Throw 'em out with the bathwater.

30 years. What have you done for the last 30 years? How many different jobs did you have? How many different bands have you been in? How many offspring did you eject from your loins? 13, 9, and 2. I'm real sure about the 2. Less so about the 9. And the 13. But it was a lot. I've been busy, okay? Probably more than most of you with the band thing. And with only 2 kids? I know a lot of you are saying, PPfff! Only 2? But in fact the average number of children in the US in homes with children is 1.86. Even less so at .9 when you throw in the couples with no kids. So there is a slight percentage that I am over you in that one too. But where I am going with this? Its the jobs one. For the last 30 years I have seen my share of different employers, but there's at least one guy out there who has been at his helm of Illinois politics as the whole time.

Michel Madigan, Speaker of the House. There I said it. Phhlleeww! Sorry, just hacked something up. Way back when, just after dinosaurs roamed the earth, the thought of being in politics was to serve your civic duty, give up a small chunk of your career for the good of your nation, or your community, and when you served your time, you went back to your crops, or your store, or whatever you did back then. Career and politician are two words that should never go together. The only thing that drives these people are their own inflated egos. Well, that and their Mercedes', and Audi's, and so on.

The state is in massive debt, our credit rating was recently downgraded (and could be again), there is a strike coming in Chicago at CPS (yes a Chicago problem, but if the state didn't default on it's payments to Illinois schools, then teachers don't get laid off, programs don't get cancelled, and maybe there isn't a strike), it's well known that we are the most corrupt state in the nation, and only a fool doesn't believe that Madigan is buying his votes with appropriations and appointments and favors and fantasies and pots of gold and whatever else it takes to stay in office at all costs! His constituents are too unconcerned with their own well being, while his co-workers are afraid of ever voting against him for fear of their own political skin. Hell, even the Governor, the man that should be the most powerful man in the state, can't get anything done when Madigan wants his way. And they're in the same damn party!!

Okay, deep breath, one, two, three, that's it, breath again, Hulk impulse fading, fading, faaa...it's gone.

Seriously, it's high time we throw this bum out of office. He's had 30 years to right the ship, and baby we're the Titanic. There isn't a sports manager alive that would keep his job if his organization was in the dire straits that we Illinoisans are in. The Cubs flip 'em every two years regardless. Why can't we give someone else a chance? Someone that won't have his minions cowering at his feet. Maybe, just maybe, the grid-lock might ease if the movers and shakers down state could actually move and shake to their own beat. But Mike Madigan beats the drums, and the people keep dancing. It ain't gettin' any better my friends, in fact, it keeps getting worse. Vote the bum out. And every other ego driven career politician who doesn't have the integrity to try and make our great state of Illinois better, his own "career" be damned.

Fire Madigan. Please?

Random thoughts...

What do the former striking workers from Caterpillar, Jesse Jackson Jr, Michael Madigan, Obama, Romney, and Drew Peterson all have in common? They all sleep in Toy Story PJ's? They all brush their teeth using baking soda? They all stir their Nestles Quik counter clockwise? Nope, nope, and again, nope. It was a trick question, they have nothing in common. Which is why they are separated in five quick little ditties in today's rant. What, you think I got time to actually put together a thought?

Cat's meow: 780 striking workers at Caterpillar caved in last week. They couldn't go another 6 months without that luxury some people call money. They were holding out for the American dream. You know, a pot of gold in their basement, ie: preserving decent wages, a pension, and low health care costs. Well good luck with all of that. Where do you think you live, America or something? So they settled for a one time 3% raise for only workers hired after 2005, and a one time 3 grand bonus. After all, car payments and mortgages don't go away if you ignore them. In return they get to work, they get to double their health care premiums, and they get their pensions frozen. In the mean time, the CEO made $17 million last year. Let me ask a question here. Do you think the CEO could get by for one year making only a million bucks? What sacrifices would he have to make to do that? Send his kids to, gasp, public school? Drive a Chevy instead of a Mercedes? Eat at Denny's once a week? Because if he took that extra $16 million and split it amongst his workers, they would each get over $20,000. What could you do with an extra $20,000?

Poor Jesse: He's got bi-polar disorder. He's depressed. His body is revolting after his Duodenal Switch. Cry me a freaking river okay? He is a professional ego-maniac, driven to perfection over his name. He has a tough billing to live up to with that name. After all, daddy ran for president one time. Daddy's name is known all over the world. Daddy has reached as far as he could, but it wasn't quite far enough. So the legacy needs to climb the mountain and reach the top. Step one, get out of Illinois. Hmm, how to do that. Let's start by buying that senate seat that our famous ex-governor was selling. Step 2, ascend to the white house. But a funny thing happened between those 2 steps. Busted!! Something inside tells me that the minute he steps out of the Mayo clinic, someone is going to be waiting with an indictment or 2. Yea, I'd be sick with worry too.

King of the Hill Illinois pension mess is a self created nightmare that isn't going away any time soon. Everyone wants to blame our lame ass governor. But it isn't the name Quinn that instills fear into the far reaches of the minds of our state legislators. The name they utter with trembling lips as they go to sleep at night is Beelzebub Madigan. If you think triple J has an ego problem, then meet double M. No one, and I mean not a single crooked politician in the history of the most corrupt state in the US, has held sway the way Madigan does. The ground trembles when he walks. Gods and mortals alike fall to their knees in devoted worship. Babies spit out their pacifiers at the mere mention of his name. You want to fix the pension mess in Illinois? Then throw this bum out of office. Somewhere along the line, the words "public servant" lost their meaning to him.

The Great Race For the first time in my life, I have no idea who I am voting for this election. Obama wants to ruin the country, and Romney wants to ruin us. Obama is sane in his social policies, Romney is not. Romney is sane in his fiscal policies, Obama is not. But the one factor that has me really scratching my head is how it seems that abortion has somehow crept it's ugly head into this debate. If abortion becomes a central issue of this campaign, then there is something seriously wrong with us. People are still out of work, we are in massive debt, Iran is going atomic, we still have nut-jobs around the world killing American soldiers, blah, blah blah. And we are still debating the abortion issue? Didn't we settle this a long time ago? I believe in a woman's right to choose, but I can't possible let that be any kind of determining factor in my decision, when we have much more pressing matters to overcome. Can I just write in Ross Perot and be done with it? Ahh, no Ross this year. The day we can take a serious look at a candidate with no Republican or Democratic albatross hanging around their neck is the day this country take's huge step forward.

Poor Drew: What is up with this crackpot of a judge in the Drew Peterson trial? He lets one guy retell of some hearsay testimony, but not another guy who heard the exact same thing. We are allowed to hear that Drew offered a guy money to kill his ex-wife, but not allowed to hear how one night, dressed in all black and carrying a bag of woman's clothes, he told soon to be murdered Stacy to lie to cover his ass. Proper court room decorum and laws leave us with the 3 ring circus we are watching. Common sense tells us to throw Drew into a boiling cauldron of oil and be done with it. If he walks free, I guess there is one hope that we can cling to: that someone out there will walk up to the guy and give him what he deserves. A bullet in the head.