MARK KIRK and PETER ROSKAM on Social Security IDs: Our own Congressman Mark Kirk and neighboring congressman Peter Roskam (also a great guy, if you've never met him in person) are proposing an important upgrade to the security of Social Security cards. Yes, I believe that is Mark's Mom in the picture! The cards would be modeled on military IDs and according to the Chicago Tribune:
"The proposed cards would feature a photograph and fingerprint, as well as a computer chip, bar code and magnetic strip. The cards would be modeled after the Common Access Card issued by the Department of Defense, mostly to active military reserve members and their dependents, said U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a sponsor of the bill. Current Social Security cards have limited security features and have no photo or biometric data, he said."
Of course, the Lefties are already proclaiming that this is simply a scheme to further diminish the rights of illegal immigrants (say what???) or even to finally bring about the branding of folks with the Number of the Beast (yes, you heard that correctly, and we're not talking about an Iron Maiden album). EBG opines that the whole concept of a more secure social security card is silly because identify theft artists just use the number, not the card. That might actually be a fair point, as far as it goes, but one might argue that if a secure card was issued, more people applying for loans or credit might be required to show a card, instead of just write down a number on a form. Or, for example, one can imagine having to supply a encrypted number from the card in addition to the standard SSN that would have to match up to verify its legitimacy.
Whaddya guess Dan Seals will have to say about this?
MARK KIRK on McCain: The Tribune reports that the House GOP leadership is on board with McCain. The Tribune reports that "McCain won the endorsement of the entire House GOP leadership team -- and a standing ovation from the Republican rank and file." A nice quote from Kirk identifying him as a long-time McCain supporter was also included.
MARK KIRK on Iran: In a bi-partisan letter sent to sent Friday to Attorney General Michael Mukasey by Mark Kirk and Steven Rothman, a New Jersey Democrat, they question whether a proposed money transfer from the U.S. Treasury to the World Bank contradicts a 13-year-old Clinton administration executive order barring financial support of Iranian petroleum resource development.
I think a few people in comments on the last post tried to cast aspersions at Mark Kirk for trying to use a Clinton Executive Order for his own purposes. Such a question, I think, illustrates one of the differences between a leader like Mark Kirk and lesser wanna-bees (Dan Seals, anyone?). If there is a law or similar tool that can be used today to achieve a good, who cares whether it was a Democrat or a Republican that invented the tool? It's the people like EBG that are so convinced that someone on the other side could NEVER have done (or will do) anything of benefit, who think that you must always put political expediency above actually doing the work of good government. Sad, sad.
SAVE A SEAL PUP: A quick visit over to the Dan Seals campaign website shows that Rahm and DCCC (or, "D-trip" as we like to call it) are having a fundraiser for Seals this Thursday. Seals better hope it's the first of many. Any bets that it's in Chicago, rather than the 10th District?
Note to Dan- now that the primary is over, you might want to consider taking down the references to the newspaper endorsements, like the Tribune, on your website. The primary is over, and it's a pretty safe bet you won't be getting the real endorsements for the general. Of course, keeping up the endorsements and trying to mislead voters into thinking that they are general election endorsements would be perfectly in keeping with Seals' M.O. so far.
UPDATE #1: FROM THE END OF THE WORLD NEWSROOM: As I mentioned above, there are people out there that really think that Mark Kirk's social security smart card is another step towards the biblical end of the world. Turns out, some of these same people also believe in UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, and Atlantis. Check out one of these sites here.
UPDATE #2: MARK KIRK ON THE ENVIRONMENT: Mark Kirk continues his work as a protector of the Great Lakes by continuing to push for support of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Water Resources Compact (a bi-partisan effort also supported by Rahm Emanuel, I might add). Accordingly, Dan Seals will have to come out against protection of Lake Michigan, under the EBG theory of whatever Mark Kirk supports must be bad for the 10th District. Read more about this important effort here, here and here.
UPDATE #3: UNCLE TONY REZKO, NEW HOME CONSULTANT: We normally don't talk much about the brewing Obama and Rezko scandal here (leaving those discussions to the many other great blogs out there), but I had to post something on Obama's shocking revalation that Obama toured his million$+ home on the south side with Rezko before Obama bought it. Why has it taken so long for this little tidbit to be released by Obama's camp? Could it be that Obama was concerned that he better come clean before this came out in the upcoming Rezko trial? Let's see what Hillary makes out of this...
