Below letter has been sent to Senate Judiciary Committee members by Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA.
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy The Honorable Jeff Sessions
Chairman Ranking Member
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building 152 Dirksen Senate Office [...]
CHAMPAIGN – Today Illinois citizen and activist John Bambenek began a petition drive to place a state constitutional amendment on the November 2010 general election ballot. Citing the frustration at the gridlock in Springfield and the chaos caused by massive cuts to social services spending, Bambenek believes that the time [...]
This morning the political world was abuzz with news that Senator Arlen Specter left the Republicans to become a Democrat. Effectively, once Al Franken is likely crowned the junior Senator from Minnesota, the Democrats will have a de jure filibuster proof majority.
Republicans, for their part, were celebratory more than [...]
We’ve all seen the story of banks lining up to get “free” money from the federal government in an attempt to pump up the economy. The reality is, the money hasn’t pumped up much of anything except the national debt. One trend, however, is that banks are regretting taking the [...]
As the saga of Governor Rod Blagojevich seems to be behind us with his removal from office, it seems Republicans are salivating at the prospects of a sure win of the Governor’s mansion in 2010. However, the path to victory is not nearly as certain as many believe it to [...]
We’re working fast and furious to get it done, and word that we’re working on it has spurred many state “leaders” into action, we’ll see how things fall today.
Important note that I got from a friend. We’re $4B in the hole with backlogged bills (Medicaid payments, payments to people who [...]
Right now, have a team of people working around the clock to finish up our Rule 382 suit to remove Blagojevich for being unable to continue as Governor (as reported here at Illinois Review and mentioned at Capitol Fax. Wanted to write up a quick note… we’re planning [...]
The following was an op-ed I wrote and was printed in about a half dozen Illinois papers in the last couple of weeks
Last week, state Comptroller Dan Hynes reported that the backlog of state bills has reached over $4 billion. Several vendors have threatened to stop providing services to the [...]
The following was a column that I wrote for the News-Gazette in regards to the 1% sales tax increase in Champaign County for school facility construction.
The Champaign County Board is poised to vote to put a referendum on the ballot that will allow the school districts in the county [...]
When David Cuddy decided to run against Senator Ted Stevens for the Republican nomination for the US Senate in Alaska, he had no idea that Stevens was going to be indicted on federal corruption charges. He was simply tired of the excessive earmarks, the disapproval of Congress in general and [...]
For people who pay attention to politics, the phrase “Chicago Machine Politics” means all the worst aspects of electioneering, corruption and dirty politics. Jobs are handed out as political favors, contributions are solicited in exchange for contracts, and government workers spend their times leading up to Election Day doing political [...]
UPDATE: Ok, with Pelosi changing her mind and the news that has come out since, I was wrong on this. It ended up being a great way to bring pressure and highlight an issue. And for once, it showed the Republicans fighting *for* something. Kudos.
Last Friday, the United States House [...]
The presidential candidate for change has adopted the twin themes of "hope" and "change" for his political campaign. These themes are the creation of David Axelrod, Barack Obama's senior campaign adviser. It was a stroke of brilliance to tap into the widespread disaffection with Washington D.C. and the growing irritation [...]
One of the chief arguments against a constitutional convention is that “they” will take away the pensions. In fact, there are some proponents (chiefly business groups) that advocate scrapping the pension system because it is a large part of the state’s debt. To be fair, in about 10 years, the [...]
Below is a partial clip of a recent TV interview I did up in Chicago on the Constitutional Convention.
Two lessons learned:
1) Always have a sport coat with me
2) When my hair gets long, it looks like crap (I have since gotten a haircut)
UPDATE: Corrected with full clip [...]
After a bit of bumps, finally got the book finished and for sale on the upcoming vote for a constitutional convention for the state of Illinois. Go buy it and leave nice reviews on Amazon. It debutted at rank #68,000 or so. Is that good?
