More of the same from America's career politicians. Latest records available on the Quinn Administration shows an average of 335.9 ethics reports per year were filed, almost ten percent higher than his predecessor.The EIG's office files indicate an annual average of 307.1 ethics complaints filed during the Blagojevich Administration.

Let me guess...it would have had nothing to do with crooked politicians if the Republican had won, right? You guys are so transparent.

ha..Republicans are transparent..... hanging chads?

This is good news. I am a liberal, but didn't really want to vote for Quinn because I'm not convinced he has what it takes to fix our financial troubles. If it wasn't for two things I would have voted for the Republican:

1) The governors role in redistricting. That was the deal breaker. As open as I am to a republican governor, I want Democrats in Washington.

2) Bill Brady not only belives in intellegent design, he wants it taught in schools. If it weren't for the redistricting, this would have been the deal breaker for me. Forget that "teach the controversy" BS. Intelligent design is not science, it is religion, and it has no place in public schools.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones in the Dover Area School Board decision, " We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to a pretext for the board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10545387/

While I'm still entirely shocked that Obama's former senate seat went to a republican, this one doesn't surprise me in the least. IL seems to live by the saying "we get the government we deserve". At least nearly half the state has a shred of sanity left, too bad for them the inmates are running the asylum.

Yeah, like Quinn really cares that his ass is on the line. All his election means is that my damn taxes are going to go up- again. That's all these democrats are good for is raising taxes and passing politically correct bills. With the exception of 2 downstate counties and Chicago, the whole state voted for Brady which should say something. But Quinn won't see that as a message, he'll still run his office as ignorant as before.
Thanks again, Chicago.

With the exception of 2 downstate counties and Chicago, the whole state voted for Brady which should say something.

I'm not saying I agree with Quinn, I just don't agree with this statement. We live in a democracy where the majority of people rule, not the majority of land owners. We don't distribute political power based on land area, we do it based on population. If a Brady couldn't take the Governor's mansion in this political climate then there is no question that the people of Illinois wanted Quinn.

DarkKnight, head on up north of the border. Wisconsin finally came to it's senses on Tuesday so maybe you'll have better luck on our side of the line...

Chicago and the surrounding suburbs make up over 70% of the Illinois economy. You down state residents like to complain about the influence we in Chicago have over our politics, but the reality is that we support the state economy. Brady was too far to the right to be governor of Illinois. I couldn't be more happy that he lost.

Chicago and the surrounding suburbs make up over 70% of the Illinois economy

Believe me, it's not the surrounding suburbs involved so much as Chicago alone. I'm sick of the way Chicago has its influence all through the state. So because of Chicago politics the rest of the state has to suffer? Not acceptable. And though you claim that Chicago and the surrounding suburbs make up over 70% of the states economy you also have to remember that Quinn only won by a very slim majority which would be the equivalent of a small rural town's population. As I said, Quinn will hardly see it that way and he'll only run his office like business as usual, not giving a damn about how close the election actually was. It seems that since we had that embarrassment of a governor George Ryan (which I am ashamed to say was a republican) things have just gone downhill since.

Are you from Illinois? If not, tough.

PS - "Tax and Spend"? Uh, that's what all governments do no matter how conservative they are.

East St Louis came through again for the dems. As said earlier only 2 downstate counties voted for Quinn. I live in one of them, here is St Clair County we are known for vote buying and voter fraud. All it takes is to go over to East St Louis and pass out a few $10. bills and they will vote for anyone you tell em to. Recently one of East St Louis's pubic officials ( he may still be in office, not sure) served time in prison for voter fraud. The very sad thing is, he was elected AFTER serving time. Just a couple of weeks ago, public officials in Cahokia (again St Clair County) were convicted of voter fraud. I tell ya, its nothing new in St Clair County IL.

Your post reminded of another guy's comment on elections awhile back.

Who votes is not important. Who counts the vote is what is important. - Joseph S.

Leatherneck918

illinois has not had a increase in 8 years, don't you think its time.

really??? its time???? Illinois and Crook County have the highest tax rate in the nation... what time is it? I assume you are one of the many that don't pay taxes....just like to steal from the hard working ones that do

Funny Leatherneck, given that Bush cut taxes in 2001 and 2003, the economy didn't do a darn thing, thsoe tax cuts are STILL in place, and the economy started to nosedive in 2007.

Hmmm...yeah, lotta good those tax cuts did! Where are all the magical jobs those tax cuts were supposed to create? The tax cuts are still there; how come no jobs? Oh, and don't forget that the rich actually got RICHER under Bush, so not only were their taxes less, they have more money to invest and create jobs.

Well, smart guy - where are the jobs?

Well, smart guy - where are the jobs?: Answer: ASK YOUR MESSIAH

Bush Tax Cuts can't compete with a Market Crash (Housing) the dems did and the amount of money spent by Obama and his team. Take some Economic Courses and you will find what you think you know is nothing but, BS.

