illinois – Page 6

How many other racial incidents has Gov. Pat Quinn (D, IL) tried to cover up?

Because there’s already been one.

Background: Ken Snider, Illinois state trooper and former regional head of Quinn’s security detail, abruptly resigned both positions (among others) last month. Turns out the resignations are allegedly related to Snider using a racial epithet – the racial epithet, in fact – towards an African-American college student, as prelude to a fight (it would be stretching things to call what happened next a ‘brawl,’ but apparently at least one punch was thrown). No arrests were made, which heavily suggests that the student was clearly not at fault in this incident.

Given that the alleged incident occurred in a Carlinville bar on St. Patrick’s Day, it is likely that alcohol was involved. Snider’s motivations are unclear, aside from the obvious: it’s been reported that he has been acting a bit erratically this year already. At any rate, the prominent Illinois Democrat has since resigned from pretty much his entire political/professional slate since the incident occurred.

And… that’s it. That’s all that happened to Ken Snider. A lot of resignations. Continue reading How many *other* racial incidents has Gov. Pat Quinn (D, IL) tried to cover up?

Amazon ended affiliate program in Illinois.

Right on schedule.

It got overshadowed by recent events both foreign and domestic, but last week Governor Pat Quinn (D, IL) signed legislation declaring that in-state affiliates for online sellers count as ‘a physical presence’ in Illinois, thus theoretically allowing the state to require those online sellers to collect sales tax information. This is usually called the ‘Amazon tax*,’ as it is largely aimed at Amazon.com**. This is a long-standing dispute (H/T: Instapundit), and usually ends with the companies in question ending their affiliate programs: Illinois businesses and individuals were however assured (by groups like the Illinois Retail Merchants Association) that there was no chance that Amazon.com would dare end its affiliate program for Illinois***.

Turns out that this was incorrect: as usual in these cases, Amazon.com (and Overstock.com) immediately closed down its affiliate program for Illinois (beginning April 15), thus making the issue moot. This means that no Illinois resident or company will receive a commission for sales – which means lost revenue, which means less taxable revenue for the state of Illinois (Amazon.com requires its affiliates to fill out 1099 forms, and the money that affiliates generate is subject to income tax). It does not mean that Amazon.com itself is forbidden to Illinois: Illinois residents may continue to purchase products from the company – and given its current market share, the lack of affiliate linkage will probably not have any effect on the company’s sales at all. In other words, the state of Illinois has just reduced its annual tax revenue and absolved Amazon.com of the necessity of paying out 4% to 15% commissions on any product indirectly sold on its behalf by a citizen of Illinois.

Brilliant move there, Governor Quinn.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Amazon ended affiliate program in Illinois.

Escape to Rockford! Spend money there!

This is yet another reason why the United States of America is the greatest nation on the planet: our collective eye on the main chance. Is there a group of Democratic state senators out there grimly determined to make themselves – and the Democratic party of Wisconsin – look like hilariously incompetent buffoons? Well, one person’s idiocy is another person’s economic opportunity… and if you’re going to publicly run off to Rockford, Illinois to hide, then by GOD the city of Rockford, Illinois is going to try to make some money off of your idiocy.

For those without video access: the city of Rockford, Illinois was recently the first hiding place for Democratic Wisconsin state senators looking to avoid doing their jobs. The city has turned this inane notion into a 2 1/2 minute video hawking the tourist attractions of Rockford. How cool was it? Put it this way: they even got Cheap Trick.

Genius.

Via Sean Hackbarth.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Go back home, ye Democratic state Senators. You have now officially lost the public narrative.

#rsrh Interesting: Illinois’ HB3659 is not yet signed.

That is the Internet sales tax bill that, once signed, will cause Amazon.com to immediately eliminate its affiliate program in Illinois (because Democrats don’t read Aesop, apparently); anyway, it went to the Governor on January 10th, and it still hasn’t been signed yet.

Just put in a call to find out if this is normal; it’ll be interesting if it is not.

[UPDATE] The Governor’s office called back; there’s a sixty day window for Illinois bills after they get sent to his office. If he doesn’t sign within that period, it becomes a law anyway. No time frame on when he’d sign it, if he does, but ten days isn’t anything unusual.

Scott Walker makes Wisconsin a sanctuary state.

…For Illinois businesses, that is: the new Governor is doing everything that he can to encourage a mass corporate exodus to Wisconsin, short of actually calling out the local National Guard to provide covering fire for the refugee columns. This is less of an exaggeration than you might think: the official slogan that Governor Walker is using is “Escape to Wisconsin.” They’re kind of serious about it, too: the Lt. Governor is going around and calling companies worried about the proposed Amazon* tax that’s about to destroy the business model of thousands of individuals and corporations in Illinois.

One thing that’s kind of entertaining about this situation – well, there are many things that are entertaining about this situation – is watching folks attempt to push back on this by arguing that taxes are still technically higher in Wisconsin than they are in Illinois. Indeed: the Democrats took the Governorship in 2002, the state Senate in 2006, and the state Assembly in 2008 – and then they promptly hiked taxes like they were, well, Democrats. Which is a major reason why the state government flipped so overwhelmingly Republican in November – and why the lightning push to cut business taxes and regulation in January has Democratic screams of outrage for counterpoint. I’m sure that Governor Walker would love to wave a magic wand and retroactively erase the bad business decisions of the Wisconsin Democratic party in an instant, but unfortunately this is the real world, where magic wands are not particularly known for working. Believe me: if they did then the Democratic party would have invested in that technology years ago: it’s precisely the hardware that they need to make their economic policies work. Continue reading Scott Walker makes Wisconsin a sanctuary state.

