McHenry County Blog

Mark Daniel

Rebecca Lee

Listed below are the precincts in the hotly contested 52nd House race.

That’s where Independent Dee Beaubien, with Democrat Mike Madigan’s help, is challenging Republican primary election winner David McSweeney.

You will note that many precincts are empty.

In addition to McSweeney, State Senator Dan Duffy is running a contested race in the same part of McHenry County.

Campaign finance logic dictates that joint attack mailings will be made against Dave McSweeney and Dan Duffy  by the pro-abortion Personal PAC.  After all, they are both pro-life and agree on many other issues.

Besides Madigan’s providing two staffers (see here and here) and Personal PAC’s having targeted the district, Planned Parenthood is also getting deeply involved.

Wouldn’t you think the McHenry County Republican Party would have as its highest priority finding people willing to work for McSweeney and Duffy?

Do they really want another probable vote for Madigan for Speaker to come out of a McHenry County district?

It’s hard to see that McHenry County Party leaders want to “Fire Madigan.”

Having demonstrated that a majority of the Committeemen wanted to make sure Democrat Jack Franks could cast his eighth vote for Mike Madigan for House Speaker by their refusal to allow Tonya Franklin the opportunity to challenge him, you can understand why some might make that conclusion.

Do “Actions speak louder than words?”

By looking at the unmanned precincts, one can easily conclude that the Nunda and Algonquin Township Republican Parties have some other agenda that is more important than electing Republicans who will fight Mike Madigan in Springfield.

Under the procedure ostensibly being following County Republican Party Chairman Mike Tryon, a precinct committeeman in Algonquin Township himself, only when a Township GOP Chairman recommends a person will Tryon use the appointment power given to him by State Statute.

So who are the two Township Chairmen?

• Nunda Township Republican Central Committee Chairman (also Vice Chairman of the County GOP organization) Mark Daniel and
• Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee Chairman Rebecca Lee (Township Road Commissioner Bob and County Board member Anna Miller’s daughter)

Wouldn’t you think their highest priority would be to find people willing to help McSweeney and Duffy win the empty precincts?

There are two empty precincts in Nunda Township’s portion of the 52 State Rep. District and fifteen in Algonquin Township.

52nd REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT

(47 entire) (10 splits)

Nunda Precincts and Committeemen

Where the precincts are in Nunda Township. Click to enlarge.

1 – Donald C Kopsell (Appt 6/25/12)
pt of 2 – Robert L. Borchert
4 – None
7 – Kelvin Lee Jennings
9 – Bernard V. Narusis
pt of 12 – Mary McClellan
pt of 14 – Patrick Collins
pt of 22 – Joni M Smith (Appt 5/24/12)
23 – Scott E. J. Brown
25 – None
26 – Kathleen R. Reiland (Appt 5/24/12)
28 – Mary Donner (Appt 6/25/12)

Algonquin Township Precinct Committeemen
1 – None
pt of 2 – Kenneth (Ken) D. Koehler
3 – Michael E. Barnas
4 – Andrew Gasser
5 – Charles A. Lutzow, Jr
6 – Anne Majewski (Appt 3/29/12)
8 – Neils Kruse
9 – Dan Shea
pt of 10 – Aaron T. Shepley

Click to enlarge this map of Algonquin Township precincts.

12 – Raymond G. Chisholm
14 – None
pt of 15 – Thomas Kantner (Appt 3/29/12)
16 – Lou Anne Majewski
17 – David W. Miller
18 – Mary Cardelli
20 – None

Credit Fox River Grove Republican Precinct Committeeman Andrew Gasser with this illustration of the connection of Mike Madigan to Dee Beaubien.

21 – None
22 – Lowell A. Cutsforth
23 – Anna May Miller (Appt 3/29/12)
29 – None
30 – Riley Quinlan
31 – None
32 – None
33 – Sean Murphy
34 – Joseph Powalowski (Appt 3/29/12)
pt of 35 – None
39 – None
40 – Mallory A. Rosencrans
41 – None
pt of 43 – None
44 – Patrick Colcernian
45 – Sharon Ann Meroni
46 – Kathleen R. DeRaedt
47 – Rebecca M. Lee
48 – Timothy J Corr (Appt 3/29/12)
49 – Demetrios Pete Tsilimigras
50 – Linda (Lyn) Orphal
55 – Derek Lee (Appt 3/29/12)
56 – Eugene F. Sittinger
59 – None
60 – None
pt of 61 – None
64 – None
65 – Eleni K. Markos Tsilimigras (appt 5/26/12)
67 – Robert Miller (Appt 3/29/12)

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My email is on the left, just in case anyone gets inspired to want to help McSweeney and Duffy.