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27 comments:
I wonder if any reporter will ask Van Hollen if he thinks Seals' chances are diminished by his resume scandal?
I wonder if The Pup will acknowledge the Chicago Trib editorial's analysis from this past Friday, regarding the sucess of the surge in Iraq?
Come on Pup, we all know you read it. You're the "change" candidate right? Can you swallow your pride, support the troop's efforts just once and say "change" is happening for the better in Iraq?
Didn't think so.
ICBPOTUS, I think for canidates like Seals, whose one and only issue is Iraq, the war is simply a sin that can never be forgiven, and anyone that is or was associated with it on any level must be booted out of government forever. So, even if he read the editorial, he dismissed it out of hand, just like EBG would, because it simply doesn't fit with their black/white world view.
As I said before the primary, the really funny part is that Seals claims to be the only candidate who has 'always' been against the war (I guess he was comparing himself primarily to Footlik and trying to accuse Footlik of supporting the war somehow). However, show me any evidence that Seals made any statements on the record, gave a speech, joined an anti-war group, or otherwise in any documentable, provable way, that he was 'against the war' before it began, or at any time before he started his run for Congress. Even Obama at least made a speech at the time the war was beginning, I believe.
Simply thinking to yourself that, hey, I'm not sure this is really a good idea, makes you a 'candidate' that was 'against the war,' at least as far as trying to use your position as campaign leverage.
Simply more puffing of his claimed creds by The Pup...
Seals is clearly an opportunist, and seized on the war issue last time around, even though he couldn't capitalize on it. The results this time will be no different, if not better for Kirk.
Here's a recent news story about the Indiana BMV revoking the Driver's Licenses of over 32,000 people whose social security numbers didn't match up with the SSN database. The BMV found over 200,000 cases upon a check of about 6 million people where the numbers didn't match up.
Hmm... maybe if the Secure SS Card as envisioned by Kirk and Roskam went through, it would be tougher for illegals to get drivers licenses, which would mean it might be tougher for them to get other forms of ID and live as citizens, which would mean less incentive for employers to hire them, which would mean less incentive to come here illegally... wow, almost sounds like it might be something that could discourage illegal immigration.
No doubt Seals will be against it.
Wonder what the status of HB 1100 (giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants) is? This legislation was sponored by our own local state Rep. Kathy Ryg. Why does she support illegal immigration? It would seem this bill will obviate the use of a more secure social security card, as you could be issued a drivers license without one. Most states that have tried such a boneheaded move have regretted it and are trying to undo the damage.
Out of necessity, we will end up with a national ID card system when the Democrat plan to force universal health insurance is in place. Or any type of plan for that matter.
How else can medical records, prescriptions, etc. be tracked? ( A drug addict for example, would be free to go to clinic to clinic and get multiple prescriptions unless there is some form of a national health insurance ID card to track him and stop that behavior. Now at times it can be difficult to stop such behavior under our current health system.)
Having dealt with hospitals with the recent death of a close personal friend who was a senior citizen, I was constantly demanding that her records be transferred and that the doctors and interns read them so that they could understand her medical condition. Under a national health plan, unless someone is savvy enough to do this, a delay in treatment may occur while multiple testing is repeated in different states.
I pointed some of this out on the EBG site but she ignored that information to simply call me a "liar." She also directed me to the SSA site. She then turned off her comments, so I guess she thinks she gets the last word on this subject. But since this is America, I can speak my mind freely anywhere else.
The SSA site states that when social security was enacted, the numbering scheme was enacted by a form of administrative rule through the treasury department to manage and distinguish those in the system.
So I guess those who push for national health insurance are by necessity giving us a national ID card. This makes Kirk a visionary. Gill tries to link him up with the old WWII Nazi government.
As usual, she is over the top. Turning off her comment section is the same as closing her mind on any topic.
Oh well.
Louis G. Atsaves
TA,
I really do hope EBG's campaign against offering Americans the choice of having a secure social security card leads Seals down the same path.
For those who don't know much history, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was one of the leading visionaries when it came to the need to upgrade the security of the Social Security card -- and he saw the need almost 20 years ago!
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c101:S.214:
Above is a link to his legislation that started the conversation back in 1989!
Moynihan was a Democrat and is thought of still today as one of the most brilliant legislators in U.S. history.
