Claypool Wouldn't Know the Truth Unless It Came With a Government Paycheck

DNA Erica Demerest photo

Forrest Claypool - say it with me, please " Forrest Claypool."  There; isn't that like a Yoga moment, or cucumbers on the eyelids?

For most Chicago journalists, just saying " Forrest Claypool" is a tonic akin to a seventh grade fat boy getting a Saint Valentine's Day card from a tween stunner - the Hope, Oh the Hope!

You see over the last forty years, Chicago newspapers gave up integrity for access.  Columnists and Editorial Boards care more about the news morsels tossed by a Daley, a Blago,  an Obama, a Rahm, a Mike Quigley, or a Pat Quinn than it does about getting out the full story. Public television and radio, WTTW& WBEZ share the agendas of the elected Progressives who run this city, county and this state and the activists and PACs who help keep them in power, They feed at the same tax-funded trough.

I'm just a working stiff, with a mortgage and a new tax on something I own or don't own every sixty seconds in Cook County. To me, the name " Forrest Clayyyyyyyyyyyypoooooooooool " portends a looming grift - a government sanctioned pinch of my wallet.  Forrest Claypool to my waxless ears is akin to the names of great grifters, cads, bounders, cut-purses and ne'er-do-wells of common culture Reese Kilgore, Butch Cavendish, Velma Valento, Bill Sykes and of course Galworthy's hideous Soames Forsyte. .  Uriah Heep is Congressman Mike Quigley's sole property, though Forrest Claypool would give Wee Mike a run for his money.

Thanks to the capriciously snorting snouts of Chicago's iconic news hounds, Forrest Claypool does not get away with murder, only character assassination of better persons -Amalgamated Transit Union Local #308 Bob Kelly.  Why only yesterday, Forrest Claypool celebrated the continued employment of 65 felons turned CTA apprentices with this -"Despite Mr. Kelly's commitment to end the rail car servicer apprentice program and put his own union members out of work, we've been able to work with Local 241's leadership to find a place for these individuals, guaranteeing them the opportunity to work and put food on their families' tables for another year," CTA President Forrest Claypool said previously." And often.

Robert Kelly has been portrayed in our collective Chicago media as cross between Simon Legree and Sir Percival Glyde, from the moment that the doomsday clock on the Forrest Claypool, Rahm Emanuel, Michael Pfleger CTA School for Felons was announced last March. Though the ex-cons were placed in rail cleaning posts, no one bothered to let the union governing such labor in on the plans.  Kelly wanted the workers placed in the jobs at the Local 308 recommended salaries, but Rahm Pinchpenny Savior and Forrest Claypool chained the workers to Micky D salaries in the name of Saul Alinsky.

But Kelly has said he wanted the CTA to pay the rail workers more money. The 65 rail apprentices are dues-paying union members, but they’re paid a considerably lower wage than their union counterparts, and they don't get benefits.
“What do I say to people when I say you’re going to do the exact same work next to a guy making $25 an hour and benefits, and I'm not going to pay you benefits?" Kelly asked on "Chicago Tonight" recently.
"They're using these people to save money. Give them the right wages, health, pension, benefits. Let’s give these people a real second chance. Let’s do it. I will sign that deal tomorrow, turn these people over, and give them a real shot at life,” Kelly said.

The SPIN fed to the gaping maws of the Chicago news hounds avoids the facts, minutes, calendars and records of Forrest Claypool.  No one from WTTW to Chuck Goudie to Eric Zorn will bother with the facts missing from a good Claypool news feed.

Claypool is such a gutless, sniveller that he and Rahm hired Citizen Michael Pfleger to perform the character hit on Bob Kelly.  Michael Pfleger wrote a Jeremiad on the alleged nasty nature of Bob Kelly in the always complicit Chicago Tribune, followed by an idiotic smear piece about Kelly's daughter winning a scholarship in the Sun Times.  Pfleger led a December protest that included accomplished grifter and activist Rep. Bobby Rush and a score of Pfleger acolytes at the offices of ATU 308, during the Local's Christmas Party. Now, Michael Pfleger has issued a Fatwa on Kelly via one of his FaceBook pages.

Post by Father Michael Pfleger.

Claypool knows enough to duck a working man in an honest forum.  I have never met Bob Kelly, but I have had more than enough personal contact with Forrest Claypool for one lifetime - usually at political fund-raisers for good people in public life who must admit Claypool on the guest list or near their coat tails.  Usually those same people find themselves subject to scurrilous charges on TV or in a column, later to be dropped.

Claypool would not know the truth if it came with a government check.  He does not need to know it.  Forrest Claypool is fine. Rahm Emanuel is fine.  Michael Pfleger is fine.

Chicago?  Not so good.

Robert Kelly?  We shall see.

Paul Vallas Calls for Front-Loading Political Accountability

The Progressive Think Tank!

Paul Vallas will be a great County Board President - you can be sure of it by this sign - all the goofs are lining up against him! To Nuance Old Jackie Swift.

"In the absence of a viable two-party system, the only accountability you have rests in the U.S. attorney's office. That's accountability at the back end," Vallas said. "No one is ever held politically accountable."

'Accountable? Accountable, Sir?!! Why I am an elected Official in the Land of Lincoln and Should be for life!'

Accountable. Yep. Meant something back in the day - even with political jobs. A guy would reach out and seek help to get a job and then his clout, or Chinaman, or Rabbi was held accountable for his work ethic and value to commonweal. It was up and down.

Then, along came the Whistleblower Culture. A goof could not or would not fulfill his vocational obligations and got in the jackpot with his supervisor - Voila! Pam Zekman appears and questions get asked like . . .'Mr. Polecatz, why was Mergatroyd Fuzzdyke required to sell Ward tickets?' Mergatroyd spent the previous twenty four months sleeping off hangovers in a nice, quiet cemetery, during his work hours for which he was handsomely paid, but failed to bring that to Pam's attention. The bigger the skunk shooting the eau d'cologne the better the 'Investigative Journalist' embraces the tale.

Accountability is a chimera.

Now Paul Vallas comes up from the Swamps and Bayous to the Cess-pool that is Cook County and brings back that old world notion of Accountability - People Actually doing the work for which they are paid.

Believe it or not . . .some kind soul who listens to Zanfir CDs? . . .please wake Forrest Claypool up . . .County Supervisers and most workers actually work hard.

It is the doughy dreamboats like Forrest, who was appointed to 90% of the jobs he has held in government, who get the Camera Face-time and play Atticus Finch for the nit-wits in the political audience who stir up the cess that has killed Accountability.

True facts. Old School Accountability in County and, yes Muriel, City government as well, rows hard against the Progressive currents, roiled by the oars of Reform Coyotes like Claypool and Preckwinkle and the now Congressional Quigley.

I needed some County work done to help kids here in Auburn Gresham at Leo High School and went to the right guy, and he introduced me to the righter guy, who had just the right guys and things got done - no quid pro dough; for which no moolah or services were exchanged; no grease; no trouble and I ain't sayin' nothin'!

I did not seek the help of Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Please. The Wee Lad is busy enough with Kin. I would have reached out to his Pop. That gent was a master of grace and accountability. Guys that Stroger Pere trusted? You bet. I explained what was needed and with three conversations and follow-up. Things are moving.

Ask the help of a goof like Claypool and he would trot out the swell study done for Mike Quigley at the University of Chicago. Nope go to the hard-working people in government who actually perform and always seem to be the first people smeared by Pam Zekmans or have their jobs cut by the people doing the real stealing in the name of Reform.

That is Accountability. Not a Press Conference, or a WTTW Gush Glamorama with Phil Ponce by a self-absorbed flannel mouth who never does one thing to make government do anything for anyone. If the poor kids at Leo needed anything to make their lives better, safer, or more accountable, the last person one should ever see is a Reform goof like Claypool at County or Progressive Pirate like Preckwinkle.

Paul Vallas has it right front-load accountability. Paul Vallas ( GOP or Dem) is the right guy for the Cook County Presidency, because he is always accountable. Everything Old is New Again!

So, I Said 'Drop Dead Sister, I'm Dating a Swell Dish!' . . .and the Silly Skirt Did -On the Spot!

It's Spy Wednesday, See?

So, I'm out side waiting for the lovely Terry to finish her Alto chores with the Cantate Domino Choir's Tenebrae services at St. John Cantius Catholic Church. This young skirt with doe eyes approaches me on the steps of the Church. A real Peach Cobbler. I ain't looking,see, but I ain't blind.

'Please, Mister, I need help.'

I thumbed the brim of my Optimo grey Stetson up above my thick greying eye brows to take in a full eye-gulp of this Pastry Doll with a red patterned cotton dress clinging to the quality flesh, muscles and bones beneath the rounded cup of her chin holding the reddest lips this side of a transvestite review at the Admiral Theatre.

