Okay, since every blogger here has had their shot at VP speculation, I thought I would give it a shot. I know most people are sick of the speculation, but I think i have a pick that has not been posted here yet. Picture this (Parts taken from Lynn Sweet via Ben Smith at Politico):

The Obama team, in the run-up to the Democratic convention, will showcase the new Obama ticket Saturday in Springfield at the Old State Capitol, where presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) officially kicked off his campaign in February, 2007. State of Illinois authorities have beens asked permission by Obama folks to reserve the historic spot at noon.

So, approximately 1 pm Eastern time, in what is the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln, music begins playing and a huge banner unrolls reading "Obama / Lincoln 2008"! The symbolism of this unveiling at the place where Lincoln stated "A House Divided Cannot Stand" and began the journey towards ending slavery would be incredible.

The timing of Barack Obama's vice presidential pick, or ticket debut, just came into sharper focus: He's scheduling an event for Saturday at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Not coincidentally, this is where he announced his candidacy on a frozen day in early 2007.

Illinois Senate President Emil Jones has said that he will not seek another term (despite the fact that he is currently on the ballot in November).  The Chicago Tribune reports:

The move by Jones comes as he prepares for the Democratic National Convention, where his protege and former state Senate colleague, Barack Obama, will accept the Democratic nomination for president.

My own encounters with Emil this year center around Obama's presidential campaign.  We were in the same office in both Iowa and Wisconsin, and while I think he traveled with different aides to the two states, it was amazing how they (Emil's aides) pushed the same lines.  The one that was the most memorable (and startling, given what I know about Barack) was that, when asked what job Emil would get in an Obama Administration, the answer was always the same: "Anything He Wants."

Deb Shore, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District in the Chicagoland region, just completed Harvard's Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program in Cambridge last month.  She talks about her experience there in the video (length: 8:54).

This is really as low as you can go.

While State Senator Debbie Halvorson and husband Jim Bush are with their severely injured son at Walter Reed, her millionaire opponent Marty Ozinga decides to attack her with nasty robocalls into the Illinois 11th Congressional District.

Captain Jay Bush is in the Special Forces.  He was severely injured late last week when the truck he was riding on came under attack. He jumped out of the truck on a bridge and fell 20 feet to rocks below. I believe he has broken his back and neck.  

Consider:

* A state in recession.

* A government with crippling underfunded pension obligations, considered "worst in the nation."

* State leaders paralyzed by an increasingly bitter, personal family feud prepared to abandon millions of federal dollars for infrastructure repair.

* A HUGE pay raise for said leaders.

One of these things doesn't fit with the others.  Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is asking people to tell their legislators what they think about this huge pay raise that they have given themselves with his new Vote Now!  Vote No! website.

(H/T to Rich Miller's Capitol Fax blog)

Last week I had a huge influx of readers interested in my piece on Eric Cantor. Seems I'm not the only one thinking McCain might just pick Cantor. I think it's a longshot, but possible.

Things are getting very hectic personally. This may be the last newsletter for a few weeks or more. We will be on vacation in California for a couple of weeks and I will have Grand Jury duty after that. Plus work is exploding for me and Joy's dissertation is overdue. Even politically, I will need to put some extra effort into my friend, Devin Cohen's primary election September 9th. But this newsletter I cover some pretty critical stuff.

We're Number 49!  We're 49th!

Ok, so Illinois isn't dead last in state funding, as a percentage of the state's share of education funding, but that isn't anything to be proud of.  Under Rod Blagojevich, Illinois has continued the death spiral to the bottom, making education (apparently) the lowest priority in his lacklaster administration.

So what does the governor do?  Why, call a special session of course, so that he can leverage the state's dismal education record in his obsessive and increasingly bitter feud with the speaker.

Do you live in California?  Texas?  New York?  Illinois?  Mississippi?  Alaska?  Think the 2008 election is a done deal for you, and you’re wondering about what your neighbors or Missouri will do?  Think again--  every state is a battleground.

