Illinois Governor: "God Wants Me To Raise Business Taxes"

[WildCat]

Our glorious leader here in the People's Democrat Republic of Illinois has decided to drive out businesses by taxing gross receipts, irregardless of income. And it's obviously the right thing to do, because God is on his side (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0704020528apr03,1,2524789.story?ctrack=1&cset=true):
"This is going to be Armageddon, and as Teddy Roosevelt said, we are on the side of the Lord," he said.

And his message to businesses?
Hit the road.
No doubt many will.

And he's using state funds to pay for his tour of the state (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-blagojevich-taxpu,1,1319249.story?ctrack=2&cset=true) to try to gain support for this, and state employees are targeting businesses that received state grants to muscle their support:
State-funded "entrepreneurship centers" were asked to contact businesses and recruit them for Blagojevich's tour this week touting his proposal, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press.

And regional managers for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity were instructed to contact area businesses to gauge support. To ensure they said the right things, managers were given a script that outlines the plan, which calls for $8.6 billion in business taxes to help schools and make health insurance available to everyone.

"It looks like your business will be able to benefit from our health care and tax reform plans. ... Would you be willing to join us for a business round-table meeting?" the callers were told to say.
Of course, it's all to help the children. :rolleyes:

Just another day in the blue state utopia that is Illinois...

[Modified]

But it worked so well for Michigan.

[mr rosewater]

From the people's state of New Jersey, best wishes.

[Darth Rotor]

Our glorious leader here in the People's Democrat Republic of Illinois has decided to drive out businesses by taxing gross receipts, irregardless of income. And it's obviously the right thing to do, because God is on his side (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0704020528apr03,1,2524789.story?ctrack=1&cset=true):


And his message to businesses?

No doubt many will.

And he's using state funds to pay for his tour of the state (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-blagojevich-taxpu,1,1319249.story?ctrack=2&cset=true) to try to gain support for this, and state employees are targeting businesses that received state grants to muscle their support:

Of course, it's all to help the children. :rolleyes:

Just another day in the blue state utopia that is Illinois...
I am sorry, but God does not give a hoot about money.

People do.

"Render unto Caeser that which is Caeser's, and render unto God that which is to God's."

Unless the good gov has not bothered to read the Holy Book, which is possible, I'd say his handlers and speech writers did not do him any favors.

DR

[BPSCG]

I am sorry, but God does not give a hoot about money. Einstein: "I do not believe God plays dice with the universe."
Bohr: "Stop telling God what to do."

[Dancing David]

Our glorious leader here in the People's Democrat Republic of Illinois has decided to drive out businesses by taxing gross receipts, irregardless of income. And it's obviously the right thing to do, because God is on his side (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0704020528apr03,1,2524789.story?ctrack=1&cset=true):


And his message to businesses?

No doubt many will.

And he's using state funds to pay for his tour of the state (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-blagojevich-taxpu,1,1319249.story?ctrack=2&cset=true) to try to gain support for this, and state employees are targeting businesses that received state grants to muscle their support:

Of course, it's all to help the children. :rolleyes:

Just another day in the blue state utopia that is Illinois...

Which is why I as a yellow dog Democrat voted for the Green Party for Govenor.

I can't stand the man, lets us sell the Golden Goose and pay for education. Of course I can't stand most of the Republicans, but I voted for Topinka in the primary.

[Dancing David]

Einstein: "I do not believe God plays dice with the universe."
Bohr: "Stop telling God what to do."


D&D friend: God plays with dice and he cheats.

[Darth Rotor]

Einstein: "I do not believe God plays dice with the universe."
Bohr: "Stop telling God what to do."
I note that Bohr's English sucked.

The proposed vignette shows he didn't understand the difference between giving orders and making an observation or an analysis.

Typical rocket scientist: brilliant, insightful, but leadership and people skills for sh**

DR

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

Our glorious leader here in the People's Democrat Republic of Illinois has decided to drive out businesses by taxing gross receipts, irregardless of income. And it's obviously the right thing to do, because God is on his side (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0704020528apr03,1,2524789.story?ctrack=1&cset=true):


And his message to businesses?

No doubt many will.

And he's using state funds to pay for his tour of the state (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-blagojevich-taxpu,1,1319249.story?ctrack=2&cset=true) to try to gain support for this, and state employees are targeting businesses that received state grants to muscle their support:

Of course, it's all to help the children. :rolleyes:

Just another day in the blue state utopia that is Illinois...