Gov. Pat Quinn (D, IL) about to destroy IL Amazon affliliates?

It’s certainly looking that way: the Democrat-run (Democrat-dominated) state legislature has just passed a bill to tax online purchases (via Points and Figures, via Instapundit): the bill is just waiting for Governor Pat Quinn’s (D) signature, which is almost certainly inevitable. In fact, the state of Illinois is going to raise taxes across the board – because that’s what Democrats do. Business is good; raise taxes. Business is bad; raise taxes. Business is in a surreal zone where it’s actually a peanut butter sandwich; raise taxes on jelly and mandate jelly’s inclusion in all corporate endeavors.

And, just as inevitable as the sunrise, comes the first report that Amazon.com will end their Illinois Amazon Affiliate program in response. That first link is generally grim reading for Illinois residents: not only does it indicate that the big online retailers are apparently still perfectly willing to drop their affiliate programs in large states, but the smaller online retailers that depend on companies like Overstock and Amazon for their business are well aware that they can do their business in, say, Ohio. Translation: Illinois Democrats are about to damage their business tax base in the course of (unsuccessfully) trying to raise its business tax revenue.

“Business” as usual, in other words. Continue reading Gov. Pat Quinn (D, IL) about to destroy IL Amazon affliliates?

#rsrh The Chicago Way.

OK, let me see if I have this straight: Rahm Emanuel quits being White House Chief of Staff and runs for mayor of Chicago. The retiring mayor of Chicago is Richard Daley, whose brother William Daley is reportedly being considered for the position of… White House Chief of Staff. Presumably this would be followed with Richard Daley endorsing Emanuel.

(pause)

Brilliant – in its way. But why the [expletive deleted] couldn’t they have shown this kind of ingenuity when it came to fixing the unemployment rate?

Phil Hare (D, IL-17) lies about corn growers’ endorsement.

You know, in some ways I’m going to miss this miserable ignoramus, once he’s gone: Phil Hare’s such a marvelous chew toy, and the ones that I had expected to be savaging this season were unexpectedly unsatisfying. Alan Grayson? Too slimy; I wanted to take a shower every time I saw him in the news. Carol Shea-Porter? The room-temperature IQ problem made it kind of unsporting. Okinawa Jack Murtha? Died on me. But Hare (and Russ Carnahan, who I will also kind of miss smacking around) has been reliably bad since he first hove into view.

His latest goof-up? Claiming the endorsement of the Illinois Corn Grower’s Association, only to have the ICGA explicitly contradict him in public. Needless to say, the Bobby Schilling campaign – which will not miss Hare in any way, shape or form – was happy to point this out… and to point out that people don’t like career politicians for a reason.

The Schilling campaign also has a van, of which they are very pleased:

I mention this because, again, they are very pleased with the van. And with their last campaign ad, which can be seen under the fold.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Phil Hare (D, IL-17) lies about corn growers’ endorsement.

The 2010 election cycle, crystallized.

It does not get any clearer than this:

If you can’t see the video, here’s the summary: over in IL-08 they had a debate between Rep. Melissa Bean and Joe Walsh, run by the League of Women Voters. Somebody in the audience interrupts the beginning to ask if they were going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. The moderator – stupidly, stupidly, stupidly – says ‘no,’ starts lecturing the crowd on how that was never required in the past… and gets drowned out by the audience getting to its feet and reciting the Pledge over her spluttering. Extra points: perfect shot of Joe starting an anticipatory clap at the suggestion that the Pledge would be recited, looking startled that this wouldn’t be allowed – and getting out of his chair like a jackrabbit when the audience overrides the moderator (who later kept getting snotty about the whole thing).

Well, he is the Republican candidate. We just have better civic reflexes when it comes to this sort of thing.

(H/T: Instapundit)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading The 2010 election cycle, crystallized.

#rsrh Am I a bad person…

…for finding this funny?

SPRINGFIELD — The last name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is misspelled as “Whitey” on electronic-voting machines in nearly two dozen wards — about half in predominantly African-American areas — and election officials said Wednesday the problem cannot be corrected by Election Day.

If you read the article, it indicates that the misspelling doesn’t show up on the main screen (just the review), doesn’t show up on every touch-screen ballot machine, and that 90% of the ballots will be paper anyway and the guy’s name is spelled right on those. So, probably not organized shenanigans – the Illinois Democratic party would have done an infinitely better job if they were really trying to muck up Mr. Whitey* – which means that I can default back to my standard position of ‘the Greens can kiss my whitey**, Irish tuchis,’ which means that I’m probably a bad person.

That being said, obviously the new Governor should put in place a full investigation of the situation next year anyway. It might have been a lone wolf who did this. Or, heck, maybe the Illinois Democratic party is slipping. Have you seen the idiots that they’ve been running for higher office lately?

Via Glenn Reynolds and Ann Althouse.

*Excuse me: “Whitney.”

**Excuse me: “whitney.”