Recent Illinois Races Fund Raising Efforts

This bulletin arrived today from our good friend Bob H.:



Here's a snapshot of money raised in top local races over the past 16 weeks. Totals include all contributions from July 1-Oct. 8, and donations of more than $500 received since Oct. 9.

GOVERNOR

Rod Blagojevich, Democrat, $3,492,109

Judy Baar Topinka, Republican, $3,707,499

Rich Whitney, Green, $24,519

LT. GOVERNOR

Pat Quinn, Democrat, $60,524

Joe Birkett, Republican, $460,992

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Lisa Madigan, Democrat, $672,011

Stu Umholtz, Republican, $42,713

SECRETARY OF STATE

Jesse White, Democrat, $344,167

Dan Rutherford, Republican, $316,948

COMPTROLLER

Dan Hynes, Democrat, $338,391

Carole Pankau, Republican, $122,843

TREASURER

Alexi Giannoulias, Democrat, $2,193,211

Christine Radogno, Republican, $552,340

COOK COUNTY BOARD PRESIDENT

Todd Stroger, Democrat, $638,515

Tony Peraica, Republican ,$407,229

"Tax swap" won't cut taxes or help schools

Guest "blogger":

October 21, 2006
BY MICHAEL VAN WINKLE

The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally at the Thompson Center last Saturday, officially jumping on board the education funding reform bandwagon. The rally was held to show support for Senate Bill 750, which Democrats will likely try to push through the General Assembly during November's veto session.

Jackson and Co. complain that our education funding system relies too heavily on property taxes, an arrangement they claim leads to vast inequities in available resources between rich and poor school districts. The bill purports to solve the problem by providing property tax relief in exchange for higher income taxes that would fund an increase in education spending. Proponents claim the ''swap'' would enable the state to increase its share of education funding, reduce the schools' reliance on property taxes and increase the overall equity of school funding.

Sounds great, right? Who could possibly say no? Unfortunately, the details of the bill expose the superficiality inside. Here are a few reasons we should forget about S.B. 750:

1. Education funding disparities are mostly irrelevant because spending differences between districts are not a good indicator of school quality. Spending differs across school districts for a variety of reasons. Not all low-spending districts are poor and not all high-spending districts are rich. Disparities are not themselves proof that someone is being denied access to quality educational opportunities.

2. There are a few cases in which funding gaps might matter, but S.B. 750 is not designed to fix them. The legislation being considered will not take money from overfunded schools and give it to underfunded schools. It will take money from all taxpayers and give it to all schools by increasing the ''foundation level'' support. It pays no regard to which might need more money and which might not.

3. Education funding reform does nothing to address problems with the allocation of education resources, particularly teaching. Teachers are paid on a strict union salary scale. Teachers also earn seniority -- which gives them, effectively, the ability to choose where they want to teach. Not surprisingly, most want to teach in schools where students have fewer educational and behavioral challenges. Because schools have no real freedom to offer higher pay for challenging environments, the net effect is that the most qualified teachers generally end up where they're needed least.

4. Despite being proffered as a tax swap, S.B. 750 is no such thing. The alleged property tax relief is an illusion. Taxpayers will actually get a property tax abatement, to be paid out of a fund into which roughly $2.4 billion of revenue generated by the income tax increase will be dumped. This fund will then be used to pay a portion of your property tax bill every year.
Your tax rate will not go down. The first time an economic recession hits and income tax revenues are not enough to fill the tax relief fund, the state will cry broke and you will once again be expected to cover the full balance of your tax bill.

5. There is insufficient oversight of school budgeting, which means there is no way for taxpayers to know whether the extra $1.6 billion S.B. 750 gives to schools will be spent on teaching kids or refurnishing the principals' offices.
To monitor how your district spends its cash you will have to attend countless school board meetings, make endless phone calls and probably file more than a few Freedom of Information Act requests. Will you get any help from the Illinois State Board of Education? Do I have to ask?

The state doesn't expect you to take it upon yourself to audit Central Management Services or the governor's office -- there is an auditor general for that. But when it comes to auditing your school, you're on your own.

