’t want to send some of these tax dollars back to us. 4. People suffer here. Some ideologues thrive on keeping the dots disconnected. Question everything. - Amalia - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:56 pm: Beck and Breitbart? is Christine Radogno on drugs? - Anon - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 1:57 pm: Vole, I think I’m with you… I’m just not exactly sure what you’re going for… - Plutocrat03 - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:00 pm: The Rockefeller data shows a slow recovery of the State economies. More time will show a continuous slow improvement. Self restraint in spending will pay a double dividend by slowing the red ink today and a faster recovery later. Spending stimulus money for business as usual satisfies the political stats quo but condemns the States to a longer and more tepid recovery. In the business world companies that do not cut or save enough during hard times are either dissolved or are acquired. Illinois is simply a failed state who thinks that spending borrowed money will salve their problems. - Vole - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:03 pm: “I’m just not exactly sure what you’re going for…” Revenue sharing for short. Jeez, all we are asking for is some help, i.e. some help from ourselves and our representatives in D.C. who apportion our own tax dollars. - CircularFiringSquad - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:13 pm: Meanwhile StateWideTom steps on his own puff piece legislation with his jump in the sack with Beck and Brietbart…Silly boy. Fire,Aim Ready Will CommandoMakeItUp attend? Steele? CaribouBarbie - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:15 pm: Vole, I think you missed a point, or dot. Conservatives don’t want to send all the money to Washington in the first place. - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:17 pm: Okay, let’s for a moment say the stimulus was necessary. If Obama would have taken the money and sent it back to the states as block grants, the money might have been more effectively used. OTOH, if the states were flush with money, would they have been able to show any fiscal restraint? - Gnome - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:19 pm: Well of course state budget short-falls are exacerbating the weak economy; after all, the Federal stimulus package was too small and ill-targeted. In the beginning of 2009, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the national economic output would decrease by about 7%, or around 2 trillion with a ‘t’ dollars. So what did Congress come up with? - a stimulus package of, at the time, just over $750 billion. Even factoring in the most efficient multiplying effects of well-targeted spending, it’s nearly impossible to transform $750 billion into 2 trillion. The stimulus was never enough. Compounding this problem is the fact that around 1/3 of the spending in the stimulus was in the form of tax cuts – one of the least effective multipliers. Look through the CBO’s reports over the past 2 or 3 years. Every report on economic stimulus shows that: “purchases of goods and services by the federal government” and “transfers to state and local government” (i.e. unemployment benefits, infrastructure, aid) are the most effective forms of stimulus, insofar as they provide the most bang for the buck. Tax cuts really only help the national economy during small declines in consumer spending. Without help from the federal government, states will continue to layoff workers and cut spending until basic governmental functions become impossible. States as entities will cease to exist. God for bid Illinois should raise its regressively flat income tax long enough to dig out of this budgetary hole. - Ghost - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:30 pm: I still think the idea of letting States borrow from the fed at zero interest and pay back the loans by off setting future federal matching dollars paid to the States is a win-win. it let’s the States get out of debt and stimulate the econmy with their operations. The money is borrowed from future federal dollars to the States so it does notincrease the defecit; and the States aborbs the fincial impact over the next few years by having to cover the smaller ill of replacing lost fed dollars with state dollars. - Deep South - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:31 pm: Who in their right mind wants to get within 10 feet of Breitbart these days? Do Republicans see this guy as some sort of right-wing hero? And by the time September rolls around Beck may well have incited someone to commit violence against some here-to-fore unknown enemy. It would seem that the Baggers are now in charge and the rest of the G-NO-P is trying to catch up. - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:33 pm: Gnome said, “Compounding this problem is the fact that around 1/3 of the spending in the stimulus was in the form of tax cuts – one of the least effective multipliers.” There were no tax cuts. Obama made the same mistake as Bush, the “tax cuts” were actually one time tax rebate, which has indeed a poor multiplier since people will either pay down bills or save the money. Even when they spend a rebate, it is a one-time deal. Marginal tax rate cuts are the best way to stimulate the economy, and this is noted in the CBO report where they talk about multipliers. I still contend that