Chicago Employee Pension Literature Proves ManPower Shortage, not "Systemic Racism, or Code of Silence" Behind ChiRaq's Crime Rates

 

Police Blogger, The Second City Cop (SCC), fought fake news from the Chicago media for decades; in fact, Sneed, Frank Main and Fran Spielman often pluck SSC's low-handing fruits of fact to shore up their propaganda efforts on behalf of the 5th Floor.


Along with left-leaning, but always fair-minded and honest Beachwood Reporter, Second City Cop opens my eyes to a new day, long before they labor over the ink spilled by any Chicago daily.

Today, using a brochure for City of Chicago Pensioners, SCC clearly addresses the decades long manpower shortage that burdens hard working Chicago peace officers. Pointing to a graph featuring annual employee contributions, SCC illustrates the lie told by Chicago media at the behest of Mayors Daley and Emanuel.

That is the manpower paying into the pension for the CPD, from 2006 thru 2015. And it shows, beyond any doubt, that manpower dwindled from 13,749 to 12,061 - a reduction of 1,688 officers. If you don't think that has a lot to do with the current rising crime trends, well, we can't help you. The Second City Cop

I get my news from many sources.  SCC is one of the most reliable.

Newshound Steve Rhodes, Poet JJ Tindall and Private Eye Ed Hammer Craft Ultimate ChiTown Tourists Stops

I read The Beachwood Reporter everyday* and my Testosterone level is higher than it was when I was Nineteen and My Investments in Precious Metals Have Made Me the Crassus of  South Rockwell! - Pat Hickey - Your Internet White Noise Specialist

Exclusive: Chicago's New Tourist Attractions!

Zip Lines And Petting Zoos

"Intriguing new attractions to make Chicago more appealing to international tourists could be implemented within months with the potential to attract 75 million visitors by 2020, blowing past Mayor Rahm Emanuel 50 million goal, the board chairman of Choose Chicago said Thursday," the Sun-Times reports.

"Glass-enclosed cable cars along the Chicago River, designated club cars on CTA trains to O'Hare Airport and plane rides along the lakefront may sound pie-in-the-sky but Bruce Rauner portrayed the ideas as attainable within a relatively short time frame."

And that's not nearly the half of it! The Beachwood has learned that the following ideas are also under consideration:

* Virtual City Council: Tourists invited to sit in city council meetings and cast actual votes as long as they agree to always vote Yes for the sake of historical accuracy.

* Downtown Zip Lines: Also known as Rapid Transit Air Lanes. Try one yourself or hail a Zip Cab.

* Drone Pilot For A Day: Fire missiles into random groups of Yemeni and Afghan civilians from an official U.S. military kiosk at Navy Pier.

* The Jesse Jackson Jr. Petting Zoo at Millennium Park:Stocked with just one species: Elk.

* Taste of Terre Haute: A festival featuring the food of the Terre Haute federal pen.

* Foreclosure Walking Tours: Tours last eight hours a day for a month. Patrons issued concealed 9MM Glocks, cadaver chalk and recycled red-light cameras.

* CompStat Theater: Watch from behind the glass as police chief Garry McCarthy reams out his commanders for embarrassing the mayor by not preventing crime it is impossible for them to prevent.

* Pizzeria UNO: Rebranded as the city's cloutiest pizza.

* CTA Grand Jury Trains: One of several brand extensions capitalizing on the popularity of the CTA Christmas Train franchise. Also: The CTA iPhone Robbery Train and the CTA Concealed Carry Train.

* Millennium Park 2.0: A life-size replica of a working U.S. Steel plant will rise on the site of the former U.S. Steel plant on the Southeast Side. All tourists who browse through the faux plant will be directed through the gift shop, where a half-dozen rotating part-time cashier jobs that pay minimum wage will be filled by former steelworkers who don't yet have mesothelioma.

* Charter Vest Rentals: Adventure tourists who want to visit real Chicago neighborhoods will be offered body armor rentals at airport and downtown kiosks. Proceeds will go to help struggling charter schools.

* Photos With Jim Belushi: He'll pay you to take a photo with him. Hopefully tourists will then pay it forward by spending that money at local establishments.

* Chicago 911: Tourists invited to respond to 911 calls the police don't take anymore.

* The Chicago Ghost Payroll Marathon: In lieu of actually running, spend three hours in a bar then show up at the finish line to collect your ribbon.

- J.J. Tindall, Ed Hammer, Steve Rhodes

Comments welcome.

Permalink

Posted on February 26, 2013

* except when Bother Rhodes has some lame ass excuse and then I have to re-read the previous day's pithy missives.