[...]After the fiasco two weeks ago, when the Illinois Senate buried Rep. Franks’ recall amendment (HJCRA28), Senator Hendon introduced his own recall amendment in the Senate. This version (SJCRA70) is substantially similar to Rep. Franks’ recall but has a few changes: the ability to recall judges, the Governor and [...]
One of the chief arguments against a constitutional convention is the statement that there has been no preparation for the upcoming question that will be on the ballot in November. In 1968 and in 1988, preceding the question being on the ballot there were several committees, organizations and legal groups [...]
Illinois voters will be presented with an historical opportunity to fix the structural problems that plague Illinois government and fix deficiencies and loopholes in our current constitution. There are problems that can only be fixed in a constitution but the entrenched interests have come out saying a convention is unnecessary. [...]
Hugo Chavez is making news again, this time threatening war with Colombia (a U.S. ally) over the assassination of terrorist elements that have taken refuge in Ecuador. The facts aren't quite known, but it is alleged the Colombia sent military forces into Ecuador to attack members of the FARC, [...]
Well… Kinda. Bill Dennis over at Peoria Pundit had me on his radio show to talk about the Illinois Constitutional Convention and some of the reforms that could take place. You can listen to the show below.
Since 1970, the health care industry has undergone a revolutionary change. Before that time people were overwhelmingly (about 70%) in traditional indemnity plans where patients pay a certain percentage of health care costs. With the passage of the Health Maintenance Organization Act written by Ted Kennedy (D-Mass), very quickly over [...]
Ok, so it’s not exactly a tour, but I will be speaking about the prospects of an Illinois Constitutional Convention at the following locales:
Feb. 8th, 8:30am-9:30am, 409 Senate, Illinois State Capitol for the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Foundation.
April 25th, 12-2pm at the Chicago Bar Association.
Hoping to finalize the book [...]
As a necessary counterweight to the excesses of the women’s rights movement, a men’s right movement has developed to fight for equity in the courts, in the family and in the workplace. For instance, in divorces there is significant and insurmountable (unless you have lots of money) obstacles to getting [...]
Governor Rod Blagojevich has done something remarkable in Illinois. He has managed to unite people across the political spectrum to create consensus that he absolutely stinks as a governor. Illinois deserves better than Rod Blagojevich.
Because of his low approval in both parties and the budget fiasco of last year, legislators [...]
MercatorNet has another article up by me, Unsuitable for Children on violent video games, not for the perspective of risk to children, but harm to society at large even among adults.
Lawmakers are fond of saying that these games “will never be suitable for children”. I agree. But these weasel [...]
originally posted at Illinois Review
Yesterday, I filed a complaint with the Michigan Attorney General against Daily Kos’ blogger Markos Moulitsas, requesting an investigation into whether Moulitsas is encouraging voter fraud in next week’s Michigan GOP primary.
The idea of the freedom to vote is part of the bedrock foundation [...]
Much like the Christmas shopping season, the ACLU's War on Christmas begins earlier and earlier every year. This year in Fort Collins, Colorado, the city council decided to revise their policies to honor appropriately the holiday that almost ninety percent of America celebrates as Christmas. A task force was drawn [...]
Today, in the United States District Court in San Francisco, California, the ACLU has filed suit against the United States over the holidays that are designated as federal holidays where the federal government is closed. They argue that Christmas is the only religious holiday on the list and that [...]
I have an article up over at MercatorNet called My big brother, my cell phone on the latest on Google Phone in particular, but the use of cell phone advertising in specific. Go take a look!
What is domain reflection you ask? First, you take a humorous phrase about a person, company or idea and register that as a domain. You then create a page on that domain that has two frames, the top being some tag line of criticism, satire or wit, and the bottom [...]
Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for 2007. According to the Nobel Foundation, the award was given “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the [...]
The controversy surrounding Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia is still roiling the campus and the legislature. Representative Duncan Hunter, a non-factor in the Presidential race, has threatened to cut all federal funding from Columbia for hosting the event. It's just not no-name presidential candidates hungry for airtime that are complaining. [...]
The latest Zogby poll shows that only 11 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. This is contrasted with Bush's underwhelming 29% approval rating. These polls show that Americans of all political stripes are losing faith in their government. Congress' all time low (prior to this [...]
