Results tagged “markkirk”

     

The plan to house and put some Guantanamo Bay detainees on trial on the U.S. mainland has predictably generated a flurry of debate, both nationally and locally. On the national level, politicians and pundits alike are up in arms over the decision to bring accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accomplices to trial. Right here in Illinois, the controversy surrounds the potential transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the Thomson Correctional Center in Thompson, Illinois.

Chris Cilizza, writing for The Fix at the Washington Post is reporting today that Senate candidate Mark Kirk is courting an endorsement from America's Sweetheart, Sarah Palin. According to Cilizza, Kirk fired off a memo to GOP bigwig and Berwyn-born Fred Malek, hoping to nail down a friendly howdy-do from Palin.

The results of New York’s special election in the 23rd district congressional race might have effects nation-wide, even here in Illinois. The Tea Party movement successfully derailed the campaign of Dede Scozzafava, a moderate GOP candidate in the race in favor of Doug Hoffman, a much more conservative republican. Politico reports that their success could embolden their efforts to push out more moderate GOP candidates in favor of hard right conservatives.

If Americans needed further proof that health care reform amounts to little more than partisan talking points and political bickering, Mark Kirk came to the rescue yesterday. A Politico report on the GOP’s feelings about a Democratic health care reform bill quotes Kirk: “Several dozen House Democrats risk losing their jobs if they vote for reform.” Kirk’s no stranger to ridiculous statements regarding health care reform; in August, he helped to spread the lie that proposed legislation would give federally subsidized health care to illegal aliens.

• So what happened at the IOC vote? Some say blame the USOC though an Australian IOC rep thinks an Asian alliance may have teamed up to help Tokyo and hurting Chicago's bid as a result.
• Obama had a subdued, respectful reaction to the results - did we expect anything else - but the question as to how much this will impact his legacy looms.
• It took three hours after Chicago's first round bounce for Mayor Daley to surface, but he did and he was straight-forward in his thoughts on the bid: "I'm disappointed but you go on with your life."

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is targeting the open U.S. Senate seat in Illinois for a win next year, is calling on Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias to "demand the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) sever all financial ties with ACORN" before accepting the union's endorsement. This shouldn't come as a surprise for anyone that's watched the right sharpen their knives on the community group's recent missteps. Which should be par for the political course, if the GOP's own candidate, Mark Kirk, hadn't accepted support from SEIU in the past as well. “Originally I saw it as a Chicago union and if they wanted to help out candidates, that’s fine,” said Kirk. “The information that we now see is, though, that it appears highly inappropriate this organization is involved with the U.S. government.” The "highly inappropriate" involvement with the U. S. government Kirk is referring to? That includes a $140,000 earmark in 2005, for teen delinquency work ACORN was doing in New York. Which Mark Kirk voted for in 2005.

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, when not stretching the truth about health care reform, is apparently busy lining up heavy-hitter endorsements for his 2010 U.S. Senate campaign. At an appearance today in Glenview, Kirk will receive the stamp of approval from U.S. Sen. John McCain. In a statement, McCain said, “The people of Illinois deserve a senator who will restore honest government, strengthen our national security, fight for veterans and bring fiscal discipline to Washington. Mark Kirk has my strongest endorsement.” [Tribune]

Mark Kirk, Illinois's 10th District Congressman and GOP front runner for the state's U.S. Senate seat, has been been trying to get in front of conservative rage at Obama lately. Earlier this month he held a press conference in a downtown Chicago federal building (in his capacity as a U.S. Congressman) to denounce the House version of the proposed health care reform legislation. Then, he called the bill partisan and expensive, and cited medical malpractice reforms as the key to cutting costs. This week he's upped the ante, lying about the details of the proposed legislation. "Should we provide taxpayer health care for people who are illegally here in the U. S.? I do not think we should provide federally-subsidized health care to illegal aliens," Kirk asked the crowd before rhetorically answering his own question. He failed to mention that the proposed legislation doesn't actually offer health insurance coverage for those in the United States illegally.

