Hastert Wins Two County Board Seats.

Now, don't get all silly about how it's a good thing (since his ass is so big, you know, he needs two). I've given this news story about the Republican race on the Kendall County Board some thought. I don't think there's anything more pathetic than what's going on here.

If you can't exactly read between the lines, here it is for you in detail.

The Speaker of the House actually felt he had to get involved in countywide politics in this Primary race in order to get his favorites elected. He's done it before, of course, and has had the same mixed results he had this go 'round.

But now it's different. Hastert, it's widely known, went against the wishes of Mrs. Hastert years ago by serving more than one term as Speaker. Now, it's pretty clear that he'll retire at the end of this term and turn the entire, gigantic mess he and Gingrich-DeLay-Bush-Fristy have created over to someone else (Tommy Cross, hint, hint).

So it appears now that Hastert has nothing better to do with his time during Primary season than shill for little Boy and his county board team. Well, think about it.

His two candidates, Martin and Purcell, were and are avid supporters of his highway plan, which will eventually mean big money for him and his monied backers, as soon as they pull the covers off the land trusts they've invested in along the route of the highway plan.

Now, that's pathetic.

Friday Night Cock Pictures.

You all know the drill. You have a couple of drinks with friends early on Friday afternoon. Next thing you know, you've got people taking and sharing pictures like this. This big black one is magnificent.

And look at the bright red color on this one.

I Hate Bob Dole.

And so I hate quoting him when I ask, "Where is the outrage?"

What does it really take to get Americans so pissed off, that they do something about another American's problems?

This particular picture was taken a full three months after about 200 that a friend of mine shot in the New Orleans area. It's absolutely shocking that nothing has taken place in this amount of time.

This, however, is encouraging news that should make you feel better about things: Hurricane Season begins June 1, just a bit more than 60 days from now.

Support Common Ground.

I love Anderson Cooper's show. I love Anderson Cooper for his moxie in getting down to NOLA and sticking it in our faces.

We should see this every single night until it does some God-Damned good.

As a nation, we should direct our outrage at our "leaders" and ask them why New Orleans has been so horribly abandoned.

Visit Common Ground, the organization that has sent droves of college students to NOLA, volunteering to do the awful tear-down work.

Pet Owners! If you're not outraged at what's been happening in New Orleans, please click on this link for further shock value.

This is not the America I once knew.

Question of the Day.

Why does Denny "J. Dennis" Hastert hate children, public schools, and national forests?

If he signs onto Bush's screwy idea (the Post-Dispatch called it "hare-brained") somebody had better ask him.

It's a serious question.

(Update: link's fixed. Thanks Pastor Evil)

Kane County Dem Precinct Committeemen.

Steve Aldrich has been making lots of noise at Soapblox/Chicago, but there's not a whole lot to show for it in the Kane County votes. That's not a knock on Steve; just a simple observation of the facts.

With his avid support of the duly-elected challenger to Denny "J. Dennis" Hastert in the November election, I thought maybe there was a groundswell of support for Democrats up in Kane that was not registering on my political sliderule.

Overall, Kane County has a better than 50% vacancy rate (way more, actually, but I've had to be judicious with my time) among Democratic precinct committeemen, and none of the numbers are out of double digits.

In fact, the highest God-Damned vote-getter for PC was one with 87 votes. That's not very much God-Damned better than in Kendall County, where Primary election voting was, overall, a big joke.

Similar to Kendall, Kane County Republican PCs garnered votes in triple digits throughout the county. There are also plenty of vacancies there, as well, but the numbers speak for themselves.

There's a long way to go for Democrats in Kendall County. And Kane County, as well.

Democratic PCs in Kendall County.

My understanding of Precinct Committeemen is that they are the "ward bosses" of each individual precinct.

And the number of votes PCs garner in each precinct are the root level of our party system. Each vote is akin to a delegate vote at a convention.

At the township level, each township boss is elected based on the number of PCs he/she can swing. After that, the county chairman is elected based on the number of votes (or delegates, if that helps) each PC has.

Hence, a PC with 12 votes is rather weak compared to one with 112 (even one with 40 votes) when it comes time to elect countywide party officers.

With the vote totals I've already gone over, it would be a total waste of my time and yours to go into the math. It's pretty awful news. Quite awful.

