12 Hopefuls - One Mayor;Uglier Than Homemade Soup This election

Rahm Emanuel realized that the Jason Van Dyke Trial, assorted Expressway shut-downs, more revelations about the McDonald  Shooting Video shell game coming to light in the next two weeks and the cold fact of the matter that voting Chicagoans can't stand the sight of him, brought him to the conclusion that the Chicago News Media and Bahzillions of dollars are not enough to see him returned to the 5th Floor for a third term.


Rahm is out.


Twelve people want to be mayor.


Less than a handful of them are qualified, but that matters not in Chicago. 


The only thing that matters in Chicago, Cook County of Illinois is the question, " How long can the string-pullers and money pavers endure some Yutz in any office?"


The answer to that question bespeaks the long tenures of


Toni Preckwinkle


Dick Durbin


Pat Quinn


Bruce Rauner
Lisa Madigan


David Orr


Mike Quigley


Jan Schakowsky


Danny Davis


Bobby Rush


Dorothy Brown


These marginal people of marginal talents are the current pantheon of political lions.  I would not ask most of them to cut my lawn and my lawn is disgraceful.


Now, Chicago sits on the cusp of another opportunity to wade through media muck and take seat on that celestial shoreline with a qualified human being in charge of an important political office.

• Paul Vallas  is a man of great talent and nice sensibilities who spent the last thirty years fixing other peoples problems in Pennsylvania, new jersey and Louisiana.

• Garry McCarthy was Rahm Emanuel's 'out of town talent for police matters until he wasn't.  Is he a good cop?  Some cops say he was good boss.  Others, just a political hack.  I see that he a genuine talent for remaining relevant and is a smart and cagey interviewer.
• Lori Lightfoot is . . . a darling of the media and should expect and demand their vassalage.
• Dorothy Brown is a whisper from an indictment.
• Willie Wilson is a self-made millionaire with the oratorical and rhetorical kills of Slip Mahoney.

The latest entry into the lists is Jeremiah Joyce, Jr.  I know Jerry and admire him. Mr. Joyce is smart without being a grafter; thoughtful without being a pest and caring without being Phil Ponce. Joyce should be mayor and would do a damn fine job as mayor.  However, like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the only man who should have been President since Harry S. Truman, Jeremiah Joyce will be treated to Trump-like bile and vituperations from Chicago's Neil Steinberg, Laura Washington, Mark Brown, Ron "'68" Grossman, Eric Zorn, Mary Schmich and the always laughable Rex Hupke.
People will buy what they are selling.


If voters want change, they can vote for a competent Chicagoan.


The remaining months before the mayoral election will be uglier than home made soup.

Illinois School Reform is Dead -says Gov. Pat " Everyday People" Quinn

"Squeezy Will Now Choke School Reform to Death! Pension Debt?  . . . Not So Much!"

"These plutocrats at the top of the power heap, they may have a lot of money, but they don’t have any understanding of everyday people and what they go through." - Gov.Pat Quinn and the Family Stone

After picking up tree branches from the Chicago parkway on my property ( hard to get my head around that bit of Burnham ownership) I coffee'd-up and fended off potassium deficiency with an Irish-owned Chiquita banana and took in my morning's quota of political empty calories from Illinois Governor Pat " Everyday People" Quinn.

The Sun Times offers a political blog with the darling politically incorrect title of Early and Often ( the old-timey Democrat encomium for people who wanted to keep their jobs) which places solid reporters like Dan Mihiapolous and Natasha Korecki in close proximity to oily, or waxy political pests and nudniks needed by no one but editorial boards and other grifters.

Ms. Korecki is as solid and professional a reporter as one could hope for and did yeoman like work covering the vast decoupage that was the waning months of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's oil spill.  Korecki is no one's Carol Marin.  She is tough, witty and gifted with a foresight few journalists possess, because Korecki thinks for herself.

Sadly, Ms. Korecki is burdened with this Chicago Sun Times Civics Sesame Street for Dummies task, along with her more serious workload.

Nevertheless, Natasha Korecki, an everyday person if there ever was one, punches the time clock and gives editorial Star Chamber social engineers a solid eight.

