The House of Representatives has acted unwisely, in my opinion, by voting to pass legislation that mandates that group health plans provide the same benefits for mental and physical illness in all companies with at least 51 employees that provide group health insurance.  This covers substance abuse and mandates coverage for disorders such as incest, jet lag, gender identity disorder, necrophilia (erotic desire for dead bodies), transvestite fetishes (someone who adopts the dress or manner or sexual role of the opposite sex), and pedophilia (sexual desire in an adult for a child).  This bill passed 268-to-148.  I voted "No."

like il-03, there are new endorsements that have been announced since the first post.  john laesch has gotten the afl-cio endorsement [PDF], the endorsement of pdachicago, and the endorsement of the western regional council of the united electrical, radio & machine workers of america.

bill foster has increased his growing list of endorsements with endorsements by senator durbin, afscme state council 31, planned parenthood, seiu as well as 22 nobel prize winners and a growing list of voters.

there's been a slew of news in this race, for everybody running.  rep. lipinski got the afl-cio endorsement [PDF] and the afscme endorsement.  this isn't a surprise given the association of speaker madigan with lipinski, and madigan's closeness with the unions.  lipinski also got the endorsement of pipefitters local 597.  

mark pera got the endorsement of NARAL/Pro-Choice America as well as the endorsement of forrest claypool, who won almost 70 percent of the vote in four il-03 townships during the 2006 primary.  pera was also endorsed by reformers ald. manny flores, ald. brendan reilly, ald. scott waguespack, st. sen. dan kotowski, st. rep. john fritchey, and mwrd commissioner debra shore.

You Don't Have to be a Rocket Scientist to Run for Congress -- But It Can't Hurt

former senator warren rudman famously said that there are three kinds of senators: about a third of the senate know why they are there, know what they want to do and understand how to accomplish it.  another third, he opined, know why they are there, know what they want to accomplish, but are clueless to how to do it.  and the final third, he generously noted, may not even know why they are in congress.  and they wouldn't know what they wanted to do or how to accomplish it, if they did.  the same thing, it seems to me, can be said of the house.

which brings me to bill foster.  bill foster is a physicist.  physicists like to understand how things work.  that's what physics is, describing how the world works.  physicists understand systems -- even systems where humans are the primary components.  which is a good thing, if you want to see people in congress who are capable of accomplishing something.  this was all made clear when bill foster sat down with a group of bloggers on saturday to talk about his run for congress.

Picture This: It's October 2008. Hillary Clinton is leading the President race narrowly against Mike Huckabee. At their final debate in Hempstead, New York, Hillary is asked "Do you think the surge last summer worked?" Hillary answers that despite the drop in violence, there has been no political solution in Iraq and there needs to be more diplomacy. Governor Huckabee responds to Hillary, saying "But Senator, you did not support the surge. Now we have a chance at political reconciliation because of the surge, and you did not support it, you did not wish to give it a chance. You just wanted to cut and run"

A month late, Huckabee is President-elect, Democrats lose 10 seats in the House and gain only one seat in the Senate. Exit polls show voters perceived Democrats are weak on war because of their opposition to the surge. Voters forget that they too were opposed to it.