Having just moved to Chicagoland in '05 I have to say, I love the city and the people, but the politics in this state is seriously messed up.

On a side note, I was going to comment on the use of "irregardless", but m-w.com had something interesting to say about it, usage Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that "there is no such word." There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead. Learn something new every day around here.

[Flo]

What's with the "give me money" business or nearly every single "ends of times" guy ? If Armaggedon's around the corner, what's the use for money (or of helping children, BTW) ?

[Dancing David]

Having just moved to Chicagoland in '05 I have to say, I love the city and the people, but the politics in this state is seriously messed up.

On a side note, I was going to comment on the use of "irregardless", but m-w.com had something interesting to say about it, Learn something new every day around here.

Something about the graveyard vote, it comes out democratic in Chicago and then Republican in southern illinois, the collar counties alternate elections.

[billydkid]

Our glorious leader here in the People's Democrat Republic of Illinois has decided to drive out businesses by taxing gross receipts, irregardless of income. And it's obviously the right thing to do, because God is on his side (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0704020528apr03,1,2524789.story?ctrack=1&cset=true):


And his message to businesses?

No doubt many will.

And he's using state funds to pay for his tour of the state (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-blagojevich-taxpu,1,1319249.story?ctrack=2&cset=true) to try to gain support for this, and state employees are targeting businesses that received state grants to muscle their support:

Of course, it's all to help the children. :rolleyes:

Just another day in the blue state utopia that is Illinois...It's hard for me to feel bad for you, me living in New York and all.

[Tailgater]

What an idiot. Everybody knows God is in favor of tax cuts.;)

[Upchurch]

D&D friend: God plays with dice and he cheats.

or

God does not play dice with the universe: He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who *smiles all the time*.

[Darth Rotor]

What an idiot. Everybody knows God is in favor of tax cuts.;)
Perhaps due to that talking point being used by the other party, the right honorable governor had to use a different one.

DR

[BPSCG]

God wants me to have a jillion skillion dollars, tax-free.
He also wants Katherine Zeta-Jones to be my sex slave.

He told me He's still working on it; right now he's up to about $1.47 on the first, and Rosie O'Donnell on the second, so we have a ways to go yet.

Oh, he also wants to drive business out of Illinois. He told me that, too.

[fuelair]

Our glorious leader here in the People's Democrat Republic of Illinois has decided to drive out businesses by taxing gross receipts, irregardless of income. And it's obviously the right thing to do, because God is on his side (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0704020528apr03,1,2524789.story?ctrack=1&cset=true):


And his message to businesses?

No doubt many will.

And he's using state funds to pay for his tour of the state (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-blagojevich-taxpu,1,1319249.story?ctrack=2&cset=true) to try to gain support for this, and state employees are targeting businesses that received state grants to muscle their support:

Of course, it's all to help the children. :rolleyes:

Just another day in the blue state utopia that is Illinois...
He is an idiot. Not to mention those who voted for him - unless he went crazy recently.

[LawnOven]

Blue State Utopia?!

Dude, move the hell out of chicago, even into chicagos suburbs, they are red as hell. Chicago may be a blue utopia but the rest of the state is a moderate republican utopia (except for urbana).

Our current democratic governor got elected because the previous republican governor was a lying criminal scumbag (convicted) responsible for the death of innocent people. And... the person who ran against him was that lying scumbags treasurer for christsakes! You can blame people for choosing the lesser of two scum bags. Next time get your team to run a more viable cannidate.

[LawnOven]

He is an idiot. Not to mention those who voted for him - unless he went crazy recently.

No, you'd be an idiot to vote for the republican cannidate who ran against him.


edit:

Sorry, I also feel like I have to say, it's not like our current govenor is well liked, maybe he is in chicago, I dunno, but in the rest of the state any conversation about him is tepid. I think the general consensus is that he is yet another chicago ******** who thinks that somehow chicago is the state, except around election time when he suddenly gets interested in rest of us flatlander rednecks.

The fact that Topinka couldn't beat him says far more about the sad state of the republican party in this, um state, rather than the idiocy of blagojevich and those who voted for him.

[Dancing David]

or

Terry Pratchett cracks me up "truth is the soap in the bathtub of history".

My friend said that back in 1978.The thing about dice not the soap.)

[Dancing David]

Blue State Utopia?!

