Why would an MD train to be a PA?

Sounds like she's a little "etchy - sketchy", too.

Very sad that the Patch is passing on information that is not true. My question to both reporters is, would MetroSouth have a doctor on staff that is not licensed? I think not. Try again Mr. Kadner.

My Dad was a surgeon who earned a law degree when he was in his fifties, and left the medical field because of the astronomical Medical Malpractice insurance premiums.

My understanding is that she studied first to be a PA, then went to a Mexican med school, then did an intern year at NYU - not a one year course as the author indicates. That said, her politics and polemics are scary.

Waiting for you to start talking about the DEMCRATS that have ruined our state, increased our taxes and made us #48. Patch has shown it bias, remember you are owned by a left wing outlet!!!

According to Kadner, having a 19th Ward aldermanic secretary (Fran Hurley in the 35th Rep) annointed by the 19th Ward dem party to be their "mouthpiece" in Springfield is not a story. Why the Dem powers picked her, and what she promised to do for them against the public interest, apparrently doesn't interest Kadner. Details of of Dr Bellar's nun "experience" does.

The fact that Bill Cunningham has lived off 19th Ward Dem patronage jobs for the last couple of decades, and what he owes the party to serve their selfish interests above those of the people, apparently isn't important to Kadner (or the Patch). I guess Kadner and Robaugh think this "nun" non-issue is more important.

Kelly Burke beat Madigan's preferred candidate in 2010 NOT because she disagreed with his positions on policy, but because she wanted the Rep job as a career move. When she won, Madigan showered her with campaign money and protected her from a primary challenge. What sort of deal did she agree to sell us out to Madigan? Kadner and Robaugh don't seem to care.

It seems that Robaugh, the Patch and Kadner are more interested in protecting the Chicago Dem machine than exposing it. If you want to know why Illinois is in the trouble it is, the press is a big part.

What I wouldn't give to have a Mike Royko out there in the press today, instead of the corrupt "wannabees" like Kadner!

Take a stroll on Barbara's website: http://electbellar.com/credentials/
How dare someone question this woman's credentials. She has done nothing but serve the community her entire life.

Last year Illinois passed a 67% income tax on the backs of us residents in order to balance its budget for the first time in over a decade, again balanced solely because they raised our taxes 67%!
even With the 67% tax increase, this only balances a budget for 2012, it does nothing to pay off our bottom line, a looming debt of over 9 BILLION dollars with no means in which to pay it off!
Illinois has $980 million dollars in un-funded teacher pension liabilities, due our teachers, they paid into their pension and our Democrat leaders recklessly spent it its gone. And NOW Messer’s Quinn and Madigan want to pass that $980 million dollar bill back to ALL the suburban tax payers to pay for, this will without a doubt raises ALL of our property tax yet again!
Illinois total pension liability commitment costs due government workers throughout Illinois is a staggering $91 BILLION as of 2012! They have no plans how to fix this
This all comes under 45 years of Democratic control of our State! We should be asking who will likely fix this mess.

Author intent, create a controversy? Dr. Bellar leaving the nunnery prior to taking final vows some 40 years ago is hardly controversial let alone relevant to the catastrophic problems facing Illinois. For those paying attention, this part of Dr. Bellars life is something in which she has always made very clear throughout her campaign, so again where is the controversy?

Sean Morrison

Again, interesting that "nun" of Bellar's defenders who have posted can refute the actual facts: she claims to have been a nun...the order says she wasn't; she claims to have graduate from NY Med School...her state license says she graduated from a school in Mexico. Yet she presents herself as some sort of moral authority who is serving God and teaching ethics classes. Sorry, folks. This is fair game.

Frank, keep drinking the kool-aid,
What do you think about our states democrat led parade right into fiscal ruin?
your the obvious fool who places them back in office election after election.

Sean, again you are changing the topic and killing the messenger. (BTW, The state agency that issues her med license list the Mexican med school.)

"our states democrat led parade right into fiscal ruin..." Okay, fair enough, the Dems screwed up the state, we can agree on that. But no matter how many times you complain about the dems, it won't change the fact that Barbara Bellar has lied about her background. Her own response to the controversy doesn't even attempt to correct Kadner.

Facts are a very stubborn thing.

