Former Congressman suggests alternatives to Obama's health care reform

There is a lot of opposition to President Obama's Health Care initiatives, even though 47 million Americans -- I repeat Americans -- do not have healthcare, are denied healthcare by the insurance company robber barons, or can't afford healthcare.

Many of those who have healthcare are afraid to lose what they have. They have been so abused by the bureaucratic muscling of the insurance companies like Humana and Blue Cross -- you can't argue with them and in a dispute, you are guilty first and may spend months trying to correct the record and the credit bureau black marks they help place -- the public with insurance is afraid to rock the boat. Americans with health care believe that their coverage will change and the health care industry robber barons are helping to promote that because they will try to hurt people who support the public health care option.

So what do we do? Let the lobbyists for the low-lifes in the health care industry win by pouring big bucks into the back campaign pockets of the conservative Republicans or the so-called "Blue Dog Democrats" -- I call them the Blue Cross Dog Democrats?

Or, according to former Congressman Bill Lipinski, offer a better plan that targets the problems with healthcare by focusing on the problems not creating a new system.

It might make sense to pass laws that:

1- Prohibit health insurance companies like Blue Cross and Humana and all from denying healthcare coverage to anyone because of alleged pre-conditions.
2- Prosecute health insurance companies that do deny coverage
3- create a system of price controls to prevent the health care insurance robber barons from excessively increasing prices
4- Create price controls to limit the costs of pharmaceuticals and tell the pahrmaceutical industry to shove it, too. (A prescription drug under a healthcare plan might cost $150 in paper price, but only really costs pennies to purchase, for example. If you do not have coverage, you have to pay the $150 which is excessive theft.)
5- Provide healthcare subsidies to families that cannot afford to purchase healthcare

The biggest problem with the healthcare industry is not the cost of healthcare. It is the healthcare insurance companies denying coverage or limiting coverage to individuals or families making it impossible to get healthcare for the issues they need. In many cases, the denials involve pre-existing conditions that insurance companies claim they will not cover by attaching riders and forcing applicants to sign them months after the applications have been submitted with payment and approved -- and months after the applicant can return to an old healthcare coverage.

These are real issues that need to be changed. If the public does not want a healthcare public option that President Obama is proposing, than create tougher laws to force the healthcare industry to provide the coverage they are denying.

Several of these big healthcare insurers have been recording record profits of more than $800 billion just in the past year. Clearly, these "profits" prove that the cost of healthcare is way beyond what it should be.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

GOP candidate for Governor challenges slow response in Burr Oak cemetery scandal

Dan Proft, the first Republican to throw his hat in the ring for Illinois Governor, takes on an issue many in the public -- Democrat and Republican are saying -- that Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes was slow to respond to the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal and that while oversight is his responsibility, instead of being responsible, he's seeking to pass a new law instead of enforcing the one we have.

Introducing a "new law" is a great way to grab headlines as you position yourself for higher office, which is not the constitutional responsibility of the State Comptroller but does seem to be the primary responsibility of Comptroller Dan Hynes.

Hynes comes from a powerful family based in the 19th Ward which over the years has been extending its Machine Power to subordinate suburbanites in Orland Park under their political control. The Hynes family is backing and picking and choosing candidates for the Southwest suburban community as if it is their domain and already has people chosen to run and not run for office there this Spring and Fall. Hynes is an advocate of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley who built the Democratic Machine but is failing to heed Daley's words: Good Government is Good Politics.

In other words, when you practice good government and do the job you asked to be hired to do, the public recognizes that work and rewards you, especially when you go beyond the work you are SUPPOSED to do. You get rewarded for going above and beyond, not for what you are getting paid to do. Dan Hynes should do what he was paid to do.

Tragically, the mainstream media have been falling into shaking lapdogs for the mainstream politicians like Michael J. Madigan who has built up his machine but has single handedly put Illinois into a deficit so large no amount of tax increases will help. Some of these media have targeted Proft because of his allegiance to the more conservative views of the Republican Party.

