Peoria Pundit

(Press release)

Carrigan: Union Support Strong for Callahan in 18th Race

Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan said the support for Colleen Callahan’s bid for Congress runs very deep and the Labor Movement will have a massive voter turnout effort on her behalf starting Saturday.

“We have more than 40,000 union members in the 18th District,” Carrigan said. “We have reached out to members on the issues and candidates and, for good reason, more than 70 percent of our members support Callahan.”

Support for Callahan comes from local unions who know the distrct best.

“This district needs someone who understands how important good jobs are to the local economies – someone who will support expanding the middle class by creating and keeping good jobs. Colleen Callahan will put the working families of this district first,” said Carrigan. The Illinois AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions have conducted a vigorous outreach to the union families in the district through phone calls, mail and local union communication.

“We know our members are excited about electing Callahan because many have volunteered to hit the phones and knock on doors for her starting today through election day,” Carrigan said.

Carrigan will be joined by Peoria area labor leaders for a press conference highlighting union members’ support for Callahan Saturday. The event is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Peoria Labor Temple, 400 N. E. Jefferson, Peoria.

Consider:

1. It costs money to run a poll.

2. The Aaron Schock campaign is flush with cash.

3, The Colleen Callahan campaign is not. They’ve just recently started to get big money, and they are using it on television spots.

4. It stands to reason that the wealthy Schock campaign should be doing polls.

5. During the primary campaign, the Schock campaign released several polls all crowing about his lead in the polls.

6. I cannot remember the last poll the Schock campaign released. There hasn’t been any since Callahan started hitting him on on the costs to the city for the Bush fundraising visit, for “Backdate-gate,” for he refusal to release income tax records or for his refusal to  participate in formal debates.

7. Yet, I keep hearing reports about push-button telephone polls for the 19th District Congressional race

So considering all these factors, I’ve gotta conclude than Schock has commissioned polls, but isn’t releasing them because they contradict the narrative that he has an insurmountable lead.

For reasons I have expressed elsewhere, I believe that when the votes are counted, there will be no greater then 10 percentage points between Schock and Callahan, and possibly less than five points. If there was a poll showing a greater distance, that poll would be released to the public. And there is no way in Hell someone hasn’t conducted that poll.

I annoyed some people with a line at the bottom of this post, which noted that a member of the Peoria Chiefs who tossed a baseball an oposing player and instead hit a fan could get 16 years in prison. The line I added was:

Which is longer than some college athletes get for killing their roommates with fire.

Sorry, critics. It’s true. The drunken Bradley s/soccer players students who killed their classmate/teammate/roommate served a few months each. And the loudest sentiment expressed so far is that all must be forgiven, it was an accident, and so forth. There was outrage that Bradley refused to let the killers re-enroll at BU. The often stated reason for this sentiment is they were “good kids,” a term usually applied to white teenagers from middle-class class families who’ve never gotten in trouble before.

And this, I believe, is why people are annoyed at that line, not because it didn’t apply. Obviously these are both cases of athletes acting badly and being made to face the legal consequences. My comparison of the two cases therefore is completely legitimate.

Still some people object. They say it’s unfair — to the former Bradley students. You know, the ones who actually DID kill someone. Not unfair to the pitcher, who didn’t kill anyone and yet might face a far longer jail term.

People never cease to amaze me.

An informal survey of area union members says 70 percent of them support Democrat Colleen Callahan, with 30 percent supporting Republican Aaron Schock.

This survey was done after Schock released a statement claiming endorsement from nine labor organizations.

Expect a more detailed statement from the Callahan campaign before the end of the day.

Some members of my blogroll object to the category in which I have placed them. Specifically, I started a category called “Mommy bloggers.”

Anyone who reads a lot of blogs knows there are bloggers who have a lot of post about their kids and they funny, sad, happy, etc. things their children so and say. That doesn’t mean that’s ALL they blog about. In fact, every single blogger I have put in this category is included in one or two other categories.

I have categories so that people who are looking for those sorts of blogs can find them. If my blogoll was just one list of blogs, it would not be as useful.

But some folks have objected to being included in the “Mommy bloggers” category, even though it gives them an additional link on my site.

For as while, I was thinking of creating a category called “Cat bloggers,” because there is at least 1 local blog (who shall remain unmentioned) who does a lot of cat blogging. I think I’ll pass for now.

So here’s the deal: I will add or remove any blog from this category at the blogger’s request.

It was NOT my intent to belittle anyone’s site or the quality of their posts. If it was, I’d have a category called “Bloggers I think are idiots” or “Bloggers who spell worse than me.”