Dude, move the hell out of chicago, even into chicagos suburbs, they are red as hell. Chicago may be a blue utopia but the rest of the state is a moderate republican utopia (except for urbana).

Our current democratic governor got elected because the previous republican governor was a lying criminal scumbag (convicted) responsible for the death of innocent people. And... the person who ran against him was that lying scumbags treasurer for christsakes! You can blame people for choosing the lesser of two scum bags. Next time get your team to run a more viable cannidate.

Total agreement, illinois is a red , red state. Even the democrats are red.

[Dancing David]

God wants me to have a jillion skillion dollars, tax-free.
He also wants Katherine Zeta-Jones to be my sex slave.

He told me He's still working on it; right now he's up to about $1.47 on the first, and Rosie O'Donnell on the second, so we have a ways to go yet.

Oh, he also wants to drive business out of Illinois. He told me that, too.


Thank you, i already made a coffee on the monitor nomination today, I will wait until tomorrow.

[Upchurch]

THIS JUST IN:

God wants you to get me a sandwich, preferably roast beef with mustard. Chop, chop.

[Darth Rotor]

THIS JUST IN:

God wants you to get me a sandwich, preferably roast beef with mustard. Chop, chop.
Sorry, you are simply asking for too much. Chop chop comes from the nearby Japanese Kobi beef house!

What is it you want, man, a sandwich or flying knife cuisine?

DR

[Beerina]

But it worked so well for Michigan.

I note we in Michigan re-elected the governor presiding over our continuing demise, rejecting last year the "rat-eyed" Republican who knows why corporations are calving thousands of jobs at a time from Michigan, having done so with his own corporation. Incredulously, this was used against him in the election, and worked!


Would the last one out shut off the lights? Actually, given the only ones left will be union city and state employees, someone will have to find one whose job it is to shut off the lights. Presumably this someone will be a "finder of people to shut off the lights" as part of their job description, or that won't even get done.

To put it in perspective, the big Metro-Detroit airport has parking lot ticket takers about to go out on strike because $14/hour is not enough. Keep in mind the county already levied a 30% tax on all non-government parking lots anywhere near the airport -- a "government parking lots are losing business" tax. (So private parking lots can basically put the government one out of business even though they are up to two miles away, not right on site, and have to pay normal business taxes and profit taxes, which the government parking lots don't have to, and that still isn't enough -- they have a 30% penalty slapped on top of that.)*

Government elected officials + public employee unions is the worst of all possible worlds.

* By the way, people also used to drive in from outstate, stay the night at a local (private) airport hotel, and leave their car for the week in the hotel parking lot with the blessing of the hotel -- it was an advertised benefit of the hotel. The county outlawed this, again, because of competition with the government/union incestuous union.

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

THIS JUST IN:

God wants you to get me a sandwich, preferably roast beef with mustard. Chop, chop.
Mustard?! Plebeian. Everyone knows you put horseradish on roast beef. Mustard is reserved for corned beef. *sigh*

[KoihimeNakamura]

Wow. I'm glad neithr my last state (North Carolina) or my current state (Washington) seems to have either problem.
.. if it's any consolation, he'll probably see the mistake soon.

[WildCat]

Total agreement, illinois is a red , red state. Even the democrats are red.
You must be somewhere left of Ralph Nader if you think Dick Durbin and Obama define "red Democrats".

[Solitaire]

From the people's state of New Jersey, best wishes.


Hm. :( (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/nyregion/04pension.html?ex=1333339200&en=4916e99b11fb8c95&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)


In 2005, New Jersey put either $551 million, $56 million or nothing into its pension fund for teachers. All three figures appeared in various state documents? though the state now says that the actual amount was zero.

[Beerina]

Illinois Governor: "God Wants Me To Raise Business Taxes"

By the way, it isn't bad enough God wants us to murder His political enemies for Him, and give money to the poor for Him, but now he wants us to threaten violence against people to collect money for Him?!?!?

This "deal" keeps getting worse and worse! :mad:

[clarsct]

Didn't know there were so many Illinoisians on the board.

F**k Rod.


I agree that the Republicans have to give us someone better than Topinka. At least someone who can manage a campaign better. She let Rod slag her for like 6 months before she responded. True, one does not have to respond negatively, but one should respond, lest the accusations go uncontested. Poor campaigning.

I find it little surpise that IL is at the top of the list for the most governmental agencies and is at the top of a similar list for governmental corruption.