Steve Rhodes - A Real Newsman: CTA Failure to Launch New Rail Cars Makes N. Korea Look Like NASA in the 1960's

" Claypool! What's all this, then???? This simply will not do, my good man. These bloody Sino-Canuck Bombardier Wheels are bloody well defective! I suspect foul'd play. The Games afoot! . . .again. What?"

CTA officials said the no-bid component had nothing to do with scuttling the deal and that Emanuel had encouraged it all along.

"Very early, even before he took office, he asked me how we might turn this billion-dollar expenditure into an opportunity for jobs," said CTA President Forrest Claypool, who was appointed to the post shortly after Emanuel's inauguration. "So when I took office we took that mandate and ran with it."

Claypool described the Bombardier proposal as a "very, very rare potential for a win-win. The goal was a noble one. "

Chicago Tribune April 12, 2012

North Korea, which had described the launch as that of a space satellite, said the rocket failed soon after lift-off and plunged into the Pacific. ABC News

"Through an aggressive but targeted public, community and government relations campaign, Bombardier sought:

* To inform CTA officials, local government and business leaders of the growing presence of Bombardier as a part of Chicago-area commerce and industry.
* To educate key constituencies about the successful engagements Bombardier has with transit agencies in other major areas around the country and the world.

* To build a team of allies to welcome them into the market and feel comfortable with the company's products and level of customer service.

* To create a favorable impression the Chicago media market by highlighting and promoting unique attributes and initiatives of the Bombardier Transportation N.A. to specialty and general market media.


Mission not yet accomplished.

Steve Rhodes Beachwood Reporter



North Korea fired its missile with all of the potency of an ED addled mope.

Closer to home Forrest Claypool's masterful roll out of Bombardier rail cars last year matched the young Tyrant's magic moment yesterday.

Unsatisfying.

North Korea is impotent, but dangerous.

CTA is in the hands of a master job jumper with the Illinois Progressive imprimatur. Failure to roll: Launch, Roll, Noble Goal.

Steve Rhodes highlighted the excellent and tenacious work of Chicago Tribune reporter John Hilkevich who unearthed cast off wheels of the Bombardier CTA Boondoggle from China to Canada to the Fifth Floor of City Hall and various phone lines and cyber-relays of the CTA with pith and poignant note.

Steve Rhodes has more integrity than Marcus Aurelius on a full breakfast. The Beachwood Reporter is the only news clearing house in Chicago untainted by cant, compensation. or courtship.

Dig how he do roll - Beachwood Reporter Ethics Pledge

http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/house/beachwood_ethics_statement.php


NBC tried to buy Steve Rhodes a couple of years ago and was told to pound sand in thunder.

You do not need to agree with Steve Rhodes or the talented staff of the Beachwood Reporter and he and they could care less. The point of journalism is to give truth a place at the table set with too many dishes and places by gluttons, drunks and dummies.

I am aware of Forrest Claypool's resume and remain as underwhelmed by his obvious talents and charms as I have for years. The Bombardier Boondoggle ( click my post title for a thorough close reading of John Hilkevich's work by Steve Rhodes) more than lived up my expectations.

For any summary and fair redaction of what is going on in Chicago go to the Beachwood Reporer. You will get a considered opinion free of Mammon's tickle.

Brewer's Droop, ED, Failure to Launch result from many factors.

Corruption ditto.

Kevin Myers defines the germ of corruption this way - Corruption is made possible by low standards: what is unpunctuality, but a disdain for rules?

The plumbers or electricians who don't show up on time are the building-blocks that make possible the Ziggurat of large-scale corruption. Kevin Myers last column for the Irish Independent

Myers' point; what we accept; we get - good and hard and with great regularity.

We accepted Blago. Some folks fully accept Forrest Claypool -


Here's little more on Chicago CTA Bombardier Navigator Forrest " Noble Goal" Claypool.

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2012/03/rahm-wasnt-bilked-in-day-took-many.html

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-12/news/ct-met-cta-bombardier-20120412_1_cta-president-forrest-claypool-cta-lawyers-cta-officials

Michael Shakman -The Man Who Bought Chicago -Explains 'Ethics' to Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter

Photo of Michael Shakman sitting in his office in the late 1970s. Since then, everything has been riding on his hip.