At least the networks have stopped calling races before the polls close. I'd agree that the 10:00.01 call for Barbara Boxter and Jerry Brown seemed a bit premature (among others, those are just the 2 that really stuck out). Sure, they were pretty safe bets and they were accurate, but don't you gain more credibility if you wait until there's actual numbers to back it up? The networks were calling WI's governor and senate races pretty early, too- what was interesting is when they called it, 2 of the most democratic states were just starting to report their tallies and one of the most republican counties was also just starting. So they called it at something like a 15% margin, the race tightened to about 3% and then stretched out again to about 7% in the end. But this is why I wasn't banking on national coverage of the local races- they aren't as likely to concern themselves with which counties had reported yet where I knew to be more cautious. Awfully curious about the magically appearing votes that go for the democratic candidates lately though (Coleman/Franken in '08, The CO race now, etc)...

Your the Faux(Fake), not Fox news.

Didn't know any you Kaintucks knew any words longer that 3 letters. Congrats to you, Shltkicker.

I suppose you get your news from CNN - Crap Not News

Gregg M.

Your the Faux(Fake), not Fox news.

Ah, the ever-popular "I Know You Are But What Am I" retort. Well played!

...but what have the Romans ever done for you?

@Scotty

Nobody says that you don't have to pay taxes. The arguments are over how much and for what. Leaders set priorities on what we can and cannot afford. To simply solve every problem by raising taxes hits the Margret Thatcher Theorem ... "Sooner or later you run out of other peoples money"

ScottyB - you hit the nail on the head. Conservatives have been whining that their taxes were too high since the 1950's. Back then, they had a point: Top marginal rate was 91%. Now it's 35% AND they've got a paltry 15% tax on capital gains - the LOWEST taxes since the 1920's. And look - there's STILL people complaining about taxes. I mean, there's Alan, quoting the walking dead Thatcher.

Yeah, you do run out of people's money: The MIDDLE CLASS, since the vast majority of the tax cuts went to the RICH! So who pays? Oh yeah, us, the little guy, again. Yes, I know, I know "47% of Americans don't pay income taxes!" I've heard it. But that's cause the reverse of what you said is true too: You can only cut taxes for so long before there's no money left for the government to run!

I like all those things ScottyB mentioned. I don't mind paying taxes to have them. I really don't like the idea of no taxes at all and having a failed state like Somalia where everyone can do what they want, like piracy and hard-labor agriculture. Taxes are the dues we pay to live in civilized society. Unfortunately, conservates spend the money on credit, then never cut anything to pay it back and blame Dem's when the Dem's take over and try to be adults about it.

Same old story, different year. And somehow, they convince more than half of the voters that it really was the Dem's fault, even though the Bush ran up 11.3 TRILLION in debt before Obama ever took his oath. That deficit didn't magically disappear when Obama was sworn in, ya know. It'd be nice if Republicans would take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for their failed economic policies that helped get us into this mess, AND ran up the the deficit (two tax cuts, two unpaid for wars, AND Medicare Part D that was never funded and no cuts were made to pay for it).

Welcome to reality. How's it taste?

Actually, Jose, I think the problem is balance. Yes, there are services the government provides that cannot effectively be managed on an individual level- national defense, the freeway system, air traffic control. We all benefit from them so we should all pay for them, right? Only we don't. 53% of us pick up the tab for 100% of the nation. Then you get to the social programs and such- I do agree that there is a part of our society in true need of this support and it is our responsibility as citizens to provide the services for them, there are a lot of people capable of doing for themselves who chose not to. Why should they get a free ride on the 53% of us who pay taxes? And when 2% of that 53% picks up the vast majority of the tab while receiving the smallest portion of benefit, you have an imbalance.

We have an imbalance because we have refused to balance the equation for 145 years. We have established a permanent underclass which we now want to turn into a slave wage class.

Better than that other "news" network: Friends Of Xaida.

You do know that a Saudi man connected to bin Laden owns an enormous stake in Newscorp, right?

Sure, that won't open a can o' worms on abuse and monied interests being the sole controllers of government, no sir...

If you want to rewrite the constitution yourself it might be quicker for you to just found your own country somewhere else.

Now if you want us all to start over from scratch, nobody owns anything, and everyone has to be a productive worker before they can own anything, including their "right" to vote, fine. Equal opportunity for all.

...umm ACORN?

its in the constitution that everyone has the right to vote???? maybe you better re-read it. which ammendment is that?

Wow~! You're actually, seriously, legitimately arguing against the notion that everyone has a basic right to participate in the democratic process!

What are you, a Nazi?

typical..resort to name calling when you can't back up a statement... it's not a basic right... Im sure you think that being a home owner or having cable tv is a right too..... how about I get to to come over to your home and get a say on how to spend your money, how to raise your kids while you pay me to do it.... i'm sure you would be all for that

scott: you would lose the vote over how to spend the money. Silly example in the first place. Do you really think the Constitution of this land doesn't define voting as a basic right to which you are entitled at a given age?

Padraig, laddy, are ya sure ya didn't go a trifle heavy on the zeroes?

