WHO WILL BE THE NEXT IL GOP CHAIRMAN?
-- Eliminate Shaw next - Jon Zahm  (DIERSEN: Needless-to-say, GOPUSA ILLINOIS is more than happy to post rebuttals.  Just post your rebuttal on a website and email the hyperlink to diersen@aol.com.)
http://ilgopchair2013.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/eliminate-shaw-next/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: There are positives about 10th Congressional District State Central Committeeman Mark Shaw. First of all he founded his own law firm in 1995 after completing his education as a pharmacist and working in that field at the start of his career. See Shaw’s impressive resume from his web site here: http://www.shawlawltd.com/Attorneys/Mark-L-Shaw.shtml Secondly, Shaw has been responsive to e-mails and calls from constituents regarding his appointed service on the State Central Committee. Third, Shaw was willing to sign a letter calling on a special meeting of the SCC to deal with Pat Brady’s insubordination, and divergence from the Republican Party platform. However there are two specific reasons why I am calling for Shaw to removed from consideration for IL State Party Republican Chairman. One, was his role surrounding his appointment last summer as the Republican nominee for the 58th State Representative District. Shaw was Campaign Manager of a bitter primary battle between his candidate, Lauren Turelli, and Dr. Mark Neerhof. Turelli prevailed, but was resigned after controversy about inflating her education credentials. Here is an article by respected conservative writer Nancy J. Thorner on this issue: http://nancyjthorner.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/part-three-turelli-candidate-in-il-district-58-discredits-her-candidacy-through-a-fake-educational-credential/ Thorner would later report that the appointment process for Shaw would be heavily influenced by moderates Tom Cross and Ed Sullivan, Jr. Here is her article, as printed by Illinois Review: http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2012/07/turellis-replacement-shaw-is-the-il-gop-insiders-choice.html Sullivan, head of the House Republican Campaign Committee, is one of just two Republicans who have declared support for same sex marriage, Sullivan is also a longtime double dipper who serves as Fremont Township Assessor and State Representative at the same time. Neerhof may, or may not, have been the best candidate for the appointment, but Shaw and the committee of township chairs should have searched far and wide for the best option before appointing one of their own to the ballot. The other major reason to dismiss the Shaw candidacy is how he performed as a candidate. He did not proudly run on the Republican Party platform. He hid from it.)

 

 

 

 

ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR
-- Statewide concealed-carry bill goes to House floor - Lauren Leone-Cross
http://www.rrstar.com/updates/x1379225285/House-guns-bill-passes-committee

 

SAUK VALLEY
-- Senator backs retired teachers  Bivins guards interests of pensioners - Keith Erhart  (DIERSEN: I am a federal retiree. If/when bills are voted on in Congress to reduce the pension benefits that I have been promised by the federal government since 1966, how will Senator Kirk and Congressman Roskam vote?  From the beginning of time, government employees like I was for almost 30 years and government retirees like I have been for almost 16 years, have been demonized, denigrated, and condemned.  While I worked for the federal government, being able to look forward to a more generous pension helped me deal with being demonized, denigrated, and condemned for being a government employee.  As a federal retiree, receiving a more generous pension has helped me deal with being demonized, denigrated, and condemned for being a federal retiree.)
http://www.saukvalley.com/2013/05/21/senator-backs-retired-teachers/advtdho/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: We are very fortunate to live in a nation of rules and laws. Citizens in the 45th Senate District should be proud to have elected Sen. Tim Bivins to represent us in Springfield.  Bivins took an oath to defend both the Illinois and U.S. constitutions. Bivins has consistently stated that he will not support a pension bill that would reduce the pension or cost-of-living increases for retired teachers.)

 

TIMES
-- DIERSEN HEADLINE: Jim Nowlan glorifies and praises "moderate" Republicans, that is, Jim Nowlan demonizes, denigrates, and condemns "conservative" Republicans.
http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=476060
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Jim Edgar is not as pessimistic as some about the chances of Republicans to elect a governor in 2014. "A perceived moderate will be required, one who can work with the Democrats (whose skillful map-making has locked up the legislature for that party throughout the decade)." One like Jim Edgar, who has no interest whatever in running again. We miss you, Governor.)