Sean, in the interest of "fair and balanced" reporting, there is a lot of blame to be thrown around for the fiscal mess in Illinois because for 26 of the last 35 years Illinois has had a Republican governor. The current governor, Pat Quinn did raise taxes, not because he wanted to, but because he had to. The state has spent the money.....the state has to pay it back. Governor Quinn will never be re-elected but at least he had the courage to do the right thing.

You are right that the pension mess is not the fault of the employees who are pension participants, they have faithfully paid their share to the pension plan each and every payday. It was our elected officials who chose to not pay the states portion into the pensions because they, over the years, kept finding "other" things to spend the money on, hoping that in time, through investment returns, the pension money could be "made up". Well, it hasn't been "made up" so now, because we all elected our officials in Springfield, we all should remedy the situation.

Regarding your candidate, Dr. Bellar, it sounds as if she has an impressive resume. A resume that doesn't need to be embellished. So why did she not simply say she "studied to become a nun", or "had entered a convent" instead of that she was a nun. I saw her video, if this politic thing doesn't work for her (which I don't think it will), she could add "stand-up comedian" to her resume.

"She presents herself as some sort of moral authority who is serving God and teaching ethics classes"---I think not --she is serving herself. From this story it appears that she did what she needed to do to be a perpetual student without a student loan burden. Joined the convent---went to Mexico--got an education never a nun. Then jumped to the Army --I'd like to hear more about her Army tour of duty since she was in the convent during Nam? As she quoted "God should decide how long we live, not President Obama," Anyone spending time in the convent knows God Does--(not should)-- Decide. Obama is trying to give more people a healthy opportunity until God Does Decide. Barbara where is your compassion? left at the convent? You may want to call the "nuns on the bus".

Just saying...if a faculty memo is all she has to prove she was a nun is all she has then it doesn't say much. Then you exploit it on all campaign material? And to top it off you are teaching ethics?? Sorry, you don't have my vote.

That's Phil for you; find some insignificant flaw and blow it way out of proportion while turning a blind eye to the real problems right in front of him.

Its funny, A few weeks back I wrote an opt- ed piece, I wrote about Romney being 100% correct in his assessment that 47% of Obama voters will never vote for him and I say it again…Romney is correct, 47% of Obamas kool-aide democrats will never vote for Romney and in fairness, hard core republicans will never vote for Obama.
Obviously in the case of Dr. Bellar, some of these same bloggers posting on patch are not voting for Dr. Bellar no matter what…after all she is a Republican! Many of the bloggers are democrat organization loyalist, seizing the opportunity to muddy the waters to confuse the independent voters from the real issues facing Illinois. However I believe voters will make that ballot decision based on facts of the problems facing this state, they know who created this mess and more importantly who is more likely to fix it! They are smart enough to not be swayed by mean spirited, redacted loose conjecture.

John Paul...well said, I think you just summed it all up!

PH Fran...the house and senate of Illinois have been democrat controlled for the previous 45 years! They, not the governor pass the bills that invoke spending, hard pill for Dems to swallow, but true.

The facts are quite clear regarding Dr. Bellar, for those paying attention to the campaign, nothing has been embellished, Dr. Bellar has always been quite clear with her facts. This “pretend controversy”… is simply Phil Kadner and the south town trying desperately to keep their newspaper alive! The art of creating controversies where they don't exist....that’s a process as old as newspapers themselves.
Silly things like this can have an effect on electoral outcomes…of course I believe that is what “Phil Kander” had in mind when he crafted his piece.
I am sad however that the Patch thought it was good journalism to re-print the muck Mr. kadner threw out here!

It’s untrue, its mean, it’s unethical and it’s not fair, but we all answer for our sins in the end!

I suggest you come out and hear from the candidates directly,
sadly I understand that the DEMOCRAT candidates are not going to showing up, dodge the voters once again ????

They want your vote but won’t face you in public!

open political debate between the candidates seeking elective office for the:
State Senate District 18th,
State Representative District 35th,
and State Representative District 36th

The Debate has been confirmed and will take place On: Monday October 29, 2012 at 7:00pm, at:
Parkwood Baptist Church at 11355 S. Central Park Avenue, Chicago Illinois, in the Mt. Greenwood neighborhood.
Pastor Thorin Anderson, the Pastor of Parkwood Baptist Church has agreed to host and act as an impartial moderator of this event.
All candidates from the Republican and Democrat sides have been invited.
The following Republican candidates have already accepted this invitation and will be present at this event:
Dr. Barbara Bellar, Candidate for IL State Senate-District 18
Bob Shelstrom, Candidate for IL State Representative-District 36
Ricardo Fernandez, Candidate for IL State Representative-District 35.

