Meanwhile, In the State Where I Live

[billroper]

I know there are a lot of you out there who are upset with the election results. So am I.

It looks like the Democrats will control the governor's office and both houses of the Illinois legislature. With redistricting coming up and under total Democratic control, I can look forward to another ten years of corruption.

This is not to say that the Republicans in Illinois are any great shakes either. The only vote that I have cast in my life that I'm actively ashamed of was in 1998 for the successful Republican gubernatorial candidate, George Ryan. You may have heard of him. He's in prison now. And I should have known better.

I did know better when Rod Blagojevich came along and I was disgusted enough to pull a Democratic primary ballot in 2002 so that I could vote for Paul Vallas, who appeared to be both honest and competent. Naturally, he lost. And with any luck, Blagojevich will be in prison soon.

His successor, Pat Quinn, has shown no sign of being able to do anything except placate the unions by locking in pay raises for them. I don't think I remember my last pay raise. But at least I have a job.

Meanwhile, I live in a state where "public servants" get padded pensions, the Democratic leader of the House has a law firm that gets property taxes lowered for the well connected, and we have the worst debt rating in the nation. Heck, our debt rating is worse than Mexico's.

There are some people in the Illinois Republican party who are trying to drag it kicking and screaming in the direction of honest government. Maybe they'll succeed.

But the road uphill is a lot more steep now.

Comments

[sweetmusic-27.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess we're all unhappy. But the road uphill was pretty steep before, and this may look steeper, but it's probably just a different perspective on things that would be hell to change anyway. So long as people give a damn, I think we'll live through it.

[billroper]

Oh, I think we'll live through it.

I just expect that it's going to be very expensive around here before the crooks are through looting. :)

[blaurentnv.livejournal.com]

I haven't found anyone who is happy about the elections. Democrats are unhappy with the number of seats lost in the house. Tea partiers are unhappy that several of their high profile candidates lost. Republicans are unhappy in situations like yours where Democrats took state offices. All of these seem to be just as true in the state where I live as they are in the state where you live.

I've been trying to look at the positives (from my point of view, which is probably opposite yours in many cases). We got to keep Boxer. We got a good Lt. Governor.

From your view, your state sent a Republican to the Senate. I suspect that pleased you.

The election was a very mixed bag. Human nature is to focus on the places it didn't go our way. We'll all be happier if we find the things that went our way and focus on those.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

your state sent a Republican to the Senate

Although Kirk is a moderate on social issues (which will piss off the religious right and most of the tea party) he fabricated a number of things about his military service record and got defensive when people called him out on it. I understand politicians lie but to do so about things like military records is especially stupid because it's so easy to check.

That said, his opponent was no great shakes either.

[billroper]

Actually, my impression is that Kirk might piss off the religious right, but is less likely to piss off the tea party folks, as they're more interested in budgetary matters. And that would be fine by me.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

I'm actually pretty happy with the results out here in California - for the last two elections we've been busy telling assorted moneyed interests that they can't buy an initiative. Last time it was PG&E and one of the car insurance companies, this time it was Meg Whitman and some of the oil companies who found out that lots of money won't change our mind. And we told the Democratic establishment that we really meant it when we passed redistricting reform two years ago.

Nationally, I'm not so happy, but that's pretty much normal - I'm a liberal-leaning moderate, so I'm never happy whichever party's in power. From listening to the statements from all the politicians, I'm cautiously optimistic that the parties may be forced to work together - I'm really tired of the lack of compromise and one-sidedness that's been going on lately, and I blame both sides for that one. On the other hand, I won't hold my breath for cooperation.

I will by wryly amused as well as annoyed if the federal government ends up with a California-style shutdown over the budget just as we here in CA have finally made it less likely that we'll shut down annually over that issue.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

I don't remember why I voted for Blago the first time around - probably because the republican alternative was worse in my opinion. I didn't vote for him the second time - I voted for the Green candidate.

I find myself voting against people rather than for people. That makes me sad because that's not the way it's supposed to work. What is worse is the increasing level of nastiness and insanity that the public seems willing to tolerate.

I tend to vote democrat but am usually to the left of them in my opinions. I have been happy to see the media starting to pin the national Republicans down on specifics of how they're going to reduce the deficit. Can't remember which one was trying to get Eric Cantor to say what he'd cut to that end. He said he'd do an across the board discretionary spending cut of 10%. When the interviewer pointed out that entitlements (medicare, medicaid, SS) and military spending were included in the "discretionary" part of the budget, he ruled out the military for cuts and woulnd't say what he'd do with the rest. I'm no accountant but if you give anybody a tax cut, that means less money coming in. And you don't offset it by spending less somewhere else, you're going to add to the deficit. Why don't more people get that?

[billroper]

It was Jim Ryan the first time around. I would have happily voted for Paul Vallas. I would have grudgingly voted for Roland Burris.

I couldn't have possibly voted for Blago unless he was up against Jack the Ripper. And Jim Ryan, for all his faults, was no Jack the Ripper.

[dbcooper.livejournal.com]

Gosh, Bill, your Democrats sound as bad as Florida's...um...politicians.

[billroper]

Honestly? Too much one party rule anywhere by any party is likely to lead to massive corruption.

The folks in Illinois seem to have outdone themselves.

none of the above

[jdonat.livejournal.com]

I was looking for that choice for both Senator and Governor. Quinn was one of the original 'good government' folks in the last few years. I think he's a bit overmatched. Brady's qualifications, from what I can see were.
1. Not Blago
2. Not Democratic
3. Not from anywhere near northern Illinois.

