Brian J. Gail, will speak about his novel Fatherless, on March 18, 2010.

Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago will be speaking about his new book, The Difference God Makes: A Catholic Vision of Faith, Communion, and Culture, on May 6, 2010.

Both events will be at 7:30 a.m. at the University Club of Chicago.

Register here if you are interested.

I will be at both of these events.

Adam Andrzejewski is the only person running for the Republican nomination for Governor of Illinois who presents any hope of turning around the dire decline we are facing.

I had the pleasure of meeting Adam recently, and he confirmed the positive impression I got from his website. He is very smart, aware of the gravity of the problems facing Illinois, and has some concrete plans to change the way business is done here.

I was most impressed with his proposals to take on the culture of corruption that has made the once-great State of Illinois a national and even global joke.

Take a look at the issues pages on Adam’s site. Then compare the specifics he offers with, for example, the nonexistent proposals on Jim Ryan’s site, or the comparatively vague proposals of the long-time insider, and purported front-runner, Andy McKenna.

The insiders in both parties are so tightly wound in Illinois that they are referred to as “The Combine.” The GOP serves as nothing more than the junior partners in a combined Machine, and appears to have no principled differences whatsoever from the Democrats.

Adam’s candidacy presents a chance to move toward a genuine two-party political process in Illinois, and to start getting the financial mess under control.

Let me also address the cynical response that he “can’t win.” There is a large field, turnout will probably not be huge, and it won’t take much for one of the GOP candidates to pull ahead. So, vote for the best guy.

Plus, as Lech Walesa — an Adam supporter — put it: “Nobody gave us a chance to win over the communists. Nobody. And we proved them wrong.” The Combine can also be beaten.

Please take a look at Adam’s site if you are an Illinois voter.

He is promising to fight for the principles embodied in a very solid-sounding Compact with America.

Phil apparently came up with this without even consulting our recent post on a Contract with America.

I won’t say great minds, necessarily … .

But a lot of us seem to be thinking alike.

Disclaimer for Eric Holder: No one paid me for this post, I get no benefit out of it, I have no affiliation with Phil’s campaign, he did not ask me to put it up and I have not told him yet, and I am exercising my core political speech under the First Amendment with this post. I hope that is still legal.

Next week, Massachusetts’s citizens will head to the polls to vote in a historical election. Close elections draw intense scrutiny, and ensuring the accuracy and credibility of the process is crucial. For that reason, the Scott Brown campaign is assembling a volunteer team to ensure that every legally cast ballot is accurately counted. The citizens of Massachusetts deserve a fair and honest election.

He concludes: “Please do not wait, Election Day is January 19th!”

Go to this link to join up.

I will add a few comments.

There will be attempted vote fraud by some Democrats in the Brown/Coakley Senate race. There is a lot at stake. A defeat which takes away Ted Kennedy’s old seat, and loses their super-majority, will be a humiliation and a political disaster for the Democrats. They will have every incentive to use all means available to them to prevent that defeat.

If you are lawyer who can volunteer in Massachusetts on January 19, go to the link and sign up now, or please forward this link if you know a lawyer who lives in Massachusetts or can be there on election day.

I have worked as a poll watcher in the Chicago area several times. As a Republican in a majority Democratic precinct, I have been treated with very cold courtesy, and some snide remarks, but only rarely with outright hostility. I have never seen any vote fraud, and I do not think there was any. My presence may have deterred any attempted fraud. I will never know. I do know I helped to insure at least one honest polling place on election day, and that is good enough.

The point here is not partisanship. The point here is that we do not live in Albania, or the Congo, or Red China. We supposedly live in a democracy where the citizens vote, and their votes are counted fairly.

Democracy only works if the integrity of the system is insured. And that only happens if there are people from both parties posted in every polling place. An honest system is an American value, not just a Republican value.

In a close, and important, election like this one, the incentives to cheat, by the incumbent party in particular, are very high. It need not come from the candidates or their staffs. Some areas have almost a tradition of cheating, in both parties, where others are squeaky clean. It can occur spontaneously at the bottom rung. Precinct captains are judged on how well they got the vote out. Their political future turns on winning their precinct for the Party’s candidate, and getting their own voters out and to the polls. The incentive to corruption and electioneering, and voter intimidation, are permanent features. Corruption in the system is a permanent challenge that can only be minimized and never eliminated.

