Tag Quinn

Should This Be Dismissed?

Unless someone can produce video proof that these video excerpts have been doctored and/or taken out of context OR that Washington was suffering from some sort of dementia, shouldn’t this be all we need to hear or know about Pat Quinn?  Sure, you can say that a person should not be judged strictly by their past mistakes.  Afterall, people have the capacity to learn, grow, and improve, and Quinn’s involvement with Washington was many moons ago.  However, I have learned over my many years that you need to judge a tree by its fruit.  What is Quinn’s fruit?  Continued economic stagnation, budgeted dependence on federal stimulus money, growing budgetary deficits, expanded borrowing, reinforced distrust towards our state’s elected officials (and many of the state employees), expanded reliance on government handouts, steadfast determination to raise taxes, etc. etc. etc.

Can you show many any positive fruit?  Please.  Do tell.

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Thomson News

Remember Thomson?  It is the location of the prison slated to become the stateside home of enemy combatant detainees currently housed at the military-run facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  You might recall that quite a few Illinoisans bristled at the thought of suspected terrorists and enemies of the State becoming our newest residents.  Even more bristled at the idea of selling the facility for roughly $170 million despite the facts that the mostly unoccupied facility has already racked up in excess of $164 million in state expenses and another $12 million in village expenses (and counting).  (For those of you doing the math, that represents a net loss.)  Prepare to bristle again as Thomson finds itself back in the news again. Read more

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Illinois Solutions, Accountability Edition

On September 18, 2009, Governor Pat Quinn announced that he was going to release 1,000 inmates early from their prison sentences with the intent of saving Illinois up to $5 million annually.  At the time, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith assured everyone that those released would be “low-level, non-violent” offenders in the last year of their sentences.  We were also assured that they would be fitted with electronic monitoring at the time of release.  As blogger “Joe the Cop” pointed out in December, at a time when the Illinois recidivism (or “repeated or habitual relapse, as into crime”) rates have been notoriously high, it did not make the most sense to view early release as a practical cost-saving measure.  More importantly, in September, the Department of Corrections instituted the secret “MGT Push” program (“Meritorious Good Time”) that allowed repeat drunk drivers, drug users, and some convicted of battery and/or weapons charges to serve less than three weeks behind bars despite a long standing practice of incarcerating for a minimum of 61 days. Read more

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