The format will be a town hall style forum with questions being submitted in writing by the audience. All members of the public are invited to attend this event.
For further information, you can call Park Wood church 773-238-4475.

I would suggest that you call the phone number that was listed on the press release to seek your answers. I assume it is the churches sponsored event?
I applaud them for providing an opportunity where open debate can take place, allowing the public to compare the candidates. My only concern is if the church will be big enough to handle a large crowd that will certainly attend.

I have been hearing from a few sources however that the Democrat candidates are not going to show up. It appears they do not feel they need to face the public; their absence will be a strong message to all the voters.

Joe, you just made me re-read my own posts. Nope, I don't follow your rational here.
So I assume your rant regarding the woes of 19th ward was meant for another blogger? I wrote nothing regarding the 19th ward?

As for my play book, read my post they are 100% accurate, getting pissed at me for pointing out the robber baron actions of your Democrat leaders over the last 45 years is not going to change the cause of why we face economic disaster today.
Those same Democrat leaders you voted for time and time again are the ones who squandered away our state and counties money, seriously, Joe, how is that working out for us all?

Sean, to "assume" makes an a** out of u and me... LOL... I'd never assume anything or believe unnamed sources....

Laura....LOL... i have heard that saying regarding "assume" before and and i do agree with its point!

well lets hope the debate will be a successful exercise in civic responsibility and the general public becomes better informed one way or the other about the issues facing us.

PH Fran,
Thank you, your own slant actually serves to make my point,
So you agree then that for less than 14 of the previous 45 years the Democrat party has controlled the state of Illinois? The Dems held majority of all three bodies of government. I might also add the vast majority of overwhelming carnage of compiled debt and abuse has occurred over the previous 16 years leading us up to today’s teetering fiscal collapse…with the largest proportional majority of that debt occurring over the previous 11 years, and guess what? The Democrats have held both houses and nearly the entirety of the governor’s mansion during this last portion.
PH Fran, If we were Texas for example, you could make a point that our political leaders are doing good work for the citizens, balanced budgets, paying off the debt, providing excellent “critical” services to the states citizens, and deserve to be re-elected to office. BUT.. We are not Texas, we are the 50th..last place, worst of the worst, seems the voters here in Illinois are in severe denial.
As a general electret, it is very hard to look in a mirror and accept the responsibility for your vote. As a voting whole, we believed these people and they betrayed us, why on earth would we send them back again?

PH it starts with a basic understanding of how our state government works,
Governor though important, is a figure head; Mr. Madigan controls the agenda,
the vast majority of our current fiscal implosion has boiled to this quicken pace under predominately over the last decade, ALL under the Democrats controlled agenda, reckless out of control non-essential spending, social subsidies, continued neglect of their “legal” duty to fund pension liabilities.
I pose the question again; who is most likely to fix this disaster; the same folks that created this or those with new vision? They say that there are none more blinded then those who refuse to see the truth!
PH Fran, I am sure you’re a good person, we simply have obvious differences in our expectations of leadership.

I don't, unfortunately, see anyone with a hard-and-fast political affiliation at present solving these issues. The Republicans are as bad as the Democrats; the Democrats are a bad as the Republicans. When will we stop embuing politics with some sort of magical sword that can be waved to bridge the rifts and solve the issues. It would be idyllic, really, if the two parties simply stopped self-identifying and instead focused on the best interests of the constituencies rather than focusing on the size of their own wallets/purses and egos!

I find it hilarious that she said "God should decide how long we live, not President Obama" when her party's platform declares otherwise.

Seems Kadner and The Patch purposefully ignore local candidates and political figures. If there are issues about a candidate, by all means reveal it. But Kadner and The Patch are oddly silent when it comes to demanding accountability from those local politicians who currently hold offices from mayor, school board, etc. who are liberal or RINOs. The biggest impacts we experience are from the local levels, and yet Kadner and The Patch are always deliberately silent.

I hope that Bellar is transparent with her background, as I would expect any candidate or public office holder to be - including President Obama. The columnist laments, "What troubles me the most is that someone running for public office simply refuses to answer questions in person or return phone calls challenging her credentials." Does this columnist have the same concern about President Obama, who refuses to provide his school transcript history?