As we wind down the series of posts written by a friend of McHenry County Blog we enter into the realm of abortion clinics that are not categorized as abortion clinics by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Centers

As far as the ASTCs [Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Centers] that are abortion clinics, I do not have much new to report.

• Dimensions closed this fall, for reasons that were not published, but it was not because of IDPH action.
• Albany is still without an inspection since 1995.
• The Hope Clinic does not have a recent complete inspection to review. The 2005 full inspection [ for The Hope Clinic] was “lost” by the IDPH and I’ve not seen it. The 2010 inspection in response to a complaint is incomplete.
• American Women’s in Chicago has not been inspected since 1996. That inspection has no response or follow-up to its many serious violations, but the response of the IDPH was that since it was over 7 years ago, they do not have to respond to my inquiries.
• Advantage remains uninspected since 1997. The IDPH has said that they will inspect these clinics sometime in 2012. I anticipate that they will not like what they find, given that the requirements for ASTCs are higher, due to the use of general anesthesia and the performance of later term abortions. And without regular inspection the natural tendency is to laxness.

This has been about the licensed abortion clinics in Illinois.

I need to point out that there are about 9 places in Illinois that perform significant numbers of abortions that are in no way regulated by the IDPH.

Planned Parenthood clinics fall into this category.

As does the Family Planning Associates chain (which includes 1 licensed clinic- Albany).

There are others in Chicago, the suburbs, and downstate.

What goes on in them is anyone’s guess, but some of them will take appointments for abortions past the PTSC allowance of 18 weeks.

They are totally unregulated, except by the medical board.

I hope this not so brief summary has helped.

I hope you will support the regulation of the abortion clinics in Illinois that have “fallen through the cracks” and have NEVER been inspected by the state.

Women deserve a clean and safe and place for any invasive surgical procedure.

Abortion should not be treated differently.

If you have any specific questions about anything, please feel free to contact me.

[Name withheld upon request.]

Randy Hultgren

Joe Walsh

Freshmen Congressmen Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren were taken to the woodshed in radio ads run at least on WBBM and WGN Thursday.

They were two of many who wished to defund the largest abortion provider in America.

The ad, of course, did not mention that Planned Parenthood does abortions.

It mentioned services like pap smears. Services, of course, that could be gotten just about anywhere…unlike abortions.

You will remember that McHenry County Blog revealed that none of Planned Parenthood’s Illinois facilities have a license from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

And, it’s not that other abortion clinics aren’t licensed.

They are, as you can read in this article.

The ad tells of how long Planned Parenthood has been around, but not a word about the racist approach that founder Margaret Sanger took during the eugenics movement to purify America. Many opinion leaders supported that approach in the early part of the 1900′s.

Thanks for Illinois Review for the preliminary roll call you see here.

Sixty votes are required to pass a bill. This bill establishing standards for aboriton clinics fell three short. Two could have been provided by McHenry County legislators.

The bill would raise standards a bit over those of veterinary clinics.  It would require abortion providers to meet the same requirements as all other free-standing surgical centers.

Drafted by the pro-life legal group Thomas More Society the bill says that “if a woman has an abortion, she should be going to a place that can ensure it has the proper medical equipment and properly trained staff who can help if the abortion goes awry,” according to LifeNews.com. “The bill amends the state’s Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Act to ensure that surgical abortion clinics are held to the same standard as any other outpatient surgical center.”

House Bill 3156 is sponsored by State Rep. Darlene Senger of Naperville.

On the first attempt to pass the bill, the vote was 57in favor and 51 opposed. An additional 7 legislators cast a “present” vote, which is the equivalent to a “No” vote because 60 “Yes” votes are needed to pass a bill.

When a bill does not get the necessary number of votes to pass (60), the sponsor has the ability to put it on what is called “postponed consideration.”  If the House Speaker is so inclined, he can allow a second vote.

When I served in the Illinois House in the 1970′s the Speaker would provide the sponsor with a copy of the tentative roll call.  By 1993, the start of my second eight years, Mike Madigan had decided he and specially-favored legislators would have access to that information.

Fortunately, folks have become smart enough to take photos of the roll call of failing bills before the roll call disappears into the bowels of the Speaker’s Office.  That’s what someone did above.

I was one of the first to take a photo of a roll call.  It was of the Illinois Human Rights Act one time when it failed.  Those who voted for the legislation who did not want their constituents to know were really disturbed.  Suzi Bassi from Palatine comes to mind.

Jack Franks

Mark Beaubien

There are three representatives whose district cover part of McHenry County.  Only one voted in favor of the legislation. He is Republican Mike Tryon.

