Are they still in session? No kidding…

Maybe Rob Smyth can smoke some grass and come up with another rip on conservatives or johnh can tell us how me made money one time when the legislature was almost out of session…anything to liven up this topic.

I think CNN started the obsessive focus on National and World events. It was so much more glamorous than local news, was on all the time, and seemed to be covering important news. Now it seams no one even pays attention to the local politicians – and that’s a huge loss for our society.

Take the new law about to be passed on used cars. It bans lawsuits against wholesalers, saying if you have a problem, you should sue the retailer. The problem is, the retailer will claim that they were duped by the wholesaler – they didn’t know anything was wrong. This will make the Retailer blameless, and place culpability with the dishonest Wholesaler – who now has immunity thanks to this law. End result? You won’t be able to sue if a car dealer sells you a lemon, a flood car, a chop shop special, a rebuilt wreck – nothing. You will have no recourse.

Don’t like the sound of that? Well then tell your local politician to oppose HB1970 – or you can watch the news on the floods in Myanmar, the quake in China, or latest twist in the Presidential nomination process.

One of these things will effect you, the others? Not so much. But they are cooler – and CNN/FOX/MSNBC have special reports on them!

Don’t see much need to try to keep up with the legislators. They hardly ever do what they say they are going to do when they are running for office. Once they get there, they become one of the good old boy’s (or girls). They group up like a bunch of school kids at the bus stop. The only difference is they take money and gifts to be persuaded to think.

Didn’t liven things up much Tim, but I tried.

Not being a lobbyist with money to spread around, I doubt they’d pay much attention to me. Things always seem to improve when the session is over.

Not sure why I would waste my time paying attention to what we might expect our legislators to do. All they are doing is trying to figure out more ways to get more of the money I work for and give it to people who haven’t worked for it.

No. I tried. It didn’t work. About 5 years ago the local newspaper announced that our legislator and a local judge was going to establish a
CASA program program for this area. I was intimately familiar with the program. I met with the judge twice. I explained how it work if done right, and how it would wouldn’t work if any member had received a check from the state for anything other than a tax refund.

If a CASA member is a paid stat worker, they will have a loyalty to the State and not to the child they would supposedly represent. They chose to let state employee’s to also “represent” children. That allowed state workers to cover the failures of other state workers. It worked to perfection.

You many have read in the newspaper that a Judge from Eldorado allowed parents to take a little guy named Caleb to Indiana from Illinois. In Illinois, he was doing well living with his uncle and his wife. He was abused in Indiana and then killed by his parents. (They were both meth addicts.)

The children’s social services department, and other members of the state had goofed from day 1. Did the CASA worker, who is a state paid employee, submit a report to the Judge based on her investigations? No. She had never even done a investigation!!

The CASA program here is the worst I have ever seen.

I follow this religously. Our legislators in Illinois can’t get anything done because of the infighting. Now they need a raise again. Emil Jones stating “I need food stamps” in a childish rant. If they lived like the rest of us in the state maybe we coould forgive their childish behavior but most make 3 times as much as per year than both my husband and my income.
Pat Quinn is smart to distance himself from our Governor. Patrick Fitzgerald has his ducks in a row and our Governor will be joining our former Governor in prison. This is disgusting that this is the best we get as we watch our state go under.
Our Governor can’t even take the time to come to our Capitol of Springfield lwt alone live there. He misses meeting because ballgames are more important. Now he has taken jobs from Springfield and is taking more soon.
Blagovich and Jones cover eachothers backs so nothing gets passed. Our bills aren’t being paid but the Governor finds money for burnt out churches and when the mistake is discovered he gives a second million to cover the mistake.
Don’t know how long Illinois can take this behavior as no one can stop our Governor.

I do keep up with what the legislature is doing, the best I can. I keep their website in my “favorites” list, I belong to a non-profit group that actively engages the senators and representatives on a regular basis, providing testimony at hearings, lobbying at the capitol at times, and I have personally gone to the capitol to discuss my concerns with our elected officials. I’ve made it a point to involve myself in order for my voice to count. It helps being part of a group that has gained respect. But even writing letters, making phone calls, and participating in surveys and signing petitions are good ways to carry out my duty as a citizen, apart from group membership. I wish more people would seek out organizations that work the values and issues they agree with. Then we wouldn’t feel so much at the mercy of “the few”.

I agree that there is too much focus on national and worldwide news, celebrity and moguls lives.

How many local news have a morning session that isnt from another city cause everyone is so concerned with whats going on there.

Legislature processes are too complex or too drawn out or both for the average person to follow (and keep in mind average attention spans are the minority… wonder why???) and there isnt anyone who doesnt speak about things sans opinion.

For those who can follow this great. I dont have a problem. Joe Blow out there listens to someones opinion, nods and goes back to his PS3 OR goes back to sleep cause he works away from a TV all day and barely has time to see his kids in his free time.

I have followed what has gone on in Jeff City this year, w/ regard to property tax reform laws. I am glad the legislature addressed the subject, and it appears that we have a measure that will help. However, following and tracking a given bill from the time it is first introduced to the time it is debated, wording changed, resubmitted to committee for approval, etc. etc. is a bit like herding cats. I now understand how hard it is for us to follow what our government officials do…even w/ website access and audio streaming of floor activity. I think that laws are so hard to actually read and decipher if you’re a lay person, so you read the summary to get the gist. But when you read the bill’s actual verbage, you find that the “devil is in the details.” It is incumbent on our elected officials to decipher the impact of these laws for us laypeople. Show examples…explain why one bill is better than another, or why one bill won’t do what it is intended. A staff member charged not only w/ writing a bill’s summary, but also publishing concete examples of the bill’s impact would be a great step forward in providing us w/ the necessary information to actually be able to say we KNOW the job got done w/ “x” law. We have to wait and see many times. So tracking what goes on in Jeff City up until the last day of the legislative session is vital. Just pick one topic, then follow it. As my bumper sticker says, “Get involved…the world is run by those who show up.” Apathy kills.