Roskam should ditch Norquist Pledge for Peoples' Pledge

On January 3, 2013, Peter Roskam will take the oath of office for the fourth time as my IL 6th District Congressman. The oath contains the requisite pledge to defend the Constitution and concludes with "I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter". But Peter Roskam, along with 235 other members of his GOP House caucus, have taken another oath, the wealthy folks' ultimate lobbyist Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge, that is incompatible to his constitutional oath.

The Norquist oath requires Roskam to oppose "any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses". While that may sound innocuous, it is designed to further Norquist's decades long effort to redistribute middle class wealth to the wealthiest Americans who worship Norquist for his dedication and success in bringing that goal to fruition. How? While America sinks further into debt every year, the wealthiest 2% continue to enjoy trillions in unneeded long term tax cuts. Meanwhile, job stimulus, infrastructure rebuilding, educational development, renewable energy creation, social services to the needy all have to pay the tab with cuts or outright defunding. A corollary to the Norquist Pledge is that our gargantuan military budget suffers not a single cut, but instead, is rewarded with increases even the military doesn't demand. That is truly a policy of short sighted self destruction, and is supported by 98% of GOP House Leader Roskam's caucus (236 of 242), who have signed Norquit's oath, while the House Democrats are 99% Norquist free, having taken only the Constitutional oath.

We experienced how dysfunctional the Norquist Tax Pledge functions just this week as the Norquist primed House GOP prevented Speaker Boehner from bringing his Plan B tax proposal to a vote because it dared allowed for a modest tax increase starting at a million dollars of annual income. This act sabotaged negotiations between Speaker Boehner and President Obama to strike a compromise deal on spending cuts, and tax increases on the wealthy, to preserve tax cuts for the lower 98% income earners. It's almost certain that mandated tax increases on everyone and draconian spending cuts will kick in on New Years Day.

Peter Roskam can't act for the other 235 House GOP members who have divided loyalty on how to serve the public interest. But he can disavow the Grover Glenn Norquist Taxpayer Protection Pledge and begin his fourth House term dedicated solely to "discharge the duties of the office" he is about to enter.

Senator, come out, come out, wherever you are

Sen. Dillard, how long must your patient constituent...me, wait for you to respond to a simple constituent request: How will you vote when the historic marriage equality measure is called in Illinois?

You need to come out of the closet....not that you're gay of course, and not that there's anything wrong with that. Its the closet of fear you are hiding in from all the homophobes in your district and your party who you possibly feel might jeopardize your chances of being governor if you "come out" for marriage equality.

Gov. Quinn says he'll sign the measure if you pass it because, as a Democrat, he is for granting marriage equality and Ist class citizenship to all Illinoisans. You see, there are no homophobes left in the Democratic Party. They all reside in your party, Senator.

I look forward to your appearance....and your decision.

Respectfully,

Walt Zlotow
24th IL Senate District

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil: just do evil

The National Rifle Association (NRA), possibly the most powerful, visible, vocal and fearless lobby in US history, has suddenly been struck with a power outage. Their Facebook page has gone dark. Their national office is not taking or returning calls. Their twitter feed is tweetless.

But don't doubt for one moment that their sick, twisted, blood drenched agenda isn't exactly as it was on Thursday, December 13th: unlimited high powered guns and the largest ammo clips possible for anyone and everyone. The only thing possibly as disgusting as the NRA, are the cowardly politicians who cower before it.

A tale of two hit lists

We know who was on Adam Lanza's kill list. It's splattered all over the print and electronic media. We don't know who is on the President's kill list, but we do know that hundreds, maybe thousands of innocents have been killed by unmanned drones firing bombs on them from the skies over the Middle East and Africa. Maybe a good New Year's Resolution for our Commander In Chief is to publish his kill list...and then burn it.