'Don't we all?'

' Please all I need is a ride to my cousin's apartment on Ogden, my flip flops broke.'

'Where you from, Apple Tart, this is Chicago - The Big Wind - Weather from Alaska, Hawaii.'

'I'm new in town and Tom Skilling said that it would be unseasonably mild.'

'Skilling sold you, Peach Cobbler, like he did to the grand jury when his little brother looted Enron. I'm raising three kids already.'

' Please, Mister!'

I thought hell, it's Holy Week and Tenebrae is longer than a Studs Terkel Tribute on Channel 11.'

The weeping elf gave me the address and we Chevy Malibu's it down Ogden to Race Street.

'Out you go.'

'Please, come up with me? The vestibule has poor lighting.

Agatha Christie she ain't, but she'll do, as the Vestibule had worse lighting than my tired fifty-six year old eyes. The rusty rose paint covering the dry wall that stood in for lathing and plaster was as attractive as a fat bar-fly ex- Mount Carmel Cheerleader topped off with a few litres of warm Carlo Rossi Rose and perfumed by a pack and half of Pall Malls and half a dozen Slim Jims.

'Please, come up - it might not be safe.'

I volunteered for John McCain; nothing scares me anymore and up I went.

We got into the cousin's apartment which was a room and Murphy Bed -down and unmade. The cousin probably celebrated the end of Operation Desert Storm by making up the rack.

'Please hold me I am so alone!' The Gooey Confection with the pan of a fattened up Lara Flynn Boyle leeched onto me.

'Listen, Sister, I don't know your game but the whistle's been blown. Hit the showers.'

'Don't be cruel. You are so much older and nicer than the men who have made me do things . . .make robocalls for Mike Quigley. He's in Congress now'

' Where Quigley belongs - that or a midget basketball team. Sing it Sister, but you are the audience. I'm bouncing.'

'I can Make you happy.'

'I am Happy. See me grinnin'?'

She held up both arms to me. 'Take me or I'll just die! I'll do anything you say.'

'Look, Rhubarb Pie, this particular Hair-pin is stuck deep in another Babe's bonnet. The Real Deal. This schooner don't cruise, see? I'm chained to my Baby's Boardwalk and She's singing in Church and hugging my arm for keeps. Drop Dead.'

I only meant it metaphorically.

The Pretty Pop-Over snapped up off the deck; kicked her quality gams to One Eighty and flattened out in mid air and drooped like a three by five foot -three quarter inch cut of plywood and pancaked on the floor. Dust bunnies danced for what seemed an eternity.

The Fruit Strudel in cotton and busted flip-flops was as stiff as a poker, and more rigid than an Obama Press Conference.

She was deader than Pat Quinn's tax plans. I called the cops. Told them my story. They told me to blow. I Malibu'd back to St. John Cantius. Tenebrae was about a third done. I stood on the steps of the beautiful old Polish Church and listened to blend of angelic voices calling up the sins of this sad planet. Tenebrae - shadows.

That Fruit Pie could flop.


H/t Blather.com great photos!

More Cowbell! A Romney Victory in August; Obama Win in November

I must agree with John Kass in his very forthright and Chicago-savvy prediction that President Obama will win re-election in 2012. I vote primarily Democrat (locally)and but rarely for the GOP. I consider myself to be a conservative Catholic Democrat ( registered so)and vote for Real Labor (skilled trades and non-public sector labor) candidates with a track record.

For years, It has been my firm belief that the GOP ( local and national) is the Party That Blows Off Its Own Toes. They are best friends the DNC and Progressive Machine have in the world. They add, MORE COW BELL, to Barack Obama's Blue Oyster Cult!

Cowbell = Memes and Attacks -"Hateful, Islamaphobic, militarist, 1%-ers, Rich-lovers! Breeders!Homophobic, Divisive, Sexist, Racist, Sexist, Racist, cowbell, more cowbell!" AXELROD WALKEN - I GOTTA FEVER!!!!

Proof? Dan Proft is on WLS and not in Springfield.

The Illinois GOP could not 'get behind' Dan Proft because he is a bachelor. Instead, they allowed the unpainted furniture King of Bloomington/Normal and the man who makes the best ice cream in America suck the life out of the campaign.

With equal if not more self-loathing, the national GOP is going with our Bill Brady writ- large Mitt Romney.

President Obama is the same man he was when he was elevated to the purple by same Progressive Machine ( Democratic Party with a dash of Sen. Marque Kirque) that made the Woods Fund Activist and Hyde Park acolyte a State and United States Senator.
President Barack Obama will win re-election in 2012.

The reason he'll win?

He knows who he is. And the Republican politicians don't know who they are. They've forgotten what they're about, or perhaps like some isolated tribe, they've lost the language necessary to explain it to themselves.

Their voters know this and don't really believe them anymore.

And that's why Obama will win.

Only Rick Santorum could possibly beat President Obama, but only if he could withstand a public scourging not seen since Pilate ordered the cohort to give the carpenter's kid a tune-up.

LOTTSA COWBELL!!!!!!!!!!!

Rick Santorum is very much like my pal Dan Proft - he plays with five cards and the money boys play with six decks. Sarah Palin is a good person. I liked her. The worst thing that she did, as far I can see and that includes the Russian coast, was resigning as Governor. Other than that Ms. Palin was aces and worn down by the constant whippings from the likes of faux-thinkers Kathleen Parker, Christoper Buckley, David Brooks, Peggy Noonan and Steve Chapman who play in same sandbox as E.J. Dionne and the cast and crew at Saturday Night Live.

Abortion ( the full health package) and Gay (Civil Rights with less humor) issues are the COWBELL Cat-'o-nine-tails.

When President Obama visited Chicago, Pat Quinn, Dithering Dick Durbin and Lisa Madigan nudged their way into openly gay mega-million dollar ATM Fred Eychaner's open but expensive house party. I have no doubt that Pat Quinn's boss Terry Cosgrove nibbled cheese and quaffed some vino there as well.

The money goes only to suppliant hand-mavens and their public office mendicants. Rick Santorum is already getting scourged. MORE COWBELLS! IGOTTA FEVER FOR COWBELLS!

Mitt Romney is no different from the Illinois likes of Sen. Marque Kirque, Mike Quigley's new play pal. More so Mitt Romney is no differnt from the Bush Family which played nicely with the Chicago Progressive Machine.

In sum, it is up to individual voters -Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim, Atheist, Breeder, Gay (universal), to vote their hearts and minds.

Personally, I will vote for whomever runs against President Obama. I still feel that he is out of his depth. . .way out of his depth. So is Senator Marque Kirque, Mike Quigley, Deb Shore, Ricardo 'Rick' Munoz, Dorothy Brown, Sandy and Jesse Jackson, Dick Durbin, Jan Schakowsky, Sara Feigenholtz, Barbara Flynn-Currie, Toni Preckwinkle, Forrest Claypool ( anywhere), and so many, many, many more public plungers.

Don't forget, the same media and PR machines that gave us Roland Burris also created Blagojevich. Judy Baar Topinka anyone? Let's hear from the Greek again!

But Republicans smoke the opposite of Hopium. Their pipes are filled with Dopium.

One bowl of Dopium and you can listen to tough talk about budget cutting and deficits with one ear. And with the other ear, you can listen to talk of another war with Iran and why that's a good thing, and how we can't cut defense spending or the world is doomed.

If you tried doing this without Dopium, you'd go stark raving mad.

Sadly, since I belong to neither group, I've become hooked on another hideous substance: Kasshish.

It allows you to see reality and a bleak future.

And what I see is Obama winning in 2012.

Hopium and Cowbells Brother John!

Another chap, calling himself the Catholic Knight says this-

What we have right now is an entire section of the Republican Party (about 20%) that has rejected the status quo precedents set by previous GOP administrations and congresses. What we have is a political party that is now about 20% more 'libertarian' than it was just ten years ago. We have a party that is 20% more likely to embrace a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy. We have a party that is 20% more likely to want to abolish the Federal Reserve. We have a party that is 20% more likely to embrace states rights and decentralisation. This is why GOP icon Sarah Palin has warned Republicans not to alienate the Ron Paul supporters. For in alienating them, they risk the breakup of the Republican Party entirely. The only GOP candidate bringing in sizable numbers of young energetic voters right now is Ron Paul. It is clear, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the future of the Republican Party is going to reflect Ron Paul's thinking a lot more than any other political candidate. Paul has made his mark on the GOP, and it is a mark that is here to stay, unless of course the GOP rejects it. If they do that however, the GOP rejects its future and consigns itself to a generation of irrelevance.