I applaud Jackson and Co. for keeping education reform a topic of discussion, but their tax swap will only increase the cost of failure. To talk about education funding reform without also discussing accountability, standards, oversight and performance is a waste of time. And time is something many Illinois schoolchildren are running short on.

Michael Van Winkle manages media relations for the Heartland Institute.

"First Responder" Pork

The Daily Pantagraph today reports on a federal Department of Homeland Security grant for the city of Pontiac.

Would someone please tell us why the heck the Department of Homeland Security is sending money to municipalities to help relieve their fire department "overtime" problems?

Precisely how does this impact the general safety and welfare of the American people?

Or could it just be pork sandwiches for all?

Imagine the cartoon-like steam coming out of our ears as you read this piece from last April in the Washington Times.

Voters, Procrastinators, UNITE!

This year Illinois has joined the 34 other states which allow "early voting". These early votes are recorded but not counted until every other vote is counted on election day. Then and only then are absentee ballots and early ballots counted.

Now, can you tell us why "exit polling" data was so far off in the last presidential election? Don't believe the exit polls.

Don't believe these pre-election polls either. The paradigm has changed with cell phone emergence and the lack of public interest in responding to polls and surveys in general. What you're left with is a sub-group of fanatics that WANT to be polled.

Under no circumstances allow any media information to deter you from recording YOUR vote, be it absentee, early, or at the polling place on Election Day!

Just Vote!

Try to ignore the incredibly negative campaigning and advertising out there this election season, overcome your disgust, and get out and VOTE!

It's easier than ever this year. The State of Illinois has inaugurated what is called "early voting", which means you can vote at your designated location (usually the County Clerk's Office) beginning next Monday, October 16th through Thursday, November 2nd. After that, you must vote on election day which is Tuesday, November 7th this year (unless you obtain an absentee ballot).

Re-elect your incumbents or "throw the bums out" - we don't care as long as you excercise the right to vote. Next, become involved in your local political scene through your municipal, county, and taxing authorities' meetings as much as you can. It's a sad fact that real political power these days lies not so much in the vote as in the passage of budgets and laws.

As an aside, contrary to all of the County Administrator and media hand wringing, it is our prediction that Woodford County will indeed have a wind farm. Not to worry, we'll "grow" that power for Chicago - as long as the price is right.

"All Kids Illinois" health insurance

Well, it's been a month since our last post.

This is primarily due to our disgust and disillusionment with politics in general and "the media" in specific.

That being said we must tell you about this "Health Care for All Kids" in Illinois scam.

We just "applied" for enrollment in the program online.

Apparently "health care for all kids" only applies to those kids that have not been insured for a year.

Now we certainly aren't wealthy, but we have scrimped, saved, and sacrificed to provide health insurance for our kids. We shall now be penalized for this.

Now, if we can't prove our citizenship, we just sign something and we're put right through into the program.

If we divorced and just lived in the same residence we would be put right through.

If we were Black, Hispanic, or "Native American" (which, actually, we are - although we can't join the tribe without historical documentation which doesn't exist [gambling money with the tribes, don'cha know]) we'd be put right through into the program.

Here's our point - those who play by the old tried and true rules will receive no help. Those who play by the "new" cultural rules, which seem to reward selfishness, pettiness, and "Balkinization", will get all the "help" which they can stand.

As for us, we'll continue to pay cash for our health care; and we'll continue to treat our doctors, dentists, and nurses like we treat our auto mechanic, lawn-care guy, and HVAC folks - with respect, as friends, and trust them to take care of our needs.

We don't need no stinkin' help from Springfield, thank you very much. In addition, we won't even complain about our tax dollars going to Chicago and East St. Louis to subsidize health care for whoever qualifies. That's just the way we are.

But we don't have to like it.

Schools: Give Us Money; We MIGHT Reduce Fees

We don't pretend to know all of the ins and outs of the Fieldcrest Referendum. We do know ridiculous school administration rhetoric and threats when we hear them:

According to Superintendent Randall S. Vincent, the board has promised to reduce those fees by at least 50 percent if an education tax rate referendum passes in November because, according to a district survey, school fees are a primary concern for those in the community..
"I don't think the fees will ever go away but we can bring them down to the level of other communities in our area," he said. " ... If the referendum passes, the board will definitely cut (participation) fees by 50 percent, but they may do more. If we are in better shape, I'm sure they will consider it (cutting fees further)."