I have no idea where you people come up with such crap. If it weren't for the city of Chicago, none of you people downstate would have electricity and phone lines, much less paved roads. Kinda like the rest of the country: The liberal, blue states are the rich ones, and they get back about $0.90 on the dollar that they send to D.C., while the red states - who all bitch and moan about "taxes!" and "government waste!" all get like $1.10 back on their taxes.

And then you get uninformed people who have to put "liberty" or "patriot" in their names who think that the red areas actually pay more in taxes than they get back, without realizing that it's the liberal rich areas that pay for the rural, downstate freeloaders to have much of any state money.

You should also look at population - 102 counties that only have a tiny fraction of the overall population of the state doesn't mean squat when 99% of that space is nothing but corn and soybeans with only a few people per square mile. So, if you understood basic math, you'd know that "Duh!" most of the population of the state lives in a few counties up north, and yes, they voted for Quinn. What does that tell you? They own YOU downstate, and given where all the money is in IL (in the Chicago area), by all means - secede from the Chicago area, and see how little revenue you'd actually get from the non-moneyed areas south of I-80 and west of I-39.

Please do some research before making ignorant statements. Thank you.

Jose, I'm not complaining about Fed Tax, I'm complaining about state taxes. That's sales tax, gasoline tax, cigarette tax, license plates etc... ALL of which has climbed higher than any other neighboring state. I'm talking about COOK COUNTY which does NOT bring in more tax revenue than it takes to keep it afloat! Those 101 other counties down state as you say, make IL what it is... that's a top global world agriculture producer and industrial machine! The top state and major world employer is NOT in Cook County it's located in one of those generally democrat river towns down state my friend and this time they voted the Dem OUT! If not for those farms, Chicago wouldn't exsist. Chicago grew as a shipping point for the harvest. So think about that before you go off all half cocked. It's no big secret that politics in Chicago has always been infested with crooks! I am neither a Dem or Rep... I'm a Federalist. More power to the states and LESS to the FEDS! This country was originally set up as States basically being their own little countries. The only JOB of the FEDS was to print a common currency and defend any one of the States against agression. I don't know about you but I am sick of the FEDs telling my state what to do! IL knows best what's best for IL... because we live here... we don't live in the Happy Meal denying California. Quinn is a homeboy out of Chicago... same town who gave us a lot of other GOV's who ended up in court/prison... and that's (Chicago)who's interests he has in mind as he hands them my IL State Tax money. Again... there's been many newspaper writers and people like yourself you give little credit to the rest of us down state who've brought up the topic of Cook Country becoming it's own state... I'm all for it... maybe then we could get proper representation!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. Jose, you need to get your facts straight... You do the math... I understand the population demographics but it's that population located in Cook County and you that don't get the big picture here. It's all that unpopulated land owned outside of Cook County you speak of that pays the bigger chunk of state taxes make no mistake about it. Cook county isn't were ALL the revenue is generated. 9 Billion a year alone comes from produce AG/Farms. Not to mention or include we are the top industrial leader in farm and construction equipment, coal... not sure I've seen many farms, implement factories or mines inside Cook County. It's the rest of IL that keeps the wheels spinning in the windy city. What I do know is Cook county takes more than it's fair share in state funded infrastructure, welfare, unemployement and high gov pensions. That's why they voted for Quinn... without him they'd really be hurting! The rest of the state is tired of paying out in higher state taxes from Rod and his boy Pat who've done nothing but raise our debt while driving out residents and businesses to other states. Hell I had to cross the river out of state to get a job for the first time in over 30 yrs!

Your comments about phonelines and electricity? Really? LOL Sorry Charlie (Jose) but we down state supply you with your energy demand and all your resources! Chicago is just a service and transportation hub for IL and the rest of the country. Money goe's through Chicago, it's not made there. When will the Cubs win a world series? About the time IL is debt free! It's the windy city because it's sucking the life out of the rest of the state while controlling who's in charge in Springfield... which btw voted him out as well!

Thank you for a clear and sensible statement. It is unreasonable to expect that a State's debt of multi-billions (with few assets, by the way) can be erased just by cutting spending or fixed overnight. In a similar fashion, it is unreasonable to expect that neglecting the single greatest expenditure of the nation or returning $1billion to the Koch brothers for their $100M investment that laid the groundwork for some modern day 'leaderless movements' will fix the nations economy or debt.

Just a couple of minor points, Pat.

Paladino ran for governor, so not much effect on the Senate there.

And Joe Miller lost to another Republican, so no effect on the Senate there either. And Sarah Palin got slightly more elected than not.

But hey, it sounds like you're a little buzzed and very melancholy. Hang in there. Maybe the real Pat can come back sometime.

You do know that a republican won Obama's seat don't you.

@Jose Von Hussein

You know what, all those corn and soy beans and hog jowls (Bacon) yes bacon fool, us "freeloaders" you called us, we could stop shipping them to that murderous hell hole you call home sweet chicago.

Then we'll see how "rich" you really are fool.

Then your "freeloading" ass buying and trading speculating on "futures" middle-man, do-nothing con-man might have to actually do some real work.