Twitter no-no's have been all the rage this week. First, there was the local woman who was sued for defamation by her property company and now it appears as if U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, who recently announced his campaign for U.S. Senate, may have violated some military rules via his Twitter account. Kirk, a Naval Reservist, is under scrutiny from The Capitol Fax for a pair of tweets that went up on his campaign twitter account while he was on active duty and may have violated rules. He revealed his location, which violates military rules, and because the twitter account is part of his U.S. Senate campaign, he may be in trouble because military rules prohibit certain political activities while on active duty. A Kirk spokesman told Rich Miller at Capitol Fax that it wasn't Kirk but rather a staffer who posted those tweets on Kirk's account. The Navy told Miller they are, "going to be looking into the matter.” [via ChicagoNow]

When he isn't warning Chinese government officials of the duplicitous ways of the current White House administration, Mark Kirk has been fairly vocal about how we should handle the current economic downturn. Kirk, who is running for the U.S. Senate Seat that is up for grabs next year, has been a critic of how the money in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being spent. One of those key criticisms is that there is too much "social spending" and not enough focus on infrastructure spending. Few would disagree that capital spending on transit and buildings has a direct impact on putting people to work. And the debate over social spending - such as student loans, extended unemployment benefits and education spending - is as valid as the divide between fiscal conservatives and their counterparts in the progressive camps.

A day after the leading Republican candidate, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate, the leading Democratic candidate is preparing to follow suit. State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias will formally announce his bid on Sunday. The move is hardly a surprise as Giannoulias had formally formed an exploratory committee to look into running and he became his party's front-runner when Attorney General Lisa Madigan chose not to run for the office. His exploratory committee has already raised $1.8 million for the run. [Trib's Clout Street]

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk ended all the speculation today and formally announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois that's up for grabs next year. He's wasting no time, either, with his campaign website now live and featuring a campaign video of sorts that takes Blago and Burris to task. Speaking to WLS this morning, Kirk said, "I think this is the chance to put forward a strong candidacy, to renew the two-party system in Illinois, but maybe most importantly restore ethics and integrity to Illinois government. We're just a laughingstock in Washington." Kirk is not expected to have any stiff competition from within his own party in the primary.

Lynn Sweet reports that U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk's office is saying he's running for a state-wide office...but tsk tsk, they won't tell us which state office until his formal announcement on Monday. Of course, we can look past this little tease and know almost for certain that it's going to be for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Roland Burris. With state GOP head Andy McKenna yielding the right of way to Kirk on this office, it seems a pretty sure thing we'll be reading about "Kirk For Senate" come Monday afternoon.

After a flurry of "He's Out" and "He's In" releases, scoops, and stories, it seems we're heading for a final "He's In!" for U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk and the upcoming U.S. Senate race. Crain's Greg Hinz is reporting that state GOP chief Andy McKenna, the man most saw as Kirk's primary obstacle in securing the Republican nomination for next year's senate contest, will defer to Kirk's wishes. It's been a bit of a confusing affair, especially with two big names - State Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the seat's current holder, Roland Burris - dropping out of next year's race. Luckily, Hinz breaks it down pretty succinctly.

With the announcement that Roland Burris will not seek re-election and Lisa Madigan staying put in the AG's seat, Illinois's Junior Senatorial seat has become somewhat of a political hot potato. And amid the shuffling of names and personalities in potential statewide races that have been subject to speculation for months, the Washington Post reported, incorrectly, that Mark Kirk wouldn't run for the GOP slot in the general. In fact, Kirk has been in a bit of a political standoff with Illinois GOP chair Andy McKenna over who would run for an elected office in Illinois that could actually go to a Republican.

• Our thoughts and prayers to the family of local National Guard soldier Derwin Williams who was killed by a road-side bomb in Afghanistan.
• With Madigan's exit from both the governor's and senate race, it looks like Republican state senator Mark Kirk is taking his aim at U.S. Sen. Burris' seat.
• Meanwhile, the Republican side of the governor's race keeps growing.

If U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk gets his way, more potent marijuana will soon garner a harsher punishment. Under Kirk's proposed legislation, a first-time offense for selling or distributing marijuana with a THC content of more than 15 percent would earn you 25 years in prison. Kirk plans to unveil his proposed legislation at a press conference later today. We're not even going to wade into the "Legalize It" debate but 25 years seems a bit steep.