Today, this morning, following coffee and banana, I joined Ms. Korecki for a Quinn-acopia of flat rhetoric and opaque insights.  Quinn drones about Stu Levine with whom Blago and Quinn spent many a happy hour in finding new and better ways to erase the middle class via pension and retirement scams  and Ralph Martire pie-charted tax increases.  Quinn squeezies  onto Stu-ey Levine like a plush python offered to teach Illinois morons about our unfunded mandates and pension debts.  I could almost see poor Natasha Korecki nodding off like a teacher at faculty meeting, when she too decides enough is enough.

The only take away of any substance in her exchange with Gov. Platitude Quinn comes about when Natasha Korecki somehow snaps herself out of a nap with a question that puzzles the droning Governor.

Q: Paul Vallas supports charter schools. Since you picked him as a lieutenant governor, does that mean you’re open to charter expansion?
A: No, Paul Vallas believes in public education. So do I. We believe in funding public education. A very, very important issue this year, we’ll be talking about that soon. ... He’s committed to a fair, open budget to properly fund education.

"No, Paul Vallas believes in public education!" ( exclamation mark my own)

Now, hold there a momentito!  Paul Vallas is The Grand Daddy of AMERICAN Charter Schools - ChiTown, Philly, N'Orl'ns, Connect -I-Cut!  Moreso, Paul Vallas has ALWAYS been open to Vouchers!  Real School reform.

Paul Vallas is every day people!  I know Paul.  I love Paul! I respect Paul!  If Paul were the top of this ticket, I'd vote Democrat in november.

Catholic schools comprise the bulk of private schools in Illinois.  Therefore, Catholic schools is a local euphemism for private education ( Non-public - no tax-money), including Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Jewish, Muslim, and non-Denominational schools, as well as the elite first tier schools like Chicago Latin and Chicago Lab Schools.

Paul Vallas is solid man.  Pat Quinn is a pest with persistence, like all Progressives.  Like all Progressives, Pat Quinn is incapable of original thought and spouts only Hyde Park/Evanston Vatican Doctrine and Dogma.

Pat Quinn is no friend of Catholic schools.  By extension he is no friend of every day people who send their kids to Catholic schools.  Pat Quinn spoke for Paul Vallas.

Pat Quinn is the only one speaking - like any Progressive.  Everyday People, everyday people, everyday people, mean exactly what Pat Quinn thinks them to be - drones like himself.

Great job, Natasha Korecki!

Catholic Schools Could Become Ivory Towers of the Elite - Like Magnet, or Lab Schools

And now, therefore, I say to you, refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this council or this work be of men, it will come to nought; 39But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you be found even to fight against God. And they consented to him. Acts of the Apostles 5: 38-39

The longer I live the more I learn about how things should not be done.  At one time government was a help; now it is cross-dressing Spendaholic Nanny Uncle with truth issues. At one time Mainline Protestant Denominations were the home to Progressive Babbitry; now, they are segment of Bill Moyers-in-Drag on Sharia Law.

Catholic schools used be very economical, because Brothers, Priests and Nuns comprised a good percentage of the work-force; now, Catholic schools are either doomed to close, or be ivory bell-towers for elites.

It is the in-between  that tells the tales.  Government became a soup-kitchen, tent-city and Circus maximus from the late 1960's - 1990's.  Mainline Protestant Denominations squeezed out the bible-thumpers between Billy Graham and Rev. Barry Lynn while jumping ship from the tepidly pro-abortion Rockefeller GOP to the mad-dog infanticidal maniacs of the DNC.

Catholic schools are run and staffed by lay-persons with very few exceptions ever since Vatican II.

During the 1970's smart Catholic school leaders began to tap private foundations as sources of money that could help make up the gap between revenue and expense, due to declining vocations.  By the 1980's wormy creatures named Development Directors oozed from charity swamps - this slug is one.

 I first heard the term Director of Development in the mid 1980's and the school I worked for hired one.  He lasted about ten months, brought in no new revenue, but he had a stunning wardrobe and golfed like he jumped off the The Tour.

 He had come from the world of business, sales - radio sales to be exact.  He did not understand, or like high school kids very much as I recall, but he liked teachers even less. He drew a pretty handsome salary, but never wrote to Alumni, sent out grant proposals and seemed unable to adequately articulate the history, culture and mission of the school.

He was let go and went on to run a United Way Campaign in Central Illinois for three times what he made in a Catholic school.  This Fund-raising Professional was replaced by a sweet, funny and seventy year old Sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame.  Sr. Madeline Lamar, CND.  She went through the records of the schools and developed the first Alumni Directory, followed by a raffle-calendar, a Spring Event with Dinner and Auction, a wonderful Alumni News letter, and the first annual direct mail campaign.