Hell, I might as well run for governer next time. I'll get a decent percentage of the vote just because I'm not Rod....

[Just thinking]

From the people's state of New Jersey, best wishes.

Amazing, isn't it, how quickly we forget those days of Jim Florio.

Just how many businesses did he drive out ... never to return?

[mr rosewater]

Amazing, isn't it, how quickly we forget those days of Jim Florio.

Just how many businesses did he drive out ... never to return?

I'm just a goose, to be plucked by my owners, the New Jersey Supreme Court.

[Just thinking]

I'm just a goose, to be plucked by my owners, the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Ah yes ... that same court that violated New Jersey's own voting laws allowing Lautenberg (http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1032128669652) a seat on the senate.

Albin asked Sheridan, a partner at Trenton, N.J.'s Graham, Curtin & Sheridan, to assume that it would be mechanically feasible to replace Torricelli with Lautenberg. Assuming that, he said, what would be wrong with giving the voters a real choice?

"I disagree with your assumption," said Sheridan. "The voters have a choice. Mr. Torricelli is on the ballot."

When polls taken in the past several weeks showed Torricelli trailing Forrester by double digits, Democratic officials at the state and national level urged him to withdraw.

So, basically in NJ -- if you're running for office and it looks like you're going to lose -- you simply change the rules!

[corplinx]

Incompetence knows no party lines.

[Beerina]

Modern capitalist business is how humanity thwarted God's commandment that "by the sweat of your brow shall you till the soil".

It's no wonder God wants to tax business.

[Katana]

Didn't know there were so many Illinoisians on the board.

F**k Rod.


I agree that the Republicans have to give us someone better than Topinka. At least someone who can manage a campaign better. She let Rod slag her for like 6 months before she responded. True, one does not have to respond negatively, but one should respond, lest the accusations go uncontested. Poor campaigning.

I find it little surpise that IL is at the top of the list for the most governmental agencies and is at the top of a similar list for governmental corruption.

Hell, I might as well run for governer next time. I'll get a decent percentage of the vote just because I'm not Rod....

Yep. Another Illinois native here.

I miss home...well, except for the politics and the traffic. ;)

Damn. I could go for an Italian beef sandwich with hot peppers right now.

[WildCat]

Hell, I might as well run for governer next time. I'll get a decent percentage of the vote just because I'm not Rod....
Maybe we can persuade Paul Vallas to come back and run next time, he must be good if the Illinois pols drove him to PA!

eta: I voted for him the first time in the primary, but Napalm Rod had too big of a war chest. I've always hated Blago, when he first ran for Congress he tried to shake my hand on the Fullerton el platform, I refused... don't want to get politician germs on me first thing in the morning!

[Dancing David]

You must be somewhere left of Ralph Nader if you think Dick Durbin and Obama define "red Democrats".

Considering that all the democrats from Vermillion county to Sangamon county hold conservative views and often vote the same as the republicans I would say they are conservative. especialy if we look at county boards and the like in local politics.

It used to be that Durbin was known as a conservative democrat, and I feel he still is, although he might be labeled otherwise. He is considerably right of liberal. Just as out local Congersman Tim Johnson sometimes is more liberal than he would be otherwise.

Perhaps things are different up north but none of the local democrats are Govenor Moonbeam, i am not sure where Emil Jones would fall on the scale either. He is a straight up machine politician.

[Dancing David]

Maybe we can persuade Paul Vallas to come back and run next time, he must be good if the Illinois pols drove him to PA!

eta: I voted for him the first time in the primary, but Napalm Rod had too big of a war chest. I've always hated Blago, when he first ran for Congress he tried to shake my hand on the Fullerton el platform, I refused... don't want to get politician germs on me first thing in the morning!

I have to say he is universaly loathed from what i can tell, I say they run someone from down south in the primary next time.

I think Topinka didn't get support from the uber-conservatives like she could of. If she had made a better campaign I would have voted for her, i voted for Edgar a couple times and I think I even voted for Big Jim or whoever ran against Hardigan(Hartiggan?).

[NobbyNobbs]

D&D friend: God plays with dice and he cheats.


Other D&D friend: Jesus saves.....and takes half damage.

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

Yep. Another Illinois native here.

I miss home...well, except for the politics and the traffic. ;)

Damn. I could go for an Italian beef sandwich with hot peppers right now.
mmmmm Portillos Italian beef and sausage sandwich