So, in other words, "you can pay me now or you can pay me later, but YOU WILL PAY ME; and if you vote down a referendum, your 'fees' will go up and up and up and we'll still come back again and again and again with referendums 'till we get one passed. You got a problem with that?"

Zogby: Americans Demand Vote Transparency

A new Zogby poll released today shows that 92% of Americans believe that the public has the right to view and verify the counting of votes.

Choosing between "Citizens have the right to view and obtain information about how election officials count votes" or "Citizens do not have the right to view and obtain information about how elections officials count votes," 92% of those polled agreed with the first statement, 6% agreed with the second, and 2% were unsure.

The issue of transparency has become particularly important due to the use of electronic voting systems, most of which use proprietary code and do not allow for public inspection. This is obviously a formula for vote tampering.

Muslim Choice

Two quotations jumped out at us this past week:

"He who wrongs a Jew or a Christian will have me as his accuser on the Day of Judgment."
— Prophet Muhammad

and

"Allah never changes a people's state unless they change what's in themselves"
— Qu'ran (13:11)

No comment from us seems necessary.

Police Need Help?

We have yet to read the "petition" Henry County Sheriff Gib Cady initiated last week asking oil companies to help cut police fuel costs, but we think it's a good idea which doesn't go far enough.

Let's also have petitions to "Big Coffee" and Big Donuts" asking for relief on the outrageous expenses in these areas.

While we're offending our heroic first responders, we find the Woodford county volunteer firefighters demand that Navitas (the wind farm developer) provide about $125,000 to "train" a team of firefighters in handling farm related "emergencies", and buy equipment a little silly. By this logic, any company coming into the County should pay off the firefighters, police, and ambulance services.

Speaking of the wind farm - if the Townships (Greene, Clayton and Panola) are concerned about their roads, and want to work out a side agreement with Navitas, that's fine; however, let's not expect Navitas to pay for the Townships' attorneys to fight with them. That seems to be stretching things a bit, doesn't it?

Congressional Mystery "earmarks" (pork)

The U.S. Congress is considering a bill — the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations measure — that presently contains 1,867 earmarks worth more than a half-billion tax dollars and averaging nearly $268,000 each. Many are for things that sound like worthy causes such as "hospital facilities and equipment," yet none of the sponsoring congressmen put their names on their earmarks, and the specifics are fairly lacking in every instance.

And the winners are - for Illinois, which total $20.83 millions:

$700,000
Joliet
Joliet Junior College for the Integrated Systems Technology program

$500,000
Aurora
Rush-Copley Medical Center for facilities and equipment

$500,000
Peoria
Bradley University, for facilities and equipment for the Collaborative Health and Education Center

$500,000
Peoria
Children's Hospital of Illinois, for facilities and equipment

$500,000
Chicago
Illinois Masonic Medical Center, for facilities and equipment

$500,000
Chicago
Loyola University Center for Public Service for equipment and programming

$500,000
Chicago
Shedd Aquarium for exhibits, and for its community outreach and mentoring initiative

$450,000
Godfrey
Lewis and Clark Community College for its National Great Rivers Research and Education Center

$400,000
Glencoe
Chicago Botanical Gardens, for facilities and equipment at the Center for Seed Conservation and Medicinal Plant Research

$400,000
Chicago
Northwestern Memorial Hospital for facilities and equipment for Prentice Women's Hospital

$400,000
Chicago Heights
St. James Hospital and Health Centers for facilities and equipment

$400,000
Chicago
Access Community Health Network for facilities and equipment

$375,000
Chicago
Chicago Family Health Center, for facilities and equipment

$375,000
Chicago
St. Xavier University for development of an early childhood professional development center and other program enhancements

$355,000
Aurora
Provena Mercy Center for diabetes education and prevention

$350,000
Rockford
Swedish American Health System for facilities and equipment for the Swedish American Health System and Crusader Clinic

$350,000
Chicago
Erie Family Health Center, for facilities and equipment

$350,000
Chicago
Hektoen Institute for Medical Research, for facilities and equipment for a health clinic

