Even though it is my opinion that Democrat's shouldn't even be allowed to run for public office, I laughed out loud at your headline.

ndotseth: Even though it is my opinion that Democrat's Democrats shouldn't even be allowed to run for public office, I laughed out loud at your headline.

Even though it is my opinion that people who misuse apostrophes should never have their written words be seen, I laughed out loud at your bitter partisanship.

Weird to have a scientist elected to Congress. When you say congressman I think lawyer and not particle physicist.

Arthur Jumbles: Weird to have a scientist elected to Congress.

Reality! It's what's for dinner.

Jesus H Christ is Oberweis a scary douchebag. Even most of the Republicans Inow voted against him.

Arthur Jumbles: Weird to have a scientist elected to Congress. When you say congressman I think lawyer and not particle physicist.

Yeah, they'll need to be careful with him. He'll fall asleep during a debate, wake up just before the vote and propose an amendment that was approved 30 minutes before. Plus, his grad students will steal all the free coffee and doughnuts.

I like Oberweis' ice cream. I do not like his policies. If you check-out his website (new window), he mentions NOTHING about foreign policy (aside from immigration reform).

/voted for Foster
//doesn't like Foster
///Foster

It looks like Obama already has coattails. Good on Foster.

ndotseth: Even though it is my opinion that Democrat's shouldn't even be allowed to run for public office, I laughed out loud at your headline.

ndotseth: Even though it is my opinion that Democrat's shouldn't even be allowed to run for public office, I laughed out loud at your headline.

Just as long as we can shoot Republicans on sight in the streets...

Hey, now Hastert wasn't that bad, there is nothing wrong with a big sweaty man living with his top male advisor and claiming to not be gay...

robbjohn: I like Oberweis' ice cream. I do not like his policies. If you check-out his website (new window), he mentions NOTHING about foreign policy (aside from immigration reform).

/voted for Foster
//doesn't like Foster
///Foster

From what I have seen so far, there is nothing that far out there. I'd vote for him, as long as he gave me free ice cream.

/Lives by a store just down the street

Arthur Jumbles: Weird to have a scientist elected to Congress. When you say congressman I think lawyer and not particle physicist.

It makes two. (Rush Holt, D-NJ, is the other.) Kind of sad that a congress with fewer scientists per capita than the general population gets to make so many of the decisions about government grants.

Wait a minute. The Democratic Party won against a purveyor of ice cream? That is news!

Poor ndotseth! His stupidity makes me feel bad for him.

Verrai: Arthur Jumbles: Weird to have a scientist elected to Congress. When you say congressman I think lawyer and not particle physicist.

It makes two. (Rush Holt, D-NJ, is the other.) Kind of sad that a congress with fewer scientists per capita than the general population gets to make so many of the decisions about government grants.

More than that. My own, Nancy Boyda (D-KS) counts as a half. She was an analytical chemist for several years and taught high school chemistry. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) has done research and has a PhD in physiology.

But, yeah. It is a big problem. Hu Jintao, president of China? Hydroelectric plant engineer. Jiang Zemin before him? Electrical engineer. The majority of the political leadership in China today? Engineers or scientists.

One more Superdelegate for Obama.

Enough is enough, Hillary.

Lawnchair: Verrai: Arthur Jumbles: Weird to have a scientist elected to Congress. When you say congressman I think lawyer and not particle physicist.

It makes two. (Rush Holt, D-NJ, is the other.) Kind of sad that a congress with fewer scientists per capita than the general population gets to make so many of the decisions about government grants.

More than that. My own, Nancy Boyda (D-KS) counts as a half. She was an analytical chemist for several years and taught high school chemistry. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) has done research and has a PhD in physiology.

But, yeah. It is a big problem. Hu Jintao, president of China? Hydroelectric plant engineer. Jiang Zemin before him? Electrical engineer. The majority of the political leadership in China today? Engineers or scientists.

And isn't the president of Germany a former physical chemist as well? I thought I heard that somewhere.

One more... Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), PhD in nuclear physics, teacher and researcher at Cal Berkeley, then Calvin College.

MorrisBird: Wait a minute. The Democratic Party won against a purveyor of ice cream? That is news!

Look at it this way: intellect versus a product that makes you feel good in the immediate but has bad results as time goes on. Usually the latter wins out.

"enormous ass-dent." I LOL'd.

/a lot

Verrai: Arthur Jumbles: Weird to have a scientist elected to Congress. When you say congressman I think lawyer and not particle physicist.

It makes two. (Rush Holt, D-NJ, is the other.) Kind of sad that a congress with fewer scientists per capita than the general population gets to make so many of the decisions about government grants.