 

 

 

 

WHEATON PATCH
-- 'Vintage Rides' Returns to Wheaton May 31  (DIERSEN: I owned a 1962 Chevy Impala SS 1989-2005 and a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 1994-2005.  I took them to this show several times.)
http://wheaton.patch.com/events/vintage-rides-84d170f9
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Check out antique cars during Vintage Rides, a popular weekly summer car show on Front Street each Friday night. The free family-friendly event is hosted by the Downtown Wheaton Association. Enjoy music, cars and more on the 100 East and 100 West blocks of Front Street (on either side of Main Street) in downtown Wheaton.   A different make or model of a classic car will be featured each week. To see the model of cars featured each week, visit the DWA’s website.)
-- Du Page Hispanic Republicans Welcome US Senator Ted Cruz
http://wheaton.patch.com/announcements/du-page-hispanic-republicans-welcome-us-senator-ted-cruz

 

 

WORLD NET DAILY
-- Republicans and America need conservatives - Rep. Todd Akin  (DIERSEN: I should write an article, or maybe a book, about "Republican" activists, candidates, elected officials, party leaders, and major donors in Illinois who have focused on driving conservatives out of the Illinois Republican Party (IRP), that is, who have focused on destroying the IRP.  They would love it.  Far too many of them proudly paint themselves as being anti-religious, anti-conservative, and/or anti-Republican.)
http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/republicans-and-america-need-conservatives/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Like a patient with an injury, the Republican Party is surrounded by many advising doctors who prescribe conflicting “cures.” Because, these cures can’t all be right, we should review our history for examples so that we choose the right one.  We have all heard the group of advisers who think the cure is that the Republican Party should become less conservative and more like the Democrats. They fault imperfect candidates who aren’t moderate enough. While no candidate is perfect (including me), this cure doesn’t explain why more moderate Republican Senate candidates lost in 2012 than conservatives. Through the lens of history, we see that the GOP needs the principled identity conservatives afford, that conservatism is a winning platform, and that conservative principles are what undergird America’s freedom. The Republican Party should boldly stand on its conservative values. This is the true cure. Conservatives provide the Republican Party a principled identity. History teaches this is critical to a party. Prior to the Civil War, politics in America was similar to what we see today. The Jacksonian Democrats were politically dominant and masters of building coalitions based on special deals and patronage. The Whig Party was weak, had lost its sense of purpose and was divided on the slavery issue. The Republican Party had a principled identity that focused on freedom and opposed slavery. Opposing slavery was not a winning issue politically, but they believed that our Creator intended all people to be free. Without a sense of purpose, the rudderless Whig Party soon ceased to exist. The Republicans, propelled by the rightness of their cause, took the U.S. presidency with Lincoln. People supported the Republicans, and the party has stayed in existence because its identity was founded in principle. Principle proved stronger than pragmatism. Conservatives provide this principled identity to the Republicans. The conservative position is a winning platform. While some argue that Republicans must become more pragmatic to create a winning platform, history says otherwise. The conservative Republican Presidents Lincoln, Coolidge, Eisenhower and Reagan were all very popular. They had a passion and confidence from standing on principle. In contrast, Nixon, Dole, McCain and now Romney were less comfortable defending conservative positions, and were less successful. A “fire in the bones” is more convincing than dry statistics. Conservative principles undergird the very freedoms we enjoy as Americans. America is different than other nations, more prosperous and freer. We are different and successful because America’s founders held conservative beliefs. Unfortunately, today, many are ignoring these foundational principles, such as the belief in a Creator, having a limited federal government, the duty of government to protect life and the importance of individual responsibility.)