$350,000
Chicago
Academy for Urban School Leadership, for the Chicago Academy and Chicago Academy High School, which may include support for resident teachers

$350,000
Grayslake
College of Lake County to develop and implement English as a Second Language instructional classes

$315,000
Kankakee
Helen Wheeler Center for Community Mental Health to increase service capacity

$300,000
Carbondale
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, College of Education and Human Services for the Saluki Kids Academy

$300,000
Chicago
Museum of Science and Industry for its Science in Your World exhibit

$300,000
Jacksonville
MacMurray College for technology upgrades

$300,000
Jacksonville
Passavant Area Hospital for facilities and equipment

$300,000
Peoria
Heartland Community Health Clinic, for equipment

$300,000
Alton
St. Anthony's Health Center for community health center operations

$300,000
Chicago
LaRabida Children's Hospital for education and outreach related to diabetes and sickle cell disease

$300,000
Springfield
Illinois Primary Health Care Association, for electronic medical records systems

$275,000
Chicago
Saint Xavier University for equipment for the Nursing Skills Laboratory in Orland Park

$275,000
Chicago
Chicago Public Schools, for after school and extended learning opportunities

$250,000
Chicago
University of Chicago Hospitals for facilities and equipment for Comer Children's Hospital

$250,000
South Holland
Thornton Township High School District 205 for its Mastery Learning Labs project

$250,000
Wheaton
DuPage County Convalescent Center, for facilities and equipment

$250,000
Highland Park
Opportunity, Inc. to expand the Secure Document Destruction for Disabled Persons Division

$250,000
Chicago
Swedish Covenant Hospital for facilities and equipment

$250,000
Chicago
Rush University Medical Center for facilities and equipment

$250,000
Mattoon
Coles County Council on Aging, for facilities and equipment for the LifeSpan Senior Center

$225,000
Maywood
Loyola University Health System for facilities and equipment

$225,000
Chicago
Children's Memorial Hospital, for a medical records project

$210,000
Arlington Heights
Clearbrook Clinical Services, for services to children with developmental disabilities

$200,000
Peoria
County of Peoria, for facilities and equipment for the Bel-Wood Nursing Home

$200,000
McHenry
Pioneer Center of McHenry County for facilities and equipment for the Senior Residence Center for Adults with Disabilities

$200,000
Chicago
Roseland Christian Health Ministries for facilities and equipment for a health center in Dolton, IL

$200,000
Shelbyville
Sparks College for a closed captioner training program

$200,000
Galesburg
St. Mary's Medical Center for facilities and equipment

$200,000
McHenry
Family Service and Community Mental Health Center, for information technology

$200,000
Lake Villa
Expand its multi-systematic therapy program for Kids Hope United

$200,000
Kewanee
Kewanee Community School District #229, for equipment and technology

$200,000
Naperville
Learning Point Associates/North Central Regional Education Laboratory, to help schools implement No Child Left Behind

$200,000
Des Plaines
Network for Closing the Achievement Gap, for Project AYP in suburban Cook County, IL

$200,000
Chicago
Safer Foundation, for training and support services to ex-offenders

$175,000
Glenview
Kohl Children's Museum of Greater Chicago, for the Early Childhood Connections Outreach Initiative

$175,000
South Holland
South Suburban College for equipment and technology for its allied health and nursing programs

$175,000
Dekalb
Northern Illinois University for its Vibration and Acoustics Center

$150,000
Bloomington
Home Sweet Home Ministries, for facilities and equipment for the residential treatment program

$150,000
Wheaton
Dupage County, for a countywide physical fitness assessment project pilot

$150,000
Brookfield
Community Support Services, for counseling and services for people with developmental disabilities and their families

$150,000
Chicago
Department of Housing for assistance to chronically homeless families

$150,000
Watseka
Iroquois Memorial Hospital and Resident Home, for facilities and equipment

$150,000
Charleston
Eastern Illinois University, for the nursing program

$150,000
Princeton
Bureau County Community Health Clinic, for facilities and equipment

$150,000
Chicago
Home of Life Community Development Corporation, for a financial services training and placement program

$150,000
Kankakee
Riverside Medical Center for equipment

$150,000
Chicago
Heartland Health Outreach for mental health services to refugee children