Prior to that Sr. Lamar worked in the offices answering phones, taking attendance, teaching religion and making students feel good. That was where I learned fundraising.  Watching a sweet-natured little French woman 'Try" stuff.  When Sr. Lamar approached with a her eyes popped in excitement, you were in for some work, " Hey, Pat!  You're Irish . . .and you are so good with words . . .You know what would be fun?  Designing our Raffle Calendar and writing up an Irish Theme for it. . . .AND you get a band going!  Yeah, your Irish band from Chicago . . .and you and Kenny, Jack, Rick, and Joel could do a rock'n roll show for the kids and . . . ! "

Scads of fun.  Months of fun!  Who needs weekends sucking up Rhinelanders and tossing horseshoes?  She had me hooked through the gills and my big mouth!


School fundraising can be brutally disappointing, exhilarating, flattering, embarrassing, rewarding and confusing all on the same day. You can help raise more than million dollars to aid a budget of $ 1.2M and find that it is not enough.  That's the job. . .read the fine print.

Catholic schools and families who need Catholic schools need substantial support.  Public schools hijacked many of the larger private and corporate  foundations by dint of political favors and intimidations.   Catholic politicians have done more to help public education, than they have to help the schools that educated them.
In the 1990's, my neighbor and friend Paul Vallas was CEO of CPS.   Kidding on the square, I often refered to the big talented Greek as the Prince of Darkness - Paul took Peoples Gas, Quaker Oats, Polk Brothers and other charities out of the reach of Catholic, Dutch, Jewish and Lutheran schools and established a Chicago Public Education Reform Foundation headquartered in . . .Evanston.

Leo had big hearted and heroic Bob Foster's name as 501 (c) 3 cache, but Paul Vallas had the crabby little guy who tossed tantrums and people under the CTA wheels with the bat of an eye-brow. Any business in Chicago became enthralled to padding millions of more dollars on to the hundreds of millions of tax-dollars being incinerated hourly by Chicago Public Schools.

School Choice? Vouchers?  Nope! Choice boiled down to Charters (Catholic Schools without God) or CPS havens for teachers without skills, or Magnet Palaces for the skilled and enthusiastic teacher and children of privilege.  That's Reform, folks.

Catholic schools, elementary and secondary, shuttered with regularity under Joseph Cardinal Bernardin - Joseph the Closer and continued until Cardinal George stopped the bleeding and appointed Sister Mary Paul McCaughey. However, the damage had been done.  Elementary feeder schools that had at one time been the recruitment pools for Catholic high schools.  The closer a high school happened to be to the inner city ( read South and West sides) the tougher the draw for students. Not only the fact that black Catholic parishes had been closed, but also the African American middle class Diaspora to the 'Burbs. Black flight had replaced White flight.

On top of that, Chicago City Hall saw the potential for a real estate boom and quickly shut down Chicago Housing Authority and the Projects.   With no affordable housing available families with Section 8 vouchers   took residence in formerly Black middle class apartments and houses.  The crime that had once been isolated along the east side Dan Ryan between 54th Street and Archer Ave. was now knocking on the doors of Ernie Terrell in Roseland and retired physicians and CPD Commanders in Pill Hill.

Through all of this, the economy tanked and layoffs became the order of the day.

A few Catholic high schools closed or were converted to Charter schools and the once powerful support by private foundations began to dry up almost as fast as the tuition payments slowed down.

Foundations, with boards dominated by lawyers, businessmen and accountants, do not want to fund schools that are doomed to close. They want schools run like like businesses - cut here, profit there. At the same time,Catholic schools that put    $10,15, or 25 thousand a year from grants into the budget were now seeing letters that said, " While our decision to longer fund your school is final, we continue to honor and value the very good and important work you continue without our annual support." Concern over that state of schools that might be closed, leads bottom-line sensible boards to pull funding from schools that really need it.
Now, that is a paradox.

Some of these foundations decided money would be better spent funneled through a university "Mentoring Program for Inner City Students Attending Inner City High Schools."

Catholic schools that operate like businesses have no trouble maintaining vigorous business and private support.  Those schools tend to be schools with a very competitive enrollment and placement program, provide competitive teacher salaries, sport magnificent campus, library and athletic facilities and students willing to travel many miles to earn the cache of association with that school.  These schools can demand       $ 8,000, 9,000 and up 15,000 per year, as well as a fund-raising commitment based upon family income.

