News and Views is a twice-weekly column containing an assortment of interesting state, national and international political and financial information, opinions, candidate reviews, scheduled events, Tea Party information, meetings and press releases that we hope will interest you. We will now offer a special section segregating media bias and Hollywood bias to give the reader a better idea of how prevalent it is.
Local & State
Hultgren Announces Elburn Town Hall: U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14) will host a Congressional Town Hall in Elburn on Thursday, August 23. The event will feature a brief Washington update from Congressman Hultgren, followed by plenty of time for Q&A.
WHAT: Town Hall with Congressman Hultgren
WHERE: Village Council Chambers, 301 East North Street, 60119
WHEN: Thursday, August 23, 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.
Questions may be directed to Congressman Hultgren’s district office in Geneva at (630) 232-7104. The Town Hall will be free and open to the public
Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL 13): Help Wanted at 90 Local Companies
Don’t forget that this Tuesday, August 21st, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., our Job Fair is at the Romeoville Recreation Center, 900 West Romeo Road. It’s our largest job fair to date, with more than 90 of our area’s top employers – large and small – accepting resumes and highlighting their open positions. Job seekers are encouraged to attend one of the great workshops about resume writing, interview skills and networking. The morning session, from 9 a.m. to Noon, will offer special workshops for veterans who want to know how to translate their unique skills to the private sector. For a list of the participating employers, click here.
New Economic Opportunities for Businesses
This Thursday, August 23rd from 9 a.m. to Noon, we’re hosting our annual Small Business Fair at the Eola Community Center, 555 Eola Road in Aurora. Local small business managers and entrepreneurs are invited to get tips on how to sell their products and services abroad and obtain access to credit, fine-tune their grant-writing skills, and shop for federal, state, and local grant and contracting opportunities. More than two dozen agencies will host booths, and there will be a variety of educational workshops to teach business professionals how to find new markets for their products and services. We’re partnering with the Aurora Regional Chamber for this great event that will showcase how you can put government resources to work for you.
Huntley Tea Party Event: Last month, we introduced our Sway the Vote program to help you influence people within your circle of contacts and convince them to vote against Obama. Let’s get together and talk about your efforts, discuss what is working and what else we can do to move this election in the right direction. The site page is:
Come prepared to tell us one or two of your successes in swaying the vote, as well as some of the challenges you face in discussing the election with your contacts. Let’s work together to get better at this effort, turn this election one vote at a time!
We meet on August 22nd at 12:30 at Golden Corral at 1591 S. Randall (across from Algonquin Commons). Lunch is about $9.00 including drink. And bring a friend!
Note: there are less than 90 days to the election. There are two Tea Party sources that welcome your donations:
The Huntley Tea party
Illinoisteaparty.net (link on our site)
On 8-18, the Illinois Tea Party met and heard a presentation by Trevor Loudon, author of “Barack Obama and the Enemies Within” a must see to understand the scope of our national crisis. click here.
Hultgren Announces St. Charles Family Finance Forum, Yorkville Town Hall: U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14) will host a Forum on Family Health Care and Finances next Monday, August 20 at Pheasant Run in St. Charles. Later that night, he will host a Congressional Town Hall in Yorkville.
The St. Charles event will feature panelists on a variety of issues chosen via mail responses by constituents, including college savings, understanding your credit report and
caring for elderly parents who are eligible for Medicare. Congressman Hultgren will also be present to discuss the President’s health care law and its implications for families in the 14th district, which includes St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia.
“Christy and I have four kids, and we always welcome guidance on how to make a dollar stretch a little further,” said Rep. Hultgren. “I’m looking forward to hearing from the panelists myself, and hope that area residents will find the Forum helpful as they plan budgets for the school year and beyond.”
The Yorkville event will feature a brief Washington update from the Congressman followed by Q&A.
WHAT: Forum on Family Health Care and Finances
WHERE: Pheasant Run, 4051 East Main St., St. Charles, IL
WHEN: Monday, August 20, 9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
WHAT: Town Hall with Congressman Hultgren
WHERE: Beecher Community Center, 908 Game Farm Road, Yorkville, IL
WHEN: Monday, August 20, 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
Questions may be directed to Congressman Hultgren’s district office in Geneva at (630) 232-7104. Both events will be an official public meetings, and will be free and open to the public. No RSVP is required.
