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Illinois Raids Welfare for Videogame Legislation
jcgam69 writes "Recent hearings revealed that the State of Illinois spent $1 million defending their unconstitutional video games legislation. The story gets even worse when you learn where the money came from. 'Some of the areas money was taken from included the public health department, the state's welfare agency and even the economic development department. A state representative who attended recent hearings on the issue said that Gov. Blagojevich's staff simply spread the legal bills around by sticking them to agencies which had funds left in their budgets--even if the agencies had nothing to do with the issue or the litigation.'"
Elwood: Illinois Nazis.
Jake: I hate Illinois Nazis.
C'mon, with idiocy like that rampant, is anyone really shocked by this?
On the other hand, I can see exactly why this was done, and why it might be ok. It is the taxpayer's money, and it's expectd to be used. They spent it very poorly yes, but it's there to be spent. If the public is upset about it, they need to make that known, by tossing those dips out of office. If they don't do that, then no bitching from you. Either change it or stfu.
God forbid the sacred vote buying fund be tapped to protect censorship.
Never trust strangers, authorities, or people named Milorad Blagojevich.
This shouldn't come as a big surprise. I expect a lot of government offices/officials snake money from areas that still have some cash to pay for other interests. It's one of the biggest reasons agencies tend to spend all their money...if they have some left over, there's a chance someone will decide they don't really need that budget money and shift it to some other agency.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
Which would make you want to commit violence more, playing a video game or not getting a welfare check? Their priorities are completely messed up.
stuff |
They are far too busy thinking of the children to think of the children.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
That bites. The funds should come from the legislative budget, even if they have no funds left. The Legislature would be hard-pressed to pass more bills that could result in massive legal bills if their pay check was directly at risk.
Either that or create a discretionary fund that is 100% disclosed to voters at voting time, included in clear wording direct in the ballot.
Think of the children! No, seriously, think of the children who need government assistance to eat.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
If the legislation was important enough to enact, then it's important enough to defend.
If you thought the legislation exceeded the scope of government, then you think paying to defend it is bad too. No wonder non-binding legislation is catching on, as it makes both sides happy, or... is that unhappy.
Ever since the demise of the American union from a salient revolutionary forum into an overwrought political machine, Illinois and its princely city Chicago have been irrelevant in national politics. It really could of been a different world if greed and corruption had not become the bread and butter of union bosses, Chicago's mayors and eventually most of the Illinois government.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
depressing. It shows you how your money, not the governments, yours, gets wasted every day by a bunch of un-accountable megalomaniacs. And its true of both parties.
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
Normally you try to spend all of your budget in a given year so that the "powers that be" don't cut next year's budget because you obviously didn't need all that money. This is the first I've heard where (apparently) they took already-allocated money back to pay for their stupidity. That sucks even more because you can't even count on the money you already have - you never know when the higher-ups will just change their mind and give it to someone else.
The games in question are almost always rated M for mature and most chains require ID to buy them anyway. So Illonois spent $1,000,000 trying to protect 17 year old children from exposed breasts. There is far more titilation (pun intended) to be had in a no-age-limit Maxim/Stuff/etc. magazine than in nearly all of these video games. Heck the kids could just go to the art museum for far more nudity, and read Genesis and Leviticus for rape/murder/genocide/incest.
n/t
My Babylon
While this is probably not a proper thing for the government to do (and in my opinion it is despicable), stay real. This is only a million bucks. This is hardly a standout example of government waste.
Well put, sir.
If I could rearrange the keyboard, I'd put U and I together.
I constantly hear stories about how politicians took money from place A and spent it on place B. I suspect this varies between states, but can someone explain to me how this works? As far as I know, there's no special bank account where money is deposited for each organization: the budget is set by law - so if the law says "$50 goes here and $100 goes here" I don't see how it is possible to take it from any one of those buckets without passing another law that overrides it. Can someone please explain this?
Seriously, check out the controversy section on his Wikipedia Article. The dude got tons of soft cash from companies as campaign contributions. Makes you wonder why he feels the need to rob the poor to pay for his failed ideas...
The problem is (as an Illinois native) elected officials in Illinois have a history of using their current elected position to campaign for the next one. A good example of this is the Secretary of State - the first thing the guy elected Secretary of State does is plaster "John Doe, Secretary of State" on EVERYTHING in the state. Tollway signs. DMV. Courthouses. Whatever. You can't go into a state building in Illinois without knowing who the secretary of state is.
And Blagojevich is a just plain corrupt governor. Sometimes I wonder if there really is a conspiracy between the two parties - the only reason Blagojevich got reelected, even though most people BELIEVE he's corrupt, is that the Republicans somehow managed to field a candidate that was SO BAD that corrupt Blagojevich was actually the better choice! I wish I had been paying more attention, as *I* could have gotten elected governor running against those two.
