Burris, Get Out (Yes, you, but the other one, too)

By Jennifer J. Foster

From the Associated Press:

Gov. Pat Quinn is reviewing how the son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris got a state job as a housing-agency lawyer under ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration, just weeks after he landed in tax and foreclosure trouble.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported in Thursday editions that the September hiring of Burris II as senior counsel for the Illinois Housing Development Authority came six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped him with a $34,163 tax lien and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure lawsuit on his Chicago home.

You know, I just don’t know what to say about the Burrises anymore. Ordinarily, the thought of someone who had been foreclosed upon serving as “senior counsel” for a housing authority would seem simply ludicrous.

But this guy is a Burris, and he comes from a family of overachievers. Not only is he senior counsel. He got that job THREE WEEKS after falling into foreclosure himself.

And ... the IRS believes he hasn’t paid his taxes.

People of Illinois, again; how long are you going to put up with this lunacy?

The next thing you know, Burris Jr. will be running to replace his father in the U.S. Senate.

Speaking of the father, I never noticed this before, but if you click on that “overachievers” link and look closely at the way Burris Sr. had his name done on his tomb, you’ll notice “Esq.“ following his name.

This guy even wants passersby in the cemetery to know that he was an “Esq.“

Sniff.

‘Just a few’ changes to gun laws

By Jennifer J. Foster

All the focus is on the rollout of President Obama’s proposed budget today, but here’s a little tidbit that you sure don’t want to miss.

Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters yesterday, “As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make.“

Just a few.

Chief among them, Holder said, is the re-enactment of the federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.

ABC News reminds us that the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban President Clinton signed into law banned 19 types of semi-automatic military-style guns and ammunition clips with more than 10 rounds.

But wait! There’s more!

Listen to the reasoning Holder gave for pursuing the re-enactment:

“I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.“ Holder said at a news conference on the arrest of more than 700 people in a drug enforcement crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S.

Mexican government officials have complained that the availability of sophisticated guns from the United States have emboldened drug traffickers to fight over access routes into the U.S.

... At the news conference today, Holder described his discussions with his Mexican counterpart about the recent spike in violence.

“I met yesterday with Attorney General Medina Mora of Mexico, and we discussed the unprecedented levels of violence his country is facing because of their enforcement efforts,“ he said.

Um ... is it just me, or does that sound like we are now making domestic policy based on what’s best for Mexico?

Wow.

Holder said there are “just a few” changes the Obama Administration wants to make to gun laws. What are the others?

Cue the AG:

“I think closing the gun show loophole, the banning of cop-killer bullets and I also think that making the assault weapons ban permanent, would be something that would be permitted under Heller,“ Holder said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling in Washington, D.C. v. Heller, which asserted the Second Amendment as an individual’s right to own a weapon.

Remember what I was saying just yesterday about how Obama is installing more liberal people in high-profile positions where social change can be made?

Eric Holder: Exhibit A.

See also:

The State Department’s travel warning regarding Mexico, which is mentioned in the ABC story from which this post was written. A couple of excerpts:

Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades.  Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico but most recently in northern Mexico, including Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez.  During some of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area. 

... A number of areas along the border are experiencing rapid growth in the rates of many types of crime.  Robberies, homicides, petty thefts, and carjackings have all increased over the last year across Mexico generally, with notable spikes in Tijuana and northern Baja California.  Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales are among the cities which have recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues.  Criminals have followed and harassed U.S. citizens traveling in their vehicles in border areas including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, and Tijuana.

Bad for tourism. But, apparently, good for foreign policy.

Another one bites the dust

By Jennifer J. Foster

Another Alabama state lawmaker was convicted of corruption yesterday.

This time it was (now former) State Rep. Sue Schmitz (D-Toney), who was found guilty of seven of eight counts of mail fraud and fraud involving a program receiving federal funds.

From the Birmingham News:

Prosecutors accused Schmitz, a Democrat, of using political connections to create a community relations job with the Community Intensive Training for Youth (CITY) program and getting $177,251 in pay while doing little or no work from February 2003 to October 2006.

Schmitz’s lawyer says she will “most likely” appeal.