Now, more working class and middle class families are finding the pink slip in the pay envelope.  An accountant formerly making $ 85,000 in a smart-sized City, or County Department awakens in his heavily mortgaged and taxed Chicago bungalow and struggles the thought of selling his home and taking his two daughters out of Queen of Peace High School.  A highly skilled cement finisher is no longer in demand to fix sidewalks, stairs and porches must wonder if ' Tommy, Mary and Liam will be happy at Clissold CPS on Western Ave. after so many years at St. Cajetan?'

Catholic schools should be only for those who can afford nose-bleed tuitions.  Catholic schools were established for poor and working class families.  The Office of Catholic Schools and the heroic Big Shoulders Fund are working 24-7 to maintain this historical mission.

Leo High School is and has always been a working man's school.  With Tuition set at $ 7,500 for next year, we know that very few of families can meet that cost.  Likewise, Leo High School wants families to know that a Catholic education is available for young men.  President Dan McGrath invites families to qualify for the Leo Advantage.

We'll see, as Gamaliel told the lads of the Temple who wanted to close down the first Christians,  " if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it."

Obama is No "Ward Hack." Ward Hacks Actually Do Something

 

Every Girl Crazy 'Bout a Sharp-dressed Man! -ZZ Top

The story of Barack Obama is that of a politician who figured out he didn’t have to wait his turn, who didn’t have to pay his dues, who could take on the Machine boys and beat them at their own game — with the help of a shrewd campaign strategist and image-maker to sell him on television. -Mark Brown

President Obama looks fabulous.  I have never met a Ward Hack festooned in hand-tailored Hickey-Freeman suits.

Mark Brown wrote a very thoughtful critique of the Hannity Meme Mummers today.  The Hannity Meme Mummers are generally GOP or conservative Dems who tag President Obama as a Chicago Ward Hack.

Fox's Hannity reminds all and sundry that he, Sean Hannity, discovered Bill Ayers and Rev. Uncle Crazy Jerry Wright in 2007. Uh, Huh. Obama is about as much as a Alinsky Radical, as he is a die-hard Sox Fan.
More so, Barack H(onolulu). Obama is more of a Sox Fan and Alinsky Radical than he is a Ward Hack.

Mark Brown writes:

Here we go again with this business about Barack Obama bringing “Chicago ward politics” to the White House. . . .But I still can’t sit back while others pretend that Barack Obama is just another ward hack who miraculously rose above his station — or that he’s “Daley’s boy.”

When this emerged as a campaign theme four years ago, here’s what I wrote:
“We have lots of prominent politicians in Illinois who were ‘born of the corrupt Chicago political machine,’ as the new John McCain campaign commercial so ominously puts it.
“Some have the DNA to prove it. Others worked their way up through the patronage ranks.
“Barack Obama isn’t one of them.”
I stand by that.
I stand by that — not having forgotten that Obama’s first two White House chiefs of staff were Rahm Emanuel (who, yes, first got elected to Congress with some help from Don Tomczak’s troops, but hardly owed the election to them) and Bill Daley, brother to former Chicago Mayor Rich Daley (who dismantled the traditional ward political apparatus because it only got in his way.) In the most important election of Obama’s life, the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, the mayor was on the sidelines.
Nor have I forgotten Obama’s strange real estate deal with the now-convicted Tony Rezko, his first big campaign donor. I’m still troubled by their friendship, and still waiting for the day we hear the whole story.

Me Too, Brother Brown.  I do not know President Obama, nor would he recognize me if I tossed through the windshield of the Presidential limo.  However, I have met with, spoken to and engageed our President on more than a few occasions.

• When he turned down requests for support of Leo High School in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood, as Director of the Woods Fund, answering to Wild Bill Ayers.
• When he ran against most unsuccessfully against Congressman Bobby Rush
• When he attended the Falling Leaves Festival in Morgan Park
• When as an Illinois State Senator, he presented trophies along with IL Rep. Kevin McCarthy at the Leo Boxing Night at the Saber Room in Hickory Hills and asked me "where's the gate?" in order to enter the ring
• When I cooked Winston's Irish sausage and bacon before the South Side Irish Parade

They were brief encounters, as are most political cheek-to-jowl gabs, to be sure and I came away from each one warmly underwhelmed.  I did not see any there, there.  Unlike Ward Hack and Policy Wonk Paul Vallas who campaigned up a storm actually liked the people he asked to vote for him, Barack Obama is like the guy who says, " Hey! Enough me talking;; how much do you really, really, really admire me?"