So I don't know. Is it better, as you read Dan Proft's column, to be a lapdog for the do-nothing system, or a "junk yard dog" as branded below who is doing something to fight for the rights of the voters?

Here's Dan Proft's column. His web site is www.Proft2010.com

FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2009

This "junkyard dog" has a bite worse than his bark.

Dear Friend:

“He’s fast getting the reputation as the junkyard dog in the race.”
- Rich Miller, The Capitol Fax Blog, July 17

That’s what Rich Miller had to say about me today. And I say, so be it.

Articulating a contrast vision for our party and our state, pointing out substantive policy differences, and taking the fight to the Chicago Democrats to make them defend systems they do not want to defend is characterized as being a “junkyard dog” because this approach to serious policy issues is as foreign to Springfield as are my proposals to cut taxes and impose statutory spending caps.

I would also remind my fellow Republicans of another unpleasant reality in Springfield. There is a gentleman down there named Mike Madigan. You may have heard of him. He’s been Speaker of the Illinois House for 36 of the last 38 years. And he is no puppy dog.

System change in state government will not occur without incident.

System change in state government requires taking on the Chicago 9, those nine Chicago Democrats who run the show in this state and who always seem to be more focused on filling their pockets with your money than with fulfilling their sworn duties.

The gruesome Burr Oak Cemetery scandal unearthed yet another instance where the Chicago 9 – in this case Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes – were more concerned with perpetuating their power than living up to their responsibilities.

It would not surprise anyone to learn that grave-robbing is illegal. But the response of Mr. Hynes, the constitutional officer who is responsible for cemetery oversight, is to pass a new law, grab a headline, move out, and move up.

Cemetery oversight is the statutory duty of the Comptroller and Mr. Hynes failed to fulfill his duty.

Click here to read more about how Mr. Hynes was too busy raising campaign cash from the politically-connected to concern himself with his current fiduciary responsibilities to Illinois taxpayers.

If you want to send more puppy chow to Springfield for Speaker Madigan, Dan Hynes and the other members of the Chicago 9 to devour, then I am not your candidate.

If, however, you want to send a pit bull or, to use Mr. Miller’s moniker, a “junkyard dog,” to take up your fight, to attack the bad policies that have destroyed Illinois’ economy and to advance conservative, market reforms, then unleash me on the political establishment in Springfield.

Help me get the word out to Republican voters from Zion to Cairo that there is Republican junkyard dog ready to take the fight to the Chicago Democrats.

end

Pundits say Gorman has trouble but I don't believe it

Going in to every election, incumbents always look vulnerable. There's a lot of big talk and big ambition by officeholders who dream of becoming the next political "phenom" like Barack Obama, who went from relative unknown to president of the United States in less than six years.

The candidates are already dreaming and some of those dreamers have set their sights on one incumbent in the Southwest Suburbs, 17th District Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman.

Gorman is not the darling of the downtown news media which analyzes everything in terms of either Mayor Daley or the Chicago Loop. Most major media, with some exceptions, ignore the suburbs and pretty much follow the pack when deciding who is or isn't vulnerable in elections. So bright stars in the suburbs often are overlooked.

There have been a few exceptions like Media darling Forrest Claypool, who every writer pretty much ordained would become the slayer of the evil tax lord, Cook County Board PresidentTodd Stroger. But Claypool discovered in his polling that he could neither raise the money nor could he count on real Democratic Party support. He would have lost to Stroger.

Then there is the other darling of the news media, Mike Quigley. Unlike Claypool, Quigley is made of much more genuine substance. He's more personable and less arrogant. He actually talks to people. Quigley was smart enough to throw his hat into the crowded Democratic primary battle to succeed Rahm Emanuel in Congress. It wasn't that Quigley was a phenom like Obama, but rather that the race for the congressional seat was more like the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Some people would luck out and make it through to the end of the race without getting gored, and a few unlucky ones would get gored.

Quigley got lucky. He has but two years to prove himself and he's working hard at showing he can handle the job, now that he was lucky enough to win.