If you’re supportive of the issues that Barack Obama is for, he’s going to need some help to get his policies through congress.  We’ve seen how willing the GOP is to shed their objections to the filibuster when they’re out of power, and we’ve seen how unwilling they are to allow rational thought to cloud their dogmatic, lockstep agenda that’s sent our country into a tailspin.

Some major developments this week involving corruption and domestic terrorism. Shootings, anthrax, and indictments. I have been talking for quite some time about Republican corruption and Ted Stevens of Alaska is somoene I declared as the most corrupt politician in America. Well, this week he was indicted. I have also been writing for some time about right wing fanatics in government and on talk shows inciting intolerance and violence. Well, we had another example of right wing terrorism in Knoxville, TN, quite possibly inspired by right wing talk shows.

Meanwhile, speculation about who Obama and McCain will pick for the VP spot is is the current rage. Everyone has tips, inside info and rumors to share. Well, I have no idea who either will choose, but one possibility for McCain was mentioned to me that would be interesting: Eric Cantor, Congressman from Virginia who makes Joe Lieberman look liberal. I discuss him this week. I also review my past coverage of Republican election fraud in Florida and Georgia. I am sure we will see the same kind of fraud in both states again this year. Plus I have been trying to flesh out my state-by-state coverage.

At a time when organizations across the country are focused on increasing voter registration, the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) has worked hard to make sure that when those newly registered voters go to the polls, their votes will count.

Today the movement to protect our votes will take a giant leap forward when SAVE teamed up with Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Congresswoman Jan Shakowsky of Illinois and Congressman Steve LaTourette of Ohio present the Student VOTER Bill of 2008.

He's been dragged there kicking and screaming, but he's going.

Join him at Two for Tuesdays as the clock strikes Midnight.

By all accounts John McCain had a lousy week while Barack Obama was greeted like a star by our troops and by crowds all over the world.

Here is a video from You Tube of Obama meeting the troops in Kuwait. They sure look thrilled with his presence:

In recent weeks, we have been hearing a lot about Dan Seals on Daily Kos. Whether it was posts about his appearance at Netroots Nation, about his stellar fundraising, or about his desperate opponent.

Tomorrow Saturday July 26 marks the beginning of the 100 Days to Victory campaign. I'm calling on anybody and everybody across the country to help Scott Harper in IL-13 by phonebanking for half an hour calling just 5 people from a list of names and numbers and a script we'll send you via email or fax. This is an excellent opportunity for newbies to get their feet wet volunteering for a campaign and you don't have to be anywhere near Illinois to participate. You don't need any campaign experience to help. If you know how to use a telephone that's good enough. Of course if you're an experienced activist who wants to do more you can make as many calls as you want and we'll also be canvassing and phonebanking from many locations across the district. If you're close by campaign HQ in Naperville we're meeting at 1pm for a group photograph. We're gonna have with free pizza, so bring the kids and we'll have a great time.  

So read on for details about why you should spend a little time tomorrow and links to how you can help.

Barack Obama isn't the only one facing the dirtiest of race-baiting attacks this cycle.

Rep. Mark Kirk, locked in the race of his life with Orange to Blue candidate Dan Seals, has already made several highly controversial statements about Democratic candidates this cycle, most notably this one (emphasis added):

DON WADE: In fact, yesterday in a conference call, Barack Obama's advisers were asked, "If Osama bin Laden were caught, should he get to challenge his detention in U.S. courts?" And the advisers said that -- should that right to challenge detention that they get at Gitmo based on the Supreme Court ruling, should that be applied to bin Laden? -- and Obama's advisers said, "Yes."

KIRK: Yeah, and I would much rather have a policy where if we see Obama there's a shoot-on-sight order.

DON WADE: Well, okay. I'm with you, but I don't know whether that's going to make 67 -- well it might --

ROMA: I don't think Osama bin Laden -- no one ever sights him.

Kirk apologized to Senator Obama for the alleged mix-up. But he's back to making underhanded, oh-so-subtle statements about Democrats, this time about Dan Seals himself.

The Kirk campaign is going after Seals for being "unemployed".