Many on the right are lamenting the "conversion" of former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and will likely start to discredit him for committing the unforgivable heresy of praising Clinton and criticizing Bush. Specifically, he praised Clinton for his fiscal-minded policies and focus on the spending deficit. Conversely, [...]
The Federal Election Commission has recently ruled on the complaint filed against Kos Media (of DailyKos.com fame) that alleged it was running a political committee and did not file the required disclosures. The case was MUR 5928 and the documents are available via the Commission's Enforcement Query System (put [...]
This week a study came out that shows how unilateral divorce laws make divorce more frequent. The empirical research shows what any sensible person would already guess — easy divorce laws make for more divorces. This is only magnified by the fact the divorcing party usually has great incentives [...]
Something I wrote for Associated Content…
Around 1 in 6 Americans Do Not Pay Their Taxes (Digg it here).
According to an IRS spokesperson in an article about anti-war tax resistance, 16.3% of Americans are in non-compliance with their taxes according to the Associated Press.That isn’t fudging the numbers [...]
The popular web video series Red vs. Blue has put out their 100th and final episode of the series with three alternate endings. It marks the end of one of the staples of the Web 2.0 culture and citizen-produced media. It also is one of the few things that [...]
In response to the Center for American Progress's hit piece on talk radio imbalance, various Senators have expressed support for resurrecting the Cold War era "Fairness doctrine" which requires equal airtime for opposing points of view. Senator Feinstein (D-CA) specifically rejects she said they wanted a legislative fix for [...]
Vote for this post on Digg)
The National Organization for Women (NOW) and other women advocacy groups have filed suit against the Bush Administration seeking to abolish Fathers Day. During a press conference held after the filing of the lawsuit, Kim Gandy of NOW said, "the day clearly indicates that [...]
Denver has recently announced a policy that plans to remove 500,000 cars from the road in an aggressive attempt to curb the effects of global warming. This follows on the heels of other plans nationwide to reduce emissions as well as commentary from elites who encourage the further increase [...]
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that a female employee who sued for what seemed to be obvious discrimination in her wages could not bring suit because she took longer than the statutory 180 days to bring the complaint. In her defense, she did not know of the discrimination that [...]
As an information security professional, lately I've become quite bored. The state of hacking today seems to be almost solely employed by the spammer-class of miscreants looking to make as much money as quickly as possible. It's big business now. As such, they continue to exploit the same weaknesses, again [...]
The state of New Jersey has recently announced that it will be creating a state agency to deal with the growing problem of obesity among that state's citizens. This follows on the heels of many other local and state governments taking action against trans fat and other health measures [...]
Two girls were arrested in McHenry County, Illinois last week for distributing flyers at their school that depicted a male classmate kissing another classmate and had the words "God Hates Fags" on the flyers. The two were charged with disorderly conduct and felony hate crimes. As can be expected, [...]
Anyone who has taken a Constitution class in high school knows that the First Amendment protects the right of all people to express almost any idea they want in the public square (with the exceptions of inciting riots, threats of violence, etc). Yet there is one group the various pundits [...]
Northern Ireland has for years been ruled from England. There have been several attempts to come to a compromise solution to let Northern Ireland rule itself since the Good Friday agreements. It appears that finally home rule is about to begin again there.
This is good news, not only because [...]
Sources are reporting that center-right French Presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has won the election by about ten points in France. The results mark the latest European government to make a rightward lurch in political orientation in the last several years.
Every few months the abstinence education advocates and the comprehensive sex ed advocates trade studies back and forth. “Comprehensive sex ed works!” “Abstinence education works!” The back-and-forth clubbing of studies may make for good headlines but largely misses the point.
While it can be argued that comprehensive sex ed may increase [...]
The war against abstinence education wages on across the country. The comprehensive sex ed crowd was apoplectic with the results of a Mathematica study that showed kids who had abstinence education programs were just as likely to engage in sexual activity with the same rates of “dangerous” behavior. The [...]