$125,000
Grundy County
Grundy County Health Department, for facilities and equipment for the Senior Citizen Support Center

$125,000
Waukegan
Christian Outreach of Lutherans (COOL), for Latino leadership development in underserved areas

$100,000
Chicago
Little Black Pearl Art and Design Center, for its Art Smarts after school program and for in-school workshops

$100,000
Chicago
History Makers for digitalization of an oral history archive of interviews with African Americans

$100,000
Moline
Western Illinois University for a counselor education program

$100,000
Naperville
North Central College for the Community Connections Program

$100,000
Lincoln
Lincoln College for the Lincoln Barat Teacher Training Initiative

$100,000
Normal
Illinois State University for Chicago teacher education pipeline programs in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools and City College of Chicago

$100,000
Woodstock
Woodstock Challenger Learning Center for Science & Technology for equipment for the Edventure Area

$100,000
Aledo
Mercer County Hospital for facilities and equipment

$100,000
Lockport
Milne-Kelvin Grove School District 91, for enhanced technology and computing systems and professional development

$100,000
Chicago
Eta Creative Arts Foundation, Inc., for arts education programs

$100,000
Chicago
Center for Community Transformation, to support faculty, student fellowships, and ongoing secular educational activities in community leadership transformation

$100,000
Arlington Heights
Clearbrook, to enhance its residential services for persons with developmental disabilities

$100,000
Chicago
Loretto Hospital, for facilities and equipment

$100,000
Chicago
Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago, for facilities and equipment

$100,000
Decatur
Community Health Improvement Center, for facilities and equipment for the Frances Nelson Community Health Center

$100,000
Decatur
Community Health Improvement Center, for facilities and equipment

$100,000
Fairfield
Frontier Community College to help create a lineman training program

$100,000
Peoria
Peoria School District 150, for the Tapping Future Leaders for Urban Schools Initiative

$75,000
Chicago
Signature Academy Inc. for its Exodus to Excellence After School Youth Program

$75,000
Rock Island
Augustana College for facilities and equipment for its Center for Communicative Disorders

$75,000
Rock Island
Community Health Care, for facilities and equipment

$50,000
Chicago
Broadtree Adventures in Education, for alternative and environmental education programs for at-risk youth

It sure will be nice if and when congressmen/women are forced to sign their names to these spending initiatives!

Open Meetings Act

The Open Meetings Act was revised in a major way effective July 1, 2006. Under the new law, government bodies who maintain their own websites must post agendas of meetings prior to the meeting and must post minutes after the meeting.

By the way, what ever happened to the much vaunted Woodford County Website that was supposed to be happening months ago?

TSA is loosing it.

Here is a graphic from the New York Times that illustrates what the Transportation Safety Administration will now regard as suspicious behavior:
















Ah, yes, the six faces of the terrorist.
We feel safer already.

Straight Talk On School District Taxes

We get so tired of the obfuscation when local school districts decide they need some new buildings, additions, and/or programs.

In some instances, a case can be made on it's merits. Too often though districts rely on sleight of hand when it comes referendum time. Particularly at this time of year come the promises of lower fees with a passed referendum and the concomitant threats of program cuts without one.

If school districts hope to persuade people to vote "yes" on referenda, their leaders and surrogates need to level with the voters about the additional costs.

Instead, what we often hear is something along the lines of "The tax rate will remain unchanged because we are restructuring our bonds", or " We were due to retire our bonds; we're just going to get new ones in the same amount", and "There will be no new taxes".

Of course, they're right about the tax rate, but the 'no new taxes' part simply isn't true. New spending is not free. Additional taxes are needed to repay the bonds. If voters reject the referendum, the property tax rate would go down. One must also remember that even with a level property tax rate, taxes will increase if property assessments increase.

These are simple principles, and the voters are not stupid.

School districts' goals should be to convince voters that the price of a new buildings, programs, or additions are reasonable and necessary, not pretend there will be no extra costs. Trying to fool the voters is probably the quickest way to lose a referendum.

Peter Jennings/Mike Wallace c. 1987

We were stunned, saddened, and disgusted to listen to an audio on clip last night from a 1987 PBS series on "Ethics in America". With apologies for not having access right now to the audio, below is from an excerpt from that March 7th program.