Where, among all Republican PCs in Kendall received a minimum of 87 votes, and in the highest vote precinct, 320 votes to become PC, Democratic party totals are all lower than the minimum number of 87 it took to elect the "weakest" Republican PC.

Democrats elected their precinct committeemen with as few as 9 (nine) votes. The highest vote total for a Democratic precinct committeeman elected yesterday was 81.

Twelve Democrats voted for John Laesch to be their precinct committeeman, which means he would have very little voting power in the county organization, but could end up being a member of Congress. Hmmm.

There's no scale to judge these numbers, but I'm almost positive they are down quite a lot from previous totals. Why, would be anyone's guess, really.

There was a considerable delay in posting this one due to the fact that I spent a great deal of time looking for the 2004 Primary PC totals. If anyone reading this finds them (Sitemeter tells me there's been plenty of interest in the last couple posts) please post in comments or email them. I would be interested, as it seems to me the totals were much higher last couple times out.

The Undercurrent in the Kendall County Undervote.

You don't have to be a genius to figure this stuff out, but when you consider the large Moron Contingent right here in Kendall County, allow me to spell out what happened in Kendall County last night.

When it was over, there were 13,131 votes cast in the Republican Governor's race, which went to Oberweis in Kendall.

There were right around 1,000 undervotes in the Lt. Governor's race.

What was most telling (and allows me to put it all together) is the undervote for Hastert.

Of the 13,490 Republican votes cast yesterday, there were just over 12,000 cast for Heavy D. Forget the "write-ins." No Republican in Kendall County came out of the booth yesterday without voting for their "Coach." Not one.

So the write-ins were likely all crossover voters from the Dems, who likely only "walked across the line" up to foil Boy (which really didn't matter in the end). Ingemunson would have lost his race without the switchers.

You're looking at right around 1,500 Dem voters who meddled with Dallas Ingemunson's Boy, which was foolhearty.

Overall, the results are, well, pretty terrible for Democrats in Kendall County. And the poor showing is not at all likely the result of the former party leaders, who I'm told bowed out due to the Mary Flowers's poor health.

So let's look at the adjusted totals, once you factor in the switchers.

Out of 17,589 ballots cast (a pitiful 34% turnout), 13,490 (76.7%) were Republican ballots and a less-than-miserable 3,278 (18.6%) Democratic. Move the 1,500 switchers over and you have now barely achieved the 50MO Miserable Rating™: A Whopping 27.2% of the overall Primary voters were Democrats, compared to about 68% Republican.

Wow. Barely Miserable (26-32%) and not quite Pitiful (33-38%). The next level, btw, is Respectable (39-41%), which I don't think we're going to hit in the General election, unless Hastert is indicted for something (not likely).

So you can keep score at home, 42% gets you Telling, and 45% gets a Holy Jesus.

Now, one could easily make the assumption that the Democratic ballot did not present any clear, compelling reason for Democratic voters to get out yesterday. Not true.

The Laesch-Zamora race was reason enough, even if people made the assumption that Laesch was going to win because he actually had money for signs. And there was quite a bit of talk in the county about the two young men.

You can read the Beacon-News story about the other countywide races, neither of which were surprising. No need to hash that out here. Hastert stepped in for Ingemunson in that one, and the two Dems were unopposed. No one was contested in the other district, so it's not even worth the mention.

And what, pray tell, is left? Oh, the big stuff. The Vaunted Precinct Committeemen that Mr. Laesch and the Jim Birch Society worked so hard to put together (that was a joke).

More to come.

Buh-Bye, Buh-Boy.

Boy Ingemunson, wiped out in a misguided, miscalculation of a race (if ever there was one).

Once again, I point to the Incredible Dallas Ingemunson Machine that has been built around a charming little old man, and say, "This is the best you've got?"

The Dallas Ingemunson era is over in Kendall County politics.

Tom Cross will be your new target.

That's a tip for Dems who are now at the helm, in case you're still sleeping off the watered down pitchers of beer from the Grande Olde John Laesch Vicktoriee Celebration.

Jim Birch Society? Hello? You barely got 3,000 votes last night. That's fewer than Dems received in the last primary, which no one can say was due to the Presidential race... It was already decided by the time the Primaries rolled around here.

Message From Ruben Zamora.

I don't think anyone should consider this the "final word" from Mr. Zamora.