As a male reading Emma’s Journal by Juli Loesch Wiley, I was somewhat uncomfortable. The book reads is if I picked up a diary of a woman who I did not know and started flipping through it. The account is a frank and open recollection of a [...]
Listening to the far-left’s cries for impeachment one can seriously believe that the United States has become akin to fascist Germany. They seriously believe people are being rounded up in the middle of the night because they “spoke out”. Never mind not one single example can be mentioned.
Today the California [...]
I have a guest column up at the Daily Illini on the Virginia Tech massacre on the insane push to “do something” in the wake of these tragedies. If we stopped at the “shock and sympathy phase” and just had candle-lit vigils, we could credit it to a good [...]
I have two more articles up, the first is up again at Mercator on privacy issues and the ever-expanding Google empire: How Much Longer Will Google do no Evil?
The second article was for the SANS Institute on currency manipulation: Could Currency be Destabilized?.
Now that the election is over, I hope to blog and write more. I’ve done a little during the campaign, but mostly for pay. See Keeping Children Safe Online that I did a few months ago.
So long gone are the days of one month between posts. 
[...]
The partial birth abortion ban ruling is a watershed moment in the abortion debate. It isn’t because it “restricts a right for a woman to choose” or that “it is the beginning of the end of abortion”, it’s that it is a vindication for a common-sense understanding of the Constitution.
The [...]
Senate Bill 385 is currently before the Illinois General Assembly. This bill directs the state to create a professional license for midwives to attend homebirths. Our current laws allow a woman to give birth at home, but make it illegal for midwives to attend those births. This essentially takes away [...]
A federal district judge has recently ruled that the Children’s Online Protection Act is an unconstitutional suppression of free speech. The law requires porn site operators to verify that patrons are 18 years old before giving them access to pornography. The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU on behalf of [...]
The following appeared as a guest column in today’s Daily Illini:
Sexuality, by its very nature, is a vulnerable thing. It involves letting someone share the deepest parts of one’s body, heart, and soul. It has pride of place as an expression of romantic love. In its natural form, there [...]
The rumors are true, I was interviewed for the Daily Show and the segment will air Thursday night. The interview was on the daylight savings time change and the drama some have made about it breaking computers. It’s a pain, yes, but hardly chaos. Anyway, they flew me out Monday, [...]
Breaking News: This will be updated in this post as more information comes in. (Hat Tip to Marathon Pundit.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has established an innovative program specifically targetted to Illinois veterans of the War on Terror. Basically, the state and the University will allow them [...]
The conventional political wisdom is not to respond to candidate questionnaires from “hostile” political organizations. It just doesn’t sit well with me not telling voters or political groups where I stand though. So this is what I sent Planned Parenthood in response to whether I would support a standardized comprehensive [...]
I decided to run for the Champaign Unit #4 school board because I was tired of complaining in my columns and to others of my dissatisfaction with Unit 4. I ran to try to be part of the solution, not to be another pundit engaging in a blog B&W session. [...]
Because I’m in the Daily Illini today with a soundbite, I’m going to clarify my views on the Chief matter. My views have largely not changed since I said retire the Chief in 2003. However, I would not consider myself Anti-Chief. The Peoria, the descendants of the Illini [...]
Imagine a mandatory training exercise on a college campus for new Resident Advisors. During the course of this training the following image was spoken: black residents all listen to loud rap music, hold licentious parties and are probably dealing drugs out of their dorm rooms. That individual would be dragged [...]
The prevailing mantra in higher education is being sensitive to other cultures and religions. Schools fall over themselves trying to prove that they are inclusive to a diverse background. Instead of “Merry Christmas” it is “Happy Holidays” so as not to leave out those who celebrate other holidays such as [...]
I am not a big sports fan. I will occasionally watch a game or two, but my following of sports entails looking at the standings in the NFL or Major League Baseball maybe once a month. When the White Sox or Chicago Bears are in contention for a title, I [...]
See story in the News-Gazette.