Gorman is off the major media radar screen, except when the negative steamrollers come in to rehash all that deadweight about Ed Vrdolyak. Yes "Fast Eddie" will never leave the news. Ed happened to be friends with Gorman's husband, Gerry. They were business partners, too. But there isn't one politician Ed Vrdolyak hasn't helped, worked with or has not considered to be a friend. And he's done business with a lot of others, incuding a few who are among those being hailed by pundits as possible Gorman challengers.

The least known of the presumptive candidates to challenger Liz Gorman is in fact the front-runner, Pat Maher. President of the controversy-plagued Orland Fire Protection District (in two years its political legal spending went from nothing to hundreds of thousands) Maher is the son of a long time Orland Park village clerk, Dave Maher. Pat Maher has one brother who quietly and unsuccessfully ran for a village trustee post in nearby Lemont. In any other lifetime, the Mahers would be just an ordinary, bland suburban political family. Fat frogs sitting high on lilly pods in small pools. But this Maher family has ties to the powerful family of Tom Hynes, father of Comptroller Dan Hynes, who hail from the legendary 19th Ward where the the 19th Ward Machine stands ready at their beck and call.

Yet Pat Maher is not the name that everyone is talking about when it comes to the 17th District challenge to Liz Gorman. Take this paragraph from a recent column by my friend and capable columnist Russ Stewart (July 23) who looked at the county races from top to bottom:

17th District (Park Ridge, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, then south in a narrow corridor to Lemont, Orland Park and Tinley Park): Incumbent [Liz] Gorman’s husband was a business partner of Ed Vrdolyak, and there is some negative fallout attaching to her. She was first elected unopposed in 2002, and re-elected in 2006 with 55.6 percent. She is the Orland Township Republican committeeman, was briefly the Republican county chairman, and has been feuding with Peraica.

A likely 2010 Democratic candidate for the seat is Dr. Victor Forys, a Polish-American who garnered 11.7 percent of the vote in the 2009 Democratic congressional primary in the 5th District. If Forys can assemble both a geographic (north versus south) and ethnic coalition, he could win. Other candidates include Orland Park trustee Jim Dodge and RTA Board member Dennis Cook. But well-known Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin is also a possibility, and would be favored in a primary. The outlook: Gorman has huge problems.

The first thing you notice is that the focus is not on Liz Gorman, who has come out swinging this past year with some major legislative initiatives. Rather, the focus is on her husband, Gerry, a businessman whose family is involved in politics. It's a funny thing. I'd heard a lot about Gerry Gorman that made him out to be some kind of behind-the-scenes T-Rex. Then I had a chance to meet him. Turns out he's just like any other family man who takes his kids to little league practice and spends a lot of time with his wife.

The second thing you notice in Russ Stewart's analysis is the absence of any recognition of Pat Maher. The focus instead is on: Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin; Jim Dodge, who Gorman appointed to the METRA Board; Dennis Cook, a member of the RTA board with the Illinois Federation of Young Republicans. And perennial candidate Victor Forys.

Now, I'm not knocking anyone but I can tell you this:

Dan McLaughlin may covet higher office, possibly lieutenant governor in the Democratic race for Governor in 2010, as the rmor mill is now swirling. But Dan has a big job with the Chicago Plumbers Union that pays well and takes up much of his time. Being president of a village with a great reputation and a high-paid village manager is a second job that pays some money but offers great rewards. Give that up for the undistinguished arena of the Cook County board? I don't think so. Maybe for statewide office, yes!

Dodge, the former Orland Township GOP Committeeman, has ambitions. But in a fight with an incumbent Republican, he'd have a difficult battle. A nice guy, what has he done on the METRA Board and how would the public even know him? Could he raise the money you'd need to run in this fight? And would you backstab someone who went to bat for you when you needed it?

Dennis Cook may want to enter the race simply to give himself higher name recognition because he just ain't too well known with the voters. A nice guy according to Republican insiders who I know. He has a future.