Tru Dat, Sir Knight! More Cow Bell!

http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/obamas-visit-cboe-ceos-shame-kass-v-brown/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=obamas-visit-cboe-ceos-shame-kass-v-brown

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/quinn-durbin-obama-fundraiser-eychaner-137151703.html

http://catholicknight.blogspot.com/

Rahmses Uno- Pharaoh Dealer of Old Chicago!

Now that Hose Knee has taken it on the Arthur Duffy - exite stage left -from his toils in the shadow of the pyramids; let's imagine a film ( yeah, I know, Movie) about the advent of Emanuel -not found in the reeds - but in New Trier - who danced his way into the power and the glory that is Chicago. Imagine all of the genius and money available to preserve that thought in an epic film to rival Avatar and The Hangover. Well, imagine no more Lucille!

I spoke with Chicago Independent film-maker Fay Accompli who is doing a bio-pic/documentary on the all but media-assured election of Rahm Emanuel. Fay Accompli has scads, literally scads, of money.

Fitting this coupling of real Chicago pipe is earnest and Progressive Cecil B. Demille-in-Drag, Fay Accompli's treatment will be wrapped in old timey splendor and CinemaScope and Technicolor with a cast of millions and funded by a grant from the Pritzker Foundation, Arianna Huffington Industries and the Chubb Group. Chicago icon Sugar Rautbord, author of the best smelling novel The Fifth Floor which she is promoting everywhere, is on the project.

Ms. Fay Accompli gushed, " The Chicago Tribune says it all, 'No other candidate combines Emanuel's candor about the threats facing Chicago with the will to take necessary steps -- some of them unpopular -- to tame those threats,' and no one threatens threats like a Pharaoh. Look at Mubarak! Rahm will threaten threats with threatening threats. I see Rahm as Pharaoh - like Yul Brynner. I wish I get him to do the picture, but I'll use Jeremy Piven. He's so Chicago. or John What's is Name? The one whose sister does the phone ads , you know." I do not.
Ms. Accompli fleshed out a scene that I will offer to you, Dear Reader

The scene is Pharaoh's palace on the 5th Floor surrounded by eunuchs from the Chicago Media and horny dowagers who all look like Sugar Rautbord

Rahmses I -
Jeremy Piven, or that John What's His Name as Rahm Emanuel

Ald. Ed Burke -
erst-while Moses the Law Giver played by Richard Deacom

Monied Dowager Sugar Rautbord -
played by none other than author, socialite, wit, shrinking violet Sugar.

Media Eunuch Bruce Dold - Bruce Dold will be played by Chi-panda whose bamboo stuffings are only match by the papier mache substance of Chicago Tribune's Editorial Board.

Rahmses Deuce -
played by scenery chewing Rep. Mike Quigley - short of nothing, but all of that virtue stuff.

Here with just two weeks before the polls close like a maiden's knees at the approach of a bounder, Fay Accompli's Ramses I - the screenplay.

Rahmses I - The Commandments: And You Thought Ten Was a Lot!

Scene: Fifth Floor of City Hall

Rahmses[to Sugar Rautbord] You will be my wife. You will come to me whenever I call you, and I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is entirely your own affair... But I think you will.

[To Bruce Dold] You will be mine, like my dog, or my horse, or my falcon, except that I shall love you more - and trust you less.

[banishing Ed Burke to the desert] Here is your king's scepter, and here is your kingdom, with the scorpion, the cobra, and the lizard for subjects. Free them if you will. Leave the Hebrews to me.

[ to Mike Quigley] My son, I shall build your tomb upon their crushed bodies.
[to Ed Burke again]Come to me no more, Ed Burke, for the day you see my face again you will surely die! So let it be written, so let it be done...authenticate here, here and here - Move! For @#$%^'s sake! Get it #$%^ing Notarized and #$%^&ing take it to Dave Orr!

The score by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra - if he's up to it.
My Preview Review: It'll be the Cat's Nuts!

So, I Go into the Smart Bar . . . Tales of Rep. Mike Quigley Redux!

Smart Bar is located at:
3730 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60613
(Two blocks North of Wrigley Field)
Phone: 773-549-0203


SMART BAR CELEBRATES 25 YEARS
Smart Bar began in 1982 as a way to bring new and exciting dance music and DJs to Chicago. Since then, Smart Bar has accomplished this goal repeatedly and established itself as one of the country's premier cutting edge nightclubs. At the cusp of a quarter century of bringing new music to Chicago, it's time to take a look back at how we've come so far...

I'm up in Wrigleyville on Sunday after Mass and breakie with the kids, because the elegant, but thrifty woman who deigns to be seen publicly with me is checking the shops for haute couture items in the smart and thrifty shoppes.


I am eternally eight years old and after the third visit among the haute glad rags for really swell dames, the swell-egant woman has lost patience with my fingering of garments and fidgeting and " Hey, How's this look on me?"

In hushed but stern tone, "Please, take off the Jan Ali fedora. There is a magazine."

"Sorry."

" Why don't you go to a nice tavern and have a red pop and chat up the locals?"

"Okay!" Gone in a ZIP!

I wandered the toney avenues of Sheffield, Waveland and Clark and thanked Christ that we south siders, have but a very few diagonal streets - South Chicago and Vincennes, but they are haute couture deserts!

There are any number of adult watering holes here abouts, but I happened upon the Smart Bar. It is a Way Hip club and did not open until 10pm. What would have happened were I to have planted my elbows on its zinc bar? ( dream waves/dream waves/dream waves of my bold imaginings)

I goes into this hip new wave bar and survey the scene. Always check your surroundings and mind your Peas and Cues, especially if there is a free pool table in the joint. To my surprise there is a robot serving as the bartender. I observe with empirical thirst.

The robot asks a Metrosexual gent with a European carry-all, "What will you have?"

The guy says, "Martini."

The robot quickly brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, "What's your IQ, Sir?"

The guy says, "168."

The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology, Loyola basketball and the 19th Ward.

The gent is amazed. He finishes his drink and leaves, but he is curious. He halts at the door and goes back into the bar.

The robot bartender says, "What will you have?"

The guy says, "Martini."

Again, the robot makes a great martini gives it to the man and says, "What's your IQ?"

The guy says, "100."

The robot then starts to talk about NASCAR, White Sox, Budweiser and John Deere tractors.

The Metro-sexual dandy starts to leave but then decides he will try it one more time. He goes back up to the bar and pops a Jackson out of his European Man Bag.

The robot says, "What will you have?"

The guy says, "Martini," and the robot brings him another great martini.

The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"

The guy says, "Uh, about 60."

The robot leans in real close and says,..............

"So, you still happy you voted for Congressman Mike Quigley?"

Smart Bar ? positively Mensa-eque!

I gotta drop in there after I get my worsteds and Oxford cloths back from Mr. Shifty's Cleaners over by Western at 110th- no Dockers or Sears Regular Fits in this place I imagine. Quel Dommage!

h/t - Barrister Dan Kelley

Eric Zorn and Mark Brown Parse for Scott Lee Cohen and Progressives Everywhere!

If you get passionate by what a columnist writes, seek a mental health professional!

Some commenters have remarked that I seem "Bitter, Angry and Nasty! or wildly partisan. Nah, I'm cool. It's a stone groove here among my hard-working and thoughtful neighbors. No one talks policy (Tax, Law, & etc) but standard common sense English. The 19th Ward air is as sweet as a chocolate dipped Holloway Slo-Poke carmel sucker!

However, I get giggley-amused when I read our iconic Chicago columnists!

Scott Lee Cohen wanted to be our Lieutenant Governor and Mark Brown had the goods on him . . .but determined 'No Big Deal.'

So, Scott Lee Cohen who operates a couple of wildly successful pawn shops, dead-beat Dad-ed for a number of years, tuned-up a hooker, dropped out of the Democratic Campaign after counselling with real elected officials, went on WLS Radio and saw the window of opportunity crack open a bit, announced that he will run for Governor of Illinois as an Independent.

An Independent is a person who can not get three people to vote for her/him, but has the ear of our corporate media columnists like Chicago Sun Times' Mark Brown and Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn . Carol Marin must be ginning up a swell feature for WTTW, as we opine.

Eric Zorn immediately parsed Mark Brown's pontifical dismissal of "The Scott Lee Cohen Saga." It's all good, Dude! No Media fault here, there, or anywhere!

Today EZ parses more peculiar Progressive Petunias:

One way to open up the process is to convert to a ballot-access fee system as used in primaries in two-thirds of the states, according to Winger's data.

In Florida, for example, if you've been following the wild politics down there, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist will simply pay a $10,440 filing fee to run as an independent in November against presumptive Republican primary winner Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek.

