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Most people would consider this an incredibly minor thing at election time, but it bugs the hell out of me. Yes, I'm officially classifying it as a pet peeve. So what is about the campaign season that irks me the most? It's when candidates list their names as well their "nicknames," set off( as you can) see in quotes. What's worse is when the "nickname" is an obvious derivative of the person's actual name, and he or she still includes it in quotes. Why? Can't you pick one and get on with it? Looking through the election guides my company published last week, here are a few that caught my eye: Katherine "Kate"; Theodore "Teddy"; Anthony "Tony"; Rebecca "Becky"; William "Bill"; Teresa "Terry"; William "Bill" (yes, another one); Joseph "Joe"; Matthew "Matt"; William "Bill" (so far, this is the most popular "nickname"); John "Jack"; Richard "Dick"; Robert "Bob"; James "Jim" ... It's not that I wish to begrudge anyone his or her right to have a "nickname" and use it — I'm fine with this. All I'm saying is pick one name and use that. If you're commonly known by your real name, use your real name. But if most people call you by your "nickname," then go ahead and use that. What's the point of having a "nickname" is you're preceding it with your real name? Let's not be wishy-washy. As Stephen Colbert says, "We're at war — pick a side."

Some right-wingers put their worst qualities on full display, yet they can't understand why they're not making any traction in the "culture wars." The Web site Illinois Review, the "crossroads of the conservative community," posted a video featuring U.S. Rep. Barney Frank addressing a question posed to him by a student at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The student asked Frank how much responsibility he accepts for the nation's financial crisis. Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, challenged the student to explain what more he could have done to thwart the crisis. The student wasn't completely prepared to address this point but rather referred to the bailout legislation passed in the fall (for some reason, the student kept calling it the "stimulus" bill, which wasn't passed until this year). Frank discussed some of the actions his committee took beginning in 2007 when he became chairman. But he said that the student's point about the bailout bill was off base because the subprime mortgage crisis had begun well before this bill was passed. While Frank appeared overly defensive, he raised a valid point in challenging the student to address what else Frank could have done. There are perhaps a great many other things Frank could have initiated in his committee, but the student hadn't considered this point. Here is where the post on Illinois Review gets bizarre. The headline used was, "The always malevolent, malicious and vicious Ms. Frank." It's bad enough that the post makes no effort to demonstrate where Frank was being malevolent, malicious or vicious. But what first caught my eye was its use of the title "Ms." to describe Frank. I submitted a comment asking, "Is this your thoughtful response to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank's discussion, to belittle his sexual orientation?" I questioned what Frank's being gay had to do with the issue at hand. It's appalling to consider these people believe they espouse the ideas that will improve this country or the world. Do they think demeaning another person's humanity constitutes leadership? Don't they see that this is one of the reasons many Americans don't lend any credence to their ideology? And they wonder why they support a political party that is in shambles and that they've lost any power they had. In this culture war, these people are only shooting themselves.

So how bad is the unemployment situation getting out there? A friend of mine who was laid off in January attended a job fair staged by a college. Virtually no company represented at the event had any job openings, and few of the vendors there were accepting resumes. Imagine that — a job fair where most of the "employers" present weren't even accepting resumes. Most of them merely handed out fliers about their companies, suggesting job seekers send in resumes sometime in the near future. I smell a rat here. This wasn't a "job fair"; it was a "company fair," where firms passed out information about themselves. Marketing on the cheap, I suppose. If this is how this job was run, it was doubly sad. Job-seekers weren't able to circulate their resumes, and companies passed out fliers about themselves to people who in all likelihood can't afford their services (they're out of work, you see). There's got to be a better way to run a free market.

There are few things that warm my heart more than a father-and-son story. You know the kind I mean, where a father and son start a business together and it really prospers. Or they take an incredible journey and they write a best-selling book about it. Or when they get arrested after robbing two banks together. Yes, we have father-and-son bank robbers. This story could well surpass the father-and-son peeping Toms I wrote about a few months ago. Louis S. Early, 26, 2200 Cherry Court, Lisle, was charged with bank robbery last week along with his father, Louis H. Early, 51, of Dewitt, N.Y.; they are accused of robbing Fifth Third Bank in Naperville as well as TCF Bank located in a Jewel store in Wheaton, where the younger Early is an assistant branch manager. They allegedly stole $60,000 from TCF Bank and $9 from Fifth Third Bank. Do you think they exchange nylon stockings as Christmas gifts?

Kaiser Dave has signaled to me that he's ready to stand by me in a fight. Responding to a new blog by Quinn Reeves that referenced one of my previous postings, Dave Diersen of Wheaton opined today on his Web site, GOPUSA Illinois, that he and I share a "concern about Diersen-bashing Quinn Reeves." He then provided a link to a blog entry I posted yesterday in which I noted the peculiar nature of Reeves' ramblings. Reeves used my Feb. 19 blog posting in which I poked fun at Diersen and his ability to grossly misconstrue things that people say and/or write. The post on Reeves' Web site was incoherent gibberish, which led me to believe he was poking fun at me by grossly misconstruing my message about Diersen. But I read through some of Reeves' previous blog postings, and some of them were equally unintelligible. So I'm not sure what these entries are supposed to mean. I do indeed share a concern with Diersen — my absolute best friend and closest buddy in DuPage County — about Reeves. I'm concerned that people are going to believe Reeves came up with the term "Kaiser Dave," which is not the case. That one is mine, and perhaps I should have it copyrighted. So my pal Dave Diersen and I will stand together on this issue to protect my intellectual property, and I'm so pleased he's drawing a line in the sand on my behalf for this issue. It's very humbling to know he's got my back, frankly, and I'm indebted to Diersen for his loyalty.