Anon 8:17 and Lou, you are so right about that woman and her warped ideas. The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan did the comprehensive review of Medicare. He did advocate for exactly what the Kirk/Roskam Bill would provide. That the catwoman doesn't acknowledge that study isn't a surprise. What she doesn't know fills volumes. And then to imply that the Kirk/Roskam bill would be akin to what the Nazis did is just another example of her very twisted mind.
Dan Seals gets his talking points from her and others in the "official" organization. That's great. Because Seals and his handlers have such a narrow focus and lack any historical perspective, the coming months should prove to be very interesting when our Congressman gets out there and debates The Pup.
I wonder if The Pup supports Ryg's plan to give licenses to illegals right here in the 10th District?
(Pup, quick, get moving, go to Obama's website and find out what your position is on this one.)
I wonder if Seals is going to start off his DCCC campaign luncheon on Thursday by repeating his criticism of Rahm and DCCC that the only reason he lost last time is because they didn't give him enough money.
Does Seals even know Chris Van Hollen asked Kirk to support several of his bills? Dan, both Rahm and Chris work with Kirk...guess you did not know that.
Good to have you back. As much as I like blogs though, we have to start with the thinking Obama is the nominee, if he is, Mark's no longer the front runner by any stretch of the imagination and it's Dan's race to lose. That means we have lost the luxury of talking about bills in this congress and have to work day and night to make sure we still have that chance in the next congress. It's Halloween 08, Obama's running at the top of the ticket and Mark and Dan are even-we have to think like that every day and ask ourselves if we really want a Jan representing us. If not time to start with this.
1. We have to pour the energy into defining Dan early. The Democrats gave us a great playbook in 2006:use internet movement groups to go on the attack-a la Ellen/MoveOn/What you did to Dan's resume-and let the candidate focus on winnetka naval reservist/local ties/human rights spiel.
Short of Mark having a great strategic gameplan that involves bloggers and feeding the tribune information, it's up to us to hit dan on a few areas
1. His fundraising from liberal special interest groups and lobbyists/downtown firms which he has used to fund his campaign.
2. His ties to a wildly unpopular democratic government and broken springfield.
3. His direct ties to liberal groups who stand vehemently against Israel.
4. His position as a soldier in a national democratic machine that is wildly out of touch on taxes, Israel, national security, and the independence this district has long cherished. The 06 democrats have failed to do anything in congress-that's a major issue.
5. His finances-how do you afford to live in a white collar town with no job for 4 years. Corruption is a major issue in chicago right now, he's getting his money from someone that he's going to owe and we need to find that out. Calling on him to release his taxes hits him on his residency and forces him to come clean on his money. That will hurt him.
Finally as a party its high time to junk this intraparty bickering, come together and use this election to move forward. It's an embarrassment we used to send people like Williamson, Porter, Rumsfeld, Percy, Kirk and Fitzgerald to d.c. and now can't hold Rumsfeld's precinct.
Isn't Seals unemployed?
Suzie,
First, welcome to the blog. Second, I commend you for asking the million dollar question.
You see no one really knows if Seals is unemployed or not. We know that he used to work in some capacity at GE Finance's Real Estate division -- though his titles have recently been changing. We know he went on leave to run for Congress and was not welcomed back to GE.
So what has he been doing? TA has blogged in the past on his possible work at ThePoint.com and Avondale Consulting -- but no one knows if these are real paying jobs or not.
And of course, as we know, he's NOT a current professor at Northwestern.
Is Seals unemployed? It might depend on the definition of "is" as they say. Does he draw a paycheck from somewhere? It doesn't look like it. But he has found two Web sites willing to put his name on them.
Sparty
You can't win a campaign by solely raising an issue about his employment on a blog. At best you get a story in the daily herald the other side swats down but that forces them to act.
You have to build a narrative about the opposing candidate and use operations like calling on him to release his tax returns in a letter writing campaign to reinforce the image he is dishonest and part of the corrupt cronyism which breathes springfield, then you follow up with hits on his employment, fundraising from liberals and lobbyists ect, so that he's expending his energy and the story we believe seeps into the public perception.
Oh and he totally deserves a nasty press release for this d trip fundraising business-what kind of change does he expect when he plays inside baseball with the big boys?
Anon, it sounds so simple -- why not set up your own 527 and show us how it's done.
TA,
Have you noticed that Dan Seals claims two different titles at GE in his current campaign bio? In the first paragraph, he calls himself a Director at GE -- suggesting he was a principle or board member. In the final paragraph, we learn he was Director of Marketing -- a very different title.
