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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.'"
Never trust strangers, authorities, or people named Milorad Blagojevich.
Actually, the quote is "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money", and ironically it's from Everett Dirksen, late Republican (back when Republicans could be moderates) Senator from Illinois.
Blagojevich is the Democratic haircut who was elected after Republican George Ryan self-destructed. For those of you who don't live here, Ryan was convicted on multiple corruption charges and is currently out on bond, pending appeal. Blagojevich recently defeated Judy Baar Topinka, a reactionary Republican hack, for a second term.
Illinois is a strange state. Politics is definetley a contact/blood sport here.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
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...
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.
There's only so many DMV facilities for around 12 million people and only so many hours, you're supposed to renew by phone/mail/internet.
If you want in-person renewels to go faster, you're going to have to pay more money for longer DMV hours, more offices, and more people.
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He did forget that since businesses haven't been paying their fair share of the tax burden they've got tons of money to spend on lobbyists.
Totally ridiculous assertion. Illinois businesses pay a higher share of total state and local taxes than businesses in the
neighboring states of Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin:
Link (PDF warning)
I run a few businesses in Illinois, and Wisconsin is looking MIGHTY good right now if Blag passes any more business tax legislation. With a horrible zoning situation in most cities, coupled with horrific business regulations at the county and state level, Illinois will quickly lose the small-to-medium sized businesses that operate on a national level.