. . .And now from the Way The World Really Works desk here at Grub Street Chicago: Mayor Emanuel is suing his own park district. Why? Because it's part of a strategy to bust up a Daley-era sweetheart deal involving the Park Grill food concession in Millennium Park, which even the Daleys eventually realized was a lousy deal partly owed to the fact that the connected insider behind the restaurant was, well, really inside a female Park District official, ultimately making her pregnant. (The Daleys were always strongly against literal screwing on city business.) The Daley administration argued that the Park District had made a deal that they weren't authorized to make, involving city-owned land, and tried for six years to negotiate a better one (or one that let them in on the action), but didn't get anywhere. Now that the restaurant is negotiating its sale to the Levy Group, Rahm's taking it (and his own Park District) to court to turn up the heat. . . .While we're shedding all our naive illusions, it's worth mentioning that the attorney making this preposterous claim on behalf of well-connected profiteers is none other than Michael Shakman... yes, that Shakman*. Consider this lawsuit just one more skirmish between factions in the eternal struggle for power deep within the Machine."

Chicago Grubstreet


WBEZ, Crains, and the supine Chicago media hoo-hummed a tune of hypocrisy.

God's last honest man, Steve Rhodes, publisher of the Beachwood Reporter, journalist, and tapmaster smelled old halibut in the potpourri

Shakman? Michael Shakman?

Wait a second. Is the Park Grill's lawyer the Michael Shakman?

Readers want to know, WBEZ!

Same to you, Tribune!

Same to you, Sun-Times!

Same to you, Crain's!

(See Ryan C.'s comment.)

*

Answer: It is.

Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter


Michael Shakman explains


See? "If you can't trust a fix, what can you trust?" Nobody steals like a Goo-goo!


*

Shakman Decrees
In 1969, one man made his stand against the Chicago political machine. Michael Shakman, an independent candidate for delegate to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, battled against one of the most enduring traditions in Chicago's politics: political patronage, or the practice of hiring and firing government workers on the basis of political loyalty. With many behind-the-scenes supporters, Shakman's years of determination resulted in what became known as the “Shakman decrees.”

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.

In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices.

Roger R. Fross

http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1138.html

mlshak@aol.com

Mr. Shakman serves as lead counsel in a wide range of litigation including corporate, contractual, commercial and partnership disputes, professional liability matters, construction disputes and arbitrations, antitrust, trade regulation and product liability litigation. In addition, he has served as lead counsel for public bodies and private citizens interested in cases concerning public housing practices and land-use control issues.

Mr. Shakman routinely represents attorneys, law firms and other professionals in partnership and professional responsibility disputes. He may be best known for the federal court Shakman Decrees, which have enjoined patronage hiring and firing of public employees in Chicago and Illinois.

Education
B.A., University of Chicago, 1962.
Graduated with honors
M.A., University of Chicago, 1963.
J.D., University of Chicago Law School, 1966.
Graduated cum laude
Order of the Coif
Managing Editor and Articles Editor of the University of Chicago
Law Review.
Experience
Admitted to the Illinois Bar, 1966.
Served as law clerk to the Hon. Walter V. Schaefer, Justice, Illinois Supreme Court, 1966-1967.
Practiced as an associate with this firm, 1967-1972.
Partner, 1972.
Selected Engagements
Numerous representations defending large law firms against allegations of transactional and litigation legal malpractice. These matters have involved lawsuits, arbitrations and mediations.
Defended parties in antitrust litigation involving price fixing, territorial allocations and related claims in direct and class action litigation.
Represented directors and special litigation committees of corporate boards in responding to shareholder litigation.
Represented international energy industry contractor in state and federal court litigation involving power plant construction, ownership disputes and environmental remediation work.
Represented the trustee in bankruptcy in a large Chapter 7 proceeding, which involved over 70 adversary claims removed to the District Court.
Represented investors in broadcasting business in disputes involving accounting issues, RICO and allegations of fraud.
Represented purchasers and sellers of business entities in a wide range
of disputes.
Served as Special Assistant Illinois Attorney General in representing state government agencies in disputes over land use and operations, including representation of the State of Illinois in disputes with the City of Chicago over the closure of Chicago’s Meigs Field airport.
Selected Publications
“How to Respond to an ARDC Complaint,” Illinois Bar Journal, Vol. 92 #10, October 2004. Written with Arthur W. Friedman.
“There But for the Grace of God Go I: A Look at the Modern Transactional Legal Malpractice Case...” Chicago Bar Association Record, April 2004. Written with Stephen J. Bisgeier and Edward W. Feldman.
“Reporting Your Partners and Associates to the ARDC,” Illinois Bar Journal, Volume 90, March 2002. Written with Arthur W. Friedman and Thomas M. Staunton.
“Can Lawyers Protect, and Sell at Premium, a Secret and Valuable Idea?” Chicago Bar Association Record, June/July 2001. Written with
Marc O. Beem.
“Trust Us: How Rules on Referral Fees Influence the MDP Debate,” Chicago Bar Association Record, September 2000. Written with
Diane F. Klotnia.
“Ethical Duties Remain Unclear In Online Realm: Rules of Law,” Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, April 12, 2000.
“Primer on Acting Rationally When Lawyers Relocate,”Chicago Bar Association Record, February/March 2000. Written with Geraldine Soat Brown and Barry A. Miller.
“Mediation of Business Disputes,” Alternative Dispute Resolution, Illinois Institute for CLE, 2001. Written with Diane F. Klotnia and
Edward W. Feldman.
“Flynn v Cohn: Payment of Overhead in Winding Up a Partnership,” Illinois Bar Journal, October 1993 (81 Ill. B.J. 530). Written with
Barry A. Miller.
Memberships
American Bar Association
Illinois State Bar Association
Chicago Bar Association
Chicago Council of Lawyers
American Law Institute
Board member and officer of the Southeast Chicago Commission
Board member and chair of the Institute for Psychoanalysis