More from the News:

Estes said the federal investigation of the two-year college system in Alabama, which led to the charges against Schmitz, is continuing. The investigation has produced more than a dozen guilty pleas, convictions and indictments from people with two-year college ties, including current and former legislators. The CITY program is part of the two-year college system.

Here’s what I want to know: How is this going to affect the Legislature’s treatment of ethics reform this year? Specifically, what does it mean for:

The bill to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers, which is always passed by the House and either gutted or ignored by the Senate;

The ban on so-called “double-dipping,“  the practice that allows sitting legislators to also draw state paychecks in other areas (such as from ... oh, I don’t know ... two-year colleges throughout Alabama); and

Various bills regarding the Alabama Ethics Commission. Some bills are great, including one that would give the Ethics Commission subpoena power. This one is a no-brainer, as far as I’m concerned. But some would exacerbate ethics problems in Alabama. One by State Sen. Lowell Barron (D-Fyffe) would actually place a 30-day time limit on investigations by the Ethics Commission. Great idea, senator, especially considering that the commission has neither enough personnel or resources as it is now to field all the complaints they get about you guys in a timely manner.

... Or, maybe that’s the point.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how these legislators will react to ethics bills on Goat Hill in light of all the recent unveilings of corruption among their ranks. How they react will say a lot about their own ethics—or lack thereof.

Meanwhile, over in the Senate ...

By Jennifer J. Foster

While the chattering class was getting ready for President Obama’s big address last night, the U.S. Senate was conducting some important business that went all but unnoticed.

From Fox News:

California Rep. Hilda Solis won confirmation Tuesday as President Barack Obama’s labor secretary, giving the agency a decidedly pro-worker tilt after years of business-friendly leadership under the Bush administration.

The 80-17 vote ended more than a month of delays prompted by GOP concerns over Democrat Solis’ work for a pro-union organization, and later, revelations about her husband’s unpaid taxes.

“A decidedly pro-worker tilt”? That’s putting it lightly.

I have to admit that I thought this would be another Cabinet nomination that would end in failure. Solis is by no means a pragmatic, reach-across-the-aisle consensus builder, as the president is styling himself to be. Solis is a knock-the-doors-down labor advocate. They nearly cried at the news that she would be the Labor nominee. Business has no audience with her whatsoever; I thought that Republican leaders in the Senate would at least insist on a Labor leader who would apply an even-handed approach to Labor issues. Remember that pending card-check legislation—the so-called Employee Free Choice Act—that’s on the way.

There was a very real possibility that the GOP would filibuster Solis’s nomination. So how did she get 80 votes?

From a broader perspective, we are seeing a pattern with President Obama. He is nominating bipartisan pragmatists to posts that involve money and the military; consider Janet Napolitano at Homeland, Bob Gates at Defense and Ray LaHood at Transportation (and he tried for Judd Gregg at Commerce), but Solis’s nomination is a signal that he isn’t shying away from placing avowed liberals in the posts where social change can be made. Attorney General Eric Holder and Steven Chu at Energy are other examples. (Need proof? Read what this guy had to say about Chu’s selection.)

It’s just another reason (the first being the high and immediate bar he set last night to do health care reform this year) to anticipate Obama’s new nominee to head Health and Human Services. Tom Daschle wasn’t exactly known as a pragmatist. What will Obama signal to us with his replacement?

San Francisco ... without the Chronicle?

By Jennifer J. Foster

It’s a very real possibility.

It’s looking as though, barring a financial miracle or deliverance from a journalistic messiah, the iconic—but extraordinarily unprofitable—San Francisco Chronicle may be the first major daily metro newspaper to die.

From the Associated Press:

The owner of the San Francisco Chronicle will sell or close the daily newspaper if it can’t dramatically lower expenses within the next few months.

The Hearst Corp., which owns northern California’s largest daily newspaper, didn’t specify a savings target in Tuesday’s grim announcement. But the New York-based company said the cost cutting will require significant layoffs.

What will San Francisco look like without the Chronicle?

The need for good journalism—the kind that serves the public interest and honors the public trust—will never disappear, even if print newspapers do.