Here To Stay

It's been almost a year since I last posted on my woefully neglected blog. So much has changed since my last post. So much has changed since I began this blog!

I've given some thought to purposefully abandoning this blog and starting a new one. Reasons for doing so include:

• I no longer live in Illinois' Sixth Congressional District.
  
• IL-06 will soon cease to exist as we know it due to redistricting.
• Seemed like a good idea at the time to base it on IL-06, but that didn't happen much
  
• People I respect tell me I need to tone it down for the sake of my business (ha!)
• There are many viewpoints I've expressed here that I don't believe anymore. I've grown.
  

But, since I started this blog primarily to entertain myself, I shall continue to do that here. I might start a new blog soon, but this one is here to stay. I've never cared much about what people say, so why should I start now? Seems silly.

So on with it. Surely there's plenty of Bollywood material out there from the past year!!!

Bollywood Holidays - "Jingle Bells"

I just found this gem on YouTube.

"Quinn Stories" - Campaign videos I'll actually watch!

Rich Miller over at The Capitol Fax Blog has been talking about Pat Quinn's excellently produced web videos for months now. I've been so busy with work and life that I haven't had much of a chance to look them over. Thankfully, I've been added to the "Quinn Stories" email list and therefore reminded to check them out.

I'm seriously impressed! Humanizing stories and testimonials that illustrate the character, personality, and positions of a politician make a huge difference to voters who otherwise don't give politics more than 5 minutes a week of their time. It's a monumental struggle to capture the electorate's attention span beyond that 5 minute mark! It requires expert targeting, ingenuity, and a lot of innovative thinking (if your campaign doesn't plan to spend trillions of dollars on pricey media buys, anyway).





No matter where you stand on the race for Governor of Illinois, it's hard to deny that David Rosen over at the Quinn Campaign has done a great job on these web videos. Keep up the great work!

Roskam Votes Against Unemployment Extension

Millions of unemployed Americans will be breathing a sigh of relief this week. The House just voted overwhelmingly to extend unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks to people in 27 states where unemployment rates top 8.5%, among them Illinois.

The roll call is here.

ILLINOIS

Democrats — Bean, Y; Costello, Y; Davis, Y; Foster, Y; Gutierrez, X; Halvorson, Y; Hare, Y; Jackson, X; Lipinski, Y; Quigley, Y; Rush, X; Schakowsky, Y.

Republicans — Biggert, Y; Johnson, Y; Kirk, X; Manzullo, Y; Roskam, NO; Schock, Y; Shimkus, Y.

NOTICE ANYTHING UNUSUAL?? Yeah, me neither! Yet again, Creepy Pete Roskam votes against the interests of his district. Not only that, he is the ONLY member of the IL GOP House delegation to vote against it. If you check out the link, you'll also notice that some of the most conservative members of the House voted FOR the extension. Among them the ENTIRE Indiana GOP delegation and the infamous anti-immigrant crusader, Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin.

I'm from that neighborhood. I've spent the better part of my 31 years in that neighborhood. I know an awful lot of people there and A LOT of them are out of work and in a very tough spot.

SHAME on you, Pete Roskam. You've really outdone yourself this time.

Hat tip to Adam Doster over at Progress Illinois.

Who will challenge Creepy Pete in IL-06?

So petitions have started and apparently there isn't a Democrat yet running in IL-06. Jill Morgenthaler has told me said she needs significant support from DC in order to run. I'm assuming that means she needs significant support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as well as other Democratic and progressive-leaning PAC's and institutions.

In other words, these fools better not leave her hanging if she decides to take on ol' Creepy again. Last time around, it was pretty apparent that she didn't get the kind of resources and institutional support allocated to Tammy Duckworth's campaign in 2006. She was largely left to fend for herself as a first time candidate. It went as well as could be expected, even in the year of President Barack Obama. A badly planned and executed campaign will turn out badly, almost without question.

So far as I can tell, Jill Morgenthaler is our best bet to beat Creepy Pete. I'm hoping she runs.

Treat Your Mama Right

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and all the mothers out there!

Congressman Quigley!

A few days late, but what the heck...

¡ CONGRATULATIONS !
CONGRESSMAN QUIGLEY

Love,
Rosána Pulído