Didn't see much else. His social stands,especially on abortion, even though he pinky swears that this won't matter if he's elected, are not acceptable to me. (my plumbing's external, why am I making this decision??) And if, he does manage to win (according to the Trib, chances may be between slim/none) he'll be completely hamstrung by the Illinois Legislature.

I read some of the Florida papers -my parents are down there, and it's nice to see what's going on down there. Florida's R candiates for Governor and Senator are both a bit dodgy as regards ethics investigations. We'll see what falls out down there.

Re: none of the above

[samwinolj.livejournal.com]

I've been fond of Pat Quinn ever since he was tea-bagging Jim Thompson, but I'm not sure he's up to the job of fixing Illinois' problems. His efforts so far have been feckless and halfhearted.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Nevada has a similar sense of dissatisfaction for my folks:

Good news: They didn't elect Engle (probably spelled wrong since I'm late for class)

Bad news: They elected Reid

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

"The best thing about this group of candidates is that only one of them can win."
--Will Rogers

[gundo.livejournal.com]

CNN commented that Reid and Angle were running against the only two people they could beat...each other. I think it was that way for Brady and Quinn here.

[billroper]

You know, if Nevada's "None of the above" option worked the way that I would implement it if "None of the above" won:

Office declared vacant

New election scheduled

All candidates for that office barred from running for an office again for ten years (just to pick a number)

I bet Nevada would be looking at a new election about now. :)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I join you in a sincere wish for honest government.

Not that I expect to get it in my state.

And frankly, I would settle for a government that would do something about the fact that we have kids in this county eating their lunches off the cafeteria floor at 10:15 in the morning because the schools are *that* overcrowded. I just want them to fix that--well, that plus quit squatting in the middle of an infrastructure they didn't build and don't understand, letting it rot around them so they can keep taxes artificially low by skipping the maintenance. Which is arguably simply a superset of the school problem, but never mind.

There's another county commission meeting tonight in which certain members of the county commission will try to take 65 million of the school's own previously approved money away so the can't build new schools or renovate the old ones. They say they'll give part if it back later, which 1) is like a mugger taking your wallet and then taking one of your own 20$ bills out to "give" back to you and 2) is not going to happen anytime soon since it took us 8 years to get to this point, which means we'll lose the no-interest loan we got for 10 million of it, and end up building in a time when construction materials and labor are more expensive.

But these putzes will be able to say they "fought to keep taxes low."

Bleagh!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I tried to go to the county commission meeting tonight and couldn't even get in the door, the room was so packed. At least they know that people are watching, and care.

[billroper]

That's a good thing.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Our new Republican Governor just elected has a campaign promise to "break the backs of the school unions."

Having, like you, spent years without a raise, and having paid more and more of my income for insurance, and lost more and more of my protections in the classroom, this scares me. I make less than other public servants, like the garbage man and the mailman, but it's MY job that always gets the cuts.

[billroper]

Then you wouldn't seem to be part of the problem. *sigh*

In Illinois, I don't think it's the teachers who are so much the problem as the administrators, who make high salaries and who are frequently given pay bumps for their last two weeks at work that inflate their pensions for the rest of their lives.

There needs to be some way to get "bad" teachers out of the classrooms. I would welcome a good way of objectively defining "bad" that takes into account the disparate students that the teachers work with. I've played with the concept from time to time and find that it's more difficult than it looks at first blush.

complaint button pressed, out spurts:

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Yeah. This year, I have a bunch of under-achievers. If we judged my job performance by how *this* crop is doing, I wouldn't get the merit-based bonus tied to student achievement Obama suggested.

And *this* year, I'm working my tail off trying to get *any* of them to care for even five minutes at a time! Harder work for less impressive results. *sigh*.

And oh, yeah, did you hit the nail on the head of teachers vs. administrator pay. In our county, out of the sixteen school districts, the teachers in our schools have fifteenth lowest pay. Our administrators are paid the third highest.

And the taxpayers are pretty ticked, so they vote down moneys intended to rebuild crumbling infrastructure, or build new, bigger schools. Some of our schools have more classrooms OUTSIDE the building in trailers than they do inside the school proper!

Re: complaint button pressed, out spurts:

[billroper]

Yeah. The wardens (excuse me, administrators) are firmly in control of the asylum. If your taxpayers could figure out how to dislodge them things would probably start to improve.

As far as figuring out how to judge job performance, I wonder if you could identify good or bad teachers by tracking the performance of individual students as they move from classroom to classroom. If you saw a bunch of students with records like:

poor progress, poor progress, good progress, average progress, average progress

Then you might guess that the third teacher in the sequence is a "good" one.

Just to throw the idea out there. I have no experience with trying to monitor teacher performance or student achievement, so I start from ignorance. :)

Re: complaint button pressed, out spurts:

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Well, we do pre and post assessments of individual students from a nationally normed test in reading, writing and math. This way, we teachers have some evidence that learning has taken place. This can be very important as students we get are often performance-wise, many grades below their placement. They fail their grade-level tests year after year. Yet, I can show that I taught Johnny better writing skills, and he reads better now, too!

No Child Left Behind put this provision (adequate yearly progress) into their law, but most districts only measure if a student is at grade level, not their progress from where they've been. But by showing AYP, then schools who are "behind" are actually doing more good than people think they are. But *funding* both types of testing can be problematic.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

We don't agree on much politically, but I'm solidly behind you on the idea that the administrators are much more the problem than the teachers. Also, that there are some bad teachers, and there needs to be a way to get them out of classrooms. Unfortunately, I don't believe it's possible to objectively define "bad". Any codified rule will fail in some situations. If the rule is complex and subtle enough to fail in fewer situations, it will also allow more room for rules-lawyering. I think subjective discretion is necessary. But unfortunately, if humans are allowed discretion, they will sometimes abuse it.