But Orland Park based challengers really have a disadvantage. The 17th District is shaped like the Via Dolorosa, the cobble-stone path that winds its way through the narrow streets of Jerusalem, where Jesus carried his cross before being crucified. In addition to including Orland Township, where Maher may do well, the 17th District runs all the way north to include many areas where names like Maher, McLaughlin, Cook, Dodge and others might not mean so much. Places where building name recognition is not easy like in Park Ridge, Des Plaines, and Mt. Prospect, just to name a few.

I give Liz Gorman credit. She's fearless. I wasn't her biggest fan several years back when she headed the Cook County Republican Organization. I thought she could have done more. But since leaving that party leadership post for others, she has done much. The truth is I don't think any Republican could have done much better with the county or with the state. Illinois House Speaker Mike J. Madigan has the legislature in a vice grip, and despite numerous opportunities to break through the Democratic headlock, Republican leaders have fallen short. The disarray at the state level only gets worse in many prominent Republican bastions. So maybe she did as well as anyone else might have done.

It takes more than party identity. It takes action, someone willing to stand up and fight the fight for the taxpayers. And boy do the taxpayers desperately need someone to standup and fight on their behalf as everyone seems to tripping up all over. Everyone that is, except Liz Gorman.

In the past year, I have seen Liz Gorman stand up and fight, and fight hard for the rights of taxpayers not just in the 17th District, but in Cook County, too. She was the driving force behind the battle to force Todd Stroger to repeal the oppressive 1 percent sales tax hike. If it wasn't for her, the repeal battle might not have been fought. That it was fought has given the county board ambition to push even harder and there is a chance that next week, a compromise will pass that forces Stroger to cut the sales tax by half.

And while everyone else was hissing last year, Liz Gorman was the only county commissioner who stood up and asked why the board was going to give a $190,000 taxpayer funded loan to the regional schools superintendent, Charles Flowers. She fought hard trying to convince everyone that Flowers' office was drowning in mismanagement and wasteful spending. No one listened.

Turns out Liz Gorman was right on the money, where it counts for taxpayers. Gorman protested and last month, a state Audit concluded that Flowers had charged thousands of dollars worth of personal expenses on the taxpayers' credit card. And he couldn't provide receipts for more than 70 percent of those purchases. he also gave thousands of dollars in cash advances to his employees, including to one who is his sister.

Believe it or not, there are politicians like Flowers who think the public trough is their personal ATM machine where they can borrow money whenever they want.

Liz Gorman was the scissor who chopped up Flower's taxpayer funded Debit Card.

Two major initiatives defending the rights of the taxpayers just in the past two months. That has to make even the most seasoned of political challengers a bit wary wondering if Liz Gorman is really worth trying to unseat.

For the taxpayers, right now, the answer is Liz Gorman should remain in office.

I think if Pat Maher breaks from his father's shadow and starts to clean up the mess at the Orland Fire Protection District, he could make a name for himself as a champion for the taxpayer's too. And when Dan McLaughlin retires -- he's been in office a long time -- or moves on up the ladder as some are rumoring he will do in another bid for state wide office, Maher may want to try to run for village president.

And if he can do it without the help or meddling of the foreigners from the 19th ward, he just might make a great mayor. Someday.

By the way, there is one rumor that is worth looking at closely. Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy, the hero who took a bullet for President Ronald Reagan in the assassination attempt in the 1970s, is being rumored to be a possible candidate for the U.S. Senate seat on the Democratic side. McCarthy is a titan. he ran for statewide office once before but with two statewide candidates coming from the same village, it made it tough to win. With Illinois Attorney general Lisa Madigan out of the race, why not McCarthy.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

Lisa Madigan out is big news: what does that say about those still running?

It's big news that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced yesterday that she is not running for either the office of Illinois Governor or U.S. Senator for the former Barack Obama seat in Washington.

If that's big news, what does it say about all the candidates who are running for those offices. Yikes!