 

 

THE HILL
-- Obama to sign bill honoring Birmingham church bombing victims - Justin Sink (DIERSEN: To what extent were you responsible for what happened 50 years ago, in 1963?  What were you doing 50 years ago, that is, in 1963?  I attended Crete-Monee High School as a freshman and then as a sophomore, I lived with my parents and brother in Crete, I did yard work and delivered newspapers and saved the money I earned to buy a used car as soon as I was 16.  What were your parents doing in 1963?  My outstanding father fought type 1 diabetes, worked in the office of a nasty chemical plant in Chicago Heights, worked second jobs to pay the bills, and drove a bottom of the line 1961 Chevy that he had bought used the year before.  My outstanding mother was a housewife.)
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/301741-obama-to-sign-bill-honoring-birmingham-church-bombing-victims

 

NEW YORK TIMES
-- The Politics of Second Chances  (DIERSEN: Democrats always want to paint all religious people, all conservatives, and all Republicans as being hypocrites.  If you run as a religious person, as a conservative, or as a Republican, and you break your marriage vows, Democrats will always use you to demonize, denigrate, and condemn all religious people, all conservatives, and all Republicans as being hypocrites.) 
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/23/the-politics-of-second-chances/
-- Boy Scouts End Longtime Ban on Openly Gay Youths - Erik Eckholm  (DIERSEN: To be "openly gay" is to be sexually active.  When you were a "youth," were you sexually active?)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/us/boy-scouts-to-admit-openly-gay-youths-as-members.html?ref=us

 

 

 

MSNBC
-- The woman who brought us the IRS scandal - Zachary Roth  (DIERSEN: Democrats have always run the federal government.  While I worked for the federal government for almost 30 years, all my superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates were fully aware that all federal employees who were Republican were "targeted," especially those who were conservative, White, male, older, and/or non-veteran.)
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/24/the-woman-who-brought-us-the-irs-scandal/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Since news broke nearly two weeks ago that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) targeted Tea Party groups for special scrutiny, one well-connected Washington insider has led the charge to stoke the story. And she has no intention of letting up.  On Tuesday, Cleta Mitchell, a veteran conservative election lawyer and a partner at the firm of Foley & Lardner, filed a lawsuit against the IRS on behalf of True the Vote, charging that the agency had unfairly delayed the Tea Party-linked group’s application for tax-exempt status, submitted by Mitchell in 2010. But Mitchell suggested to MSNBC that the lawsuit’s ultimate target is Team Obama. “I’m not saying Obama sat in the Oval Office and directed [the targeting]. But I am absolutely convinced that people in the [Obama] campaign were well aware of all this,” Mitchell said in an interview Wednesday, singling out David Axelrod, Obama’s former top political adviser. “I think there’s a very good chance that it will lead to people who are very highly placed politically.”)

 

ASSOCIATED PRESS
-- IRS replaces official who revealed targeting  (DIERSEN: One could say that in 1997, GAO replaced Diersen who had complained about reverse discrimination, age discrimination, and political affiliation discrimination.)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRS_POLITICAL_GROUPS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-23-17-45-20
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The Internal Revenue Service official who led the unit that targeted tea party groups and publicly disclosed the activity has been replaced, making her the third top IRS official moved aside since the episode was revealed two weeks ago. Lois Lerner was put on administrative leave on Thursday, said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and two congressional aides. Without naming Lerner, new Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel emailed employees that 27-year IRS veteran Ken Corbin would become acting head of the exempt organizations division - a move the Obama administration was hoping would help ease the controversy. Grassley said Lerner rejected a request by Werfel to resign. One congressional aide said Lerner, a career civil servant, will be on paid leave. The congressional aides spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a personnel matter. A day earlier, Lerner proclaimed her innocence of any wrongdoing to a House committee, then invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions.)