The arrest of a second grade teacher in Urbana is a disturbing event. While the facts of the case remain unclear it is too soon to rush to judgment. However, in the light of these events it serves as a reminder to the schools in [...]
For background, see this.
Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Illinois Inspector General Over Civil Rights Violations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact:
John Bambenek
jcb.blog@gmail.com
(217)493-0760
http://www.parttimepundit.com
Champaign, IL, Jan. 26, 2007 – on Friday, John Bambenek, an academic professional at the University of Illinois, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the [...]
This appeared in the Jan. 21, 2007 News-Gazette under the title “State should stay out of patient-physician relationship”, as well as other Illinois papers
No one wants the government rifling through his or her bank accounts. The FBI has no business perusing your grocery lists. The right of privacy is clear [...]
On 1/8/07 at noon my wife gave birth to our 10 lb 8 oz son. All are well and are recovering…
Drudge Report is splashing the news that the Sunday Times of London plans on reporting that Israel is planning a nuclear strike against Iran to head off Iran’s nuclear ambitions. According to Drudge:
Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear [...]
The governor’s office is facing a lawsuit over disclosure of the many subpoenas received by our illustrious government. Pay-to-play scams, hired truck, and hiring scams are rampant in the government of Illinois. So what does the Executive Investigator General target for investigation? People who take the annual ethics test [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2007
Contact: John Bambenek
217-493-0760 / jcb.unit4@gmail.com
http://www.parttimepundit.com
Champaign, IL - - On January 5th, 2007, Champaign resident John Bambenek declared his intention to run for the Champaign Community Unit School District #4 school board. The election is being held on April 17th to fill [...]
MercatorNet has posted my recent article on wikipedia.
According to Wikipedia’s own estimates there are over 765,000 stubs. This estimate could off by about 20 per cent because Wikipedia rounded up in its counts and articles might be listed as a stub in multiple categories. This leaves about 600,000 stubs. [...]
2006 has been billed as the end of the conservative movement. This is due largely to the mistaken idea that conservatism is the same as Republicanism. What the voters rejected was corruption and good-ole’ boy politics. The election clearly showed the divide between conservatives and Republicans. However, there is one [...]
AIDS is a growing epidemic in the world. There was a time when it was considered a “gay-only disease” but those days are gone. International agencies and world governments are working to solve this problem before a demographic nightmare takes place. However, the ACLU is on the case to push [...]
What do you think of when someone mentions “men’s entertainment?” Probably strip clubs, Playboy, pornography or other penis-centric activities. Behavior once characterized by a pubescent seventh-grader has been established as the gold standard of manhood.
This attitude pervades the sex-crazed Western world. When in Italy a few years ago I noticed [...]
The election season for local offices is heating up in Champaign. Recently the deadline passed for city mayor and city council. Of the 13 sets of petitions to get on the ballot, 11 had objections. Some of those objections are significant. For instance, mayoral candidate Mingee did not get [...]
I was on the Extreme Wisdom Radio show and gave some of my thoughts on Iraq. Listen to the podcast below, or go to the Extreme Wisdom website and listen to the podcast of the entire show.
You can thank Billy Joe Mills for the AIM sounds during [...]
Online identity theft has become a constant concern in a world of online shopping and bill paying. In the rush to move to the internet age, many companies simply neglected security concerns and the result has luckily not been as bad as it could have been.
In 2005, I did an [...]
I’ve just finally gotten parttimepundit.com for the web address of this blog. The old URL (jcb.pentex-net.com) will remain active for the forseeable future, but redirect blogrolls to http://www.parttimepundit.com.
It seems standard fare for second-rate columnists to write broadsides against bloggers. It’s particularly ironic for the journalistic community to berate blogs for poor writing. After all, blogs have supplanted journalism for the literary gutter. To then boast displays the arrogance of someone who claims bragging rights for finished [...]
In the quest to remove any and all obstacles and delays in the race for a woman (or girl) to get an abortion, people starting become aware that abusive men were coercing women against their will to get them. By bringing down the full force of constitutional law to make [...]