This. Especially with the recurring evolution "debate" and issues on global warming, I would love to see more scientists in government positions.

"Businessman" seems to be the only other qualification aside from lawyering these days.

It's not just the ass dent, he's also got to get all of the stains from Hastert's weeping skin ulcers and bed sores, not to mention the mountain of cookie crumbs, bits of potato chips, and the half-eaten remains of a baby crammed down into the back of the seat. He was saving it for later, but never really got to it.

Impeach Cheney First: One more Superdelegate for Obama.

This result is a good message for Obama to be able to send to party insiders. It says he is willing to help even political newcomers to campaign to grow the party. (Obama even used his website's phone bank setup to get his supporters to call for Foster) Furthermore, it says he might actually have coattails (at least in Ill anyway) because this was a GOP district that voted for W twice. Additionally, it was a small proxy war because McCain was campaigning for the GOP guy.

Superdelegates, if you want to advance the party this is your man. Fundraising, campaigning, endorsements, issue advocacy - he's not just your greatest asset, you've got nobody else in the same league as this guy.
If you want a Democrat who is telling America at every opportunity what a great Commander in Chief the GOP nominee would be, then you know who to support. After all, the last Clinton administration was so great for the party, wasn't it?
Superdelegates need to do their job, and actually start acting in the party's best interest.

I like Oberweis' ice cream. I do not like his policies.

I won't eat his ice cream because his policies and especially his personality are so toxic. Which sucks; it's excellent ice cream.

Jesus H Christ is Oberweis a scary douchebag. Even most of the Republicans Inow voted against him.

Interesting Democratic turn in a Republican district, but Democrats shouldn't get cocky about it. Oberweis is widely disliked and if the party had had the sense to back Lauzon instead of Oberweis (Hastert's choice) it would have been a much closer race.

Superdelegates, if you want to advance the party this is your man.

Please. This was not an apples-to-apples proxy fight. Obama has considerably more draw in Illinois than McCain.

As a local, I don't think i've ever seen a more dirty campaign run by any party in my entire life as the dems ran in this race.

Desterion: As a local, I don't think i've ever seen a more dirty campaign run by any party in my entire life as the dems ran in this race.


Wow, really? I thought the Oberwies campaign was a commercial away from his "filling solider field with the brownies who tool out jobs, der" from a coupla years back. A horrible move in his part. This was ugly, but not at the level I'm used to here in IL

/Latina
//Not in my voting district but glad his delcisious ice cream and bacon didn't win on such a crummy platform, and I did my homework because I don't like party judgements

Wepa! late nite typos!

Oberweis is widely disliked and if the party had had the sense to back Lauzon instead of Oberweis (Hastert's choice) it would have been a much closer race.

Agreed, and I'm not even a republican. The candidate choice was fascinating. Oberwies (again, FARKING dellcious ice cream and bacon, but I digress...) was a pariah to the party not even two years ago. Why wasn't Lauzon backed?

Oberweis can win for losing. His name gets repeated in the media, often enough, I am wont to send the wife out for ice cream!

When does Hastert begin his new life as the stunt man/double for his twin?



//When Outlaws' apostrophes are legal, only Republicans will mess them up.

Laughable line yes, however Dem's should be careful what they wish for. It might just happen and someone in this information age might have to produce.
After 40 something years and over three trillion dollars poverty as a percentage of the population is unchanged.
The current crop of Dem's are hell bent for leather to throw even more money into the hole called welfare.
The definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result!

He knew all about Mark Foley and he looked the other way.

I hope he burns.

R.A.Danny: Jesus H Christ is Oberweis a scary douchebag. Even most of the Republicans Inow voted against him.

He still has a run for the seat in the generals as this was a special election. I call him Bi-Polarweis T(tm) as he switches positions for every office he runs.

I think Hastert got behind Obie becaus ehe likes Ice Cream or Obie gave him money. Lauzen was a decent guy with experience..just not enough money. Don't woory, when Foster's divorce records are brought out how the police were called several times, things will change. Obie doesn't play nice and this election was/will continue to be negative as hell

larry00: The current crop of Dem's are hell bent for leather to throw even more money into the hole called welfare.

better than the hole called Iraq. We've thrown 3 trillion into it and what benefits have the American or the Iraqi people seen?

At least with welfare some poor American kids are getting something to eat,a warm place to sleep at night and clothes to wear to school.

Kind of sad that a congress with fewer scientists per capita than the general population gets to make so many of the decisions about government grants.


It is sad, but not quite as bad as you think. Under normal circumstances, Congress doesn't make decisions about which scientific grants are funded. Money is appropriated to funding agencies (e.g., NIH, NSF, etc) and scientific review panels and the agencies determine which grants are funded.

ndotseth: Even though it is my opinion that Democrat's shouldn't even be allowed to run for public office, I laughed out loud at your headline.

that right there is comedy gold.

