Ryan files suit to get back part of pension

Whoa.... He has got some nerve... From the Chicago Trib (registration required, yada yada):

Former Gov. George Ryan filed a lawsuit Wednesday against state retirement officials, battling to keep a pension of more than $60,000 a year that Ryan says he earned before the scandals that led to his wide-ranging fraud convictions in April.

I guess the cigarettes in prison are going to cost a lot more then he anticipated....

Bush Wants a Bigger Military?

Earlier this week Bush said he wants a bigger military. More specifically he want a larger Army and Marine Corp. I wonder how he thinks he is going to do that?? Apparently there are not people lining up to spend Christmas in Fallujah. Why draft them of course. I hope they draft the Bush twins first. They probably need somewhere to go anyway after they got thrown out of Argentina.

Net Neutrality

I saw this on Youtube. It is a little video clip that demonstrates the importance of Net Neutrality to the freedom of the Internet. Cute.

Iraq is Out of Control

Things just keep going from bad to worse in Iraq. Meanwhile Bush continues to just ignore the dire situation, and nut jobs like McCain and Lieberman think we need to actually send more troops to Iraq. We can only hope that McCain is the Republican nominee in '08 - that would assure a Democratic victory in the presidential race....

Shimkus on Foley Cover Up

Good job Southern Illinois on re-electing John Shimkus. Apparently he could not tell the Democrat on the page board about Foley - because he was a Democrat, of course. Nice oversight...


"Dale's a nice guy, but he's a Democrat, and I was afraid it would be blown out of proportion."

So What Does Belleville Think About Power Deregulation?

I really don't know, since I have been stuck in Washington DC for the last two weeks - but based on the feedback in the Belleville News "Republican", I would say that most are not too happy. Hats off to all the working people getting the power lines fixed. Maybe we should ask why our power infrastructure is almost as bad as it is in Baghdad?? I am guessing the Ameren stock holders have been doing ok....

McCoy on Bolton

Our favorite cartoonist had such an enlightening cartoon today. I guess he is mad that are benevolent diplomat, JOHN BOLTON, is not going to be representing us in the UN. Since he was perhaps the worst diplomat in the history of the planet - I say good riddance...

Hope Everyone is Warm in Belleville

I am stuck in DC and could not make it back for the weekend. From the pictures, it looks like the weather is not so great. Whatever you do, don't go nuts and shoot each other.