Illinois politics continues to make me urpy

First off, there's an impending US Senate race that comes off as being just as appetizing as the 1998 Governor's race between George "Traffic Safety" Ryan and Glenn Poshard. And then there's this guy running for governor:

Brady also has opposed some government transparency efforts, including requiring campaign contributors to list their occupations, and he said adopting detailed federal-style statements of economic interest for public officials would be "a little bit of an overreaction."

Since I'm a big supporter of government transparency (read: if you're going to take outright bribes from campaign contributors, you just might have to declare that in advance of voting for a bill that involves that contributor's interests), that doesn't sit all that well with me. What sits even less well is this:

 Brady has supported bringing religion into public classrooms "through the principles of the Founding Fathers' design" and also believes local school boards should be able to order the teaching of creationism.

Congratulations on really insuring I'm not going to vote for you, Bill.  It's also nice to know that  - as a man who touts your Roman Catholic faith at the drop of a hat - you're leaning towards a postion that the church apparently doesn't agree with, not that that's stopped creationist loudmouths like Pat Buchanan in the past, either. 

Oh, and for all of the animal lovers out there, consider this one:

The Bloomington lawmaker also tried to help a local veterinarian by sponsoring a bill allowing mass euthanasia of dogs and cats, which typically involves gassing the animals.

Or people worried about their health? Especially women? He's a good buddy to them as well:

In keeping with the wishes of the insurance industry — his hometown's largest private employer is State Farm Insurance Cos. — Brady has fought against government mandates for broader insurance coverage, including mammograms for women and longer hospital stays for postpartum mothers.

Wow. This guy is just makin' friends all over the place, isn't he?

O, what a shock

I'm not at all surprised that the recently departed Corey Haim might've been obtaining his "presciptions" illegally. What surprises me is that he apparently did it this way:

California Attorney General Jerry Brown's office said records of the prescription in the name of the former teen heartthrob were found during an investigation of the ring that illegally obtained prescription pads and used the stolen identities of doctors to fill them out.

"Corey Haim's death is yet another tragedy linked to the growing problem of presciption drug abuse," Brown said in a written statement. "This problem is increasingly linked to criminal organizations, like the illegal and massive prescription drug ring under investigation."

I don't want to come off as being too snarky here, but it's rather apparent that B-list ex-celebs who can't pony up the money needed to doctor shop like A-listers feel a need resort to extremely dangerous crap like this instead. Big whoop.

And now, a smorgasbord of Stupid for all

It's now apparent to more than a few sports fans in Chicago as to what Milton Bradley is. He's an asshat. 

(Although Dan Bernstein isn't a psychiatrist, I suspect he was pretty accurate in stating that Bradley might be suffering from this malady, although I think that there's more than a bit of this going on with him as well.)    

That isn't to say that there aren't racists in Chicago, of course. Consider this piece of work, for example.

Not to be outdone in the giant steaming turd sweepstakes for March, consider Weepy's latest outburst or the Uberfetus on waterboarding. And and if anyone should ever not run for office, it's this lesser example of the Birther parade - especially after taking a brain nap on filing paperwork to run for the office in question.

However, if your thing is sheer, screaming layers of irresponsibility, there's always Betty Burden.

OTOH, she'd have one hell of a contest outdoing the singularly vile behavior of New Jersey's own Aswad Ayinde.

All of the above essentially serves as proof of a certain Frank Zappa quote.

Now pardon me while I go somewhere to throw up a lot.