Here's what all the players in this drama want:

Mike Madigan, the Illinois House Speaker: Found himself in a dilemma. He wants his daughter to become Governor, or possibly now US Senator -- Senators do become presidents -- but he also wants to maintain his iron fist majority rule in the Illinois House and the battle over the budget could jeopardize that. He's held back on an income tax increase to protect his daughter and to protect the many spineless legislators who don't want to say if they will support an income tax increase until they know for sure no one of substance will be running against them in this Spring primary.

Gov. Pat Quinn: The deer in the lights. He can't balance his promises of reform against the need to play tough politics. Inept in political diplomacy, Quinn's only talent is to lead often but not always losing campaigns for reform. This time, Quinn was able to reverse course and do nothing to push reform while the wolves ripped the reform chicken to pieces. With Lisa Madigan "in" the race, he could blame everything on Mike Madigan. Now that she is out of the race, he has to blame everything on his pathetic lack of leadership and his hypocrisy.

Senate President john Cullerton: It makes it easier for him to take marching orders from Mike Madigan, who is the defacto governor.

Democratic, spineless legislators: They are falling to their knees crying and yelling "Hail Marys" for their great fortune that they don't have to worry about anything any more. no more important decisions. No more possibilities they will get beat and lose all the perqs and clout and jobs they've gotten their families. And now they don't even have to work. Mike Madigan will do all the thinking for them.

State Republicans: They are in total disarray and divided into two messed up camps. Despite some good leaders, they can't get their act together. Lisa Madigan removing herself from the race allows mediocracy to rule again and anyone can run for office to get a good headline, like Sen Kirk Dillard, who has done what in the past decade? At least Dan Proft, the ultra conservative candidate for Governor, has some good ideas.

News media: We wanted Lisa Madigan to run for either office. She great news. And the dilemma it would cause in Springfield over the budget battle only becomes more dramatic as a news story.

Alexi Giannoulias: Who?

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich: With all the reality shows out of the way, he's left with fighting the U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald who is out to get him with a vengeance. And all he can do is appear on a morning radio talks how that hammers him when he's not looking.

The public: They are left out in the cold.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

Republican leaders fight to give voters a voice, against their own leadership

State Sen. Chris Lauzen is in a fight, unbelievably, to give Republican Voters the right to directly pick their own leaders on the GOP "Board of Directors," the State Central Committee.

I say unbelievably because the biggest foes of changing the existing law which allows Republican committeemen in the 19 Illinois Congressional Districts to select their State Central Committeemen and Women, rather than give that vote to Republican votes, are some of the Republican Party's own leaders, like State GOP Chief Andrew McKenna.

Lauzen has introduced Senate Bill 600 to change the practice and let Republican voters directly vote on selecting the State Central Committeeman and State Central Committeewoman in each of the state’s 19 Congressional Districts. The two posts are equal and have given women equal voice in state politics. Democrats already directly vote for their counterparts. It’s only the Republican voters who are denied that right.

Former Gov. Jim Thompson, who didn't blink at donating his legal services to help his corrupt pal former Gov. George Ryan, took away the right of Republican voters to select their leaders in 1988 in a move to consolidate his own power. If you had to trace the total collapse of the Republican Party to any single move or person, it would be to that date and to that former governor.

Now, State Sen. Chris Lauzen and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno are planning to push for the adoption of a bill that would restore the right of Republican voters, taken away by Thompson in 1988, to directly elect the State Central Committeemen and State Central Committee Women (co-equals in a system that has empowered woman leadership in Illinois) and McKenna has threatened to file a lawsuit if the bill is passed.

The Republican Party Chief, McKenna, wants to prevent Republican voters from deciding who should represent the party? No wonder the Illinois Republican party is an absolute mess. McKenna has been arguing that the state voters should get the right to elect the U.S. Senator, demanding that the seat held by controversy-plagued U.S. Senator Roland Burris should be decided in a special election -- give the voters a voice, he says.

But when it comes to giving Republicans a voice in who should be leading the Republican Party, the voters of him, he doesn't want the Republican party members to vote.

Tragic.

