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IllinoisOpenGov.org gives Illinois citizens a clear look into how Illinois government spends their hard-earned tax dollars, down to the agency, person and penny.

Spotlight on Government Spending

From IllinoisOpenGov tweets:

The IL Dept of Employment Security bought $3,000 worth of staplers from an Office Depot….in Ohio.

and

IL Dept of Commerce spent $2,822 on hot sauce. That really burns me up! What else are they doing?

JibJab

The Catchphrase of the Decade.
And those that have had their 15 minutes of fame.

Ron Rosenbaum (Slate):

Gather round, it’s time to catch up with some catchphrases we’re using at the end of the decade. And this time, it’s personal. For a while now, I’ve made it a point to keep track of them, catch as catch can, so to speak, and to seek what lies beneath the surface. The value of a close reading of contemporary rhetorical tics and tricks is that one often finds a kind of hidden agenda embedded in the euphemisms and evasions.

Top 10 Flash Mobs of 2009

A New Year’s Resolution

The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the big four banks move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it’s meant to be. It’s neither Left nor Right — it’s populism at its best.

Move your money.

(via MetaFilter)

Top Ten Worst Things about the Bush Decade;
Or, the Rise of the New Oligarchs

Juan Cole (Informed Comment):

By spring of 2000, Texas governor George W. Bush was wrapping up the Republican nomination for president, and he went on to dominate the rest of the decade. If Dickens proclaimed of the 1790s revolutionary era in France that it was the best of times and the worst of times, the reactionary Bush era was just the worst of times. I declare it the decade of the American oligarchs.

2009: The Year Wall Street Bounced Back and Main Street Got Shafted

Robert Reich:

…[I]f 2009 has proved anything, it’s that the bailout of Wall Street didn’t trickle down to Main Street. Mortgage delinquencies continue to rise. Small businesses can’t get credit. And people everywhere, it seems, are worried about losing their jobs. Wall Street is the only place where money is flowing and pay is escalating. Top executives and traders on the Street will soon be splitting about $25 billion in bonuses (despite Goldman Sachs’ decision, made with an eye toward public relations, to defer bonuses for its 30 top players).

The real locus of the problem was never the financial economy to begin with, and the bailout of Wall Street was a sideshow. The real problem was on Main Street, in the real economy. Before the crash, much of America had fallen deeply into unsustainable debt because it had no other way to maintain its standard of living. That’s because for so many years almost all the gains of economic growth had been going to a relatively small number of people at the top.

Read this piece in entirety at the above link.

U.S. War Spending Now Exceeds That Of All States

The U.S. spends more for war annually than all state governments combined spend for the health, education, welfare, and safety of 308 million Americans.

Cenk Uygur: “Are You Concerned Now, Rahm?”

This Independent is damn tired of being rolled. By BOTH sides! This administration’s agenda looks little different from the last one, with one extremely important difference: The last admin wasn’t afraid of a fight. Funny, this administration has plenty of stomach to fight against those who elected them, but none for fighting against those this country overwhelmingly rejected.

What is the one thing that is not wrong with this story? Fighting back! Someone quick, give Jane another two-by-four!