any dollar cycled through the government must, before multipliers are applied, be counted as less than a dollar spent or invested by the private sector, and a low multiplier probably doesn’t make up for the discrepancy. This “overhead” effect is never accounted for in these economic analyses. One could also make the case that the stimulus monies are leaving behind very little infrastructure which would then assist in future economic growth. I cannot get past one other logical conclusion for Keynesian spending. Since this money will have to be paid back eventually, or inflated out of the system, and if this stimulus was too small, is it possible to keep spending even more without long-term problems? Why not spend $2T, $3T or more. It is the contention of Hayek economists that Keynesian economics can only be used for short term blasts. Long-term, these stimulus packages end up being detrimental since they actually do not produce long term economic growth; they only redistribute existing wealth, not grow it. - Reformer - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:34 pm: Cross has an open Tea Partier — Tom Morrison — as the GOP nominee for Bassi’s seat in Palatine. Morrison’s biggest funder in the primary was Jack Roeser, a strong Cross critic. Yet Cross has to back Morrison or else lose a GOP seat. - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:39 pm: Ghost, Your proposal sounds a bit like Medicare and Social Security funding, spending now based on future revenue. I’d have to think about this more, but I can see your program being extended ad infinitum, causing long term problems. Like it or not, the economic downturn, and the resultant loss in state revenues, is causing many states to rethink their spending priorities. We have seen that when times are flush, spending rises to suck up every available dollar, and then some. Only Indiana was prescient enough to build a reserve fund to weather this storm. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 2:48 pm: It’s the Hayek types at the U of C that helped get us into this mess with the financial sector, C. I’m not sure they’re all that believable these days. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:04 pm: Rich- I’m quite sure Hayek wouldn’t have supported the financial system we built that led to the crash… at least he shouldn’t have. It wasn’t capitalism then, and it’s really not capitalism now. Privatize the profits, socialize the risks is pretty much the model of almost every corrupt government around the world. All we need now is titles of nobility. Re: ultra-conservative I’m always amused that there is only moderate and ultra-conservative… there is apparently no such thing as a reasonable conservative. I’m quite sure many of you except the attendees to be handed sheets on check-in. Argument-by-characteriture does great things, doesn’t it? - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:05 pm: Rich, I don’t think tax policy means a whole lot. Taxing is just a method to fund government spending. It wasn’t the Hayekians that caused the problem, it was the constant, long-time profligate spending by our elected officials on both sides of the aisle. - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:06 pm: RE: Cross, Radogno host Breitbart, Beck I will read no more or less into this than William Ayers and Bernadette Dorn holding the fundraiser where Obama launched his campaign. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:06 pm: ===there is apparently no such thing as a reasonable conservative=== There are plenty of those. Plenty. But there are the fringe types. And those two are there. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:13 pm: Beck is fringe now too? I mean, I hate his presentation style too, but how exactly is he fringe again? And Breitbart may be a bit of a bomb-thrower, but then again, so are people like Ted Rall, or for that matter, Al Franken. Are they fringe too? - just sayin' - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:17 pm: Oh come on, it’s a shameless pander/glom-on by Cross and Radogno. State GOP and Cook GOP jumped on the bandwagon too as co-hosts. Don’t think anyone is fooled. But even that crew can see where the energy is this year. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:21 pm: ===Beck is fringe now too? I mean, I hate his presentation style too, but how exactly is he fringe again?=== Pining for a return to the gold standard and revisionist history about how the United States was founded as a “Christian” nation are two fringe ideas I associate with Beck, you know, just off the top of my head. I don’t watch him though, so I’ll let others add to what I suspect is a long list of Glenn Beck fringe-i-ness. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:21 pm: John, warning vieweres time and time again that FEMA is setting up concentration camps ain’t a tad extreme? Do I really need to add more? - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:22 pm: Also, Cross has been a supporter of stem cell research. Beck has compared that to what the Nazis did. - Ghost - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:25 pm: Cincinnatus the snowball agrument is a logical fallacy. The State has anticipated revenues. Finacialy the recovery in IL is being weighed donw by the 13 billion dollars which have ben withdrawn from our economy; that is money already spent and bills not paid. We are borrowing to get throuhg the financial downturn, but reducing defficit spending by borrowing against future revenue from the feds. Cutting spending is a good talking point, but the reality is to maintain a capitalist system you have to protect the markets. protecin the makets requies funding both social and reglatory aspects of goverment. Smaller government is bit of a red herrin or oxymoron. We started with no governemnt living in anarachy. Socially we realised you could not advance, and buisness could not trive, without order and structure. That order and structure is Govt. reduce donw order and structure and you moe back to a system based on strenght of individual, which is not conductive to bussiess growth etc. That said Gv can be made more efficient. But there is a difference between cutin wast and efficincy and just eliminating govt. - girllawyer - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:27 pm: How is Beck “fringe”? Good grief, I hope he is considered “fringe”. If he is “mainstream Republican”, well, that’s just too scary to consider. - Vole - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:30 pm: “Vole, I think you missed a point, or dot. Conservatives don’t want to send all the money to Washington in the first place.” Cin OK. Add W’s tax cut on the wealthy as another point. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:43 pm: As I don’t watch Beck, I wouldn’t know about the FEMA thing… have a link? As far as embryo-destroying stem cell research (EDSTR) to be very specific, if you believe life starts at conception, then it is pretty much human experimentation… or more accurately, it’s growing people as crops. Every study I’ve seen that discusses the logistics needed to actually produce any cures large scale from EDSTR would require orders of magnitude more embryos then would ever be conceivable to be available as “leftovers” from IVF. There was a reason Hwang Woo Suk demanded his female subordiantes to donate their eggs for his research… there simply aren’t enough nor will there ever be without opening up new avenues of “supply”. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:44 pm: ===…there is apparently no such thing as a reasonable conservative.=== John, Why don’t you ask Senator Bennett about that? To me he was a reasonable conservative. To the Tea Party folks in Utah, he wasn’t ultra-conservative enough for them and his party dumped him. Go figure. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:45 pm: This was top hit on Google regarding Glenn Beck and FEMA camps: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/08/glenn-beck-fema-concentra_n_184692.html It seems he is arguing the exact opposite, that they do not exist. Of course, that’s a first glance… am I missing something? I don’t watch so I’m sincerely asking. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 3:47 pm: 47th Ward- Actually, GOP primary voters (or I suppose whatever term describes people who vote in caucuses) dumped him. And by stating that they dumped him in an election would seem to argue against them being “fringe” since, you know, they won an election. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:03 pm: ===As I don’t watch Beck, I wouldn’t know about the FEMA thing… have a link?=== How can you defend him if you don’t watch him? Are you that knee jerky? But here you go… Beck: We don’t even understand freedom anymore. We are a country that is headed toward socialism, totalitarianism, beyond your wildest imagination. I have to tell you, I am doing a story tonight, that I wanted to debunk these FEMA camps. I’m tired of hearing about them — you know about them? I’m tired of hearing about them. I wanted to debunk them. We’ll we’ve now for several days been doing research on them — I can’t debunk them! And we’re going to carry the story tonight. http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/glenn-beck-who-me-spread-baseless-fe - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:09 pm: Rich, Beck debunks FEMA camps: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/08/glenn-beck-fema-concentra_n_184692.html - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:11 pm: Rich- Read closer, I didn’t defend him. Let me quote myself… Beck is fringe now too? I mean, I hate his presentation style too, but how exactly is he fringe again? Wow… on second glance that is a full-throated defense of all that is Glenn Beck. I have taken up sword and shield and have laid low all of his enemies. In fact, the best in life is to crush his enemies, to see them driven before me and to hear the lamentations of their women. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:12 pm: C, he debunked them only after he assumed that since he couldn’t find them they still existed. That’s fringe mentality, either way you look at it. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:14 pm: Rich- Maybe he’s reformed fringe since he corrected himself? Just sayin’. - Vole - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:18 pm: So, what about Schock joining these ultra right wingers? No surprise as with Cross and Radogno? Or is he already a legitimate winger? (I’d say so.) - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:18 pm: But no fringiness here… “This leads to death camps,” Beck said on May 28. “A Jew, of all people, should know that. This is exactly the kind of talk that led to the death camps in Germany — put humankind and the common good first.” http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100803/cm_yblog_upshot/becks-holocaust-comments-prompt-fox-news-meeting - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:19 pm: Vote- You know, maybe the event is more than just one or two of the participants… - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:19 pm: John, I guess if you need help understanding what makes Beck a fringe character, I suspect you wouldn’t accept anything said here as proof. Even people on the fringe know Beck is out there. Way out there. Oh, and since you compared Al Franken to Breitbart: when Al Franken misuses edited videos to slander innocent people I’ll be the first to call him a member of the lunatic fringe on the left. Until then, they don’t belong in the same sentence (unless you’re discussing polar opposites). - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:22 pm: Rich- I certainly see a Godwin law violation. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:25 pm: 47th Ward- I asked for evidence, until a few minutes ago, all that was offered was the FEMA concentration camp thing (which was a fringe idea). You see, I don’t watch cable news, haven’t for years. I find all the channels vapid infotainment. So it’s all rather a sideshow circus about the X is fringe, Y is biased debate. I like 80 some odd percent of the country just don’t trust the media anymore save few outlets. That and I’d rather read the news instead of seeing some harpy screech for 60 minutes punctuated only by Enzyte commercials. I suppose I could trot out all the Air America footage of Al, but see, it really doesn’t matter to me. As far as Breitbart using “edited” videos, excerpt might be the more appropriate word. Then again, when Shirley Sherrod got on national television and said Andrew Breitbart wants to reinstitute slavery, you know, I suddenly lost a lot of sympathy for her. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:27 pm: === Beck is fringe now too? I mean, I hate his presentation style too, but how exactly is he fringe again? === @Bombeck: Courtesy of The Daily Show and Lewis Black: ‘Glenn Beck’s Nazi Tourette’s’ See: Godwin’s Law - Segatari - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:27 pm: Rich - Media Matters is NOT a credible source which was the source used in that Yahoo link. Left-wing tinfoil hatter David Brock routinely takes things out of context, kinda like what the left accused Andrew Bretbart of doing with Shirley Serrod. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:29 pm: ===I certainly see a Godwin law violation. === By Beck. A long time ago. - shore - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:35 pm: To me this is the political equivalent of lighting yourself on fire. This is not going to go over well in northbrook when in mid september brady is trying to convince moderates he’s a reasonable republican and you have the msm and local news talking up how glenn beck and andrew breitbart are in the city and half the state party is there backing them. cross and radogno need a clue. on yom kippur, like em or hate em, beck and breitbart are hot tickets and much in demand and I think this was more of a timing thing then wanting to offend jewish groups. The cubs still play baseball on the high holidays. Could they have picked a better time? yes, like after the election , are jewish people going to be offended? Maybe the 2 who might actually have attended. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:36 pm: Funny, I mention Godwin’s Law, and not one but two people refute me by citing… Godwin’s Law… it must have been a long day. And while I think Lewis Black is hysterical, you’ll pardon me if I don’t take that as “evidence”. Rich did ok with the Nazi quote. But, like all cable news, and for that matter, most media in general, Beck relies on hyperbole to get people to pay attention. When so much information is generated every day you need to trick people to pay attention. The MSM is not in the business of news. Maybe decades ago, but not today. They are in the business to sell advertising. Period. They’re in marketing. The only thing that matters is whether people watch. The way to do that is to make people mad (the cable news model) or make people afraid (the 60 minutes model). It’s the same driving force behind the “if it bleeds it leads” school of thought. So Beck made some Nazi references. Al Franken made plenty of all-priests-are-pedophiles references. Does it make them fringe? Maybe. It does make them effective at media. And until the day when people start wanting news instead of being entertained or having their pre-formed passions inflamed, it ain’t going to change. - Luke - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:37 pm: “It’s the Hayek types at the U of C that helped get us into this mess with the financial sector, C. I’m not sure they’re all that believable these days. ” If you’ve ever read Hayek you’d know he’s not for central banking and nominal interest rates below the real rate of inflation. In Austrian economics this leads to malinvestment of resources. Actually , the Austrian economic school was the only school of economics that predicted the housing crash.I’m impressed when any journalist even mentions Hayek’s name because not many journalists have actually ever taken a class in microeconomics. Blaming Hayek is the laugh of the day! http://rongstad.blogspot.com/2009/05/2008-housing-collapse-predicted-on.html - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:38 pm: shore- Here’s the message that Brady should give moderates… “If you can’t handle conservatives in the party, up yours. Enjoy liberal Chicago Democrat rule”. His message to conservatives should be, “If you can’t handle moderates in the party, up yours. Enjoy liberal Chicago Democrat rule.” Politics is a game of addition, and from the look of it, everyone is running aruond looking who to throw out. Talk about a losing strategy. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:40 pm: ===Politics is a game of addition=== Yeah, and you don’t do it by telling people “Up yours!” Sheesh, man. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:43 pm: I’m not sure anyone finds “up yours” offensive anymore. - Capitol View - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:48 pm: this discussion has drifted far from the original point. The reality is that Illinois State Government is so far into debt to its own businesses and contracting services that our state government is one of the major impediments to economic recovery in this state. Add $14 billion dollars into the economy, and watch Illinois society and economy soar. The feds borrow from air, but states don’t and shouldn’t. I’m not even thrilled with zero interest federal loans, backed by future federal funding distribution. I would ask the feds to pay our overdue state government bills to schools, hospitals, pharmacists, human services providers, and even State Fair contractors as an economic stimulant to the entire state. - John Bambenek - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 4:50 pm: I think if the feds have to come in and pay our bills, they should demote us to federal territory. It’s our mess, we need to clean it up. - Luke - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 5:10 pm: The Rockefeller Institute chart is going to take on more importance in the coming years. Many states simply can’t raise taxes high enough to meet their pension obligations. How many federal taxpayers are going to want to bailout Bell, California’s former Mayor’s pension? - Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 5:17 pm: The US can’t compete with the rest of the world if we’re dragged down by bloated governments, especially when we now compete with billions of people who would improve their quality of life earning $3/day or 25 cents per hour. We can reform now or wait till our creditors cut us off and the entire economy crashes hard as import prices skyrocket. Our debt rating in IL has already dropped several notches because of all the government waste and inefficiency that make us uncompetitive. Paying a government employee to do busywork that doesn’t generate exports or provide critical needs (not wants) with money taken from an entreprenuer or small business reinvesting in their business to generate more revenue or improve efficiency (to increase future tax revenues) is a waste. What ever happened to public service being paid less because the risk of losing a job is less and the benefits are far more generous (pensions not 401Ks, prepaid healthcare plans not catastrophic health insurance)? Realistic retirement and health insurance offer huge deficit savings potential for the state. Schools should also do fundraising to learn how hard it is to EARN a dollar if you can’t just take it by force (or get hooked up by insiders). With all the potential savings on pay and benefits we could both create new jobs and cut the deficit. Then there’s the poverty programs that give handouts to people at 4 times (or even 2x) the poverty level. That absurd…no family making $80,000 (or $40K) per year should need a handout if they budget and spend carefully, unless they’ve got pre-existing health conditions. The poverty level should define poor, which should allow food stamps and waive kid’s education fees. Further below the poverty level should add housing help. Require overtime to paid at triple wages and lots of new jobs will suddenly appear to eliminate overtime. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 5:21 pm: The reason we have a pension problem is because only 8% is paid, yet social security requires over 15% paid in for retirement. No wonder what was promised and what was paid are so far apart, leaving us with so much debt. - And I Approved This Message - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 5:57 pm: John Bambenek– You know what they say: when you find yourself in a deep hole, the best thing to do is to stop digging. One recent example of Glenn Beck’s lunacy and its repercussions: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/glenn-becks-incendiary-an_b_660429.html - Sad - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 6:15 pm: Christine R. adding her name to an event with Breitbart makes me sad. Purposely editing tapes to slander someone expressly to set off a firestorm of right-wing lies about an innocent person for the larger purpose of cheap political shots that aren’t even based on truth is shameful and disgusting. Imagine if he had done that to a Jewish group. There would have been hell to pay. In order to selectively edit those tapes, he had access to the full story. Yes, there is a lot of blame to go around for a situation that cost this woman her job, but it started with BREITBART. He’s being rewarded for it