NATIONAL
Napolitano ponders stepping down: Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano’s embattled high-ranking immigration aide took a leave of absence following salacious new claims about the agency’s alleged sexually hostile environment toward men, while Napolitano herself indicated she is pondering stepping down.
Suzanne Barr, who has close Arizona ties to Napolitano, took a “voluntary leave,” according to Brian Hale, spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Barr’s leave, which began Tuesday, comes as two more male accusers claimed they personally witnessed Barr engage in lewd and hostile behavior with subordinates.
Is this another example of the ‘world’ crashing down upon the Obama Administration’s cadre of inexperienced civilians the “anointed one” has placed in sensitive positions within the government?
INTERNATIONAL
Panama Canal Widening Will Dramatically Alter Global Shipping
The addition of a third, much-wider lane to the Panama Canal will dramatically alter global shipping. Able to accommodate ships almost three times larger, the $5.3 billion expansion opens in 2015. A wider route will lead to increased shipping through the Gulf of Mexico and facilitate the transfer of coal, oil, and natural gas from Central and South America to energy-hungry Asia.
Putin Returning Russia to the Bad Old Days
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign of fear and intimidation against his critics harkens back to the oppression Russians endured in the Soviet era. The intelligence service, of which Putin was a member, is conducting both domestic and foreign activities with little oversight. The courts, as in the Soviet era, are beholden to political authorities, dispensing justice along pre-determined lines.
Ecuador/Peru: Pipeline Pact Needs to Reassure Foreign Investors
A new Ecuador-Peru pipeline agreement could allow oil production from a huge new reserve in a remote area of southern Ecuador and boost the economies of both nations. However, the success of the agreement will depend on their ability to deal with several issues that could discourage investment by major Western oil firms. Large Chinese investments probably will only partially offset problems that Ecuador will likely encounter in convincing major oil firms to invest in this project.
Media & Hollywood Bias
CBS Ignores Shooting at Conservative FRC, NBC Offers a Scant 35 Seconds: Over eight hours of broadcast time, Thursday, the network morning shows devoted a scant two minutes and 57 seconds to Wednesday’s shooting at the conservative Family Research Council (FRC). Good Morning America on ABC offered the most time, a still tiny two minutes and 22 seconds. But at least guest anchor Josh Elliott revealed key details about the alleged shooter’s possible motive, such as the fact that Floyd Corkins “was a volunteer at a local LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] center.” CBS This Morning totally skipped the story. ABC reporter Pierre Thomas added, “Sources say [Corkins] had items from fast food giant Chick-fil-A in his bag, but it was unclear whether Wednesday’s incident had any ties to the recent controversy on gay marriage.” Thomas then gratuitously noted, “The company’s owner recently set off a political firestorm, suggesting he opposed gay marriage.”
Networks Falsely Paint Ryan as Spending Cutter Who Could ‘Destroy’ Medicare
Previewing the choice of Paul Ryan as the GOP vice presidential candidate, the ABC, CBS and NBC morning shows all used Democratic framing to describe the House GOP budget plan that Ryan championed as a plan to, as CBS’s Bob Schieffer put it, “cut more than $5 trillion over the next ten years.” ABC’s Bianna Golodryga passed along the demagogic rhetoric of liberals: “Democrats, meantime, contest that it will destroy Medicare and Social Security.”
But Ryan’s plan would actually increase federal spending over the next ten years, from about $3.6 trillion this year to just under $4.9 trillion in 2022. The $5 trillion in “cuts” are merely reductions from the much-higher spending anticipated by President Obama’s budget.
Piers Morgan Invokes FRC Shooting to Cry for Gun Control: CNN’s Piers Morgan is up in arms again over guns, and tried to use Wednesday’s shooting at the Family Research Council to shill for more gun control. There’s one problem – the shooter was not obeying Washington D.C.’s strict gun laws. “We’ve had only today the conservative Family Research Council, a shooting that may well have been politically motivated,” Morgan said before asking Newark Mayor Corey Booker (D), “When you take all these things into consideration, you must be disappointed that the President isn’t ordering some new form of gun control, aren’t you?”
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