Anyway, this is just Blagojevich campaigning for Senate or President, using state dollars. You can see the campaign commercial already: 'When Blagojevich was governor of Illinois, he worked to protect vulnerable children from violent video games....'
paintball
Wow. Welfare causes all of those things
Nice false dillema you've got there.
It may be sort of true (in some cases) that some of what you describe is some of the more unfortunate aspects of social programs, but talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water. I'm fairly sure that most of the recipients of welfare aren't included in what you're describing.
Man, some of you people have such amazing knee-jerk reactions towards any sort of program to help people out it astounds me.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
If any of that were true, how come the US, which has a much smaller social-welfare apparatus than most other developed countries, has more crime, poverty, teen pregnancies, &c.?
Nice false dillema you've got there.
It's spelled 'dilemma', and I think you were looking for the word 'dichotomy'.
I'm fairly sure that most of the recipients of welfare aren't included in what you're describing.
How many do you know?
Man, some of you people have such amazing knee-jerk reactions...
As Homer Simpson said, "The ironing is delicious!"
http://xkcd.com/386/
I'm thinking the baby/bathwater metaphor is the wrong one. Perhaps the purse/sow's ear metaphor would be better...
Welfare and concentrated housing projects combined have done more harm to the poor than good. Ironic that we're only starting to see poverty decline in Chicago once they started tearing down the projects.
Paying people to sit on their behinds and make babies who become gang banging drug dealers is not a good solution. Forcing people to make something of themselves is sometimes the only way to convince them its possible.
IANAL or work in auditing, but the Governor could get his state into a lot of trouble spending money that was earmarked for that federal program, methinks. I'd hope that during their next federal audit (which happens every year here) they get to the bottom of it and punish just the people responsible, while not impacting the needy families with fines or cuts to the state's grant.
If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.
A huge portion of the tenants moved out to the far south suburbs (Dolton, South Holland, Harvey, etc). The truly depressing news is that both Dolton and South Holland reported record foreclosures this year and over 97% of them were ARMs. They boot them out of the public housing and predatory mortgage companies eat them up. I still don't support the perpetually government teat, but this seriously damaged these towns.
A dilemma is a problem offering two solutions, neither of which is acceptable. The two options are often described as the horns of a dilemma, neither of which is comfortable.
meanwhile
A dichotomy is a division into two non-overlapping or mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive parts. They are often contrasting and spoken of as "opposites". The term comes from dichotomos (divided): dich- ([in] two) temnein (to cut).
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A false dilemma would be one where an option exists that is not uncomfortable.
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I think dilemma applies (tho mispelled- but hey, this is slashdot.) No- I didn't know the definitions- I had to look them up. I sort of knew what dilemma meant but drew a complete blank on dichotomy.
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Did you draw a false dilemma? Depends on if you are anti-welfare or not. Some people welfare helps- but I agree that the rule of unintended consequences does apply to welfare. Welfare destroys the lives of a lot of people who would have made it without a ready crutch to destroy them. It's not welfare per se- it's welfare run by a big organization that can't tell the difference between a hard working mom that got laid off and needs a hand to get back up again and a drug using teenager with three babies from three different fathers that never intends to work. Or for that matter, a group of hippy commune types (california welfare during the 70's was a huge factor in the hippy movement being successful).
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Right. Because living on welfare is this fantastic lifestyle that everyone envies. You are right that "Paying people to sit on their behinds and make babies who become gang banging drug dealers is not a good solution". Fortunately, that is not what welfare is. Yeah, some people abuse the system. In some case not having welfare might be beneficial. But the benefits (like, if you actually care about people other than yourself) are still there for a lot of people who need help.
Yes, isn't it ironic? About ironic as noticing that if you shoot homeless people that the number of homeless people goes down. If you kick the people out, they are going to move to places where they can get assistance. You are just shifting the problem instead of dealing with it.
It just amazes me to see what heartless assholes we have all become. Chritians only care about abortions and gay marriage. Heaven forbid you actually think about the least among us. That you work to help the poor rather than ignore them. No, it is much easier to hate people with different viewpoints than actually work to make the world a better place.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Anything that keeps welfare money out of the hands of those who refuse to get themselves jobs and require someone to hold their hand through life is a good thing.
Woah... Slow down there, skippy.
I'm all in favor of helping the poor. I donate heavily to charities that fight poverty and volunteered at shelters, etc. What I am not in favor of is handouts. Making people dependent on the state doesn't help them at all. Welfare is not a glamorous lifestyle, but it's comfortable enough that people don't strive for anything more for fear of risking what little they have.