Ensuring an honest election is labor intensive. You need mobs for jobs on the day.

I cannot be in Massachusetts on election day. But if you can help out on January 19, please do so.

As Michael Barone puts it: Wow.

This is still a long shot, but not, apparently, a forlorn hope.

(There is also a poll from the Boston Globe showing Coakley 15 points ahead. I believe the Globe, about anything, about as much as I believe the North Korean Communist Party’s official pronouncements. Rasmussen had Coakley ahead by 9 points on January 5, 2009, and there is no way she has picked up six points since then.)

I liked Brown’s TV ad, showing JFK’s tax cut message. Nicely done.

The fact that this race is even close shows that the Obama / Reid / Pelosi leadership is failing miserably for the Democrats.

I was in Massachusetts in 1980 when the state confounded everyone by voting for Reagan. I am hoping it surprises everyone again.

UPDATE: A friend wrote, expressing concern about vote fraud in this race. While I don’t discount this entirely, this was my response:

I am not so sure about massive fraud. Massachusetts is a funny
place. It is very liberal, but it has very civic minded populace, and
blatant Chicago style crooked elections don’t really happen there. I
grew up there and got to compare it to Chicago. Chicago does not come
off favorably. The race will also be closely scrutinized. I am not
sure how much of an issue that will be. If it was Illinois, you could
count on it.

UPDATE II: A friend out in Mass tells me she is seeing people holding signs for Brown, not seeing that for Coakley, and also way more Brown yard signs. This seems to show the energy level is with Brown, which is consistent with other things I am reading. She also pointed out something about Brown that I hadn’t thought of: He is like Obama seemed to be in 2008: “He’s also likable, handsome and different than usual.” Yes. Right. Obama ran against the status quo, and won. Brown is running against the status quo. He’ll probably lose, but he is making a real race out of it.

Funny. Brown as Obama 2.0 — returned to Earth as a Conservative.

Also: Good to see people sending money Brown’s way. The last few days will matter a lot, and money talks.

And Dr. Frank says this is one of thirteen songs that made him cry at least once. I can see that happening. Pete Shelley is one of the great romantic hearts of rock’n'roll.

(Consider this my most recent move in the love song duel with Dan from Madison.)

ou say you don’t love me
Well that’s alright with me ‘cos I’m in love with you
And I wouldn’t want you doing things you don’t want to do
Oh you know I’ve always wanted you to be in love with me
And it took so long to realize the way things have to be
I wanted to live in a dream that couldn’t be real
And I’m starting to understand now the way that you feel
You say you don’t
You say you don’t

You say you don’t love me
Well that’s alright with me ‘cos I have got the time
To wait in case someday you maybe change your mind
I’ve decided not to make the same mistakes this time around
As I’m tired of having heartaches I’ve been thinking and I’ve found
I don’t want to live in a dream I want something real
And I think I understand now the way that you feel

You say you don’t
You say you don’t

You say you don’t love me
Well that’s alright with me I’m not in love with you
I just want us to do the things we both want to do
Though I’ve got this special feelin’ I’d be wrong to call it love
For the word entails a few things that I would be well rid of
I’ve no need to live in a dream it’s finally real
And I hope you now understand this feeling I feel
You say you don’t
You say you don’t
You say you don’t love me
You say you don’t love me
You say you don’t love me
Mmm

I asked for one thing for Christmas, Stefan Zweig’s book The World of Yesterday. Jacques Barzun, in his book From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present spoke highly of the Zweig book, and I have wanted to read it ever since reading Barzun. My wife got the Zweig book for me, and I finished it this morning. It is the first book I finished in 2010, and the bar has been set very high for the rest of the year. It is one of the best books I have ever read.

Zweig tells his life story, growing up in an intellectual Jewish milieu in Vienna before World War I, in a golden age of peace and freedom (as only became clear after it was gone), becoming a successful writer and friend of many famous people, the ensuing destruction of European civilization in World War I and its aftermath, and ultimately his flight from Austria to escape the Nazis. He committed suicide in Brazil in 1942. He mailed this book to his publisher the day before he died.

This book now holds a noble place beside Joseph Roth’s The Radetzky March and Gregor von Rezzori’s The Snows of Yesteryear as depictions of the final years of Austria Hungary, and the cosmopolitan, open, secure, lawful and liberal European world order which ended in 1914 and has never returned.