Listen to Lauzen's podcast interview from Radio Chicagoland last Monday on WJJG 1530 AM Radio by clicking here. Get more information at Lauzen's web site at http://www.lauzen.com/.

-- Ray Hanania
http://www.radiochicagoland.com/

Inspiring speech from President Obama, with some interesting moments

The differences between President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush are startling. Although Obama's speech Tuesday night seemed more about inspiration than actual substance, I listened with a growing confidence that maybe this country can get things done.

Some reaction:

The Republican members of Congress who along with Bush helped dig this country into an economic grave, sat on their hands far too much as Obama fought to inspire this country to greater achievement and to overcome our hardships.

I couldn't help but remember that today's economic troubles stem from Bush's failures as a leader, the manumental mistake of invading Iraq and the endless costs associated with fighting that worthless war. So many Americans have doed there it is tragic, only to have turned that country into a training ground for al-Qaeda, which was never there before we arrived with our invading forces on in March 2003.

I smiled and nodded when Obama hammered the robber barrons of the banking industry and Wall Street, the economic mobsters who are bleeding this country to its death. And did a virtual fist-bumped with the president as be vowed to crack down on their excesses. Let's hope he can follow through.

I was annoyed though to watch as members of congress crowded around Obama to get his autographs on their invitations. It seemed so cheesy considering that their privilege protects them from the pain of the down spiralling economy.

I laughed when NBC anchor Brian Williams stumbled through the beginning of his interview with former Congressman Rahm Emanuel who is now Obama's chief of staff. Emanuel served as a "volunteer" in the Israeli army for three works working at an Israeli military base. Emanuel has refused to answer questions about whether he did or did not wear an Israeli military uniform. Not wearing one on the base would have been unusual, but embarassing today especially since becoming a congressman and later Obama's chief of staff. The issue of loyalty is important in this country.

But Emanuel's influence was clear in Obama's speech when he failed to mention the Palestinians or Palestine in his reference to bringing peace and security to Israel and better relations with "her neighbors." Subtle but significant shift in American foreign policy tenor.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Just when I thought ...

Just when I thought the Republican Party in Orland Township was getting their act together and showing leadership, I see that it is asking not telling its members who to vote for.

That may sound good, but the choice isn't between two Republicans for office. It is between Republicans and Democrats, all running on the non-partisan April 7 election ballot in Orland Township.

It's significant because so far the race has not seen much real activity. No mailers inundating our mail boxes. Some fluff pieces with no real substance in the local newspapers, but nothing that even suggests there is an impending election.

Instead of endorsing the Republicans who are running in the Township races, Orland Township Committeeman Elizabeth Doody Gorman is asking her precinct captains and paid GOP members (all of them) if they want to support Democrats who are running, not just Republicans. Ooops!

If you are a Republican, that has to be disappointing. It's another example of Gorman's failed Republican leadership. She did a poor job as county chairman, and has been replaced by the very active and energetic Lee Roupas. And now she is not doing a very good job as Orland Township Republican Committeeman, either. She launches a great web site that touts all of the Republican party achievements, that far outshines the non-existent web site of the Orland Park Township Democratic Organization, headed by Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin.

And then she goes and does this.

The Democrats have to be happy, though.

A GOP precinct captain recently wrote that the GOP and Democratic Party are prohibited by law from slating candidates in the local elections. That's not true, but maybe that's the pitch being made to explain the GOP's double-edged non-action. The GOP could have slated Republicans in the election primary Feb. 24. Running as "Republicans." That's the election for "established" parties. Instead, the Democrats and Republicans are running on "independent" and "new party" slates. But anyone can see who they are and what their party affiliations are.

On the Township Level, that's Township Supervisor and incumbent Robert Maher, who is a Republican. He's done a great job although he is getting challenged by Paul O'Grady, who is a Democrat and is NOT tied in anyway to the 19th Ward Republican commissars insinuating their way into local politics.