http://www.millershakman.com/bio.shakman.html

Chicago Poet J.J. Tindall - Good Ear and Great Heart

I love Poetry and there is a heap of very bad poetry - thanks to Slams and HBO.

Poetry is exacting work - The Sound must seem an echo to the Sense*. It is not something one tosses off when fully Kreuzened and touched by the Red Bull Muse.

One of Chicago's best practicing poets can be found in the pages of Steve Rhodes' wonderful Beachwood Reporter. J.J. Tindall has a great ear and a wonderful heart that shouts out wonderfully humorous lines.

Here's a bit:

Son of St. Francis of My Ass

I'm just trying to have a good time.
Hurt is Hell. Let's have a bell!
TONG! TONG!

And a crow.
My Hell is a deep Christian
well in a raw field

just beyond
the edge of the last
suburb.

A raggedy-ass crow,
nothing noble, no Narcissus
of wire. A red crow

Chicagoetry: Confession To The Future
By J.J. Tindall
Confession to the Future

I strove for wealth and sorely failed,
I did not save a single whale.
I did not raise my children well,
I told my friends to go to hell.

I did not know my neighbor's name,
I juried love a callow game.
I scorched the earth to fight for fame,
I stole a march on any shame.

I greeted fools with charming grace
then wiped that smile right off their face.
I cheated on schoolwork, taxes, wives,
then pleaded innocence all my life.

I sold the farm for booze and coke,
I relished vicious ethnic jokes.
I bought the biggest car I could,
I dumped my garbage in the woods.

I sold insurance on people's health
then prayed they'd die to spare my wealth.
I proffered bonds on people's homes
then jacked the price and rigged the loans.

I razed the forests to drill for oil,
I fouled the air and drugged the soil.
I said anything to get elected
then assured my interests were protected:

wildlife crushed to bone and ash,
mountains scarred with gouge and gash,
rivers poisoned drop by drop,
farmland rendered fetid slop.

Thus your Martian tundra reigns,
deserts, bog-holes, acid rain.
Thus you needn't send to know
which rake made your world of woe.

Always me. It was me. It was me.

* I always bow to Pope in matters poetic and the Pope in matters spiritual, moral and liturgical.


True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense:
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar;
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise,
And bid alternate passions fall and rise!

South Side's Billy Dec - Billy Hill - Kickin' It Mad for Olympics - Just Not in Copenhagen

Hat Tip to Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter for an insight to the unsightly and unctuous Billy Dec whose south side counter part oozes down Western Ave. -Meet Billy Hill -again
Peabody nominated former Children's TV Cast Member ( Chuck Bill's Adventure Theatre - Voice of Herman the German Moose) , Dis-barred Illinois Attorney, Harvard Il.Business School.Llp, Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee Director of Way Too Human Relations, Slept with Elke Somer in 1978 when she appeared in Please Don't Eat the Daisies at the Martiniquel owns top Chicago Beverly/Morgan Park & Mt. Greenwood venues ,D.B.Mc Spitsteeth; Suds & Underwear Pub and Laundrymat, & won US Coin Operator of the Year! Check him out on the Yellow Pages, The Sign Over Fox's Pub & his blog www.aSelfisThang.com

Twitter Titter from Billy Hill Y'all! Props to my man president obama… knew he would bow down to the Boss… as a city, we are all making history…we are just all not gonna make money. I hope you are as proud and excited as I am!