Democrat Jack Franks voted “No,” and Republican Mark Beaubien is shown as not casting a vote.

Both were endorsed by Personal PAC, probably the most rabid pro-abortion political action committee in the nation.

Planned Parenthood has none of its facilities licensed and inspected by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The not-so-recent inspection records of license abortion clinics in Illinois can be found here.

= = = = = =

I learned at Saturday’s reapportionment hearing that Rep. Beaubien is seriously ill.

A Cemetery of the Innocents graced the campus of McHenry County College recently. Photo credit: Anne D'Amico.

Recently, the Illinois Department of Public Health verified to McHenry County Blog that none of Planned Parenthood’s facilities are licensed by that agency.

A new Friend of McHenry County Blog who wishes to be identified as “McHenrymom210“ has become interested in the regulation of abortion clinics.

It is common knowledge since the Ragsdale abortion clinic case out of Rockford that abortion clinics have only minimal regulations to follow.

Indeed, what else could the result have been with all three parties to the suit being pro-abortion.

Dr. Richard Ragsdale’s position is self-evident since he brought the suit against state regulation in the first place. He was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dr. Bernard Turnock, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health and an appointee of Jim Thompson, had no interest in offending the abortion industry. And neither did Democrat Attorney General Neal Hartigan.

So all three people at 1989 settlement conferences were on the same side of the abortion issue. “Pro-choice,” as they would put it.

It was pretty much like teacher-school board negotiations when the teachers’ union has put its people on the school board.

So, no surprise when meaningful inspections did not make the court order.

Having said that, there is some regulation of abortion clinics in Illinois.

They are called “Pregnancy Termination Specialty Centers” or PTSC’s for short. We’ll look at how the Illinois Department of Public Health has inspected them today.

These facilities don’t do abortions later than 18 weeks and have looser regulations.

How loose?

One indication might be the frequency of inspection by State Health Inspectors.

Here’s the record, as obtained through a Freedom of Information request:

• ACU Health Center in Hinsdale – Its last full nursing inspection was May 9, 1997. A complaint was filed and looked into on August 15, 2001, but no findings are in the documents provided.
• Anchor Health in Glen Ellyn – Inspected on March 6, 2002 for the initial survey (before patients are seen) and not inspected since.
• Access in Downers Grove – Inspected last October 1, 1998. There are some discrepancies in how many operating rooms they have in proportion to recovery chairs. McHenrymom210 believes the facility had some important medical violations.
• American Women’s in Des Plaines – Initially inspected on November 19, 2004. Facility was operating illegally without a license, stating that employees were told they could open on their old license. There has been no subsequent inspection.
• Forest View in Des Plaines – Inspected on February 8, 2005. This was their initial and only inspection.
• Michigan Ave Med Center in Chicago – Inspected on July 19, 2004. This was their initial and only inspection.
• National HCS of Peoria – Last inspected on August 14, 2002
• 

  McHenry County College is seen in the background of this Cemetery of the Innocents. Photo credit: Anne D'Amico.

  Northern IL Women’s Center in Rockford – Last nursing inspection on August 2, 1996, although they had an architectural inspection in November 5, 2010 and documents indicate costly upgrades are needed. Narrow doorways—needed if emergency medical personnel are called–were not noted in prior inspections. (McHenrymom210 notes such access was recently shown to be needed in Philadelphia’s Gosnell’s clinic and lack thereof caused considerable delay, as did stuff cluttering the halls and a locked door for which the key could not be found. Lack of ready access and egress may have been a critical factor in the death of a woman. The EMT’s were able to get the woman through its narrow doors, but they may have caused delay.)

• Women’s Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood – Last inspected on April 1, 1996.

There’s more to this story.

This may not be a shock to some readers, but it certainly was to me.

Planned Parenthood, a major abortion provider in Illinois, is not licensed by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Take a look the reply to my Freedom of Information request below:

The letter revealing that Planned Parenthood is not licensed by the Illinois Department of Public Health. Click to enlarge.

No license, no inspections.

Does that strike anyone as strange?

Randy Hultgren

Joe Walsh

Picking up my son at 11 on this President’s Day (the second holiday this month for state and county workers), I heard a long ad sponsored by Planned Parenthood, the chief abortion provider in the USA, attacking newly-elected Congressmen Randy Hultgren and Joe Walsh.

Among the items zeroed out by the U.S. House of Representatives was Planned Parenthood.

As with any organization getting a hefty subsidy, it time to try to get it back.