and that should scare all of us. He incited hate in the highest degree and KNEW it. Did it purposefully. And what is sicker is that no one on the right “repudiated” (correct word, right?) him for it. They are so quick to demand repudiation for anything they think is offensive but Breitbart gets protection and recognition? Disgusting. Way to prove that you don’t give a pass to racists, Republicans. Sad. - CircularFiringSquad - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 6:22 pm: And the want the Tribune lunatic fringe on their side too. Yikes Guess the early polling is going badly for them Hmmmmm - steve schnorf - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 9:07 pm: Very interesting. Keep it up. - Peggy SO-IL - Tuesday, Aug 3, 10 @ 9:53 pm: Vole: Conservatives want the tax money back here in our own pockets of those who earned it–not via redistribution and govt make-work. Also, Bush cut taxes for every one who pays taxes, not just “the rich.” We all stand to experience HUGE tax increases in ‘11 if Congress doesn’t extend them. I’m not a Beckian, and he goes too far in some ways, but his basic positions are standard conservatism. Embryonic stem cell research is eugenics–research on human life, utilitarian use of human life. That’s what Nazi’s did–eugenics. He’s not far off the mark. That’s the Catholic view. I guess we Catholics are plain nuts since we care about unborn babies. And maybe the GOP’s been losing in this state for years b/c it doesn’t offer a real alternative to the Dem agenda. “Dem lite” doesn’t cut it for many, many people. Do you folks ever acknowledge the presence of whack jobs on the left? Ayers and Dorhn and their ilk are anti-American communists and terrorists. That’s more than whack job. Communism is not an American tradition, yet we know O wants to change our traditions and history, as Michelle said during the campaign. If CA can pass a constitutional amendment that marriage is between one man and one woman and may oust Barbra Boxer, and if NJ can vote in Chris Christie, then IL has room for tea party sentiments, like it or not. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 6:20 am: I wish Beck and Breitbart were fringe in the GOP. Those guys and their ilk are running the show there now. They’re conmen. They don’t care about policy. They make a lot of money preaching to the Perpetual Victim Class. - Cincinnatus - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 8:09 am: - wordslinger - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 6:20 am: “I wish Beck and Breitbart were fringe in the GOP. Those guys and their ilk are running the show there now. They’re conmen. They don’t care about policy. They make a lot of money preaching to the Perpetual Victim Class.” Two points. Beck and Breibart hold little sway with Republican leaders. The Republican message is being developed by Cantor, McCarthy, Roskam, Kyle and McConnell. All are keeping the Tea Party movement at arm’s length. Beck is an entertainer, and says so almost on a daily basis. Breibart is a polemist who has decided to use “Alinsky-type” tactics against the left. - Vole - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 8:50 am: Not sure where the moderate label for Radogno arose. My impression from seeing her face and words frequently on news interviews is that she almost exclusively and unimaginatively totes the conservative, knee jerk republican lines. I’d judge her as being part of the problem in Springfield. She seems the type to go with other followers. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 9:10 am: ====Beck and Breibart hold little sway with Republican leaders==== Cincy, you must be living in La-La land. I doubt this article will open your eyes…but most would agree it’s right-on..and it’s an indication of what’s going on with the Illinois G-NO-P: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/bob-inglis-tea-party-casualty - wordslinger - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 9:12 am: Cincy, GOP leaders load their pants every time one of these “entertainers” say boo. That’s why the GOP “message” is we’re on the road to socialism, communism, fascism, vivisectionism, or whatever fever dream Rush and the Rabids are peddling that day. But the leaders still but their pork, too. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 9:15 am: … still want their pork. Excuse the typo, please. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 10:14 am: ===“Alinsky-type” tactics=== I’ve read Alinsky. Actually did a paper on him in college. He’s no Alinksy. - Gish - Wednesday, Aug 4, 10 @ 2:22 pm: Peggy- You do not understand the meaning of the word Eugenics. Eugenics is specifically the alteration of the gene pool through selective breeding or genocide of undesirable gene pools. That is what the Nazis attempted, both selective breeding and genocide, but they did not utilize stem cell research in attempting to aid specific diseases. I know it may seem like a good idea to link embryonic stem cell research to eugenics in your view but that are categorically NOT the same thing and it debases your argument through its usage. Stem cell research tangentially, at best, deals with genetics. It is more interested in the ability of stem cells to transform into specific cells in order to rebuild or aid types of cells damaged or destroyed by specific diseases. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.