tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858469.post112321078737566584..comments2023-10-21T09:54:26.688-05:00Comments on BlogFreeSpringfield: Unhealthy Leaps of LogicBlogFreeSpringfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08314548731839300032noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858469.post-1124552136312920112005-08-20T10:35:00.000-05:002005-08-20T10:35:00.000-05:00to 11:02You have some intereting information to su...to 11:02<BR/><BR/>You have some intereting information to support the position that patronage hires were behind the push for the merger. I guess we won't really know for sure unless the merger goes through and county officials clean house to make room for former IDPH employees.<BR/><BR/>If you are correct in your summation, the question that I have is, could it be that the GOP wanted control over the jobs, but at the same time, the merger does make sense from a healthcare and financial standpoint?BlogFreeSpringfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08314548731839300032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858469.post-1124510556168715462005-08-19T23:02:00.000-05:002005-08-19T23:02:00.000-05:00Patronage was the reason the Sangamon County GOP p...Patronage was the reason the Sangamon County GOP pushed the merger so hard. It will not be patronage in the traditional sense - incompetent hacks sitting at desks writing memos. It will be patronage as it evolved under Irv Smith and Jim Thompson - people trained in public health activities who were drafted into Irv's machine while working at the Illinois Department of Public Health. Even after hiring, the patronage hook continued - if you wanted promotions, to get necessary career training, you had to serve in and donate to Uncle Irv's patronage army. THOUSANDS of state employees did so. The SERS website says about 200 IDPH employees took early retirement under King George IV's "Incompetent Hack Enrichment Act of 2002" That is where the Sangamon County GOP will get the patronage hires to force out the current City of Springfield employees - and poor ole Andy Van Meter will be totally oblivious to it!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858469.post-1123334065953624122005-08-06T08:14:00.000-05:002005-08-06T08:14:00.000-05:00Aakash, thanks for the correction on the apostroph...Aakash, thanks for the correction on the apostrophe.<BR/><BR/>The reference to Dusty Rhodes is kind of an inside joke from a previous IT editorial. Editor Roland Klose was dispelling the notion that his paper was "reliably left-wing" by jesting that Rhodes might be a conservative because she's a mom and drives a minivan, an indication of a conservation lifestyle but not necessarily conservative values. His editorial and my blog response also addressed the inane practice some publications have of labeling certain people according to their ideological leanings as a way to discredit them. So I was just being facetious by calling her a conservative columnist.BlogFreeSpringfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08314548731839300032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858469.post-1123302342052991342005-08-05T23:25:00.000-05:002005-08-05T23:25:00.000-05:00There's a conservative writer at the Illinois Time...There's a conservative writer at the <I>Illinois Times</I>? Well, I guess all paper's need their contrary writer. That must be why the NYT had Safire.<BR/><BR/>By the way, you're apostrophe (in the newpaper's name & link) is in the wrong place.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858469.post-1123227221180931402005-08-05T02:33:00.000-05:002005-08-05T02:33:00.000-05:00Ahhh, the wonderful investigative journalism of IT...Ahhh, the wonderful investigative journalism of IT and Dusty Rhodes! What a pleasure it is.<BR/><BR/>What a pleasure it is to blow holes in their ridiculous, paranoid ramblings. Anyone with even half a brain (liberals, sit this one out) can see that the slanted works of Ms. Dusty is worthy of nothing more than picking up after an incontinent puppy. As I said before, if you are conservative, a republican, or in city government you are an IT target, and they are hell-bent to not let truth or common sense get in the way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com