"After losing his bid for Congress, Seals did not return to GE Finance and was unemployed," according to a Kirk campaign memo out last week. "Near the end of the 2006 campaign, Seals paid himself $25,000 out of his campaign donor funds — an act that is legal but strongly discouraging to donors ... in May, Seals filed his 2008 financial disclosure with the U.S. House showing only $3,300 in earned income through the first quarter of the year."

Unemployed? Seals has been working as a business consultant and lecturer at Northwestern University.

Most candidates for Congress take at least a leave of absence from work to focus on their campaigns, especially campaigns as hotly contested as this one. This is hardly a secret. Candidates frequently sacrifice promising careers out of a commitment to public service; praise to those who do.

Heaven forbid we actually have candidates for office who put public service ahead of their own personal gain. I understand why that concept may be foreign to Republicans, but still.

Regardless of the stupidity and irrelevance of the quote, it is wildly inaccurate, as the Seals campaign pointed out:

But Seals’ campaign said in a new memo distributed Monday that the incumbent is resorting "to demeaning and untruthful smears" reminiscent of slash-and-burn GOP operative Karl Rove.

"Mark Kirk entirely overlooks the fact that Dan Seals has worked as a business consultant and lecturer at Northwestern since 2006 and that Seals’ wife serves in a senior level corporate position," the Seals campaign memo states. "So the question is, what does Mark Kirk find so objectionable that the Seals family, like many families in the 10th district have two working parents?"

"It is this out-of-touch mentality that has guided Kirk’s votes against economic relief for hard-hit families and also driven Seals to devote himself full-time to campaigning, because now more than ever change is needed in Washington," the memo continues.

So why on earth would the Kirk campaign seek to target Seals as "unemployed", given the fact that it isn't true?

Why would they think that dog would hunt, given Seals' stellar professional and educational resume? In addition to his consulting work and teaching at Northwestern, Seals has worked as an English teacher and Senate aide, worked in marketing at Sprint and GE Finance, and holds degrees from Boston University, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Chicago.

Who do they think they're kidding with the "unemployed" line? Who do they think would buy the idea of Dan Seals as a freeloader?

Please tell me it doesn't have anything to do with Seals being African-American, running in an affluent white district.

Because if it does, Kirk is guilty of engaging in the most shameful and vile brand of politics imaginable.

On the web:
Dan Seals for Congress
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

Especially in Illinois, GOP House candidates evidently know which way the wind is blowing.

Steve Shearer, campaign manager to Republican candidate Aaron Schock, would have you believe that his man is the Obama of the race. In attacking Democrat Colleen Callahan, Shearer actually said:

Shearer said Schock is like Obama in that he represents change and people are inspired by him. Callahan, he said, is showing she’s more of a Hillary Clinton supporter.

"This is a Hillary Clinton, throw-the-kitchen-sink blistering negative attack playbook that Sen. Obama has railed against as the broken part of politics right now. Is (Callahan) running because she has a vision for what this country should be or is she nitpicking on Aaron and constantly being nasty?"

So, let me get this straight.

Aaron Schock is an anti-choice, Bush-loving neocon who thinks selling nuclear weapons to Taiwan is a swell idea, and proudly trumpets the historic achievements of the Gingrich Congress on his website.

Yeah, sounds just like Obama to me.

For the record, what was so kitchen-sinky about Callahan's campaign? Apparently, she posted on her blog that President Bush was doing a fundraiser for Schock, and aligning oneself with this horrendous administration didn't sound like "change" to her.

Imagine that.

(H/T: ProgressIllinois).

From The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights, a non-partisan movement working to ensure that our courts protect and preserve equal justice, fairness, and opportunity.

A recent ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals endorsed a controversial building regulation that bans observant Jews from posting mezuzot—literally translated as "door posts"—on their apartment doors.

The imbroglio started in 2004 when the board of Shoreline Towers in Chicago passed a hallway regulation that banned residents from placing outside their apartments: "[m]ats, boots, shoes, carts or objects of any sort." Lynne Bloch, who was on the board and chaired the very committee that authored the rules, sued Shoreline Towers after they used her rule as justification for repeatedly removing her mezuzah.