As for St. Christina Gym , it is absolutely beautiful… so much history, the architecture is outstanding, the people are great,… well, I wish I had a video to spill it all… and btw, I keep doing these because of requests on twitter… if think I look like a big nerd as much as I do… I apologize… don’t watch. It's like when Dude. And as promised, will continue to keep you in the loop or in back o' the yards step by step on way to Copenhagen on twitter (click here to follow me). That's my light switch. o snaaaaaappppp!!!!!!! Day-em!

Most important, please take a minute today to tell all your friends, coworkers, contacts, family,… to share these celebrity messages from me and all the olympc supporters at Father Perez Knights of Columbus Council and the Magic where breakfast starts early and stays late - like tommy fitzgibbons -(shout out TF!) what's with the babe at Kean she's all pippy longstocking and never gives me the time of night - i mean day - Old habits are hard to break and new britches are tough to crack !Yeowww! billy you is baaad! with all so virally the rest of the world will know how great our country is an that we stoked the cabbage and how ready we are to welcome guests from around the globe (and the 4.4billion watching us sick groove on tv) as the sick nastiests host of the greatest sport, cultural, and friendship strengthening event ever! Bourbon Street Rocks Y'all!! (who knows, maybe they will get to one of the members judging us and it could all turn in our favor!) or not. Kickin' it at the evergreen plaza all this week!

BGA's Andy Shaw Clouted His Kids into Magnet Schools, But NOW it's a Scandal. Scandalous, Shocking and Oh, So Progressive.

Beachwood Reporter's publisher, editor and scalpel sharp wit, Steve Rhodes, a rock-ribbed Liberal of the Old School, plucked this gem out of the same old manure that passes for Chicago Journalism:

By Steve Rhodes

Mayor Daley recently half-joked that the burgeoning CPS clout scandal at least showed that some Chicago schools had become so desirable during his tenure that parents and politicians were willing to cheat to get their kids admitted into them.

But Marj Halperin's 1988 Chicago magazine article called "The Lottery" - which she recently shared with District 299 blogger Alexander Russo - shows that clout admissions and the controversial "principal picks" now under federal investigation pre-date the Richard M. Daley era.

Here's how Halperin opened her piece:

"Governor Thompson got his kid in. So did state representatives Ellis Levin and Al Ronan. You'll find the daughter of Alderman Patrick O'Connor, head of the City Council's education committee, in a magnet classroom this year. Alderman Ed Smith's, too.

"TV reporter Andy Shaw's daughters are in LaSalle Language Academy, the same as one-time Chicago Sting soccer star Karl Heinz Granitza's children. Monroe Anderson, the Mayor's press secretary and a former Newsweek reporter, sends his son to Inter-American Magnet. Perhaps if he drops Scott off himself, Anderson gives a nod to some of the Board of Ed employees, who also send their children to Inter-American - such as Margarita Rosa, of the board's research and evaluation office. Fernando Colon got his daughter in while working for the board's law department.

http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/column/the_monday_papers_166.php

This morning, I read that the Principal of Whitney Young has been subpoenaed to appear before a Federal Grand Jury on clout for classes!

This nonsense was kicked into overdrive by the mopes who are too lazy to really follow a lead. The same hypocrites who gave padded jobs to Bernadine Dorhn and Billy Ayers were huffing and puffing about the smell of clout at the University of Illinois. They were demanding immediate resignations ( Can I get a Harrumph?) of Trustees and rending their garments that 'No Such Clout Actions Took Place on Their Watches! ( I Didn't Hear a Harrumph From That Guy.Abner! Let Me Hear a Harrumph!).

The Newly Minted BGA Watch Pup, Andy ('What Floor?') Shaw clouted his kids into a school and is now sniffing out corruption? The two Brooks Brothers Bolsheviks who ran University of Illinois (Urbana & CC) who clouted the Underground Nick and Nora Charles into padded sinecures at Northwestern and UICC and padlocked any information on their actions are Howling out Jeremiads?

Progressive Hypocrisy makes Bathhouse John Coughlin and Hinky Dink Kenna seem like Trappist Monks.

Well done Steve Rhodes!

Steve Rhodes - True Wit - To Wit Blago the Twit!

True wit is Nature to advantage dress'd,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-- Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 97

The Media freak show continues on the WLS Airwaves with disgraced Governor Blago yapping away for pay. ( click my post title)

Pay to Play! Then WLS gets all Harrumphing about the State of the State of Illinois and tosses the Gatecrasher of Illinois more Dog Yummies. " Gee, you mean, if we keep starving and beating this pitbull puppy and making it wear a twenty Pound weight around its little neck, that it could possibly bite someone? For Real?"

