Illinois Review

Gambling group concerned about waging oversaturation

The Illinois Casino and Gaming Association is worried about gambling over-saturation and wants a study done to evaluate why older casinos are losing revenue to newer ones.

[ICGA head Tom] Swoik says his organization isn’t against other casinos, such as those proposed in Danville, Rockford and the Waukegan area, but he wants to scrap slot machines at race tracks and a casino in the suburbs south of Chicago. He says allowing more gambling at race tracks like Arlington, Balmoral and others would be like adding up to seven new casinos in the Chicago area.

More at Alton Daily News.com

Why not Huckabee?

It would prove to be even more  interesting if the name "Mike Huckabee" had been included in [Illinois Review] poll's list  of 7 potential Republican vice-presidential candidates which your readers would like to see chosen as Mitt Romney's vice-presidential running mate.

When Huckabee ran in the GOP primary in 2008, he didn't get my vote at the time. I regarded him as "a nice guy" but one who was better suited to a lesser state or local office or perhaps a church pulpit. Since that time, I (and many others) have evolved on our opinion of Huckabee as a potential vice-president or president. This is probably due the large amount of exposure of Huckabee and his program on Fox. The public and the voters have been given the opportunity to "take the time necessary to get to know Governor Huckabee". I and others have found that we really like him.

I was surprised at how many others (besides myself) within the GOP who now find themselves viewing Huckabee very favorably and hoping for him to serve as our next vice-president. 

Dick Tyler - Will County

Illinois Tea Party responds to Duckworth's "crackpot" comment

From Illinois Tea Party -

Unable to demonstrate a clear understanding and command of the issues our nation is facing, Tammy Duckworth repeated the political lie of the year and insulted her own constituents in her first debate with Congressman Joe Walsh. Duckworth said, "...there's not been a crackpot tea party idea that he hasn't embraced," in regards to Congressman Walsh's voting record in his first term.

"We want our elected Representatives to read the bills they are voting on. Is that a crackpot idea? How about believing our government should live within its means and not spend more money than it takes in. Crackpot idea?," asked Denise Cattoni, the State Director of the Illinois Tea Party.

"We believe in constitutionally limited government, individual liberty and fiscal responsibility. Making deficit reduction a top priority, going through the budget line by line to reduce spending, these were promises from President Obama during his 2008 campaign."

Brown goes directly to Californians for tax hikes

Governor Jerry Brown has taken his appeal directly to Californians via You Tube, asking them to support his plan to work around their state's dismal financial situation - now worse than even Illinois'. The plan is to raise taxes on California's rich and to hike state sales taxes on everyone.

Will Illinois Governor Pat Quinn try a similar tactic to gain public support for his budget cuts?

NATO protestors self-impose four "Chicago Principles" of engagement

Published on Chicago Mass Action's website, NATO Summit protesters are to abide by the following "Chicago Principles" of engagement: 

• Our solidarity will be based on respect for a political diversity within the struggle for social, economic and environmental justice. As individuals and groups, we may choose to engage in a diversity of tactics and plans of action but are committed to treating each other with respect and working towards a common goal of peace and justice.
• As we plan our actions and tactics, we will take care to maintain appropriate separations of time and space between divergent tactics.
• We oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption, limiting our action to “free speech zones,” and violence, or attempts to divide our movement through the conscious creation of divisions regarding tactics, organization, strategies, and alliances.
• Any debates or criticisms will stay internal to the movement, avoiding any public or media denunciations of fellow activists and events.

Obama's enemy list adds ideological opponents

Illinoisans are very familiar with this Obama campaign tactic of digging through opposition's personal divorce and child support court records. Remember Obama's 2004 Democratic primary opponent Blair Hull or Republican U.S. Senate opponent Jack Ryan?  Former Chicago Tribune reporter David Axelrod's  stategy has now expanded to dig into the divorce records of those who hold ideological positions different from the President's.  For example, Idaho businessman Frank VanderSloot:

... President Obama's campaign website teed him up in April as one of eight "less than reputable" Romney donors and a "bitter foe of the gay rights movement." One sin: His wife donated to an anti-gay-marriage campaign, of the kind that have passed in 30 or so states.

Now we learn that little more than a week after that Presidential posting, a former Democratic Senate staffer called the courthouse in Mr. VanderSloot's home town of Idaho Falls seeking his divorce records. Ms. Strassel traced the operative, Michael Wolf, to a Washington, D.C. outfit called Fusion GPS that says it is "a commercial research firm."

Saving Religious Freedom in America

Faith in America has been under attack in the United States for decades. For the most part the attacks on religious freedom have come from atheists and groups such as the ACLU who are promoting “freedom from religion” not “freedom of religion.” To atheists and liberals the definition of religious freedom is the gagging of all public religious expression while amplifying hatred against the faithful. This is exemplified in lawsuits such as the one which removed prayer from our schools and other lawsuits to stop the recognition of God before city counsel meetings as just two examples. Lawsuits have even been brought to stop astronauts from praying in outer space and to take “in God we trust” from our currency.

In the past few decades Bibles have been ripped from the hands of students on school buses and children have been given an “F” or “zero” credit for historical reports that mentioned Jesus or any other Biblical historical figure. While the courts have mostly gone along with the demands of the secularists, the various state governments, our Congress and our Presidents have stood by the Judeo-Christians roots of our nation. That is, up until now!

Our current President, Barack Obama, has trampled on the religious freedoms of Christians. His Administration has demanded that Christian organizations have the same employment rules as night clubs and abortion clinics. He has forced religious employers to furnish health insurance that includes contraceptives and sterilization. Here are just some of the areas of attack by Barack Obama on the religious liberties of Christians:

Newsweek features "The First Gay President"

The new competition of bizarre magazine covers is grabbing attention as magazines like TIME and Newsweek's subscriptions continue to dwindle.  After TIME's breastfeeding mom cover last week, Newsweek's shocker features "The First Gay President" after Obama announced his support for same sex marriage:

The Tooth Fairy is Broke

By Mark Rhoads -

Millions of Socialists all over the world have believed for decades that they can enjoy all manner of free services that are paid for by a government, which means by anyone else. It has been a wonderful childhood fantasy and all that was necessary was to demand that some government play Robin Hood, take from the rich and give to the poor.  You can always demagogue and pretend that rich people do not pay enough for your free benefits.  All you needed to do was to fool yourself into thinking there really is such a thing as a free lunch as long as others could be forced to pay. 

Now the free ride is over in Greece, Spain, and other European socialist nations and millions are protesting what they dishonestly call "austerity."  They are childish Lunatics.  What austerity?  A government runs our of money from spending way too much every year and that is austerity?  No, the correct word is "reality." 

Independents Lean Against Obama Gay Marriage Stand

By Mark Rhoads

The May 11 Gallup Poll shows more independent voters say they are less likely than more likely to vote for President Obama due to his endorsement of "gay marriage."