The man Hultgren beat, Bill Foster, and the woman Walsh defeated, Melissa Bean, both supported abortion until the day of a baby’s birth.

Here’s a letter the political affiliate of Planned Parenthood asks people to send to those who voted for the legislation:

AN OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS

To the members of the House of Representatives who voted for the Pence Amendment to H.R. 1:

How could you?

How could you betray millions of women — and men, and teens — who rely on Planned Parenthood for basic health care?

How could you condemn countless women in this country to undiagnosed cancer, unintended pregnancies, and untreated illnesses?

Your vote was not only against those who seek care at Planned Parenthood health centers, but against every one of us who has ever sought care there, and against every one of us who knows that when we are healthy, when we are in charge of our lives, we thrive.

It was a vote against me.

I know that when i was talking to a high school class at Cary-Grove about partial birth abortion, it was the boys who most favored abortion.

Not too surprising, if one thinks about it. The boys’ goal from sexual intercourse is not become a father, it’s to have fun.

"Share the Road" license plate enacted into law this year.

Why not?

I saw one from another state on our vacation in June, but the photo didn’t turn out.

July 5th, Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill to allow “Share the Road” license plates.

A minimum of 1,000 would have to be sold, according to “Roger Kremer Cycling.”

Extra money raised would go to education about safety.

The same day, Quinn signed a bill making it illegal for motorists to crowd bicyclists.

There was some blow back from commenters under the Des Moines, Iowa, TV station WHO story.

Green Party McHenry County Sheriff's candidate Gus Phil Philpott talks with gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney as he walks his bike from the Metra train door to the Woodstock station.

Here’s one of five comments:

“Yes. The bike riders need education. We used to have courses in safety in the schools. I nearly hit a woman twice when she swerved unexpectedly. She blew two stop signs and a red light.”

Since Green Party gubernatorial candidate is touring the state by bike, it is not a coincidence that Quinn would be emphasizing his connection to that mode of transportation.

Undercutting the opposition, especially one who will probably draw more votes that would otherwise go to Democrat Quinn than Republican Bill Brady, is a time honored political tactic.

Significant locally is the chairman of the House committee that approved the bill is McHenry County’s Jack Franks.

One of Franks’ big mistakes has been to cater to the pro-abortion crowd on the issue of whether Pro-Lifers and other supporters of adoption should be able to raise money from the sale of Choose Life license plates, not to mention express their opinion.

Pro-Choice residents of McHenry County do not fill pages of the Northwest and Daily Herald once a year.  Pro-Life constituents do that to commemorate the day the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton (the “health of the mother” case) were handed down.

In the early part of his career, especially when he was running against appointed incumbent Mike Brown, while always labeling himself “Pro-Choice,” Franks’ voting record and stands on abortion questions could arguably be said to be more conservative than his opponent’s.

He resisted the extreme positions that pro-abortion Personal PAC insists that candidates embrace before getting its endorsement.

This Choose Life license plate is from Ohio. I believe I found it in the parking lot of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. You will note that the license plate holder indicates its owner is a nurse.

And Personal PAC did not endorse Franks in his early years.

Some fervent Pro-Lifers, including Paul Caprio’s Family PAC, actively supported him and helped finance his campaigns with money and in-kind contributions.

As Franks’ ambitions went statewide, however, he figured out that alienating this effective campaign organization was not a bright idea for a Democrat.

For the past two election cycles, Franks has been endorsed by this group, which can be accurately be labeled as “pro-abortion.”  (See “Jack Franks Goes to the Dark Side.”)

Perhaps in response to pressure from Personal PAC, Planned Parenthood, and other supporters of abortion, Committee Chairman Franks stuck the  bill to approve Choose Life license plates in one of his subcommittees.

When he finally allowed the bill to get a hearing, it wasn’t during prime time.

And, needless to say, the bill did not make it out onto the House floor so all legislators could vote it up or down.

And, Franks deserves the credit (if you are Pro-Choice) or the blame (if you are Pro-Life) for killing the bill.

“Franks just lied about it,” said Illinois Choose Life President Jim Finnegan of Barrington, commenting on the process. “He lied about it from the beginning.”

Now, to cover his rear end, Franks is voting against license plate bills like the bike safety one.

So did Republican Mark Beaubien. Mike Tryon supported it, as did State Sen. Pam Althoff. State Senator Dan Duffy did not vote, joining 18 other senators.

Virginia has allowed both "Choose Life" and "Trust Women Respect Choice" license plates. Illinois could, too.

But, significantly, Franks did allow the bike safety license plate bill a full committee hearing—a privilege he will not allow to adoption supporters trying to advance Choose Life license plates.

