Do They Have a Time-Out Chair in the Illinois State House?
Well, they need one.
State Representative Mike Bost almost set himself on fire this morning, quite accidentally. He got riled up just a tad about some reform legislation pushed by the Democratic Governor and some Democratic members of the House.
So, after two or three seconds of reflective contemplation, he decided to go the Crazzzzy Man route.
Watching the faces of the people around him is almost as much fun as watching him. You know his daughter will never get a date to the prom, right?
Thanks to Bud for the heads up.
Okay, now we’re getting back to my old stomping ground! Ahh, beautiful Springpatch. The Springfield Hilton is built to look like a corncob, like they used to use when they ran out of Sears catalog pages in the ol’ two-holer.
Yep, they put colic in bucolic down there, but it’s positively urbanized compared to Murphysboro, where this Bost-urd is from. The Lord has sent several F5 tornados at ’em over the years, and the Big Muddy breaks its levees every other spring, but a gun-nut like Bost is unfamiliarized with the concept of a “warning shot.”
About the best anyone can hope for is, the next time the New Madrid fault gets a hiccup, that Murphysboro ends up in Cape Girardeau’s lap, and then he’s Missouri’s problem.
1Now you have mentioned a “snot nosed hissy fit” before I’m sure, wouldn’t that be described as one?
2The guy needs to take a powder before he has an aneurism. What a total ass.
3I hope his constituents are proud of the classy rep they’ve elected. Reminds me of when I used to play girls basketball… that guy needs to get hit with a technical foul and sent to the showers.
4It’s real easy to throw a hissy fit. Just ask your kids. To get your point across, however, takes smarts and thoughtfulness and, maybe, a little bit of planning. None of which this guy, apparently, possesses.
5My oh my, it seems Mr. Manners has left the room and replaced himself with a toddler fighting bedtime.
6Dang, that looked familiar. I had a guy cut me off today and then stop in front of me and jump out of his car to scream at me, MF this and MF that. I locked my doors but was afraid he was going to run up and break a window. After he went on his microdick way I was just glad that I don’t go through life with that kind of ugly moronic attitude. Same here. Check the medication level, boys.
7He’s the good guy in this case, you should read what he is pissed at. Sometimes, a Repub can be right, not often, sometimes
8@merl I agree with you, but I’m really sorry to see him lose his cool over such an important issue. We can’t do anything to face the need for better education in this country until we make the profession attractive instead of treating its practitioners like pond scum, and I’d like to think Bost recognizes that as well as the need to get bills to the legislators in time for them to make intelligent choices. Too bad he had to look like such a goose trying to make that point.
9Being “pissed” is one thing…going stark raving crazy is something else again. I think someone needs to change in his medication.
10Being “pissed” is one thing…going stark raving crazy is something else again. I think someone needs to change his medication.
11Susan, I love, love, love your web site and keep it open in a browser tab at all times. Thank you for your contributions to my sanity.
Tonight, I am in tears. I took a $20,000+ pay cut to come to an Illinois state university, and now my department is going down the tubes. I just found out two of my best and brightest colleagues have elected to take jobs outside of Illinois because the asshats are shredding our benefits. And my wonderful chairman said today that he just might retire this December because of the fools in Springfield.
I found this description of the video via gawker.com:
“The bill he was opposing… was one that would “reduce annual cost-of-living increases for public employees, such as state workers, university staff and downstate teachers,” and “…also gradually makes public schools and universities pay the cost of retirement benefits for their employees, as Chicago schools already do,” according to CBS Chicago. It would, apparenty, also “shift pension costs for public schools from the state to local school districts, which would be forced to raise property taxes to fund pension costs that are now picked up by the state.” And there-in lies Bost’s issue.”
I believe Speaker Michael Madigan (?) has been trying to get this legislation through on the QT, not letting unions or other interested parties have access to content before introducing and pushing it. Illinois joins the ranks of Wisconsin and Michigan in drowning eduction to save the 1%. We are so screwed.
12What WAS he throwing the fit about?
13Ain’t you glad you don’t live with him?
14I wonder how he feels about the way Mitchy-Mitch McConnell misuses the rules.
15Nancy –
I’m unfamiliar with the bill in its entirety, but my understanding is there is $83 billion in unfunded pension liability for the state. The teachers’ pensions that contribute to this have been negotiated – sometimes in bad faith – by school boards who promise more pensions and less pay, knowing the burden would be on the state.
It’s a bad situation, and I don’t know that any solution is a “good” one. I have mixed feelings about this one, knowing full well about the property tax cap in Illinois (I used to be a Park District Commissioner). Chicago, being home rule, has greater flexibility to deal with the pension situation.
Downstate (i.e. anything outside the collar counties) with not just the property tax cap, but also the depressed values in a smaller tax base to start with, would make this a tough choice.
But maybe that is the Dems point? That under the GOTP tax model, there are only Hobson’s choices left?
This seems like a draconian way to make such an obtuse point. But again, there is no good way out of this one, it seems.
Holey safety net, Batman, what now?
16I wonder if the unfunded pension obligation exists because the state legislature chose to postpone their legislative duty to appropriate the funds year after year, until the “obligations” piled so high the state was trapped under a mountain it could never get out from under? This has happened in many states. Then, when it comes to honoring the pension obligations, public sector workers, university staff, and teachers get the shaft.
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