The moderator was Harvard University professor Charles Ogletree Jr. He asked ABC anchor Peter Jennings and 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace what should a TV reporter do if he learned the enemy troops with which he was traveling were about to launch a surprise attack on an American unit?. Both agreed getting ambush footage for the evening news should come before warning the U.S. troops.

For the installment on battlefield ethics Ogletree set up a theoretical war between the North Kosanese and the U.S.-supported South Kosanese. At first Jennings responded: "If I was with a North Kosanese unit that came upon Americans, I think I personally would do what I could to warn the Americans."
Wallace countered that other reporters, including himself, "would regard it simply as another story that they are there to cover." Jennings' position bewildered Wallace: "I'm a little bit of a loss to understand why, because you are an American, you would not have covered that story."

"Don't you have a higher duty as an American citizen to do all you can to save the lives of soldiers rather than this journalistic ethic of reporting fact?" Ogletree asked. Without hesitating Wallace responded: "No, you don't have higher duty...You're a reporter." Jennings immediately caves, conceding, "I think he's right too, I chickened out."

Ogletree turned to Brent Scrowcroft, now the National Security Adviser, who argued "you're Americans first, and you're journalists second." Wallace was mystified by the concept, wondering "what in the world is wrong with photographing this attack by North Kosanese on American soldiers?"

A few minutes later Ogletree noted the "venomous reaction" from George Connell, a Marine Corps Colonel. "I feel utter contempt. Two days later they're both walking off my hilltop, they're two hundred yards away and they get ambushed. And they're lying there wounded. And they're going to expect I'm going to send Marines up there to get them. They're just journalists, they're not Americans."

Wallace and Jennings agreed, "it's a fair reaction." The discussion concluded as Connell said: "But I'll do it. And that's what makes me so contemptuous of them. And Marines will die, going to get a couple of journalists."

Indeed.

Guest Opinion/Editorial - Union Transparency

Ruling clears way for union accountability
By Michael Reitz

As Stephen Covey, the best-selling author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, once said: “Accountability breeds response-ability.” Thanks to a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals, labor unions will finally be required to show some accountability and transparency for how they spend their members’ money—a crucial step in making Big Labor more responsive to its membership.

On August 1, Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg ruled the U.S. Department of Labor can require state affiliates of the National Education Association to provide detailed financial records to members.

The federal Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) requires labor organizations to annually file detailed reports, including information about staff salaries and benefits, income, and expenditures. Congress declared the law was “necessary to eliminate or prevent improper practices on the part of labor organizations.”

In 2002, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao undertook a comprehensive effort to modernize regulations that had remained unchanged for 40 years. These union disclosure reports are now posted online, rather than gathering dust in a Washington, D.C. basement.

Union members have benefited from a new era of union transparency. They have learned that labor organizations use their dues for a host of things that have nothing to do with collective bargaining. For example, in 2005, organized labor spent $1.3 million on golf, $7.3 million at plush resorts, nearly $1.3 million for amusement park events, and $641,000 for sporting events. Ironworkers Local 40 in New York spent $52,879 on a new Cadillac for a retiring president. SEIU Local 660 in Los Angeles spent $153,000 on movie tickets.

For the past four decades, federal disclosure requirements applied only to unions that represented private sector employees. Unions that consisted wholly of government employees, such as the Washington Education Association or the Washington Federation of State Employees, were exempt. As a result, millions of union members have no idea how union officials spend their dues.
Secretary Chao addressed this issue by requiring local and state public sector unions to also comply with the law if they are affiliated with a national union that falls under the Act. The implications of this change are enormous and will affect local unions in all 50 states.

Thirty-two affiliates of the National Education Association, including the Washington Education Association, sued to avoid disclosure in 2003. The recent Court of Appeals decision overturned a lower court ruling and stated the U.S. Department of Labor did not exceed its authority by applying federal rules to state government unions. The Court instructed the Department of Labor to reissue its analysis for why the change was necessary. This process will likely require several months to complete.
This ruling brings organized labor a step in the right direction. Washington state’s government collective bargaining agreements mandate union representation for tens of thousands of public employees. These employees are forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment, but have little information about how their dues are spent.