I have to hand it to Blago. No matter what the scenario, he knows how the generate a buzz. Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich filled in this morning on the Don Wade & Roma radio program on WLS-AM 890. According to news reports, he continued to insist that he did nothing wrong. Sadly, I didn't see anything about Blago breaking into poetry — so I'm presuming he didn't. I've long believed that he could have salvaged his political career by invoking one of the Beat Generation poets, such as Allen Ginsberg, during his impromptu press conferences right before he was impeached.. The sight of Blago sporting a beret and sunglasses with one of his assistants playing the bongos and everyone in the audience snapping their fingers in appreciation would be worth keeping him as governor. OK, perhaps not, but it still would have been entertaining. Ain't that hip, Daddio? But while he didn't make use of any poetry during his radio stint, Blago displayed another amazing gift: He said his prediction about those seeking to remove him from office so they could raise taxes is coming true! If we can't use him as governor, perhaps Blago could become the state's official psychic (or, as one cable TV character on TNT's "The Closer" likes to be called, an intuitionist). He can see the future — wouldn't that be incrediby helpful? Just imagine employing the former governor to warn us about a future he helped create. That, groovy chicks and groovy cats, calls for some poetry.

A recent posting on a new blog, which used one of my previous blog postings as a backdrop, has me scratching my head. Quinn Reeves (?) began a blog earlier this month, and yesterday the blog referenced an entry I posted more than a month ago. The headline of my Feb 19 post was: "Kaiser Watch: Dave Diersen has shocking take on speech given by U.S. attorney general" Here is the headline from Reeve's March 23 posting: "Kaiser Ticker: Dave Diersen holds flooring take along address given by U." What the .... My blog post dealt with how my very dear, close, personal friend Dave Diersen of Wheaton often misconstrues what people say and/or write in his daily list of stories on his Web site GOPUSA Illinois. Anyone who's ever read Diersen's comments knows exactly what I'm talking about. After reading Reeve's blog entry, I thought the idea was to misconstrue my blog entry by writing a bunch of gibberish. The problem is that previous blog entries are also largely gibberish, so I'm not sure what Reeve's point is. But maybe it's just me — that's happened before.

Glancing at Illinois Review earlier today provided me with information about a worthwhile event. "The Future Business Leaders of America, the Student Government Association and Citizens Against Government Waste are sponsoring a Symposium on Corruption this Saturday in Bensenville," according to a blog posting by Curt Mercadante on the Illinois Review Web site. "Billed as an event to help 'unravel the social and economic costs of corruption in Illinois,' the event includes panels on 'The Cost of Public Corruption in Dollars and Sense' and 'Moving Beyond Corruption — Dissecting the Illinois Machine.' Confirmed panelists include Steve Rhodes, The Beachwood Reporter; Bill Dwyer, columnist, Wednesday Journal Newspapers; David Morrison, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform; Terry Brunner, Better Government Association; Mike McKeon, McKeon & Associates; [and] Mike Lawrence, [former] director, Paul Simon Public Policy [Institute]." The event wil be held from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 21, in the auditorium of Fenton High School, 1000 W. Green St., Bensenville. Sounds interesting; you may want to check it out.

Utilizing the latest in cutting-edge technology, one local elected official continued a trend in community outreach: posting "tweets" during an important event. State Rep. Tim Schmitz, R-49th District, of Geneva registered his thoughts on Gov. Pat Quinn's budget address today using Twitter, a "social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets," according to Wikipedia. "Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 bytes in length." Schmitz was commenting on Quinn's speech through ilhousegop, the Twitter account operated (I believe) by the Illinois House Republicans (unless there are some rogue House Democrats who have clandestinely established their own bogus "GOP" Twitter account unbeknownst to the Republican apparatus — damn them!). Here are Schmitz's tweets (going from oldest to most-recent postings): * * * "getting a budget briefing" (about 9:30 a.m.) "House Gallery is filling up" (about 11:30 a.m.) "Reporters are testing their mics and cameras" "Speaker is calling the House to order" "The Gov is in the House making his way to the podium" "Gov states we need to live within our means" (about noon) "He is creating a Taxpayer Action Board to review expenses" "Proposing changes to the pension system for new employees" "Gov proposed not to make full pension payments for next 2 years" "Gov is talking up tax relief for families" "Gov just proposed raising income taxes 50%" "Middle income families will pay more" "Gov opposes massive spending cuts" "Gov supports small business tax hikes when IL unemploy. just hit 7.9%" "Gov proposes $26 billion jobs plan" "The plan relys on major tax and fee hikes" "spending increases in education" "Gov's income tax hike will cost $600 more to a married couple" "Gov is no done. No prop tax relief for families" "Have a good day!" (about 12:30 p.m.) * * * Wow, that was just like being there! That is, of course, if by "just like being there" I mean "staring at a computer reading someone's blog posting on someone else's tweets made during a speech on the proposed state budget." OK, a blog posting on a series of tweets regarding a budget address doesn't offer the same immediacy as sitting in the Capitol listening to Quinn's remarks (or even watching them on TV). But it's Twitter, and all the kids are using Twitter when they go on their crazy Inter-Webs, right? So it's got to be cool. From the looks of it, Quinn has some definite plans for a lot of people's income. Tomorrow I'll compare Schmitz's take on the budget address to what's written about it in the MSLEM (mainstream liberal elite media, for those of you who aren't acronymically correct). Until then, let me know what's on your mind by leaving a comment.