You can see the same thing in families -- people who pay for their own college educations do much better than those for whom mommy and daddy pay for everything. I paid every dime of my tuition myself, and am a better person for it.
It's all a matter of doing for yourself or depending on others to do for you. The more you rely on other people, the more dependent on other people you become. Job training and chemical dependency programs do way more than welfare ever will.
Welfare provides a proverbial island in the middle of a lake. Sure, it's possible to swim to shore, but it's damn hard -- and even harder when you have kids. By taking away that island, you force people to swim to shore on their own. Welfare just airlifts supplies to that island so the people can stay there longer.
Starting around 1990-1991, I watched a generation of management at my Fortune 500 client sites slide into retirement and their replacements take over. Retirement changes weren't new, but this is when I noticed that the new guys almost universally had a lot less class and compassion than the old crowd. It got worse over the years, and lack of class and compassion was compounded by sheer congenital stupidity, and then there was the mob that took over the federal government in 2000.
Recently, I've concluded the boomers are a generation of fuckups, and the younger they are the stupider they get. I'm a late boomer, too. If I'd been born a little rich kid, I just know I'd be blowing a fortune on shrinks and another one on a truck-load of Euros.
I find this incredibly interesting the class warfare going on in Illinois. Video games are an item that falls into the discretionary spending category. You have extra money and you get the new game for your kid. The people who buy these games, at least for the most part, have the money to cover the necessities in life and then some. So in order to protect these reasonably well off people you are going to take money away from the downtrodden and underprivileged? "We need to protect all of these suburban kids from what they see in their video games. But where do we get the money for the fight? Oh, those poor kids don't need to eat this month..." God bless the yuppies
Yes, a million bucks isn't necessarily a lot in terms of a government expenditure, but why is that? Perhaps because so many projects are "porked" out, overpriced, and generally using incomprehensible amounts of money that a million simply doesn't seem big bucks in comparison?
There are a lot of good things that could have been done with a million bucks. More if it wasn't nibbled down in bits and bites before it got to its destination. Just because we're used to larger wasteful expenditure on the behalf of government doesn't mean that we shouldn't be pissed off when they're wasting a "measly million" on something so stupid as defending unconstitutional legislation.
It just amazes me to see what heartless assholes we have all become. Chritians only care about abortions and gay marriage. Heaven forbid you actually think about the least among us. That you work to help the poor rather than ignore them.
There's this commandment about stealing though. Thou shalt not steal. Stealing is taking from a person against his will. Getting the government to steal (tax) for you breaks this commandment.
"Welfare payments trap people in poverty and support criminal activity, drug use, single parenthood (a.k.a. growing up without a father), irresponsibility, dependence, and the inability to develop capabilities or skills."
And let's not forget eating -- a habit much more addictive and destructive than anything else you list. Why, if people just stopped using welfare to feed their addiction to food, all those other problems would be quickly solved, right?
It appears I misunderstood the poster I was responding to. My mistake.
Personal responsibility: something more rare on slashdot than good spelling.
http://xkcd.com/386/
In Soviet Russia, Godwin Slashdots you!
Maybe it isn't obligatory, but it's expected.
Look, I hate stupid, anti-speech laws as much as the next guy, but taking money from the pockets of welfare mothers with more gold in their mouths than I wear on my wrist makes me cry no tears. I mean, it's funny that they're taking it from welfare, but it's hardly a uniquely fucked up action on the part of the state. Plus, think of it this way:
The government takes money that YOU ACTUALLY WORKED FOR to pay welfare queens.
Yeah, not so many tears for the whore with 6 kids now, are there?
Welfare don't do that. Bein a nigger does that.
Don't use that n-word. It's racist.
However, if you want to use the word "nigga", that's ok. They say it in the rap videos all the time.
Also, crime rates have gone down over the last 10-20 years, while welfare spending has increased... not causation, I know, but it throws a wrench in a lot of anti welfare arguments.
Close.
A false dilemma is where you set up two bullshit arguments and expect someone to choose between the two as if they're the only options. (ie. "either we skim money from the welfare budget for court costs" or "we pay for people to make babies and become drug dealers", which is what the OP inferred). The dilemma isn't real (no matter how badly I originally spelled the word
linky goodness
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I think the heart of the debate about violence in video games comes when you contrast TFA with this.
Really, is there anything left to discuss about the issue?
So rather than agreeing with me, you chose to support terrorists.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
This is retarded... How many billions of dollars does the American government spend on their military and state dinners and bombing middle eastern nations and weapons to blow up said middle eastern nations and all that other bollocks? But when it comes to defending their own stupid laws oh no the money has to come out of the poor peoples pockets.
