Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The Tea Party movement's Chicago roots and beyond

In its June edition, Newsmax Magazine takes a look at the Tea Party movement its past, present, and its impact on the November elections, which Newsmax believes will be substantial.

The movement was not created by the Republican National Committee or Rush Limbaugh, but it was inspired by a February 19, 2009 on-air rant by Chicago-based CNBC reporter Rick Santelli.

For starters, he decried the Obama administration’s plan to modify mortgages. Bailing people out of mortgages they couldn't afford in the first place just promoted more "bad behavior," he said.

Behind him on the exchange floor, staffers began cheering. Santelli asked whether they wanted to help pay their neighbors' mortgages. In response, they booed like angry fans at a ballgame.

Then Santelli uttered the words that will live on in infamy, or honor, depending on your point of view.

"We're thinking of having a Chicago tea party in July," he said. "All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I'm going to start organizing."
Other took heed and held over 50 tea parties eight days later. They were called Nationwide Chicago Tea Parties. Not everything that comes out of Chicago is tainted by Obama or Blago.

Related post:

Pitchfork populism at the Chicago Tea Party

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Illinois Policy Institute: Help out a vital group

There are plenty of decent and honest people in Illinois who are fed up with wasteful, unresponsive, and corrupt government. Luckily, they have a voice. The Illinois Policy Institute is in the midst of its Illinois Turnaround Campaign. By chipping in to the group, you can make the Land of Lincoln a better place.

The Illinois Policy Institute is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) research organization dedicated to supporting free market principles and liberty-based public policy initiatives for a better Illinois. As a leading voice for economic liberty and government accountability, we engage policy makers, opinion leaders, and citizens on the state and local level.
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Former Justice Dept. atty charges Black Panther case was dropped for racial reasons

Do you remember coverage of three New Black Panther Party thugs, including one carrying a blackjack, "patrolling" a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day two years ago?

The Bush Justice Department, alleging voter intimidation, charged the goons. The government won the case by default--the trio didn't show up in court. By this time Eric Holder was attorney general--and Obama was president--and the Justice Department dropped the charges against the them.

J. Christian Adams, a former attorney for the department says he was ordered to dismiss the case by two Holder political appointees. He says it was done for racial reasons.

A GOP Congress will have plenty to investigate should the Republicans prevail in November.

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Obama wouldn't talk about BP spill at energy meeting

Yesterday President Obama summoned twenty senators from both parties to the White House to talk about climate change legislation. Of course there is another energy issue that Americans have been paying close attention to for the past 72 days.

From ABC News' The Note:

But one thing the President did not want to talk about at the meeting was the BP disaster, a Republican source told ABC News. And that, the source said, led to a pointed exchange with GOP senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee.

"The priority should be fixing the oil spill," Alexander told the president, according to the source. "That's what any meeting about energy should be about."

But when Alexander tried to interject the BP leak into the meeting, the source said, the president told the senator, "That's just your talking point.”

Retorted Alexander, "No, it's my opinion."
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Second Walmart approved for Chicago

On the day ADP Employer Services reported that the private sector added just 13,000 jobs, Chicago's City Council voted to approve the opening of a second city Walmart, this one will be in the South Side Pullman neighborhood. The retail giant hopes to opens dozens of stores within the city.

Hank Mullany, Executive Vice President and President of Walmart North, issued the following statement a few minutes ago:

Today is a victory for the residents of the South Side. The Mayor, Alderman Beale and the Council are to be commended for representing the will of the people of Chicago.

But there is more to do. To that end, we have already started to identify additional opportunities across the city that will help more Chicagoans save money and live better.

Over the next several months, we look forward to working with the city to help ensure our stores are part of the solution in terms of creating jobs, stimulating economic development and eradicating food deserts here.

With each new store that opens here and every new job created, Chicago moves one step closer towards returning the city to better economic times while also serving as a successful model for other cities across the country that face similar challenges.
Much of Alderman Beale's 9th Ward has been identified as being part of Chicago's largest food desert--an area bereft of supermarkets offering inexpensive fresh food and goceries. Unemployment in Chicago's 60628 ZIP code, which covers part of that ward, is at forty percent, according to Beale.

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