Paul Vallas was lost to Illinois by the very same 'geniuses" who invented Tod Stroger, Toni Preckwinkle, Mike Quigley, Forrest Claypool and of course the old Turkish psy hereself, Jan Schakowsky.

Put it this way, when Barack Obama was pushed to the purple ( US Senate & Presidential Candidate), I was not surprised, but certainly not enthralled.  He did not seem to have the gifts of being a Ward Hack.  Ward Hacks, and I know legions of them, are singularly thoughtful. generous, energetic and most of all loyal to a fault.

Barack Obama impressed me only as one of the chosen Progressives that some of the powerful guys decided to create: Jan Schakowsky, Deb Mell, Deb Shore, Mike Quigley, Forrest Claypool, Rahm Emanuel, Toni Preckwinkle and God forgive me Gov. Pat Quinn.

These folks could not pack a phone booth ( nearly extinct at the time of this posting), let alone a hall full of beefy, enthusiastic, hard-working skilled tradesmen and their wives and kids. Nope, Ward Hacks are trotted out to boost their nimble vaults over the political gradus.  They are the Sows Ears Made of out Silk Purses.

The Silk Purses are the hijacked 501 (c) 3s: Woods Fund, MacArthur Foundation, Annenburg Challenge, Joyce Foundation, whose boards are thick with former radicals and leftist academics.  Too often these silk purses are orchestrated by Abner Mikva.  Political Chiefs like old Tom Hynes, or Mike Madigan, or Richie Daley took short-cuts to opportunity by snuggling up to these silk purses in exchange for legislative policy give-aways and mutually beneficial real estate ventures. Abner might say to Tom Hynes, " This Mike Quigley kid is really a go-getter and he hates every one in the 60643-55 zipcode's collective guts.  He's really great; Tom let's do him a solid.  How's about we get Rich to get the 19th Ward crew to help Quigley and then he can make nice and really bump Helen Schiller into the cheap seats and then we can get SEIU, La Salle Bank, Personal PAC, Fred Eychaner, the Pritzker girls and even some honest money to dump some dough into any number of races?"  Deal? Deal.

That's how Progressives boarded, looted and scuttled the Good Ship Chicago Machine.

Ward Hacks have helped elect every useless, mean-spirited and back-stabbing Progressive in the Illinois pantheon.  They did so because they were asked by people whop helped them.  I love Hacks and have complete contempt for Progressives.  Progressives are not just a one way street, they are fully cul-de-sac'd. Do a Progressive a solid and wait for the blade in the kidneys - you never wait very long.

Nope President Obama is No Ward Hack - he has not the makings.  He is a Progressive.

Ron Gidwitz for Governor and Paul Vallas, Lt. Governor - That's The Ticket!

Gidwitz/Vallas Ticket Equals GOP Victory for Governor!


Paul Vallas should avoid the Cook County President Race like a drunken blind date with a festering cold sore. The Cook County mess needs to be cleaned up by the boys and girls who created the mess – if that means the power suits who foisted Todd Stroger upon us, then so be it Dudes – back Todd again! Let Buzz Saw Tony Peraica gut whomever he needs to win the big chair that Todd Stroger dangles his feet high over the carpet in the County Board Hearing Room.

Paul Vallas was long gone and away from the world created by Forrest Claypool, Mike Quigley, Bobbie Steele, and Tony Peraica. Stay clear of this one, Paul. Get your feet wet as a campaigner. You could use a little seasoning on that dish, as you have been in appointed positions for years. Sadly, you lost your first campaign and the Stigma of Loser is wrongly tagged on you. Illinois was the real loser when Blagojevich squeaked out a Primary win. The too cute by half Democrats in the positions of Ward power, with exception of the Joyces and the Sheehans, posted with Blago. So noted.

Do not go top ticket. You are young. You have plenty of time. Ron Gidwitz will make a fine Governor and so will you in a few years.

Do not allow yourself to be used by the race baiting clowns. Leave that to goofs who use that like a calling card and toss out the word ‘Bosses’ every other noun.

Paul Vallas, come home. Come home to Illinois and work with Ron Gidwitz as Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. Talk about a dream team.