No tedious and costly door-to-door solicitations followed by an even more tedious, costly and often outrageous petition challenge.

Does this clog the ballot with wealthy, vain and/or kooky candidates? Does it merely confuse voters? It hasn't really been a problem, said Tobin said.

And as for the argument that filing-fee systems discourage low-income candidates, well, perhaps. But no more than the costs of running petition drives, hiring election lawyers or running a successful campaign discourages low-income candidates.

If Scott Lee Cohen wants to spend his time and money putting his record and his plans in front of the voters, let him, I say.

And for those cowards who will try to thwart Cohen and Claypool by challenging their petitions? They're just pitiful.

Oh, Let's do lower the bar! Ballot access! This is another Progressive 'Change the Rule Because I Can Not Get Signatures' gambit.

These goofs and pinheads demand that Machines (effective politics at the precinct and Ward level)get taken apart and then demand grease for some boob who could not otherwise attract a rally in a phone booth.

The fact remains - Progressives ( Rahm, Forrest?, Quigley, Schakowsky) depend upon that mean-old machine with all of its gears bells and whistles. Until, the time that no one cares to give them their time and talents to amass the signatures.

Yeah, lower the bar and give some more 40 Watt gushers a chance to 'make a difference' on MSNBC and generally louse up the economy and public safety even more.

Politics is an art and not finger painting -unless you happen to be Jan Schakowsky, Mike Quigley, or Forrest Claypool.

These Policy Playdough Artists only get into politics through some quid pro quo or timely appointment. They are panjandrums, like Shelia Simon and Chris Kennedy. No one at the Ward level gives a fat rat's ass what they think or hold dear, because helots know that these beauts would never raise a finger - well maybe a finger -let alone the receiver of a telephone on their behalf.

Most Progressives that I know would not give a penny to starving blind girl with rickets. I am a devout empiricists.

Scott Lee Cohen can pay for petitions with the lunch change in his jeans. He is still a Jewish Lad with a Redneck Name and much redemption to mill.

As to the Progressive Policy Priesthood? It is still given far too much serious attention by reall effective elected officials. Time for real statesmen to ridicule the dopes in public life and chase them back to the Salon.

"Right Sizing" of Chicago is Happening - As Garbage Collection Goes, So Exits the Middle Class

The city will begin by demolishing 3,000 houses deemed unsafe and a public hazard before the end of the year, with up to 10,000 houses being torn down within the next three years. The plan is to encourage citizens to move closer to the center of the city. The process will be gradual, beginning with city services such as trash collection becoming more infrequent. City planners call this solution “right-sizing”

That was Youngstown, Ohio and Detroit. According to the University of Chicago's Urban Portal, policy is in play.

The University of Chicago gave Mayor Daley Frank Kruesi*, Ron Hueberman, an upcoming Biography, by Keith Koeneman, and a job -as a distinguished senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies.

The University of Chicago wrote Mike Quigley's strategy to take over Cook County government and encouraged students to help G. Flint Taylor sue the City of Chicago, as well as hound former Cook County Sherrif Michael Sheahan. On that effort the U of C was 1 and 2 - Quigley was sent to Congress and Mike Sheahan made complete asses of the MacArthur Center for Justice, which immediately moved to Northwestern University.
Pathetically, G. Flint Taylor coninues his Police Torture Mythology and loots Chicago taxpayers six ways to Sunday.

By and Large, as in Millions Large, University of Chicago was wildly successful in owning Chicago and Cook County government enough to make policy. Policy is what passes for politics in this transcendent age,

Policy only requires elected pawns to legislate and lazy journalists to justify anything. Witness Zorn on the Grid of August 23rd's Change of Subject. The always Progressive policy dependable Eric Zorn rolled out the handstands and hoorah's for the "Right Sizing" talking points -

I'm guessing garbage collection isn't your area of expertise. Mine neither.

But if the city of Chicago were to come to us and ask us to create a rough design for a household refuse-collection system, there's almost no chance we'd come up with the expensive, crazy-quilt system now in place.
That system contains 50 garbage fiefdoms, one for each cleverly gerrymandered ward, and results in trucks taking peculiar, time-wasting routes so as not to cross these artificial political boundaries.

The baseline inefficiency of such a scheme will cost the city $30 million more in 2011 than a simple ward-neutral grid-collection system would cost, according to a budget analysis performed last year by the Chicago Office of the Inspector General.

Before suggesting such a change, we'd ask three questions:

Do any other major cities do it our way?

Evidently not.

The city's Department of Streets and Sanitation is unaware of any municipalities that follow the Chicago model. And officials concede that Chicago's garbage-related costs, more than $200 a ton, are unusually high.

Does it make business sense to do it our way?

Clearly not.

Private companies that deliver services — think FedEx or UPS — have become fanatical in recent years about optimizing route efficiency to cut costs. They even try to minimize the number of left turns against oncoming traffic made by their vehicles.

Even some cities are doing it. Waste Age magazine reported last year that the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation has been using "geographic information systems" software "for mapping, analysis and geodatabase management … to make sure that trash pickup is balanced throughout the entire network."

Makes one want to collect rain in a yellow barrel. Mayhaps, Mayor Rahm will christen this looming venture EZ Grid, for this journalistic snow-job well done!

Policy makes money.

God is no longer making real estate, therefore, policy controls real estate.

For the last few mornings, I have been posting on the policy to shrink Chicago. It seems that in order to make this City a garden for the chosen few, the working many should pack their bags.

The Chosen Few are the Progressives, because they make policy - Gay Marriage, Green Initiatives, and garbage collection. The path to a City inhabited by Birkenstock, NPR listening, WTTW viewing, Urban Walk-way ambling, and Bicycle darting affluent, childless, post graduate, secularists requires an elimination of neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods are undesireable. Progressives demand a community. A Community is distinguihsed from a neighborhood by ordinances, activists and initiatives, as opposed to friends, family and faith.

Neighborhoods are comprised of families, poor and middle class and they must go.

Neighborhoods are protected by Wards - local political fiefdoms that meet the needs of neighbors who actually know one another. They live beyond what is called the Urban Center - You know the place with Pritzker These and Those and Silver Beans that neighborhood folks go to only rarely. That is the place where neighbors meet the Entitled who scream, "Can't I enjoy an al fresco Latte Arabica and hummus without some fat breeders and their damn kids?"

The way to eliminate neighborhoods is to eliminate the already dimiinished power of the Wards.

The method is the Grid System. Once Chicago adopts the Grid System for services like tree triming, street cleaning, snow and garbage removal, the poor and the middle class breeders will be forced to leave. Zoning at the Ward level has already chased businesses out of the neighborhood - taverns, restaurants, barber shops, tailors, shoe repair shops, framing stores and entertainment venues. My Ward, the once powerful, but still voter robust 19th Ward has more than seventy (70) vacant store fronts on Western Avenue between 87th Street and 115th Street.

There are great stretches of vacant land along other streets in adjacent Wards (17th, 21st, & 18th).

Let's read that study of Urban Policy one more time -

The city will begin by demolishing 3,000 houses deemed unsafe and a public hazard before the end of the year, with up to 10,000 houses being torn down within the next three years. The plan is to encourage citizens to move closer to the center of the city. The process will be gradual, beginning with city services such as trash collection becoming more infrequent. City planners call this solution “right-sizing”

It's not only familiar, boys and girls, it is here.

If the Aldermen vote for the Grid System for services, and I expect that they will after mousing replies like 'Well, what else are we supposed to do? The City is Broke and this is only answer,' Chicago will be the Home of the Chosen Few and the neighbors will have moved on.


*

Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, one of the nation’s most prominent urban leaders, will bring his extensive policymaking experience to the University of Chicago as a distinguished senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies.

The five-year appointment, Daley’s first commitment since leaving public office on May 16, will take effect July 1.

Daley will coordinate a guest lecture series that will include a variety of perspectives and approaches concerning the major issues facing cities in the 21st century. The 10 annual guest lectures, beginning with the 2011-12 academic year, will bring policymakers from around the globe to debate critical urban policy challenges, and to help train future policy leaders at Chicago Harris. As Chicago’s longest-serving mayor, Daley will add an important voice to the University’s ongoing conversations about the future of cities.“The students and faculty at the University of Chicago benefit from a culture of open debate, in which a diverse range of scholarship and practical experiences comes together in the search for knowledge and solutions,” said University President Robert J. Zimmer. “By bringing in urban policy leaders of many perspectives, Mayor Daley will help foster illuminating discussions about how our cities can flourish, and will provide University of Chicago students with valuable educational experience.”