And to all those saying that people on welfare need to get a job, have you ever been on welfare? In my country our welfare pays a bit more and I still wouldn't be able to feed myself if I were on welfare. You can be damn sure they are trying to get a job but who is going to hire someone who is so poor they can't even dress properly? No one defends the poor because they can't offer you anything in return.
Just my 2cents
That'd be why nobody cares about government corruption or stupidity as news anymore. We're so used to it that we just don't think much of it. Most of the voting population thinks that is just how government is and that there is nothing we can do about it. No doubt why fewer and fewer people vote.
If only people could be motivated to revolt before our government, and civilization, collapses. The scary thing to me is that the American population has no will to survive. We'd rather watch a spectacle and whine about what is fair or not instead of making any effort to address any real problems. I hear more about stem cells, immigration, and the war in Iraq than about any issue that really matters. Even with the stuff we hear about it's all smoke and mirrors and nothing substantial. There is no intelligent plan even being considered to deal with stem cell research, immigration, or the war - all we get is sensationalism. We'd rather bicker over non-issues and make a show over who is being the least politically correct than to come together as a nation.
I think democracies are doomed to implode without strong leaders, good education, and a common vision of self. I don't think we currently have any of those in the United States or are likely to get them anytime soon.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Do any real state health departments cover city parks? I'd think that even a well-funded health department would have its hands full between hospitals, restaurants, and grocery stores...
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
Only if they lower college prices. I'll bet a year's worth of welfare payments for one adult wouldn't even cover a year's worth of DeVry Institute courses.
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
I think it's mostly a knee-jerk reaction towards programs where you're required to pay. The fact that welfare helps people in need doesn't matter to people like this guy; he doesn't care whether it has a positive or a negative effect at all. All he cares about is that he has to pay (or, more likely, that he might have to pay once he moves out of mom's basement and gets a job), and he's ascribing all sorts of evil to welfare in order to bolster his position, since even he is not stupid enough to think that he needs a better reason to be opposed to it than "it costs me money, whaa-whaa".
But still, you're right: people like that astound me, too.
butter the donkey
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
0 offtopic before I posted, so blow me.
My Babylon
Jesus also said to give to Caesar what is Caesar's.
Sorry to break this to you, but that doesn't mean Jesus just appointed you Caesar and wrote you a blank check from everyone's account. He was talking to Caesar's victims (the taxpayers) at the time. He never told Caesar to go ahead and take whatever he wanted.
Taking money from people against their will is stealing. Wanting to take it is greed. Trying to get "the rich" to "pay their fair share" is envy and covetousness.
He didn't believe that taxes were stealing...
All taxes aren't stealing. A gas tax to pay for roads charges people who use the roads for their construction and maintenance.
A tax to take cash from person A to give to person B is stealing.
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2422
Obama - For whom the bells have tolled
May 3, 2007 - 7:56pm.
"Chi-Town, we have a problem."
At least, that would be the message to Barack's campaign handlers, if they were willing to listen. And unfortunately for Barack, that "if" is just a tad too big for his britches.
While his rise into national prominence was a delicate thing of beauty, those of us from Illinois scratched our collective heads, wondering why this semi-hack from our state house was flying like a swan, when the reality is that he lucked into office because of extreme, consistent, and religious based failures by Illinois Reich Wing commissars who run our GOP - more often than not, into the ground, if not into prison.
For all his failed memory lapses contained in his book, at least he reportedly wrote most of it. That is good. Kudos for that. As I try to get one of several (5) I have written published, I admire his success (at the same time that I would kill for 10 private minutes with his agent), the many errors and misrememberances are not a problem. But are they a symptom? Only time will tell.
No, we need not feed his publisher's pockets to find more obvious omens of Barack's ultimate future in this election cycle. It can be broken down into four pretty telling points, and two very disgusting ones.
Let's start with Barack himself. He has several serious problems, the kind that will derail a national campaign by erosion, collapse, and painful agony. In that respect, his campaign resembles Hillary's - because hers suffers from the same problem.
Barack's first problem is called "Rezko". A professional, political whore who buys pols in Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois when it suits his purposes, his close, constant rubbing of elbows with Barack is actually far worse than anything Harry Truman did with his Pendergast connections. Harry's wife's White House deep freeze freezer hardly qualifies as graft.
which revealed that "the governor raided funds throughout state government to pay for the litigation. Some of the areas money was taken from included the public health department, the state's welfare agency and even the economic development department." Interesting. They raid from all the areas that need money to help people in order to help people. Affects on People: No Health Care - Stressed over the bills. No Welfare - Stressed and afraid of the bills. No Economic Development - No jobs. Overall effect = violence and troubled youths And they say games are a menace to society.