Oh, yeah! Giving Blago radio time is very much like wearing a porkchop suit to a huge dog fight. Great idea!

Steve Rhodes, a real journalist with a wide context of human understanding and rich and varied frame of reference, skewers the Tossed Twit Guv and also gets in a very accurate shot at the Sun Times - the soon to be bankrupt rag that pretends to matter. STNG- The Chicago Standard for Rock Solid Hypocrisy!


Noted budget expert Rod Blagojevich took to the airwaves (again) on Sunday to advise state lawmakers on solving the state's fiscal crisis -- as adeptly as he handled the public till during his six years as governor.

He did not give advice on how not to get impeached.

Among his ideas: privatize the state lottery - which the U.S. Department of Justice have pretty much determined would be illegal.

But this isn't about what's good for the state, it's about what's good for Rod Blagojevich.

WLS-AM is once again giving Blagojevich a platform from which to spin his legal defense and build sympathy for his poor beleagured self. . . . Blago seems to be following the advice given him by Sun-Times editorial page editor Tom McNamee:

1. Pander.

2. Bully

3. Demonize

4. Distort the truth

5. Make stuff up

6. Forsake all intellectual honesty

Six for six.

At least Blago's good at something.


True ease in writing comes from art and not chance, like wearing a belt and not losing your pants.

Well, done Rhodes Old Man!

With the Kool Kidz at Chicagoist - The Blago Book

I get out of the neighborhood when my kids let me off the leash and I venture to the North Side. The Woman Who Has Captured My Heart lives up North - no kidding. She has me doing things that I have not done in years - no, I shower and groom with great gusto and regularity thank you - get all dogged up and go hear live music ( jazz mostly) attend the theatre, peek in galleries, cane louts and ne'er -do-wells . . .

I like the Flatiron district of Wicker Park at the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue, North Avenue, and Damen Avenue. Cafe Absinthe with bartender Brendan from New York is a great spot. Among the muffler's and soul-matched Dudes, I'm the Geezer in J.C. Penny black top coat that some DuPage County Sonovabitch left when he grabbed my Brooks Brothers at the Illinois Crime Commission Dinner hosted by Patrick Elwood last Spring, Irish farmer cap, $ 15 Regular Boys Haircut from John's on 111th and crew neck sweater over button collar shirt.

'Whoa! Who let that Square in there!'

Lookee Here, your father's hip he know what cooks!

In that spirit I turn to Chicagoist a franchise Big City hipster website that always seems to capture the pulse of Chicago . . . North of Bridgeport anyway.
After reading John Kass's great send-up of Milod's tome I treated myself the Chicagoist treatment. Our kids drew from the AP posting on this item:

It's like watching a train wreck,” Martin told the Sun-Times in reference to Blago’s appearance on several network television shows since Jan. 26. “And I'm not sure, in this economy especially, people will pay money to read about a train wreck.” According to the Associated Press, a Blago book deal or talk show might be a viable option for the ex-governor’s two-pink-slip household, now down two salaries worth $277,000 a year.

Literary agent Ted Weinstein, who helped a Nevada school teacher turned campaigning congressman hook up with Random House, predicted the governor could land a book deal valued at up to six figures if - and only if - he admits he is guilty or spills about some friends. “If he says, ‘Here's how the whole world works’ -- the underside of Chicago, naming names -- damn, we'd all want to buy that,” Weinstein told the Sun-Times. Blagojevich’s public relations agent, Glenn Selig, whose firm also represents Drew Peterson, confirmed the ex-governor has been offered more than one book deal, but stayed mum on the possible contents of such a book.

Would that they offered more commentary Ala Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter Now, that lad hands me a giggle with regularity of a Dick Durbin about-face.

As to Blago's Book . . . Who's gonna read it to him?

Obama No School Reform Pal -Vallas v. Obama Myth Outlined by Steve Rhodes on Division Street: Must Read

Steve Rhodes who publishes Beachwood Reporter, my favorite Chicago Media Watchdog and Chicago Jackanapes File, offers a smart and insightful precis of Paul Vallas's recent truthtelling on Camp Obama - Obama, while in the employ of Billy Ayers did next to nothing to help improve Chicago Schools.

Paul lived down the block from me when he was putting in nearly 20 hour days exposing waste and mismanagement at CPS. Because Paul was so effective in getting Corporate and Private Foundations to support 'systemic reform' - which took millions of dollars out of the reach of Catholic Schools - I used to call my neighbor and pal 'The Prince of Darkness.'