Citing the University of Chicago’s history of vital contributions to Chicago, Daley said he looks forward to engaging with researchers and young leaders who are committed to forming a vision for the future of cities.

“The University of Chicago has been a leader in developing new approaches to address the evolving needs of cities,” Daley said. “I am honored to add my voice and experience to that important work. As I’ve always said, cities that continue to rely on old methods and common practices will almost certainly lose their footing in our growing global economy.”

Daley’s new role will provide students and faculty at the Harris School and across the University with insights on subjects such as urban education, law enforcement, civic planning and economic development, said Harris School Dean Colm O’Muircheartaigh. "There isn’t a policy practitioner out there with more strategic vision and hands-on experience with the ins and outs of running a city today than Richard M. Daley,” O’Muircheartaigh said. “Bringing the country’s most experienced mayor into Chicago Harris enriches our policy school and complements our rigorous scholarship. I am delighted that, as a university embedded in a great city, we are able to benefit from this unique resource.”

First elected mayor of Chicago in 1989, Daley announced last fall that he would not seek re-election after more than 22 years as mayor and nearly 40 years in elected office. As mayor, he has been widely recognized for efforts to help improve Chicago’s public spaces, urban design, educational system, public safety, public libraries and business development. Daley’s tenure in office has influenced scholars and other leaders in defining the role that mayors can play in addressing the problems confronting America’s largest cities.

Daley’s affiliation with the University of Chicago comes as the University continues broad-based efforts to expand its programs on a range of challenges confronting modern cities.

As part of this effort, the Harris School founded its Urban Policy Initiative in 2009 to foster new research relevant to Chicago and other urban environments around the world, and to train the professionals who will lead these cities. In addition to Daley’s visiting scholar position, the Harris School currently is in the process of hiring five new faculty members to conduct urban-related research.

The Urban Policy Initiative also partners with a number of efforts within disciplines across the campus, such as the Urban Health Initiative, the Crime Lab, the Urban Education Institute, Chicago Booth’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and a new University of Chicago Urban Network dedicated togenerating collaborative social science research.

“The University of Chicago is committed to engaging with its urban environment, and the participation of the former mayor will greatly enhance its capacity to do so,” said O’Muircheartaigh. “The future of cities will determine the future of civilization; students and faculty across the whole University will have a keen interest in participating in these conversations.”

Following Tuesday's announcement, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a statement on Daley's new appointment.

"On behalf of the entire city of Chicago, I congratulate Mayor Daley on his appointment at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies. I am confident that Mayor Daley will bring to his new role the wisdom, insight and experience of his more than two decades in office. I am thankful that he will be participating in the ongoing dialogue as we all work to make Chicago a safer, stronger city."

- Sarah Galer
Communications Office
Phone: 773-702-7681
Email: syaccino@uchicago.edu
•Features - Archive
•University of Chicago News




Frank Kruesi is the former President of the Chicago Transit Authority. He resigned in April 2007 after serving 9½ years.[1] He is now an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy.[2] Prior to his time at CTA, he was the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy for the U.S. Department of Transportation.[3]

Ron Huberman
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1971, Huberman is the son of Holocaust survivors. Huberman and his family moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee when his father, a cancer researcher, began working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He moved to the Chicago area for his high school years, where he came out as gay at age 15.[1] Huberman later attended the University of Wisconsin, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and English. While working as a Chicago police officer, Huberman attended night classes at the University of Chicago and finished with master’s degrees in both Business Administration and Social Service Administration. Huberman was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow and an Albert Schweitzer Fellow while at the University of Chicago.

Labor Backs John Fritchey and SEIU PAC and their mouthpieces set to Endorse Feigenholz

Well, Mr. Speaker, Mike Quigley came up to about here on Mickey Rooney and so Mickey says to Quigley, 'Allan Ladd tried to stuff me on the court and I sailed over him! Sailed I tells Ya, Punk! I'll spot you six! Let's see what you got!'

State Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) won the endorsement today of the Illinois AFL-CIO, which includes 1,500 unions with almost 1 million members. . . .Besides the Illinois AFL-CIO, Fritchey also has claimed the endorsement of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the clout-heavy International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.

The AFL-CIO endorsement "is recognition of what I've done for people who work hard every day to support their families," Fritchey said.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/02/unions-divided-in-race-to-replace-emanuel.html

Yep, Labor backs John Fritchey including the great folks of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 ( those are skilled Tradesmen who go through years of training and experience and earn their salaries by dint of their labors and honest collective bargaining - SEIU bullies spineless and gullible politicians to raise taxes for their rank and file), which is the home trade of Chicago Federation of Labor leader Dennis Gannon - a real Union Man.

Sara Feigenholz will be endorsed by the Leon Trotsky Re-enactors of SEIU and the Boiled Beets Progressive Networks of Illinois.

Tio Con Brio: Uncle Briskly's Voter Guide to the Illinois Primary for Governor

 Quinn and his guru - the Old Red Man of Progressive Illinois -Dr. Quentin Young -made people believe he was friend of Veterans in 2004 by belaboring the obvious.

It seems that Pat Quinn's enablers did a black bag job of some kind on Billy Daley and Mr. Daley opted out of the race.  The Tribune editorial ninnies (Bruce Dold) argue that Pat Quinn's Populist Bare-Knuckle brio scared the bejabbers out of the 'banker, working for a bank.'  No, sweethearts, the Tribune is not engineering this election as it did for Il Sen. Barack Obama.  The Sun Times hired the BGA, or vice versa and it planned to dredge up Axelrodian Tales of woe for the Daley Campaign.  The BGA couldn't find a drunk pay-day unless a politician took Andy Shaw's team into a joint and handcuffed them to chap fully Kreuzened and Jaeger fueled.  The Quinn Camp did a job on Bill Daley, it seems to me, and he did the noble Roman.

That just proves that Bill Daley is no Progressive. Progressives don't do noble.

Progressives survive after back-stabbing their sponsors and all who help them.  Jane Addams would be just another patrician Sapphist, unless Alderman Johnny Powers hadn't appointed her 19th Ward garbage commissioner.  Old lusty Jane turned on her sponsor.  Chart the career of a Mike Quigley, a Forrest Claypool, or a Pat Quinn and read Progressive. Policy trumps everything, but the nest payoff.

Bill Daley will be fine.  His campaign is over and after Friday, the back-stabbers and creeps who tend to be Progressives will have had all the fun at Mr. Daley's expense that they deserve and by Monday will have 'reached out'  to Daley's people and make nice.  Progressives would be tightly packed in Hyde Park, the Lake Front and suburban Evanston  were not for cynical attempts by old time Machine Democrats to co-opt the co-opters back in the 1970's.  Prior to that age of bad hair, worse fashion and too-hip-to be square politics, fellow travelling Marxists May-poled around Leo DesPres, or teased SDS glue sniffers into the barber shops and Northwestern, or University of Chicago law schools.

While the Brothers Daley were growing up, labor leaders wore black suits and packed heat to scare off not only gangsters but Reds, Commies, Fellow-travellers, members of Comintern USA, and university professors considered with the same awe as the house cat.  Once politicians who knew better admitted the Progressives into the tent the pissing hosed universal.  Shakman was taken seriously and larceny went from a hung-over city worker snoozing on the job and grabbing a few extra nickels to Organization suicide.

Dedicated soft-balls like Pat Quinn sat at the feet abortion-intoxicated Reds like Dr. Quentin Young and curried favor with Abner Mikva.  In 1972, the bad guys took over the Party of Andy Jackson and turned it into the Party of Andy Shaw. They did so in Miami.  Creeps, Grifters and Reds became mainstream with the assistance of blow-dried ninnies like Dan Rather and MadMen Ad people.  The recently assassinated Bobby Kennedy became a mythical life-member of Planned Parenthood and JFK became Gandhi G. Once goofs and short-term memory folks understood that RFK was not a deeply devout daily Communicant foe of Planned Parenthood it was a short hop to accepting nitwits like Dawn Clark Netsch, Barbar Flynn Currie, Jan Schakowsky, Mike Quigley and Toni Preckwinkle as intellectual titans.

Bill Daley would have been a good governor in the same manner that Mike Madigan is a great Speaker of the House.  They are competent and serious men.  Instead, thanks to Progressive thought, we continue to find Pat Quinn, Toni Preckwinkle and Barack Obama holding office.

I'd vote for Jack Ketch before I'd again give anything to Pat Quinn other than well-earned derission.  He is a proven Progressive and nothing more - personally and professional disloyal, shamefully incompetent, petulant, mewlingly submissive to enemies of the American middle class. Other than that, he miht just be a very nice man. . .. when he's home.