Financial transparency is essential to good stewardship. As a matter of public policy, we give voters access to information about the finances of political candidates. Shareholders of corporations receive regular financial reports. But when union funds are mismanaged, union members are often unknowing victims. Establishing financial disclosure rules for labor organizations will ensure accountability to union shareholders and will reduce the potential for corruption.
Public employees cannot make informed decisions about the benefit of union representation unless they know the details of the union’s income and expenditures.

Unions routinely argue against this level of accountability to their members. The AFL-CIO objected to Secretary Chao’s modernized reporting forms, claiming that compliance would cost organized labor over a billion dollars. In reality, as reported by National Review, the AFL-CIO spent only $54,000 for the bookkeeping and related expenses.

The Washington Education Association actually argued in court that it had no fiduciary responsibility to the teachers it represents. In other words, the union doesn’t have to account to its own members for how dues are spent.

Labor unions will continue to use and abuse their members as long as they are permitted to operate in the shadows. Only accountability will breed the responsiveness the modern labor movement is in such dire need of recapturing, and Washington state can be a leader in this process.

The Washington Legislature need not wait for a federal directive. The American Legislative Exchange Council has state model legislation that mandates disclosure. If the legislature does nothing, however, the U.S. Department of Labor may soon require unions to open their books.

Michael Reitz is legal counsel and director of the Labor Policy Center. He earned a juris doctorate from Oak Brook College of Law in Fresno, California. He is a member of the Washington and California Bars and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Embryonic Stem-Cells For Beauty? Not Pretty!

The British Daily Mail has been writing about the disgusting practice of using Human Embryonic Stem Cells for the ultimate in cosmetic surgery. The cell apparently are very helpful for face lifts. Did someone say slippery slope of growing humans for spare parts?

You may view the latest in the series of articles, here.

Illinois Gubernatorial Poll

Here are the latest poll numbers from Rasmussen Reports:

Date… Blag. Topinka

Aug 7… 45% 37%

Jul 6….. 45% 34%

Apr 18… 38% 44%

Mar 27… 41% 43%

Feb 22… 42% 36%

Jan 25… 37% 48%

These are "likely voters". Just thought y'all might like to see the trend.

Hillary's Primary Bid

The Boston Herald reports:

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Dick Bennett has been polling New Hampshire voters for 30 years. And he’s never seen anything like it.
“Lying b**** . . . shrew . . . Machiavellian . . . evil, power-mad witch . . . the ultimate self-serving politician.”
No prizes for guessing which presidential front-runner drew these remarks in focus groups.
But these weren’t Republicans talking about Hillary Clinton. They weren’t even independents.
These were ordinary, grass-roots Democrats. People who identified themselves as “likely” voters in the pivotal state’s Democratic primary. And, behind closed doors, this is what nearly half of them are saying.
“I was amazed,” says Bennett. “I thought there might be some negatives, but I didn’t know it would be as strong as this. It’s stunning, the similarities between the Republicans and the Democrats, the comments they have about her.”
Bennett runs American Research Group Inc., a highly regarded, independent polling company based in Manchester, N.H. He’s been conducting voter surveys there since 1976. The polls are financed by subscribers and corporate sponsors.
He has so far recruited 410 likely voters in the 2008 Democratic primary, and sat down with them privately in small groups to find out what they really think about the candidates and the issues.
His conclusion? “Forty-five percent of the Democrats are just as negative about her as Republicans are. More Republicans dislike her, but the Democrats dislike her in the same way.”

Hillary Clinton is probably a very beatable Democrat in the primaries but only if someone steps up to the plate.

Mark Your Calendars For Stossel - Redux

The following is a note from John Stossel. Mark your calendars now and spread the word to all your friends and family.

Another bit of good news: Our special on the destructive government monopoly in education, "Stupid in America," will rerun Sept. 1st! This gives me a chance not just to show the surprisingly well-rated documentary again, but also to tell the story of what happened after "Stupid" aired: the teachers union protest, their demand that I teach for a week, my acceptance, and the revealing bureaucratic response to that.

"Stupid in America," 9 p.m. Friday, Sept 1st, (in 20/20's usual time slot)