The man has class. And moxie. And he's credible. That's a winning combination.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

I am grateful to so many of you that joined me on this fantastic trip called politics. Our campaign for Congress is over, but I want to leave you with a few thoughts.

I know that "WE are the ones WE have been waiting for." In the grand scheme of things, we took on a challenge (politics) that so many complain about but are unwilling to do much more than complain. They get on the blogs; talk tough, but not much more than that---tough "talk" is cheap.

With your help, we helped keep the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars on the front burner in this district. We formally came out for impeachment proceedings in a Batavia forum; we talked about Universal Healthcare everywhere; we spoke out for Peace and for bringing our troops home; and we reached out to a marginalized core Democratic base: Latinos and African-Americans. We succeeded in bringing these issues to a conservative district that needed to hear them and will now have to deal with them. I am so proud of my supporters. We are shaking things up.

Our work is still not done. I pledge to become more involved in true immigration reform by opposing the Sensenbrenner Bill, racist groups like the Minutemen and instead, support the Guttierrez and McCain/Kennedy Bills. I will continue to advocate ending hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will continue to oppose NCLB and fight for fully-funding education. I will continue to seek oil independence by supporting renewable energy sources. I will continue to fight for those who have given up hope. I am not done.

I will make myself available to groups who are fighting for these same issues, but know that I will first secure employment as a teacher, and will work to reintegrate stability and a sense of normalcy back to my family. I lost valuable time with my boys and Nadia running for office. They put on a courageous face, but it was hard. It was hard on all of us.

There were times when I could have gone “negative” against my opponent, but I refused to run a campaign that distracted from the issues. It didn’t seem a problem for him or his supporters, though. I am a man who accepts winning or losing. I lost. I extend my congratulations to John. I will not participate in politics in the near future. I need to concentrate on my family.

I want to thank so many people, and please know that I do not mean to leave anyone out. My team was up to the task; it just didn’t pan out. I apologize if I let them down.

This race is dedicated to the people of this district and the younger generations who will take leadership positions in the future. My “sage” advice: Be true to yourself. Be yourself. Fight for others as if your life is in the balance; and when you fight, fight like Hell!!

Thanks to all of you. I will continue to be voice, a passionate voice, for those in need. I am so grateful, once again, for your prayers, your contributions, your votes, and most importantly your trust. I hope I will continue to have your trust, prayers, and friendship.

Sincerely,

Ruben

Classy. That's a superlative message from a man who was backed into a corner and fought back with everything.

Unfortunately, everything included all of his cash, which led to his defeat.

Best wishes to a classy young man with a very bright future.

Nearly 36% of Kendall Has Reported.

And Boy Ingemunson is getting his Royal Arse kicked, 62-38%. Here's hoping it continues.

Here are voting results for Kendall County, as they come in.

Zamora, unfortunately, is getting killed in Laesch's home county.

Why Oversight Is So Vitally Important.

If this story does not shock you into some level of rage, you should have someone take your pulse.

And who would one blame for such a horrible lack of funding, stategic planning and oversight?

Hint: Think 300 pounds, red face, always pushing his glasses up... Well here's a clip to remind you. (Warning: Get several drinks lined up. This will be the longest 41 minutes of your life if you watch and listen to the whole clip.)

But who else is to blame?

These fine "folks" should all line up in single file for the honors on this one:
The House Ways and Means Committee
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
The House Homeland Security Committee
The House Committee on Appropriations

Why four years after 9/11/01 we don't have an adequate, secure information infrastructure for FBI and CIA is a question that has no reasonable answer.

We can, however, all agree that it's nothing short of criminal negligence.

Kendall County Voting Results.

And some predictions. Here is a handy link to the voting results for Kendall County, which presumably will be updated "live" via the new opti-scan system.

I won't predict any winners here, since that might color the outcome of the vote. Since there's no polling being done, I employed a highly scientific method this morning before and after I voted.

I noticed several people who I know are Democrats (or at least vote like they are) are sporting R candidate stickers. This is an observation I've made a number of times in recent weeks. A couple of "canned" trips to the gas station this morning to strike up conversation with people with certain bumper stickers cemented my notion in fact.

What I'm predicting is a heavier than normal switch, or crossover, vote from Democrats, who may feel they have nothing lose in doing so. Democrats will be voting for Oberweis (because Blagojevich can easily eat the weight of his hair in Oberweis) and others they would rather see on the November ballot (for various reasons).