Read the comments from the Democratic and Progressive hucksters on Capitol Fax Blog about Bill Daley's exit from the race and you get a good feel for what it means to be a Progressive.  Butt-munching sycophants early in the day and howling dogs of prey once the Pavlovian Progressive signal is blown by its site manager.

I'm a Democrat.  I believe in real labor - the skilled and industrial trades who created America's middle class.  I am an unflinching Catholic opposed to abortion and a stupidly legislated bill that redefines marriage.

In the coming primary, I am going to vote for Tio Hardiman, a product of Progressive Democrats, as opposed to hapless Pat Quinn, a Progressive tool.

CHICAGO (AP) -- The man who's now the lone Democrat challenging Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in the 2014 primary says he's staying in the race.
Tio Hardiman is the only candidate left after former White House Chief of Staff William Daley announced Monday that he's dropping out of the primary.
Hardiman is the former head of a Chicago anti-violence group CeaseFire.
In a statement, he says Daley's decision to drop out shows just how bad Illinois' political situation has become.
He adds Illinois residents "deserve a governor that reflects them" and who is prepared to "endure and not weaken."
Daley is set to discuss his decision during a news conference Tuesday.

Bill Daley is out.  Bruce Rauner? Nah.  GOP toe-shooter Bill Bradley? Nah.  Let's see what's left . . .not much.

God help us, help ourselves.

CST WEASELS ARE ATTACKING OUR FAMILIES - SHARPTON AND THE JACKSONS = 'It's all Good!'

The New Chicago Sun Times is in 100% Weasel Attack Mode today - get over the Bridge in Minnesota and readers are treated to a full issue massage of THE WORKING MAN"S PAL POLICY ON SHARPTON's Shop Vacing of Taxpayers' Dollars.

Mark Brown - clips the last voice of a sane man - Neil Steinberg - with a weasel nip.
Neil took the path of common sense over the CST MINI TRU in the Aug. 1,2007 column

http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/491717,CST-NWS-stein01.article

Brownie went weasel on Neil:

'Somebody says New York stuff doesn't go over well in Chicago. I think that's the idea. We don't need you to like Sharpton to take an interest in what he's got in mind by coming here.'

Calls to mind a couple of years ago, when Mark Brown insulted a young woman who ran against Mark's guy Mike Quigley - the Uriah Heep of Illinois Politics. Ms Daly's Dad gave Mark a wildly public, pleasing and paternal piece of his mind, if not an inch or two of his brogans, for that weasel attack. Quigley did OK - weasels usually do.

Mark Brown also goes after local vocal citizens guilty of CST Thought Crime and silences them like Betsy Hart - the now cashiered writer and common sense advocate launched by the Lefty Fish Wrapper!

Mary Mitchell - Angry - 'Nough Said. Mary annoints Sharpton's local shill.

Esther Cepeda gives the Salud a Sharpton in the Lefty pandering to Chicago's most populous, hard-working and politically astute demographic. Esther,
Latinos are too busy working to be pawns of the Working Man's Pal. That is why Latinos are leaving other minorities in the dust and securing decades of political hegemony in Chicago! Que Populares! Well Done!

Next, our Artistic Commisars limply underhands one in as the Daley Factor tidbit- with all the pop, zip and accuracy of George Will on baseball - CST segues the sweet science. Mayor Daley opened the boxing story at his press conference yesterday, in which he pants-ed CST Weasels smartly!

BTW- I would rather be Mayor Daley's archenemy than his boon chum - it's much safer that way - however, when Mayor Daley gets it right, when he feels like it - he is on the money! Yesterday, he was ON BABY! He's bobbin'; he's weavin'; he's light on his pins; he jabs; he ducks; he fires out and WHAMMO! Knocks the Bums on their Backs and the Sun TImes is starin' up at Lights!' For the Real Deal; CHECK OUT JACK HIGGINS TODAY! Home Run, Jack! The Rev. and the Commisars ain't gonna like it.

So not to be outdone - CST tosses in a limp-wristed fight cartoon - one not done by the Brilliant Jack Higgins but another third string lightweight! Milt Priggee ( Some Handle, Bub! - from one who knows . . .) from - from - from the OH, SO PROGRESSIVE American Northwest - must be all the damp drippy weather that appeals to drips:

Milt Priggee lives in Oak Harbor, Wash., on Puget Sound. His work can be viewed at his Web site. -- Ken Sands, managing editor of online and new media These clowns out source to Apple State when thereal talent is twenty feet away! Working Man's Values by Working Man's Pal!

It's All in Today's Working Man's Pal - read it all when you get a second.


'Somebody says New York stuff doesn't go over well in Chicago. I think that's the idea. We don't need you to like Sharpton to take an interest in what he's got in mind by coming here.' WEASELS! Yikes!

http://www.suntimes.com/index.html
In the Mean Time - The Buzzard Has Landed! NPR Gushed with G(D?) Flint Taylor offering Commentary and Flint Taylor thinks Al is swell - swell, I tells Ya! The Progressive has so many faces it's tough to get a photo - and they worry about cameras - Pshaw!

http://chicagopublicradio.org/Cityroom_Story.aspx?storyID=12403

Did the Jackson Family take the Brooklyn Dodger, The Crown Heights Kristallnacht King out for some tasty Chicago Comestibles? HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Sneedless to Say! DONCHA KNOW?


Common Sense Chicagoans! Keep the kids safe from weasels - The Chicago Sun Times is in Weasel DefCon 6!

SEIU's Progress Illinois Has Got NUTHIN on U. of C. Strikers - Too Busy Preening about Republic Windows and Squealing to the Feds?

Too bad this guy's union does not respect him,. . . or anyone else. Teamster Local 743 is doing all the heavy-lifting here. Doesn't SEIU have employees affected by the lay-offs at UCMC?

Have SEIU rank & file gotten dumped by University of Chicago Medical Center? NBC Website is all over it. Progress Illinois - ZERO!''

SEIU is a PAC. It uses union dues to buy politica hacks - SEIU bought Blago and recenty purchased Sara Feigenholz for 5th Congressional District. Thus,

SEIU was an early supporter of Blagojevich and his biggest campaign contributor. But Balanoff said he was not involved in any wrongdoing and does not fear the investigation into alleged corruption in state government.

“I am not a target. I am not a subject. I’m not worried one bit,” he said.

Inspiring words from a Leader, those.

However, if SEIU rank and file workers laid off by UCMC with Local 743 want to see some coverage they need to go - not to their paid for site, but NBC

Here's the Post Listing for Progress Illinois during this strike's first day!- SEIU's Marxist Mickey Mouse Club.

IL-5: Feigenholtz Says Daley Should Release Full Wishlist, Quigley Touts Republic Windows Stand
The Most Important Chart You'll Read All Day
Around The Horn
Durbin Recommends Callahan For U.S. Agriculture Post
The Stimulus Czar
IL-5: SEIU Endorses Feigenholtz, Quigley Wants More Transit, Nurses Support Geoghegan
The Fight For School Construction Funds
Facebook Petition Takes Aim At Daley's "Great Chicago Sell-Off"
The Early Bird: February 10, 2009
On Fox Chicago, Roskam Repeats Debunked Anti-Stimulus Argument

They have an answer to everything - racism, sexism, gay & lesbianism, new historicism, classism.

Too bad they never seem to have an answer to exactly what in the hell their membership gets for their dues.

Progress Illinois ( SEIU) Attempts to Explain Absence During Uof C Med Center Lay -Off!

Click my post title as there is yet any coverage of the protests at University of Chicago Medical Center's lay off of 450 works ( Teamsters Local 743 and according to a UCMC official many SEIU rank and file members).

Crowing over the Republic Windows flatulence in a Tsunami, like former Governor Blagojevich and the Uriah Heep of Politics Mike Quigley, Progress Illinois attempts to take a sissy slap at John Fritchey - and misses high wide and handsome!

The Republic Windows sit-in began on Friday, December 5. Elected officials were making appearances at the factory by Sunday, December 7 to show their support. And on Monday, December 8, numerous alderman, along with Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, introduced ordinances to hold Bank of America (Republic Windows' creditor) accountable for cutting off financing to the company before the workers could be paid the wages they were owed. But it wasn't until Tuesday, December 9 that Gov. Blagojevich was arrested, setting the ultimate impeachment proceedings into motion. By the end of the following day, an agreement had been reached resolving the Republic Windows dispute.

So that excuse seems a bit off.

Jeepers try not and be a bit off.

Okay, Young Commissars, how about picking up a picket sign and hitting the line for a few hours in your Birkenstocks? Before, you get all Joe Hill on a an elected official work on them leg muscles.

Quigley - The Terror of Tiny Town - Sees It From the Perspective of the Little Guys - Well, Yeah!

Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley said he went to about 300 community meetings in his district over the years and began to see things from the little guy's perspective.

You bet, Abdon! Every day, 24/7 - 365 days per annum! Sho 'Nuf! And Stevie Wonder sees things . . .Oh, that might be taken out of context . . .Sorry.

Will Mike Quigley Call for Blago to Resign?????????????

With growing chorus of elected voices harrumphing Blagojevich to 'Do the Right Thing!' . . . Illinois awaits that boomingly familiar voice that echoes Blago so nicely . . . in all ways - 'Mike Quigley Calls on Blaogjevich to Resign!!!! Resign I Tells Ya!'


CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama called on Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resign on Wednesday after he was charged with trying to sell Obama's U.S. Senate seat and swap favors for money.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Blagojevich needed to step down because "under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois."

Moves boiled up within Obama's home state of Illinois to strip Blagojevich of the power to make the appointment he allegedly tried to barter, either by driving him from office through legal means or letting voters fill the Senate seat with a special election.

After being arrested at home before dawn on Tuesday and then released on his own recognizance without having to post bail, Blagojevich showed no sign of resigning.

Chicago Ward Guinea Pigs - Urban Center Chicago Breaks Ground

                 Five Guinea Pigs 40th, 46th, 48th, 49th and 50th - Forty-five to follow





Wee Lad -Dad, can I have five dollars to get Guinea Pig?

Old Dad - Absolutely not, Son. Here's ten! Go get a nice Irish girl.

Five North Side wards have been chosen as guinea pigs for a change Mayor Rahm Emanuel hopes will save the city $60 million a year at the risk of alienating homeowners and aldermen — by switching from a ward-by-ward to a grid system for collecting Chicago’s garbage.
Last summer, Emanuel asked consultants to “develop a route system” for garbage collection that creates an “equitable workload for drivers” without regard to ward boundaries. The goal was to bring Chicago’s $225-per-ton cost closer to the $135 per ton spent in other major cities. Two months later, the mayor incorporated the grid into his 2012 budget, pegged the annual savings at $60 million, but counted on only $20 million the first year because he planned to start slowly.  Fran Spielman

Fran Spielman announced the shovel-ready ground tossing marking the end of Chicago and the coming of Urban Center Chicago.

For well over a year, I have been posting about the planned end of the City of Chicago, which will follow the arrival of the Garbage Grid.  The Garbage Grid is means by which City Services, under Chicago's Charter as a 'weak mayor' form of municipal government, are stripped from the hands of Aldermen and given to a private contractor - Waste Management n'cest ce pas?   Ward services will be as invisible as Rosie O'Donnell on the Oprah Channel.

The Skyway, Chicago Street Parking, Water Rates and Public Education have become luxury items where once they were boons to citizens.  Since the University of Chicago became the ex officio government of this city, which I happen to timeline start on either of these two dates in Chicago history December 10, 1993 - the day Richard M. Daley moved from Bridgeport to 16th & Indiana, or October 22, 1997 - the resignation of Alderman and City Council Floor Leader Patrick Huels - with that the Old Hamburg SAC was eclipsed by University of Chicago.  You can move a south side neighborhood guy out of McKinley Park ( St. Maurice's), or Wrightwood ( St. Tommy More) and place him in Moscow, but he will never leave his roots and return without any noticeable change. However, when anyone turn your back on the very  people who shaped, assisted and backed every decision and pick up associations, values and associations diametrically oppossed to them, that person is a New Man, or in Latin Novus Homo et novus civis.

In ancient Rome the patrician class, the betters, was depleted by war, dissipation, or political proscription. After telling the plebeians, the tax-payers, that the rights of citizenship belong only to one class of people - the bonni - patricians, or the betters - the patricians realized that they had no one to fight for them, make their goods, sweep the streets, collect their garbage, purify the waters of the Tiber River, as if, or from whom to collect more taxes their came about the the Conflict of the Orders 367 -287 BC) followed by a grudging admission of some plebeians or New Men, who had some dough, ability and a desire to turn their backs on the old neighborhood. Marcus Tullius Cicero is the best example of the new man -"how the lowly born but inherently worthy man may properly rise to eminence in the world" Seneca.

It seems to me that Richard M. Daley was washed in the Blood of the Maroon by moving out of Nativity Parish, the Hamburg, Bridgeport, Canaryville with a Mastercard, and was confirmed in the Faith with his summary shunning of Patrick Huels.  1993 and 1997 mark the beginning of the Progressive Chicago Policy Doctrines now being enacted and enforced by Archbishop Rahm Emanuel.

The Garbage Grid did not pop up over night. You can trace this Acts of the Apostles odyssey through the rise of Hyde Park, University of Chicago and our anonymous leaders.  In the old faith, one could identify the chieftains and the gallowglasses of government - George Dunne, Ed Vrdolyak, Charles Chew, Wilson Frost.

Make way for the anonymous Urban Center!

Now, the city has chosen five North Side wards to be the first to take the plunge: the 40th, 46th, 48th, 49th and 50th.
In the ward-by-ward system, city crews begin garbage collection on Monday and finish on Friday. The pick-up day is different, depending on where in the ward you live. Under the new system, the entire ward will be picked up on the same day.


That could make for a rocky first few weeks, with loads light in some areas and overflowing in others. It will also make community outreach essential.

“They’re gonna have is to get used to a new garbage day. That, for the public, should be the biggest difference and, frankly, the only difference,” said Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s City Council floor leader.


“Chicagoans are savvy. If there’s a little bit of discomfort in the transition and they realize we’ll end up saving significant money, they’ll be okay with that. Bugs should not last long.”
Some aldermen have been dead-set against the grid for fear that it would deprive them of their ability to respond to special requests for services. They’re determined to maintain control over housekeeping services that are an alderman’s bread-and-butter.

How about that?  Stroke the plebeians and tell them how savvy they are if they act like the City Council -“Chicagoans are savvy. If there’s a little bit of discomfort in the transition and they realize we’ll end up saving significant money, they’ll be okay with that. Bugs should not last long.”

Did you pick up any condescension in that?  Any veiled contempt? Of course not.


Pre- 1993-1997 Chicago Ward Committeemen, Alderman and Precinct Captains connected with the citizens.  No more. Without Daley's move from Bridgeport, but especially the exile of Pat Huels, a singularly good man in my estimation, there could be no place at the trough for Mike Quigley, Forrest Claypool, Toni Preckwinkle, G. Flint Taylor, Locke Bowman, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Joe Moore, Allison Davis, Judson Miner, Terry Cosgrove, Marilyn Katz, and most significantly President Barack Obama.  In pre 1993 Chicago, these worthies would be as welcome to political dialog as skunks to a flower show.

Imagine anyone in Cook County Government or City Hall prior to Mayor Daley making a call to Peoples Gas on behalf of Desiree Rogers for any position other than . . . dang!  I'm stumped. Only in this age of Novus Homo/novus cives politicians - Catholics who play with Planned Parenthood money help abort infants - can a dim-witted cutie pie jump the vocational gradus from Lotto Ball Spinner -to President of Peoples Gas-to White House Brander -to CEO.

The end game is to make Chicago and Urban Center -when services go, so go the plebeians.  The Urban Center will be haven - gated community - that is childless, Green friendly and very affluent. 

Unless the Guinea Pigs die in the cage that is. God willing.


http://www.suntimes.com/12132592-417/new-garbage-pick-up-system-to-debut-in-five-north-side-wards.html

Chicago Demands a New Mayor . . . From Same Crowd of Geniuses. Bob Tyrrell would Oftset That Circumstance

Comfort trumps political rhetoric and records, especially here in Chicago.

Luis Gutierrez? The only place on earth where this smarmy dope is not laughed off the planet is MSNBC.

Bob Fioretti? The South Loop living ambulance chaser who thinks that the Fort Dearborn Masscare needed tweaking? The Fort Dearborn al fresco Diversity Conference!

Blah, blah, blah.

The next Chicago Mayor will be either Oliver Cromwell ( someone takeout a Cliffs Notes for the Progressives and explain the Lor' Protector's Commonwealth modus operandi following the collapse of Charles I Stuart's reign)or Happy Hooligan.

If you thought Harold Washington's slap dash Administration or the post-Harold Mell-an-oma was goofy, just wait.

Yesterday, I posted that Bob Tyrrell, founder and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator, had voiced interest in running for Mayor.

A sharp and very seasoned political operative offered this via e-mail -

This is silliness. . . .First, the residency requirement.

Second, even if that could be successfully challenged which I doubt, does anyone believe someone gone for so long could come back and be taken seriously in a city as parochial as Chicago. The suggestion shows how long Tyrrell has been gone.