Like any effective public servant, Paul Vallas was viewed as a threat to Mayor Daley and the rest as we say is history. Daley don't like no smart guys too close: or, to wax 18th Century: "Should such a man ( Daley), too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne", Alexander Pope, Prologue to the Satires, line 197."

Here's a taste of what Steve Rhodes offers:
“Only after the fig leaf was in place did Obama come out publicly in support of local school councils, making a brief speech on the Senate floor to codify the final agreement preserving local councils’ authority,” Russo writes.

“In being so late to the debate, however, Obama didn’t really have to stand up to anyone - not the groups he was affiliated with, not Vallas, not Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. He was just approving the final result. He remained loyal to his roots, but only when it was easy to do so. To some critics, this is exactly the problem.”

Obama does have a champion in the Chicago education community, however: schools superintendent Arne Duncan, who was in charge of the city’s magnet schools under Vallas, and then replaced him in 2001. Obama and Duncan are hold Hyde Park friends and basketball buddies (Duncan was co-captain of Harvard’s basketball team and played professionally in Australia).

It would be Duncan, then, not Vallas, on the short list for Education Secretary of an Obama administration.

Now, there is cause for concern! Duncan? Yeah let's take all the kids in America to hear Wilco at Soldier Field - that'll get them hitting the books!

Well done, brother Rhodes!

McCain/Palin: Steve Rhodes at NBC's Division Street Blog Restores Chicago Reporting!

That's Steve Rhodes -editor of Beachwood Reporter and NBC-Division Street casting pearls to swine -wearing lipstick and without!

Steve Rhodes is editor of the great Media Watch Blog The Beachwood Reporter

Steve Rhodes also manages NBC's Division Street Blog which tends to treat readres better than most Chicago newspaper political columnists.

Mr. Rhodes and I rarely, if ever, agree on things political. However, we agree that most politicians and political commentators are encrusted with equine effluvia -horse shit. Daley ( not John Daley whatsoever), Blago, Stroger, Quigley, Claypool, Shakowsky, Lipinski, and - my fingers are cramping - others are like a tribe of New Guinea spearmen encrusted with fecal matter. Like wise political pundits -print and public - have layers of horse shit abounding: Marin, Brown, Dold, Chapman, Greeley, Mitchell &etc.

Today, Steve Rhodes save Chicago journlism at Division Street:

Was Alaska Governor Sarah Palin really plucked from “relative obscurity” to run on John McCain’s ticket? Should a politician whom Matt Damon has never heard of be allowed on a national ticket? (Hey, Matt, when did you first hear of Barack Obama? A convention speech?) Is she really lying about the Bridge to Nowhere and her maverick credentials?

I took a spin through the ProQuest database of America’s newspapers and found, in fact, that the coverage of Sarah Palin in real time gibes perfectly with the image she and her allies are presenting. Take an objective journey with me and decide for yourself.

I’ll start with the Chicago dailies just to satisfy local curiosity and then move to the national press and wire services. This collection represents virtually every article returned in my search; I have omitted nothing of consequence or anything that would present a different view.

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Sarah Palin in the Chicago Tribune

1. HEADLINE: Governor cancels ‘bridge to nowhere’
DATE: Sept. 22, 2007
EXCERPT: “Gov. Sarah Palin ordered state transportation officials Friday to abandon the “bridge to nowhere” project that became a nationwide symbol of federal pork-barrel spending.”

2. HEADLINE: Here’s the buzz: Sites help you keep up with trends (about google trends)
DATE: Oct. 19, 2007
EXCERPT: You can use buzz trackers to find out what’s making news, a sort of meta version of a news site’s “most e-mailed” list. Why, you may ask, is a “Sarah Palin” showing up on one list? A few clicks and, aha, she’s the get-tough (and photogenic!) Alaska governor getting the national-media spotlight right now.

3. HEADLINE: Alaska governor generates VP buzz
DATE: March 14, 2008
EXCERPT: Gov. Sarah Palin will be the first to admit that it might be a stretch for a hockey mom from Alaska to be considered for the No. 2 spot on Sen. John McCain’s presidential ticket.

But there’s an undeniable national buzz surrounding the first-term governor, seen by many Republicans as a fresh, new face to represent the party’s future.

Palin says she has not spoken to McCain about the prospect. But it came up when she was in Washington two weeks ago for a National Governors Association meeting. She rubbed elbows with others cited as vice-presidential possibilities: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat.

“We all had a meeting with President Bush and he said, ‘Look at all these vice presidents sitting here,’” Palin said.

As for her recent news that she is pregnant with her fifth child, Palin said: “I’m very confident that a pregnant woman should not and doesn’t have to be prohibited from doing anything, including running for vice president.”