Both gentlemen would give the GOP a genuine opportunity to actually win the Governorship. Both gentlemen would provide Illinois tax-payers with career waste-cutters from the private and the public sectors.

Neither man is a back-slapping lout, like the two term former Governor of Illinois who sent his poor bride and mother of his children to Costa Rica to eat tarantulas and hang out with an unwashed Baldwin.

Neither man is a pay-to-play Alumnus.

Neither man is self-serving Machiavellian stooge for any interest.

Ron Gidwitz and Paul Vallas would not only be a dream team for the GOP but for Illinois. The trick will be getting the Illinois GOP interested in actually winning something.

John Daley Tries to Talk Sense to Todd Stroger -Good Luck With That

I always liked John Daley. I still do. John Daley is a gentleman. John Daley is loyal. John Daley is a very, very, very smart man.

Yesterday, he tried to talk sense to County Board President Todd Stroger who is the best friend Forrest Claypool has in the world, now that Quigley is in D.C. and out of his way.

Claypool has friends in WTTW,NPR and the Chicago Media.

That is about it. Forrest Claypool is friends with folks who can appoint him to a government spot, or manage to get others to build votes for him.

He pretty much shot his wad. Now, with all Progressive forces dancing the Dionysian jig no one is paying Forrest much attention. Vallas is coming back. Peraica won a Pyrrhic victory in the Repeal. That is as good as it will get Tony.

John Daley tried to talk sense to Todd -do not challenge the vote and give Forrest his wiggle room - 'We can not all be Elizabeth Brackett for Crissakes.'

Welp, Todd don't hear so good. Forrest will gump it up on Public TV and Airwaves. The tin-foil hat crowd will get all knit cap and soul-patch hot for Forrest.

He will lose, mind you, but we will have Claypool white-noise for the next few months.

Thanks Todd.

You tried John Daley. My God how you tried.

John Daley sparred with Stroger during a debate that turned angry at times, telling the president he "might want to listen for a change." Daley said a Stroger veto "would be a mistake, because of the strong vote of the board."

The Daley family backed Stroger in his 2006 run for the spot once held by his father, John, but Daley on Tuesday said Stroger has "been wounded" and might not get his support for his anticipated re-election effort.

In changing his stance, Daley cited the lousy economy and said the county had "to make adjustments." At least one commissioner, however, clearly acknowledged a desire to distance himself from a tax vote that was widely panned by civic groups, editorial pages and suburban leaders. "We've been getting beaten up, and I'm tired of it," said Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno (D-Chicago), who voted for the tax hike but supported the effort to repeal.

Residency, Presidency, Cook County Needs Vallas

The nuanced voices are stacatto signalling caveats to Paul Vallas who announced thoughts of returning to Cook County and help fix the clown opera directed by Todd Stroger.

Todd Stroger was placed in the purple plush seat by some very nuanced thinkers in the Democratic Party who read in the tea leaves that Paul Vallas might, just might mind you, upset plans for off spring and even solidly emplaced 'powers that is.'

Paul Vallas was abandoned by the Democratic Leadership in Chicago and Cook County when he ran against Milorod Blagojevich, a shameless gate-crasher with clout, for Governor of Illinois.

Last week, Mark Brown of the Sun Times offered a nuanced reflection of Democrats turned Republican Past who failed in their bids at elected office in racially charged election cycles. I imagine that Brown had a Nuanced Chat with Quigley about Paul Vallas and Quigley, not to be brought up short(er) by a formidable man like Vallas jumped up to Brown's willing ears. Brown's nuances were deftly batted aside by Paul Vallas. Race is The Place for Nuanced Hack. Race works and so does Residency.

Today, Kristen McQueary, kind of a neighborhood girl, nuances the residency card:

Once again if he runs, he'll be doing it having not lived here for some time. He and his wife bought a home in Palos Heights, but Vallas spends most weeks in the bayou.

Maybe that means he still lives in Philly, according to his calculus.

How about this: Paul Vallas runs for office like a big boy, following all the rules. If he's a Democrat, he runs as a Democrat. We're kind of tired of schemes around here.

If Vallas runs for GOP Cook County Board president, he hasn't ruled out also running for a commissioner seat on the 17-member Cook County Board. That's how John Stroger did it. He held a commissioner seat, and therefore had a vote, while also serving as board president.