 

BUSINESSWEEK
-- IRS Bias Safeguards Prove Toothless in Tea Party Nonprofit Cases - David J. Lynch and Richard Rubin  (DIIERSEN: The Democrats who run IRS wasted my IRS career.  GAO audits IRS.  I transferred from IRS to GAO in 1980.  The Democrats who run GAO wasted my knowledge of IRS and wasted my GAO career.  But then again, they were simply doing what the Democrats in the White House and the Democrats in Congress wanted them to do.  If had been a Democrat, a female, a minority, or a veteran, IRS and GAO would not have wasted me.)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-05-24/irs-bias-safeguards-prove-toothless-in-tea-party-nonprofit-cases
(FROM THE ARTICLE: On July 22, 1998, President Bill Clinton signed into law a reorganization of the Internal Revenue Service designed to “give the American people an IRS that reflects America’s values and respects America’s taxpayers.”  That didn’t work out so well.  As the Obama administration confronts a political crisis that has reinforced the worst imaginings of anti-Washington Republicans -- and many others -- the IRS instead has become an emblem of government dysfunction. “The service is an amazing bureaucracy,” says Bryan Camp, a former attorney in the IRS’s chief counsel office. “Amazing in that it’s able to get done what it gets done and amazing in its incredibly byzantine and archaic chain of command.”  Lawmakers of both parties and President Barack Obama this week assailed the IRS for singling out for special scrutiny applications for tax-exempt status from anti-tax Tea Party groups. Republicans, including Utah Senator Mike Lee, leveled a broader indictment, saying the agency’s actions demonstrated the inherent dangers of runaway government. The agency at the center of Washington’s latest political storm hardly lacked for institutional safeguards. The 1998 restructuring -- the first such changes in nearly half a century -- created a nine-member IRS Oversight Board designed “to oversee the IRS in its administration, management, conduct, direction, and supervision” of the tax laws. Multiple Overseers  By 2010, when the IRS began struggling to process applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status, the support apparatus had expanded to include an IRS Advisory Council, the office of the National Taxpayer Advocate, the inspector general and several subject-specific advisory committees, including one for tax-exempt entities. Elsewhere, six congressional committees monitor the IRS while the Government Accountability Office issues reports on its activities and the Treasury Department oversees it. Those safeguards proved toothless, poorly designed or both when the agency needed them most, according to leaders from both parties. “The first line of defense is the board and that board’s been weak from the beginning,” said former Senator Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat, who was co-chairman of a 1997 commission on IRS restructuring. “You need that strong oversight board.” Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who was Kerrey’s co-chairman, said in an interview that he is considering legislation to resurrect the panel’s recommendation for a strong board with the power to hire and fire the IRS commissioner. Additional Safeguards  “We do need to have additional safeguards,” he said. “It’s different in kind than most other federal agencies and therefore it requires this special level of scrutiny.” Existing protections didn’t catch officials in an IRS office in Cincinnati, who over an 18-month period employed “inappropriate criteria” in identifying and slowing the applications for tax-exempt status from some groups, according to the IRS inspector general. The inspector general’s May 14 report said “ineffective management” at the IRS was to blame for chronic problems that emerged with the processing of applications for tax-exempt status. Dozens of applications from Republican-leaning and other groups -- including some founded by Democrats -- remained in limbo for more than three years, longer than the agency’s 121-day goal for a final ruling, according to the IG report. Lois Lerner, the official at the center of the controversy, is being replaced on an acting basis, the IRS said yesterday. Two other officials have submitted resignations or retirements. Management ‘Breakdown’  In May 22 House testimony, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman acknowledged “a breakdown” in management and suggested an expanding work load was to blame. During his almost five years at the helm, Shulman said the IRS “was called upon to tackle a number of challenges,” including administering $300 billion of the economic stimulus program, combating offshore tax evasion and modernizing its information technology systems. The agency is gearing up to enforce the 2010 health care law’s mandate that Americans obtain insurance or pay a fine. As it affects every household and business in the nation, the IRS is a bureaucratic titan. In 2012, it harvested $2.5 trillion from U.S. taxpayers, processing 237,345,000 separate individual and corporate returns. IRS Culture This week’s congressional hearings have zeroed in on the agency’s internal workings. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus accused the IRS of a “culture of indifference to the American people.” The agency’s unwritten rules may be partly to blame. By design, the IRS must be independent of outside influence to administer the tax laws fairly. Major scandals over IRS operations in 1951, when more than 160 agents were fired or resigned amid allegations of corruption and favoritism, and in the early 1970s, when President Richard Nixon ordered IRS audits of his political opponents, demonstrated the need for the tax agency to be kept at a distance from the partisanship that permeates Washington. Independence may have curdled into insularity. Portman said senior IRS officials misled lawmakers who sent letters to the agency in 2012 asking if Republican-leaning groups were being targeted. Then-deputy commissioner Steven Miller, who has been forced out as acting commissioner in the controversy, replied in writing that no such targeting was taking place, claims Republicans this week said were misleading. ‘Flagrant Disregard’ Portman said the IRS attitude amounted to “a flagrant disregard by senior officials of a congressional inquiry.” Two days before the scandal broke, Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, said in written testimony to Congress that budget cuts were imperiling the ability of the IRS to do its job. Across-the-board belt tightening, coupled with this year’s automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, have lopped about $1 billion or 8 percent off the IRS budget. Employees also must take five furlough days this year -- including today -- because of the cuts. Employee training, which the inspector general recommended be expanded to prevent a recurrence of the current scandal, has been especially hard hit. By the end of the current fiscal year, such spending will have been reduced by 83 percent compared to fiscal 2010. “I have never been more concerned than I am today about the IRS’s ability to fulfill its mission,” she told the Senate appropriations financial services subcommittee. Application Flood The IRS’s 90,280 workers are 4,500 fewer than fiscal 2010. Over that same time, the number of applications for tax-exempt status rose in both main categories: 501(c)3s climbed to 66,543 from 59,486 and 501(c)4s rose to 3,357 from 1,735. Still, as complaints from conservative-leaning applicants mounted, IRS higher-ups ignored obvious signs of trouble. “Once the cases started to back up, it should have been a red flag to management,” said Charles Lacijan, who retired last year after 11 years as the oversight board’s staff director. In 1997, the Kerrey-Portman commission capped a year-long inquiry with a series of recommendations, including creation of a powerful “board of directors” with “overall responsibility for executive branch governance of the IRS.” Kerrey described the board in 1998 as one “that has substantial powers over the IRS to manage this agency and to work with Congress.” Weak Board By the time legislation emerged from Congress, the board’s powers had been circumscribed. Clinton administration officials were reluctant to surrender Treasury Department control of the agency, according to Chris Rizek, who was associate tax legislative counsel at Treasury between 1995 and 1998. The part-time panel, whose members are compensated, focuses on tax administration issues and approves IRS budget requests and strategic plans. “They’re at such a high level, like a board of directors but without the powers of a board of directors,” said Camp, now a law professor at Texas Tech University. “They’re primarily a cheerleader for the service on budget issues.” The president nominates seven tax experts to the board along with the Treasury secretary and IRS commissioner. Two of the seven non-government posts now are vacant. Four others, including chairman Paul Cherecwich, a corporate tax attorney who was appointed by President George W. Bush and who retired from the law firm of Miller & Chevalier in 2004, are continuing to serve though their terms have expired. Stalled Nominations On July 1, 2010, President Obama nominated Timothy Scheve, CEO of Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, as a member of the oversight board. After the Senate failed to act on his nomination, Scheve withdrew his name on January 24, 2012. The post remains vacant. A more powerful board with greater independence may have been able to intervene as the IRS stumbled over management of the tax-exempt applications. “There’s no question in my mind it would have caught it before it got to this point,” Kerrey said in a telephone interview. Instead, when the targeting became public, the Oversight Board released a May 16 statement saying only that it was “deeply troubled” by the news and blaming a “breakdown in the business processing system of the IRS.” The board said “IRS leadership” never notified it of the change in filtering criteria. Cherecwich sees the IRS’s travails as evidence of the difficulty of managing a mammoth bureaucracy, and the current board wasn’t equipped to do much to help. “Whistle blowers don’t come to us,” says Cherecwich, adding: “I don’t know how you mandate perfect management.”)