Who is the GOP backing? Gorman has a habit of supporting herself over other Republicans. The rumors are strong that she may step down from her county board seat and give it to Paul Vallas, the former Chicago schools CEO who is running against Mr. Taxman Todd Stroger for president of the county board. Having a seat on the board would give Vallas a forum to challenge Stroger and do what many on the county board are failing to do, fight Stroger's tax Tsunami.

That might be the best thing Gorman can do for the Republican Party.

AROUND THE VILLAGE AND TOWNSHIP

In the village, incumbent Mayor Dan McLaughlin is a Democrat for sure. He's the Orland Township Democratic Committeeman. Under his watch, Orland Park has grown tremendously and has much to showcase, although I do have some issues with property taxes, the tax rebate and a few other issues like some of the people around him. He's the favored to win with a long record of wins. He's being challenged by Gerald Maher, who ran against him once before and lost, but that loss was before many of today's taxation and economic issues were around. It is a new ballgame. Gerald Maher happens to be Robert Maher's brother, although they are not working together.

And of course, neither Robert nor Gerald Maher are related to David Maher, the incumbent candidate for clerk who is running for re-election, too, and who is the father of Patrick Maher, the head of the Orland Park Fire District, which faces many confused issues that need to be better sorted out like the change in ambulance service.

Turns out what Patrick Maher is trying to do is NOT sock residents with an ambulance charge, but is trying to get the help of residents who have insurance to make the insurance companies reimburse the district for ambulance service. It's all confusing, but the bottom line is if you don't have insurance, no one is going to make you pay for an ambulance. If you do have insurance, make those insurance company robber barrons pay. The district needs you to give the insurance forms to the insurance companies so the district can get paid. The district lost as much as $1.3 million a year from not getting reimbursed.

Patrick Maher, who is not running for re-election, is working for some of the candidates, too. And maybe it's in the bi-partisan spirit we're talking about here. He is supporting O'Grady in the Township race, but backing Patricia Thompson and Marty McGuire, incumbents on the re-election slate of Robert Maher. He insists it is not for political reasons, but because they asked him and I believe him.

In elections, there is one important rule about voters and support. If you don't ask, you don't get. I remember the stories of elected officials who told me they met voters and shook their hands and the voters said they loved them. But when it came time to vote, the voters voted for the opponents. When the candidate asked the voter why, the voter said, "You never asked me for my vote."

And even though you didn't ask for my opinion -- or maybe you did by visiting this blog in record numbers -- I'll give it to you. Robert Maher is a solid candidate with a good track record. Paul O'Grady is not a front for the 19th Ward, though, and is NOT related to any of the famous O'Grady's. Gerald Maher is an important independent voice in the village and deserves credit for challenging the incumbent. And Mayor McLaughlin, who I have chided in the past for his poor choice of associations, is re-examining those ties and still has the edge.

Of course, the election is about six weeks away. Sounds confusing.

Former Frankfort Trustee behind Draft Tom Cross for Governor

Jake Parrillo, who now works for Google, is the designer behind the very popular web blog Draft Tome Cross for Governor at www.ItsTimeforTom.com which is promoting Illinois Republican House Minority Leader Tom Cross to run for governor of Illinois against Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Parrillo discusses the draft and the use of the internet in such a very effective way in an election campaign on my radio show on WJJG 1530 AM Radio, which was broadcast live this morning at around 8:45 am. (You can hear the full podcast and other audio files by visiting www.RadioChicagoland.com.

but, it was interesting to catch up with Jake who was one of th estate's youngest elected officials, serving in Frankfort in the early 1990s. He moved when he married a to Elmhurst and now works for Google.

I hope you tune in to the interview.

And, as an aside, Radio Chicagoland is now not only broadcast live on the radio, we also simulcast the radio broadcast on the Internet.

But, beginning today, we started to also video and audio broadcast the radio show on our web site at www.RadioChicagoland.com so you can watch the show and hear it live.

I hope you check out the live video broadcast tomorrow morning. The show is broadcast on radio Monday through Friday from 8 am until 9:30 (until 9 on Fridays).

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com