After a trip to China to meet with senior Chinese government officials, Illinois 10th District Congressman Mark Kirk took time to discuss his meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC think-tank. "We heard across the board - in private - substantial, continuing and rising concern," Kirk said. "It's clear that China would like to diversify from its dollar investments." His trip included discussions with Chinese Central Bank cheif central bank chief Dr Zhou Xiaochuan. That statement differed from what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said after meeting with Chinese officials on a separate visit. Geithner indicated that Chinese leaders expressed "justifiable confidence" in the U.S. economy. with some 700 billion dollars invested in Treasury bonds, China is the largest holder of U.S. debt. Earlier this year Dr Zhou proposed eliminating the U.S. dollar as the global financial benchmark.

2010 is shaping up to be a free-for-all for the U.S. Senate seat that Roland Burris is currently keeping warm in Washington. But, finally, a politician has come out and said she will not run for the U.S. Senate: U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (who had way better seats at the Inauguration than we did). Instead, Schakowsky plans to run to keep her current U.S. House seat. She released a statement that said, in part, "I think the next two years present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make progressive change. I want to devote my energy to help make these things a reality, and decided that I simply couldn't do it if I mounted a campaign for Senate."

If Illinois's legislators can't reach an agreement over a capital spending bill by October, "Gov. Schwarzenegger in California, Gov. Rendell in Pennsylvania, Gov. Crist in Florida, Gov. Paterson in New York, all are ready to" try and take the $9 billion in federal matching funds set aside for Illinois, said 10th District Congressman Mark Kirk. That money has been waiting in the federal budget since 2005. To get it, leaders in Springfield must first figure out how to fund roads, schools and other projects.

Rep Mark Kirk (R-IL) wants the FTC to issue a consumer alert because he believes Second Life could expose children to predators. He also believes it's a social networking site, which isn't quite accurate. From his press release:

If you guessed that a former Navy nuclear submarine officer who served in and around the Arabian Gulf during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, who owns a real estate investment firm in suburban Chicago, and who was Officer in Charge of the Center for Information Dominance Learning Site at Great Lakes Naval Station is running for congress as a Green this year, you'd be right.

It wasn't just Presidential candidates that were running for nominations in yesterday's vote. A handful of local Democrats and Republicans also ran for their party's spot on the November ballot as well.

Last week we clued you in to BP's plans to increase the levels of ammonia and sludge thhey are discharging into Lake Michigan from their Whiting, IN refinery. Responding to the wave of local bad press the company got, BP ran full page ads in newspapers, letters to the editor, and even blog advertising, including here on Chicagoist. Yesterday the Chicago Tribune ran with a front page headline detailing the flogging that BP took on...

You may not realize it, but the Great Lakes Watershed is not only the source of all of our fresh drinking water, but it's also a political entity, protected by a group of US States and Canadian Provinces. Under the Water Resources Development Act, diversion of water from the Great Lakes basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors, something that rarely occurs. This act, and it's ramifications, has been a point of...

Calling the sentence imposed on Lewis "Scooter" Libby "harsh" and "excessive," George W. Bush commuted the 30-month sentence on Monday. Not quite the full pardon that some conservatives wanted — he still has to pay a quarter million dollar fine and serve 2 years probation for lying under oath — it certainly left Bush open to criticism, from both sides of the congressional aisle. “He was indicted by a grand jury and convicted beyond the...

Yesterday US Congressman Mark Kirk held a hearing at the Shedd Aquarium to discuss the results of a study done by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, which determined Lake Michigan has more mercury pollution than all of the other Great Lakes.

Before any voter begins to think about their choice at the polls, candidates scramble for "the election before the election." For Congressional races, this typically starts about nine months before the primary election, when aspirants do their best to raise money and prove their "viability." June 30th is the first real deadline for those aspirants to demonstrate their fundraising prowess, as the first important Federal Elections Commission deadline. This post is the second in a...

It's the June before an election year, and that means Congressional candidate wannabes are making some hard choices about whether or not they toss their hat into the ring. Why June 2005? Because June 30 is the first important Federal Election Commission's fundraising reporting deadline. The reports, filed in July, are carefully scrutinized by political donors and party bosses across the country. If you don't have enough cheddar in the bank, you're labeled "not viable"...

A month ago Chicagoist took a look at the rash of new blogs launched by Illinois politicians. We concluded that while the blogs were interesting, we withheld judgement since successful blogs tend to have regular posts over time. Let's check back to see if things have gotten any better. In our review we looked at three new blogs launched in April, one from new U.S. Senator Barack Obama, CTA Chair Carole Brown and Republican Cook...