Franks didn’t have to do that.

He sets the agenda for his committee.  He decides which posted bills to call.  He doesn’t have to call a bill, if he wants to kill it.

Although I only got to be a committee chairman for four of my sixteen years in the Illinois House, I know about that discretionary power.

Voting against new license plates is nothing more than a protective shield that pro-abortion legislators use to explain why they will not support authorizing a Choose Life license plate.

This "Safe Haven" sign is outside Crystal Lake City Hall.

(More about the legislative history of the Choose Life license plate fight here by Jill Stanek and by Fran Eaton here.)

Opposing all new special license plates is like the support Pro-Choice legislators gave to allowing mothers to being newborn babies to police and fire departments without any penalty.

It’s an initiative that provides protective coloring to politicians who are Pro-Choice among constituents who are Pro-Life.

Such political actors also support making adoption easier…except in the case of supporting the selling of Choose Life license plates, part of the proceeds from which would support adoption agencies.

Pro-Choice politicians and abortion providers know that the number of people who would display Choose Life license plates dwarf the number who would buy Pro-Choice plates.

The last time I looked 20,000 people had said they would buy and display Choose Life license plates.

It is not a coincidence that Franks has been endorsed by the most fervently pro-abortion political action committee in the country—Personal PAC—for the last two election cycles.  He has delivered the goods by killing Choose Life license plates.

If should be noted that Franks has a Republican opponent for the first time since 2004.  McHenry Grade School and Library District Board member John O’Neill is running against him this year.

The original target of independent undercover investigator film maker James O’Keefe was Planned Parenthood.

Not as sexy as his ACORN project, but quite revealing about Planned Parenthood.

Thanks to Illinois Review for bringing this YouTube presentation to my attention:

When O’Keefe calls he says he wants to make a donation designated to be used by African-Americans.  He says he wants to make the donation in his son’s name, the purpose being for his son to have fewer affirmative action competition problems in college.

“There’s definitely too many black people in Ohio.  I’m just trying to do my part,” he says.

 O’Keefe’s investigation on Planned Parenthood, of course, was more suppressed by the Left Stream Media than the most recent one on ACORN.

And, have you heard that the founder of Planned Parenthood’s predecessor organization, Margaret Sanger, was a racist?  I picked one of the references that turned up when I Googled, “Margaret Sanger, racism.”

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The photo is from the New York Post article I wrote about three days ago.

I like to work on the computer without background noise.

My brother-in-law, on the other hand, listens to Fox News.

Friday, the story of the day was how two employees of the community organizing group ACORN counseled a young woman and a man to get financing for a home out of which they were going to pimp 13-year old Central American girls.

Among other things, they were advised to claim the girls as “dependents.”

It was so ridiculous, I was laughing out loud.

You couldn’t write a situation comedy that funny.

Today, the top of the front page of the New York Post looks like this:

The non-media investigative reporters have done it again.

You’ve heard about the New York Post, right?

It loves scantily clan women and this story clings to that reputation.

“(James) O’Keefe and (Hannah) Giles were garishly dressed as a stereotypical pimp and prostitute. O’Keefe was decked out in excessively snazzy flesh-peddler couture, and Giles, going by the name ‘Eden,’ wore almost nothing.”

But to see how little, you’ll have the go to the original and/or watch the video.  (The video of the interview plus some introductory shots are embedded on the web site.)

ACORN is the community organizing group that was accused of vote fraud in more than one location last fall.

Among the advice on the video linked to the article:

“Say you’re freelancing.

“Day one you make a sale.

“Day two you make another sale.

“You’re self-employed. You’re free lancing.

“Honest is not going to get you the house.”

And, the advice about where to hide the illegally gotten gains sounds like it came from someone intimately involved in the business of prostitution. The video reveals the correct answer from the list below.

No wonder there were anti-ACORN signs at the Randall Road Liberty Trail demonstration on Saturday.

I wonder how many other cities, if any, these two young people have drawn into their web.

And, to think, the Barack Obama administration wanted this group to play a major role in taking the U.S. Census, which, of course, is a big determinant in how many congressional seats each party will get in 2012.

O’Keefe has read Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”

“He has been targeting and exposing the ‘absurdities of the enemy by employing their own rules and language,’”he told the New York Post, adding,

“This kind of undercover, guerrilla tactic is the ‘future of investigative journalism and political activism.’”

In 2008, he made a series of videos of Planned Parenthood visits, which have been featured on Illinois Review.

ACORN responded by accusing Fox News of trying to make them the Willie Horton of 2009.

“This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen,” a statement from Bertha Lewis, Chief ACORN Organizer, said.