Dan Seals flip flops in his own campaign bio???
Anon 7:56- I agree with you, and I've posted on this issue before, although I hadn't noticed the internal inconsistency in the campaign bio itself.
Every 'normal' person to whom I've have explained the issue to agrees that calling yourself a "Director" without further qualification implies that you were on the Board of Directors, which is hugely different than being the Director of Marketing. Another Seals resume puffing debacle.
I've also noted before that sometimes Seals says he worked for GE Capital and sometimes for GE Commercial Finance. I don't know enough about GE corporate structure (although I did sue GE Capital once for a client, and boy, are those people vicious) to know if these are simply two different names for the same company, or evidence of a fabrication somewhere.
Any former GE employees want to shed any light on this? I'm also waiting for Seals' next-door cubicle-mate to come forward and tell us exactly what his lowly position at GE actually entailed, and the real reason why he didn't go back.
Pup?
Are you reading Pup?
Guess what we haven't forgotten about?
It's something you haven't done, but the public and press will reach a thunderous roar about very soon now that the primary games are over.
It's something that will answer many of the questions being posted here.
Still don't know what you're going to have to come clean on?
I'm thinking of three magical little letters...
Here's a hint: IRS
I will never understand why Seals gave away his election just to try to beef up his resume. How many other shoes will drop?
He hasn't given it away yet. Never underestimate the collective numbness of the American electorate. If they are not hit over the head with these issues again and again, it won't sink in.
Sounds like a job for...
TEAM AMERICA & FRIENDS!
TA 8:26-
GE Commercial Finance is an operating segment of GE Capital Corp., per the most recent 10-k SEC filing of GE Capital Corp.
Therefore naming his employer as either would be accurate and merely a matter of specificity.
Thanks Anon 12:07 a.m.- I suspected something along those lines, given the size and complexity of GE.
I'd still love to hear from someone who worked with Seals as to what his job experience really was, the status of his position in the company, and the circumstances of his non-return (i.e., voluntary or not).
oops, sorry, "Calyx" - haven't had my coffee yet this morning so I didn't see your name on the comment.
TA -
When you said
"Sounds like a job for...
TEAM AMERICA & FRIENDS!"
I got a chill. Do we get like TA capes and stuff to go along with this adventure? Politics brings out the child in me...
When Republicans begin fudging on their resumes and backgrounds, the press rears up and gobbles them up. When Democrats fudge around, they nibble on the edges.
Mr. "Change" Obama bought a mansion with the assistance of indicted and sitting in prison Tony Rezko. Now suddenly Rezko saw the house with Obama and gave an opinion. This was back when Rezko was already radioactive. And this is after Obama assured us that he told us everything about this little strange real estate transaction. What did Obama state on his bank application when he applied for his mortgage?
Now Obama is saying he just put in a bid for the house with the real estate agent and everything just fell into place? And Rezko bought the lot next door at full requested price because the the seller wouldn't sell the house without the lot being tossed in? And it was like, MAGIC!
Come clean Obama. Enough is enough. This story is now two years old.
If he can't be honest with us on this issue, how can we expect him to be honest if he gets elected president? It is the same issue with Seals and his "resume."
Like I learned in boy scouts years ago. Honesty is the best policy!
Louis G. Atsaves
I find it very odd that no one ever seemed to work with Mr. Seals at GE, nor is there any evidence on the Internet of any marketing efforts with his name attached.
Its called open up on him and define him now before he gets Obama at the top of the ticket with 250k funders at the drake for the pup and 750 person rallies at the northbrook renaissance and the swoon season. There's no speaker this year, no mcgovern, no porter legacy, nada. but there is barack. So figure out how to wack him and do it, now, and early.
As for BO
Of anyone I have ever seen Obama has probably gotten the easiest and I mean easiest treatment ever of anyone in politics. Rich Miller, purportedly the dean of the illinois political press establishment violates every single last journalist rule of integrity with a picture of his fathers car painted with obama on it.
Someone also needs to ask the sun-times if they would rather just be called obama's greatest hits because short of Novak and Steinberg those wack jobs have become his local press organ. Lynn Sweet, she who had nasty things to say about mark in 2000, has disgraced her profession and demonstrated to local republicans and neutral observers what careerism does to one's integrity in d.c.
Hopefully David Brooks this morning was the beginning of a job no paper in chicago had the guts to do. And they wonder why they are losing their jobs.
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