Keep reading →

→ 4 CommentsCategories: Presidential Poop · Punditocracy
Tagged: Barack Obama, Bridge to Nowhere, hockey mom, John McCain, maverick, polar bears, Sarah Palin

Eric Zorn’s Sexist Folly
September 11, 2008 · No Comments
The Tribune columnist today retells the jokes of late-night comics about Sarah Palin without any recognition of how offensive many of them are. For example:

Bill Maher: “I, John McCain, am the only one standing between the blood-thirsty Al Qaeda and you. But if I die, this stewardess can handle it.”

Jimmy Kimmel: “[S]he looks like one of those women in the Van Halen videos who takes off her glasses, shakes out her hair, and then all of a sudden, she’s in high heels and a bikini.”

David Letterman: “[She looks] like the lady in the dental office who gives you the keys to the restroom” and “like the woman in the department store who tries to spray you with perfume.”

Steve Rhodes, who manages and edits of the best Media Watching Blogs The Beachwood Reporter, also runs Chicago NBC's Division Street Blog.

Steve and I rarely agree on politics ( and the Piggies who slurp at its trough), but we agree on depth and fecundity of the equine effluvia tossed by the bulk of politicians and their parasites.

Steve and I agree that a saloon and not a salon is the very best place to hear, injest and disseminate political thought.

Today, Steve Rhodes offers an honest and open assessment of the HAWKEE MAWM from Wassila - with whom I am enchanted. I have no illusions that Sarah Palin would not shoot, geld, and field dress me were it in her political interests; yet, I find her to be free of the horse-shit that encoats Daley ( all but John Daley - he is H/S Free), Blagojevich, Quigley, Claypool, Shakowsky, Stroger, and Durbin. Most political journalists or would be political journalists surpass the professional horse-hit merchants - Zorn, Brown, Dold, Chapman, Greeley, Sweet, Mitchell, and Marin.

Steve Rhodes, Mark Rhoads,Steve Huntley, Levois,Cal Skinner, Bill Baar, John Rubery, Anne Leary, Tom Roeser, Phil Kadner, Kristen McQueary tend to be horse-shit free.

Steve, I'll buy you one the size of Quigley's Ego!

*Click my post title for the Full Pint from Steve Rhodes!

McCain/Palin- Sun Times Stuck on Stupid - Read This Idiotic Editorial on Sarah Palin's Speech! Wear Your Depends -or Borrow Some!

Hat Tip to my Pal Steve Rhodes at Beachwood Reporter! Thanks Steve! Have a Falstaff Son!

I did not get around to peeking at 'The Progressive Independent Voice of Chicago' this morning, as I was busy doing what most Americans do - taking care of kids, getting to work and actulaly doing something when I get there! Never on Queen's Time!

So, I turned to the Beachwood Reporter to get an update on Chicago Media Moon-Howlers!

Never disappointed - Heeyah 'Tis - The Sun Times (STNG) in all of its suicidal glory (excerpt of course)!

. . .Because his pick for vice president, Sarah Palin, is woefully unprepared to be Leader of the Free World.

Does this sound harsh? We know it does, though we mean no disrespect. Our sincere hope is that McCain, a good and brave American, lives a long and healthy life. But when the senator chose Alaska Gov. Palin to be his running mate, and in doing so deemed her fit to stand a heartbeat from the presidency, he either demonstrated phenomenally bad judgment or put politics ahead of country.

Palin has almost no experience on the national or international stage. She has virtually no qualifications to be commander in chief. She is the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town about the size of a couple of Chicago high schools. She has been governor for 20 months of a wilderness state with a population of 684,000 -- about the number of folks in Will County.

And the more Palin's GOP defenders contort themselves to defend her credentials, attempting to inflate the uninflatable, the more obviously thin her resume looks.

Asked by a CNN reporter what qualifies Palin to be commander in chief of America's armed forces, a McCain aide pointed out that, as governor, Palin "commanded" the Alaska National Guard. The reporter then asked, to no avail, for a single instance in which Palin had involved herself in the business of the Guard.

A commentator for the conservative National Review generously granted Palin "foreign policy" experience solely on the basis of geography -- Alaska is next to Russia and borders Canada. If the commentator knew of any Palin-Putin talks, he failed to mention them.

Jimmy the Two-Headed Boy, or most De LaSalle Graduates could understand Palin's speech last night. Not Chicago's 'Progressive Independent Voice' - they are waiting for John McCain to explain it to them - Senator, Read Slowly!!!!!!!!! Use Pictures!