I abhor switch-voting because it's purely cynical, not honest. Now, that's rich coming from such a cynic, but I prefer total candor at the ballot box, thank you very much.

But that's the problem with our current primary ballot system in Illinois.

Election reform. Boy. I dunno.

I'll provide the complete analysis this evening when we have the totals.

One other observation was that even though the process would seem easier, a certain comfort level... or something... was missing, as it seemed to take voters in my polling place much longer than normal to vote. Just an observation, but I have written on this topic before.

Fire "Mike" Chertoff.

Once and for all, let's stop asking ourselves the same question over and over, such as, "why hasn't this asshole been fired?!"

These morons don't fire anybody. They're loyal to one another. They're all going to get together after The Rapture and roast kneecaps over the Lake Of Fire.

Just start saying it over and over. Fire Michael Chertoff. Waiting for someone else to get the job of security done, then criticizing it is not what I expect from the largest governmental agency ever created in the history of mankind.

Denny Hastert's America.

It's one where the President goes before the public and asks us to look beyond the bloodshed and suffering in Iraq toward the day when everything will be rosey-posey.

I'm paraphrasing. But I find it interesting that the phrase "look beyond the bloodshed" has been used over and over in the past several days to describe the latest iteration of the same old message.

In Denny Hastert's America, the President says things like, "I think in Iraq there are three types of folks that are trying to stop democracy," because he thinks all people are "folks."

They're not folks. He called the pilots on 9/11 "folks" at one point, too.

Just remember, America: Folks want freedom. Just look beyond the bloodshed.

Why Not John Laesch?

Eddie waited til' he finished high school
He went to Hollywood, got a tattoo
He met a girl out there with a tattoo too
The future was wide open

Great song. I heard it a couple weeks ago after having a stormy conversation with a friend who wanted to vote for Ruben Zamora, but said she thought Laesch was a better campaigner.

It really resonates.

Honestly, though I have not seen or met John Laesch, I'm pretty sure he's not a better anything than Ruben Zamora.

Above all, he's a sneakly little bastard that attempted to thwart his rival's campaign by smearing him with false accusations of forgery on his petitions.

Being sneaky is one thing. Come, now. Remember when you first started smoking?

Being a liar is another. But we've all told those little lies that don't matter, haven't we?

There is a big difference here. And while I've been accused of making a mountain out of this, but that's not true. The mountain is there through the fog of a young candidate who pleads with you to believe in him.

What Laesch and other so-called "Progressives" have done is beyond anything I've seen in regional Dem politics in a very long time. They're supposedly kicking out moribund or lackluster Democratic leadership to supplant their own. OK, little cowboy. One job at a time.

First, let's talk about the comments Laesch made recently in his Kos Diary about outgoing Kendall Dem Party Chair, Martin Flowers:

Here in Kendall County, I have been working with the local Progressive Democratic Council to overthrow the stagnant Democratic Party. We have recruited 42 Precinct Committeemen and the Republicans only have 41. A strong structure will be essential to defeating Dennis Hastert.

Well, that's pretty clear. Overthrow is such a strong word. No one could misunderstand that. But here's more lying, too.

John Laesch and the Jim Birch Society have not "recruited 42 PCs." A peek at the current list of Kendall County Dem Precinct Committeemen shows there are 30 currently serving. When you consider the fact that the Jim Birch Society and John Laesch had 11 of those PC candidates thrown off the ballot, it would seem rather impossible that they "recruited 42."

There are exactly 42 listed on the ballot. That's correct. But many of the current PCs, exluding Tom Brophy, Jim Birch (of Society fame), Jack Sechrest, Democratic Party Traitor Jim Feeley, are still on the ballot.

While the Jim Birch Society posted a small net gain for the party in terms of presenting Precinct Committeemen for the ballot, an admirable feat for any political fringe faction, let's see if they have what it takes to get people elected. And let's see if those PCs are credible.

To date, not one person has been in my neighborhood representing Dems, and there's not a single Dem sign for at least a square mile.

As for the misguided notion that the leadership in Kendall was off-track, anyone who has watched as long as I have noticed that the party was growing right along with the Dem population in the county. It's growth depended on that. And it will grow, but so will divide between the factions. All the work the Flowers family members did in the last decade-plus is gone.

