Rep. Jan Schakowsky is trying to break free of the ‘Schakowsky Conundrum.’ For anyone unfamiliar with this syndrome, here is a description:

Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky finds herself in the unfortunate position of battling the very Progressive movement she has done so much to help shape. You see, she is a Progressive Zionist, and that puts her in direct conflict with her most radical Progressive colleagues, many of whom equate Zionism with colonialism and racism.

Over the weekend, Jan Schakowsky condemned the Progressive Democrats of America for their role in the coming Hamas Flotilla 2, set to launch June 20, 2011.

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QUESTION: What do you do if you are a Progressive supporter of Israel, and your Progressive fellow travelers are proudly organizing the American wing of the Hamas Flotilla movement?

ANSWER: Nothing. You are powerless to stop it.

It’s called the Schakowsky Conundrum, named after Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. Jan is fiercely committed to two things in this world, in no particular order: 1) Socialism 2) Israel. It must be torture for her to watch as her Progressive leadership supports the Flotilla.

Why is Jan Schakowsky a slave to her Flotilla-loving leadership? Because they are the co-sponsors of all of her pet legislation. For example, in the image above Rep. Grijalva is speaking glowingly of Jan and her proposal to raise taxes on the evil rich capitalists of America.

For those who have been keeping score, Rep. Raul Grijalva is the co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and a leading board member of the openly Flotilla-supporting Progressive Democrats of America.

Here is Rep. Grijalva unloading his love all over Rep Schakowsky:

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Yesterday, Jan Schakowsky sat in on the Don Wade and Roma show on Chicago’s WLS 890 AM.

The topic of the Obama White House banning a critical media outlet came up, and Schakowsky was asked if she would ever like to exclude any media outlets. She promptly responded that she would like to ban Breitbart from covering her, calling him a “Sleaze bag” in a vicious and uncivil personal attack. Full clip here.

She probably feels this way because while covering the Schakowsky-Pollak congressional race last year on behalf of Big Government, Founding Bloggers and Adam Sharp of Sharp Elbows had the temerity to ask Representative Schakowsky some basic questions that she couldn’t/wouldn’t answer: 1) Where in the Constitution does Congress have the authority to force someone to buy a product or service? 2) What is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and what is Democratic Socialism? Jan is a long-time supporter of the DSA, but for some reason she is shy about this association.

Here is the coverage that Democrat Representative Jan Schakowsky does not want you to see:

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We attended the 3rd candidates’ forum between Democrat Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky, and her Republican Challenger, Joel Pollak, in their hotly contested race for Illinois’ 9th district.

There is a lot of content to process, but in the meantime, we bring you these two preview clips.

In the first clip, we ask Representative Schakowsky about recent claims on NRO that she has been an active Socialist.

Yet as I document in detail in Radical-in-Chief, the Midwest Academy’s leadership, including Jan Schakowsky, really was socialist. [emphasis added]

In the second clip, we ask Congresswoman Schakowsky if she thinks CodePink should be investigated for its role in the Hamas Flotilla.

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Below is our full-length report on last Sunday’s Candidates’ Forum with Democrat representative, Jan Schakowsky, and her challenger, Republican Joel Pollak.

As you can see from the video, Jan Schakowsky’s campaign greets our challenging questions on Health Care, Israel, and Ms. Schakowsky’s support for the Democratic Socialists of America, with evasion, derision, and borderline harassment.

Despite the fact that we were attending as credentialed media, the Schakowsky camp insisted that we were “trackers,” out to “get Joel Pollak elected.” While we are admittedly not fans of Representative Schakowsky’s positions on many issues, we were not paid to be there by any campaign or party. As challenging as it is for the Schakowsky camp to accept, we are merely citizen-journalists who are not afraid to ask the questions that the so-called mainstream media have failed to ask – questions such as where in the Constitution does Congress have the authority to force Americans to purchase a product or service? Is it inappropriate for American Progressives to take part in organizing flotillas against Israel, in support of Hamas? Who are the Democratic Socialists of America, and what is Democratic Socialism?

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President Obama’s advisers assure us that he will use his State of the Union address tonight to deal with our nation’s ailing economy. Americans have already begun to hear talk of a “hard pivot” at the White House, away from health care and towards jobs.

Yet in economic terms, the president’s shift thus far has been more of the same: more government control and less individual freedom.

His attacks on banks—including a new tax that will invariably be passed on to consumers—caused stocks to plummet last week. He has targeted some banks for being “too big,” but without ending the costly policy of “too big to fail,” which removes the discipline of risk and reward. He crowed, “We want our money back,” but wants to use “our” money for his own spending programs, not for tax relief.

The central idea of the President’s new plan appears to be shaping up as a jobs program, in imitation of FDR’s public employment programs during the Great Depression, and funded by new taxes on Wall Street.

The plan is not about job creation—more jobs could be created by the private sector—nor is it about recouping the bailout. It is primarily about redistribution—and is based on old, bad ideas.
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