Mistah Scrotie:
And isn't the president of Germany a former physical chemist as well? I thought I heard that somewhere.

Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany. (The president is a different largely ceremonial office without any real power in Germany) Before the fall of the Berlin Wall she was a researcher in the field of Quantum Chemistry in East Germany.

Google says she worked on stuff like "Calculation of High Pressure Velocity Constants for Reactions of Decay and Recombinations of simple Hydrocarbon Molecules and Radicals" and "The influence of spatial correlations on the rate of chemical reactions in dense systems", whatever that is. Legend has it that since the communist government didn't see much profit in such research they did not want to waste any of the precicious few computer they had on it and Merkel was forced to do most of the calculations per hand.

I have to wonder how it must feel for someone with such a background to suddenly be reduced to receiving suprise backrubs from the likes of George Bush.

R.A.Danny: Jesus H Christ is Oberweis a scary douchebag. Even most of the Republicans Inow voted against him.

One of the biggest assholes in Illinois politics. And that's saying something.

Desterion: As a local, I don't think i've ever seen a more dirty campaign run by any party in my entire life as the dems ran in this race.

A tone set by Oberweis. Everything I've seen Jim Oberweis enter his tactics start with mudslinging and quickly devolve into out-and-out fabrication of "fact."

Foster had to fight fire with fire. Voters lose when the candidates can't even agree on the topics that matter.

Hobodeluxe: better than the hole called Iraq. We've thrown 3 trillion into it and what benefits have the American or the Iraqi people seen?

At least with welfare some poor American kids are getting something to eat,a warm place to sleep at night and clothes to wear to school.

The Iraqis deserve what they're getting.
The poor don't.

That is the difference.

hillbillypharmacist: The Iraqis deserve what they're getting.

How so?

Oh... one more. Jerry McNerney (D-CA). PhD in mathematics. Former researcher at Sandia Labs, and engineering expert in wind turbines.

/ I would be a fan of the House Reality-Based Caucus.

All four of my family voted for Foster. I've been reduced to voting Republican in order for my important (% wise) vote to count in local elections like school board and States Attorney. Perhaps now local Democrats can get elected.
Independents have no chance as the number of signatures on a petition needed are crazy. Here is some of a letter from a guy who thought about running as an independent (local paper)-
Total votes in county 25709
Top vote getter 7373
Republican signatures needed 37 is 0.005% of top vote getter
Dem is 25
Independent 700 to 1120 is 10 to 15%.

There must have been a lot of money put in this race now I know how you folks in Ohio feel around election time. The phone would not stop.

Desterion: As a local, I don't think i've ever seen a more dirty campaign run by any party in my entire life as the dems ran in this race.

See, that's the thing about people like Desterion... they don't mind the mud, they only mind when someone has the balls to throw it back. Then suddenly they whine and cry about dirty politics.

Party Uber Alles is not nearly as cool a philosophy as you think, Desterion.

Hastert's next career stop will be at the refinery so we can burn his fat ass for fuel.

Congresswoman Bean-D and now Congressman Foster-D both in office in Northern Illinois, the GOP might want to seek better canidates than grumpy old men. This used to be a Republican stronghold of collar counties hopefully the Dems will take out Congressman Kirk-R next.

What's interesting about this result is that the district is traditionally solidly Republican, and the NRCC spent 29 percent of its cash on hand - $1.2 million out of $4.1 million - defending a seat that shouldn't have been competitive in the first place.

hillbillypharmacist: The Iraqis deserve what they're getting.
The poor don't.

What horrible, inhuman crime did the Iraqis commit to deserve what we have unleashed on their country?

eschu: It is sad, but not quite as bad as you think. Under normal circumstances, Congress doesn't make decisions about which scientific grants are funded. Money is appropriated to funding agencies (e.g., NIH, NSF, etc) and scientific review panels and the agencies determine which grants are funded.

This needs to be repeated. In general, Congress allocates the money, the granting agencies distribute the money based on peer review of grant proposals. I saw a McCain ad recently involving "wasteful government spending" and one of the examples he used was "$x million to study DNA of bears in Montana". The problem with that is 2-fold:

1) Whatever this study was, it was judged worthy of funding by a panel of experts and given how competitive grant funding is right now, that says something about the quality of the research;

2) John McCain will have no direct influence over whether this group gets money. If he were by some chance to reduce the budget of the funding agency by $x million, there's nothing that says the bear study group won't still get their money save for the fact that there is less overall money to distribute.