Third, this would be worse than an implausible answer to the opportunity for a center-right mayoral candidate, it would be counterproductive.

If Tyrrell and his well-heeled friends were serious about aiding the local effort, they would be looking locally.

The Tyrrell idea is self-indulgent nonsense.

Unlike the GOP running Crazy-eyes Al Keyes? Unlike Brendan "I Beat Burt" Reilly? Unlike Jesse and Sandy? Unlike Ed Burke? Unlike Wrong Way on Kedzie Danny K. Davis?
Unlike Tom Dart? Unlike Lisa Madigan? Unlike Mike "Too Tall" Quigley? Valerie Jarrett???? Rahm-a-Lama-Dang-Dong? Billy Corgan???? Billy Dec??? . . . .

. . . excuse me . . .Dorothy Brown? Maori Exile Carol Mosley Braun??????????

Self-indulgence? Chicago could stand some genuine self indulgence and ignore the present field of self-serving acolytes.

Bob Tyrrell! Come on Down! Indulge, Son! Indulge up a storm!

The Spleen of the Senseless: Why AOC Matters

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has taken Washington, D.C by storm.She successfully ran an insurgent, grass-roots Congressional campaign. She is exceptionally bright. She is incredibly media savvy. She is hugely charismatic, because she is telegenic and photogenic, but also because she consistently seems to be a sincere, authentic, and truly nice and caring human being. In an age of bullshit, she is “real.” And she has the courage of her convictions. She has thus quickly been embraced by the left, reviled by the right, and treated with enormous skepticism by the center. Jeffrey C. Isaac

 The left often agonizes over the choice between pragmatism versus utopianism. The “reformists” will argue that what’s important is making “real” change in the present, rejecting any larger vision as “pie-in-the-sky” irresponsibility, while the “revolutionaries” may reject all present compromise in favor of theorizing about a better future, for which the correct historical conditions are always, somehow, yet to arrive. It’s a dumb standoff; reformers need militants to scare the powerful into concessions, as the recent experience of the Fair Labor Association and USAS at Kuk Dong shows. Dissent

 "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize." Rep. Hank Johnson D-GA upon hearing about adding military personnel on Guam

The Congress is chock-full of goofs, ninnies and grifters. Rep. Hank Johnson thought a troop build-up would capsize the island of Guam.  Congress always has been a home for cretins feebs and dummies. However, there was a time when the dim-bulbs were kept under a cone-of-silence and generally kept out of public view.

Today, Alexandra Occasio-Cortez has become a national acronym - AOC.

Like LSMFT, AOC reflects a spiritus mundi, a zeitgeist, and a political weltanschauung that makes the likes of Bernie Sanders, Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren seem like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Muriel Siebert and Mercy Otis Warren.

I began my morning with an article by a practiced ninnie and dim-bulb, Indiana University professor Jeffery C. Issacs that further boost AOC as our best hope to become the SPQR of the looming post revolutionary empire:

It is worth taking a moment to think hard about this.

To liberal friends who are pretty skeptical of if not hostile to AOC: what do you make of the fact that it is she who is being singled out for her fine performance? Many more “moderate” and more senior Democrats also had their five minutes yesterday, and yet this 29-year old “radical” would appear to have most intelligently used her time to advance the cause of the rule of law, a liberal value if every there was one, in this matter.

To left, DSA-member friends who love AOC (as I do) but disparage all of those liberals, like me, who continue to place so much emphasis on Trump’s real threats to the rule of law, constitutional due process, and liberal democracy: what do you make of the fact that AOC did not use her five minutes to talk about the Green New Deal (which she rightly talks about all the time!) or to comment on how the hearings are a waste of time and the real policy issues are being ignored (it was the lunatic Republicans who said this). She used her five minutes to ask painstakingly direct and factual questions of the witness, and thus to seriously address the issue at hand in the hearings: the issue of Trump’s unhinged and unaccountable Presidency, and the need to defend constitutional democracy by using constitutionally-prescribed Congressional authority to hold Trump to account.

AOC is much more serious, and politically responsible, and “mature,” and thus important, than most commentators, those who love her and those who don’t, appreciate. While too many, left, right, and center, are using her as a symbol to beat each other up, she is doing her job and being a role model of what Democratic politics can be.

Seriously?  Much thought there, Doc? AOC is much, much more serious?

How about these AOC nuggets? BTW -one quote is from a dead white man -guess which one and win a chance to chill backstage with AOC.

•  Capitalism has not always existed in the world and will not always exist in the world.
•  Congress is too old. They don't have a stake in the game.
•  Women like me aren't supposed to run for office.
•  I wake up every day, and I'm a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx. Every single day.
• To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
•  I was born in a place where your ZIP code determines your destiny.

AOC is no TR.

One of the above earned the Medal of Honor, broke horses, worked in Law Enforcement in Wyoming and New Yok City, authored many books and served as Governor, the other Tweets, is a Socialist and managed to beat someone dumber, but without Democratic Socialists of America backing for Congress and will serve but one term before going on CNN, or MSNBC.

AOC will do some legislative damage to the Republic in mean time.

We have given the stage of public debate to be people who could not tell you whick White Sox player in its history was a an all-time favorite, evene though that elected offical and pensioned President of the United States wore a Chicago White Sox hat at every public dress-down affair. 

I taught English for 43 years and voted in every election since 1972.   I ran and lost for Kankakee City Clerk as a Democrat.  PFH is no AOC. 

However, I was never scripted, nor promoted by a professor of Revolution from Indiana University. 

Here in Illinois we have many, many, many AOCs 

• Jan Schakowsky
• Danny Davis
• Mike Quigley
• Heather Steans
• Kelly Cassidy
• Blago
• Toni Preckwinkle
• Pat Quinn
• Forrest Claypool
• Deb Mell
• Deb Shore
• Amy Madigan

All of these People who would starve to death outside of Progressive Democratic Party politics.

Giving the microphone, or the floor, or a public office to the senseless is dangerous, no matter how much delicious spleen they vent, Tweet or . . . God help us . . .legislate. 

Backdraft Barney Franks - Sets the Fire and Leads the Keystone Fire Brigade!

The movie Backdraft's core plot involved an arsonist who happened to be a fireman. A great essayist in today's post here says that Barney Franks is our Fiscal Arsonist/Firefighter. Brilliant.

Barney Franks, the House Puffer Fish Banking Bashaw, got a tune-up from a young yarmulke wearing student this past week and revealed himself in that exchange to Be the very model of the hypocrite in elected office.

Barney Franks is openly Gay, God Bless Him, and Progressives watch over Barney's critics and pounce that any and all criticism is gay bashing. Barney Franks is such a useless mope of a human being that, were he straight, or given to sexually gratifying himself with four pound boxes of cashews would not matter a whit. Well, maybe the cashews would be a bit uneasy.

Barney is a crumb. He is the cause of a bar fight, who rats out the participants to cops. He is the schoolyard snitch writ large.

Today, I read a wonderfully thoughtful piece on this crumb - here's a taste:

I bore witness to Frank's song and dance routine during a talk he recently gave at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. A video of the forum can be found here. (http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/articles/forum-frank-apr09)

It is worth noting that Frank attended Harvard College in the early 1960s and later become the first Director of Student Programs at Harvard's Institute of Politics. David Ellwood, the Dean of the Kennedy School, told an anecdote about Frank clandestinely escorting Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara away from anti-Vietnam student demonstrators threatening to riot when McNamara made a campus visit. Frank escorted McNamara to the safety of a seminar run by future Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

However, by his own admission, Frank said, "I was in charge of making sure that didn't happen. So, yes, I did kind o like the arsonist who puts out the fire, I got him out of a mess I was supposed to have prevented."

Somehow I don't think he appreciated the irony of his own statement.

Not surprisingly Frank spent much of his lecture blaming conservatives and Republicans for our current economic mess. "The deregulators had their way and the consequence is the disaster we now face," he exhorted. Frank accused conservatives and Republicans of "blaming the victim." He explained, "The argument is that the attempt by liberals to help poor people that made them make all these bad loans and that's what caused all these problems."

Frank excoriated the Republican Congress for not passing any legislation to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to restrict sub-prime loans. "The conservative view is to stop helping poor people . . . No, our view is to help poor people," said the 15-term member of Congress.

Of course, what Frank doesn't mention is that the Bush Administration did want to regulate Fannie and Freddie. In September 2003, the Bush Administration wanted to set up an agency in the Treasury Department to supervise Fannie and Freddie.

Guess who was opposed?

Click my post titel for the rest of this fine article.

Chicago's homegrown louse, Mile Quigley ( D.5th District)joined Barney's Ship of Fools this week. The Democratic Clown Opera in Congress needs a huge tent!