UPDATE: It’s worse than I thought. There’s some annoyance at being included in the “Trying to be funny” category. OK, I admit that category sounds more sarcastic than I intended. I’ll change it.

(Press release)

PEORIA OFFICIALS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS TO HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE FRIDAY AT CITY HALL TO URGE A YES VOTE ON REFERENDUM ON CITY PRIMARY ELECTIONS

(PEORIA) Several Peoria City Council members, local officials, neighborhood leaders, a Chamber of Commerce spokesperson, and community activists will come together Friday in a grand coalition to urge a yes vote on the referendum on the ballot next Tuesday regarding Peoria city election primaries. These leaders will express their reasons for urging a yes vote.

NEWS CONFERENCE:
2:00 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2008
CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS
PEORIA CITY HALL

(Press release)

(PEORIA) Representative Aaron Schock picked up the support of nine unions in his bid to succeed Ray LaHood as Congressman for the 18th District.

The unions include:

* National Education Association, NEA, the largest union representing teachers in the 18th District
* Illinois Education Association, IEA
* The International Union of Operating Engineers
* The National Association of Police Organizations, NAPO
* The Illinois Police Benevolent and Protective Union
* The Peoria Police Benevolent and Protective Union
* The International Association of Fire Fighters, AFL-CIO, FIREPAC
* United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
* Airline Pilots Association International Union

In issuing their endorsement, the NEA wrote to Schock saying, “The NEA and IEA are proud to support the election of federal candidates, like you, who measure up to the issues that most concern our members.

The NEA and IEA are the union representing the largest number of teachers in the 18th District.

Schock recently was the keynote speaker at the Illinois Police Benevolent and Protective Union’s annual convention in Springfield earlier this month. He received a warm welcome and rousing ovation for his remarks to the members and the leaders held a news conference with Schock announcing their endorsement.

NAPO represents more than 2,000 police unions and associations, 241,000 sworn law enforcement officers, 11,000 retired officers and more than 100,000 citizens who share a common dedication to fair and effective crime control and law enforcement.

The International Union of Operating Engineers; the Carpenters Legislative Improvement Committee of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners; the National Education Association’s NEA Fund, and the International Association of Fire Fighters AFL-CIO FIREPAC also sent the maximum allowable $5,000 contribution to Schock’s campaign fund.

“I am honored to have the support of working men and women and the support of these organized labor unions,” said Schock. “I had a productive relationship with union representatives as a State Representative and my door will always be open as I try my very best to represent all the people of the 18th District.”

Remember that Pitcher for the Peoria Chiefs who tossed a baseball at an opposing player in the dugout and ended up hitting a fan in the stands instead? Well, he got his sorry ass indicted Wednesday on two counts of felonious assault.

Julio Castillo, 21, who was pitching for the Chiefs of the Midwest League, is accused of throwing into the stands during a July 24 game at Dayton that featured a 10-minute, benches-clearing brawl. The fan was treated for a concussion at a hospital and released.

Good. Some guy from the neighborhood does the same thing during a game at Glen Oak Park, and he’ll get arrested. And it won’t take three months. But naturally, the guy’s attorney describes the indictment as the worst thing ever:

Defense attorney Dennis Lieberman said Castillo, who is from the Dominican Republic, will plead not guilty. Lieberman said the charges aren’t justified by the circumstances and his client has a good defense.

”In my research, I have found this to be an unprecedented indictment in American baseball,” Lieberman said. ”These are very serious charges that could destroy this kid’s chance of ever playing baseball in the United States again.”

If convicted on both counts, Castillo could face up to 16 years in prison. He is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 13.

Which is longer than some college athletes get for killing their roommates with fire.

Journal Star columnist Phil Luciano has come out against people who rob church ladies:

Peoria might be breeding a new criminal bottom-feeder:

Slimeballs who steal from old ladies at church.

There are worse crimes than theft. But I can’t think of anyone lower than a sleazebag who would prey on those who pray.

Two crimes involving elderly church-going ladies and Mr. Journalism is ready to declare that Peoria in the grip of a crime spree.

And what’s up with this comment that there’s nothing lower that a property crime against someone who goes to church? Really? Nothing? I can make a list of things much sleazier than leaving an elderly lady “a bit scraped up” (Phil’s words, not mine).

I guess I missed Sunday School the day they discussed that passage in the Bible that said stealing from or harming a Christian was a bigger sin than doing the same thing to a heathen.

It’s time, once more, for the Peoria Pundit Blogroll Challenge. If you know who said this, please leave a comment and include a link to the post in question. If you don’t know, guess.

Really though, it’s not nice to laugh at people who are having catheters put in.

And leave a comment on the blog in question, to, just to be nice.

And please, no using Google.