They are looking at a historic threat, and a historic opportunity, with the Democrats making massive and unpopular changes to the foundations of our economy and our government.

But I am seeing just about zero leadership in the opposition ranks. Gov. Palin, who is now a bystander, has accomplished more with her Facebook page than most of the elected legislators have managed to do from their roost in DC.

In the run-up to the 1994 takeover of Congress by the GOP, Newt Gingrich came up with his Contract with America, which nationalized the election.

We need an equivalent program now.

Question for our dear readers: What should CWA 2.0 have in it?

I suggest some possible items:

1. A Constitutional amendment, along these lines: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and Representatives; and Congress shall make no law that applies to either Senators or Representatives or both that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States. Any law enacted in violation of this Amendment shall be void and of no force and effect at any time.”

2. A national concealed carry law.

3. A forensic audit of the TARP spending.

4. A forensic audit of the Federal Reserve.

5. A ban on unfunded mandates.

What do you think should be in it? Limit yourself to ten items.

UPDATE: Good to see the Instapundit readers weighing in. Thank you, Professor.

I see lots of good ideas, and lots of energetic expression. Far be it from me to do anything to dampen the animal spirits … but … I have one suggestion. I think the best suggestions consist of actionable items, such as (1) Constitutional amendments that could plausibly be approved by 3/4 of the states, (2) legislation that could conceivably be passed by Congress, (3) repeal of specific amendments or laws or regulations. But if you want to vent, or talk in general terms, have at it. That’s fine with me, too. But a real CWA 2.0 will consist of actionable items, and I hope actually to end up with one.

(Term limits are a perennial favorite. I think they are a waste of time. The permanent government is the lobbyists and the bureaucracy, and the congressional support staff are at least as much “Congress” as the elected members for practical purposes. Term limits would only make the permanent government stronger.)

(Also, since I typed the original post, I was talking with a real political professional, who pointed out that lots of suburban districts that like the GOP on fiscal issues would not like a national concealed carry law. So, maybe that is not such a good idea here. … )

The financial crisis killed small entrepreneurs as surely as Joseph Stalin killed the kulaks, and the roots of the economy are dead and dry.

Spengler Fisks the labor statistics.

(You know things are really bad when the “good” news is that banks are adding clerical staff to process all the mortgage foreclosures.)

… a continual state of feud and strife prevails throughout the land. Tribe wars with tribe. The people of one valley fight with those of the next. To the quarrels of communities are added the combats of individuals. Khan assails khan, each supported by his retainers. Every tribesman has a blood feud with his neighbor. Every man’s hand is against the other, and all against the stranger.
 
Nor are these struggles conducted with the weapons which usually belong to the races of such development. To the ferocity of the Zulu are added the craft of the Redskin and the marksmanship of the Boer. The world is presented with that grim spectacle, “the strength of civilization without its mercy.” At a thousand yards the traveller falls wounded by the well-aimed bullet of a breech-loading rifle. His assailant, approaching, hacks him to death with the ferocity of a South-Sea Islander. The weapons of the nineteenth century are in the hands of the savages of the Stone Age.
 
Every influence, every motive, that provokes the spirit of murder among men, impels these mountaineers to deeds of treachery and violence. The strong aboriginal propensity to kill, inherent in all human beings, has in these valleys been preserved in unexampled strength and vigour. That religion, which above all others was founded and propagated by the sword — the tenets and principles of which are instinct with incentives to slaughter and which in three continents has produced fighting breeds of men — stimulates a wild and merciless fanaticism. The love of plunder,always a characteristic of hill tribes, is fostered by the spectacle of opulence and luxury which, to their eyes, the cities and plains of the south display. A code of honour not less punctilious than that of old Spain, is supported by vendettas as implacable as those of Corsica.

Winston Churchill, The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898)

My request to ChicagoBoyz readers: leave a comment below, preferably in the form of an outline, top-line roman numerals and second line capital letters, showing what you think I should talk about.

Remember, I have to get the entire thing into one hour!

I want you to give me your first cut, off the top of your head, without a lot of research. Just type up the main topics you think I should hit.

When I have prepared the outline I am actually going to use, I will post it.

UPDATE: Shlok Vaidya posted a very interesting proposed outline. Check it out.