So, I guess my answer is no, I don't buy the party organizer schtick the little pisher has neatly inserted into his lingo.

Another thing. I've had more than one friend confirm for me that John Laesch told them or others in 2004, while working for the Kucinich for President campaign, that he (Laesch) was ex-CIA.

What a small world. Especially since John Pavich, who is running in CD 11, is a former CIA officer. Apparently when you mention that it has a positive effect these days. I hadn't really noticed until Laesch lied about being one. When confronted by this during a "live blog event" Laesch backed way away from it. In other words, he was caught. And he lied about it again.

Then came the petitions challenge. Laesch lied about that, too. One would think that his Christian upbringing, or his work with the "faith-based community" might cause his conscience to creep up on the lying that's taking place. Not Johnny.

The papers said Ed always played from the heart
He got an agent and a roadie named Bart
They made a record and it went in the chart
The sky was the limit

Next came the shotgun effect caused by his roadie, Bart his campaign manager, Clint Raulsten, who was about as good with the public as VD on an ugly whore. That's pretty bad, if that's over your heads, Progressives. Clint lied about the whole petition challenge with such detail and precision that he might as well have admitted every detail.

It wasn't a crime, after all, challenging petitions. I have no real problem with that. John Laesch apparently just had trouble understanding that a lot of older men sign their names in all caps (which is acceptable under election laws). When he saw it, he freaked out (read: saw an opening) and cried foul (read: accused his opponent of breaking the law) in a very above-board (malicious) way.

He's a pisher. A sneaky little bastard. Every pisher I ever knew was Laesch's type. They talk about their ties to their "faith" then they bend you over and sodomize you. I'm already getting sodomized by Denny Hastert and his people. How about something new for a change?

But when Laesch and Raulsten were confronted during this "live blog event" they both lied. Later, Laesch came back and admitted that his hothead campaign manager lied, then used some faith-based language to offer support to his fellow liar, then simply stated he wouldn't do anything about it.

Fired or otherwise, Raulsten moved on to another campaign not long after the blog debacle. Not a word from Laesch.

I was encouraged the first time I heard John Laesch on the radio (I think it was Mike Malloy's show). He sounded pretty sharp. But I have lived a life that has taught me that sounding sharp and being sharp are two different things, and that goes for a large chunk of Americana. John Laesch is in that chunk.

Into the great wide open
Under them skies of blue
Out in the great wide open
A rebel without a clue

So when John Laesch is defeated in the primary and we don't have to hear him trying to articulate positions he clearly does not understand, I'll be happy. You'll be happy, in the end.

Or, if Laesch's two days of campaigning (the signs went out over the weekend by the hundreds, it looks like) actually work, I'll quietly go on blogging about how incredibly fucked up things are in Denny Hastert's America. And not say another word about Laesch. Hastert's Goons will take care of that.

Why Ruben Zamora.

I am not disinclined to be an undervote. That's a ballot that has no mark or impression for any candidate in a given race.

There have plenty of times in the past where I just couldn't stand to vote for a name I never heard of, or one belonging to a terrible campaigner, just because the name had a "D" next to it.

Prior to the last election cycle, when a skinny young teacher put his life on hold to run for Congress because he couldn't stand to see Denny Hastert unopposed in the General election, I probably had skipped over 8 or 10 candidates.

That story about Ruben Zamora got my attention in 2004. I went to see him. I listened to his message. I liked him.

I feel pretty comfortable voting for Ruben Zamora again on Tuesday.

Into The Great Wide Open.

John Laesch is about to head into the Great Wide Open. That is to say, he'll either win in the primary against Ruben Zamora tomorrow (a race he personally attempted to squelch by challenging Zamora's petition signatures) and get completely run over by Hastert's Goon Squad, or he'll lose tomorrow, and we'll never hear from the kid again.

Either way, I've decided tonight is the last I'll write about this delusional figure. Unless he actually wins in the Fall. Heh.

As the Tonight Show used to say, More To Come...

Glad We Have Our Priorities Straight.

I'm often amazed when I see the order applied to these newsfeeds that generate the priority of Netscape and Google online headlines.

I'm really happy for Paul Tagliabue, however, I've also been following the Cyclone Larry story and it's been a tad more important today than anything else I've seen.

Such as the story of a guy who's going to retire with millions laid at his feet for supporting an entertainment venue.

Come, now.