Todd Stroger opted not to run for a commissioner seat; he serves only as board president and does not have a vote.

In 2002, Paul took the Philly job and Sharon and the kids remained here and tried to sell their house. By 2005, most people in Illinois wished that they could have had a Governor Do-Over, as Joliet Land-Fill Rod had fallen out with Dick Mell and many others. Vallas sold his Morgan Park neighborhood home at 25$% West 107th Street, because the brilliant Burt Odelson had been blocked by the courts in allowing Paul Vallas to appear on the 2006 ballot for Governor against the nuanced Rod Blagojevich and that he was saddled with a huge campaign debt from 2002. Took a long time for the Vallas Family to sell that Georgian, but the Vallas Family was never too far from home, while Paul worked in Philly.

Heck, Paul Vallas continues to be an active Strategic Planning Board Member for Leo ( Catholic) High School in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood. Paul and Sharon bought a home in Palos Heights quite some time ago, while Paul worked in Philly and subsequently headed to Crescent City to help straighten out post-Katrina Louisiana education for Gov. Bobby Jindal. Nevertheless, Paul and Sharon remained more in-touch with Illinois than the Nuanced Hack Supported Serving Govenor ( now impeached and convicted and out of office but on TV everywhere!) and the Empurpled and Daffy Todd Stroger, President of the Cook County Board.

Shoot, me and the neighbors talk to Paul and Sharon all the time.

Paul Vallas is not an educator, he is a budget and policy professional who was first brought into the Public Eye by Illinois Senator Phil Rock, a man of talent and integrity. Paul Vallas is needed in Cook County, for openers, and in the State of Illinois.

Save the nuance for the next idiot the Nuanced Voices of Journalism want to trot out for public office - with, of course the counsel of beauties like Mike Quigley.

Mark Brown and Red Fred Down on Vallas - That is Good!

Fred Klonsky, brother of President Obama adviser and proud radical Red Mike hates Paul Vallas. Fred and Mike Klonsky* are the sons of Robert Klonsky a Communist veteran of the Spanish Civil War.

Fred Klonsky is not a Vallas Partisan.

Quoth the Park Ridge Trotsky, 'After screwing the CPS, even pissing off his patron The Mayor, he fled to Philadelphia. By all accounts, he made that struggling urban system even worse. Run out of Philly, he ended up in charge of the privatization of New Orleans public schools.

Now Typhoid Paul, switching to being a Republican, wants to do to Cook County government was he’s done to Chicago, Philly and NOLA schools.

Only Vallas could make a local hope for the victory of the corrupt present head of the Board, Todd Stroger.'

Fred, I like your spleen! Sounds like me on Quigley. Howsomeever, Vallas is a good guy and Quigley the polar opposite being just that. Now, Fred, really,'By all accounts, he made that struggling urban system even worse. Run out of Philly, he ended up in charge of the privatization of New Orleans public schools.'

Most accounts say Paul Vallas did very well - in Philly and in Louisiana.

Ain't that something! Quigley hates Vallas; therefore, Brown hates Vallas. Klonsky hates Vallas; Reds and the Boiled Beets Progressives ( Hyde Park Deep Thinkers,SEIU and their cadres) who lap up Red doctrine will hate Paul Vallas - doctrinally speaking of course. And Stroger and Daley and . . .Hate on one side and Love o t'other! I love Paul Vallas! Man crush. Admire. Like a hole bunch. Trust. Gets my vote.

Mark Brown tries to muddy the waters with race-baiting innuendo in his column this AM and tries to get Paul's goat, but Vallas turned Mark Brown into Feta.

Well the true colors are out - Brown against Vallas and the Red Klonsky's want no Paul.


*

Our lasting visual memory of Dorothy has her standing in a midst of a room full of young activists in 1966. Cigarette in hand and using that throaty voice to rally us against the latest act of injustice or brutality against the community by the guardians of the capitalist system. She was scolding, encouraging and praising. She was one of those veterans of the struggle that was able and willing to cross the generational divide.

For us red-diaper babies and SDS activists coming of age in the radical movement in L.A. in the 60s, Dorothy was at once a revolutionary role model, a leader, teacher, critical friend and a member of the family.

Dorothy taught us that being a revolutionary was a life-long proposition, a genuine commitment to siding with the underdog, fighting racism, war and every form of social injustice and inequity. She taught us to stand firm on matters of principle, while being good at uniting with those in the movement with whom we disagreed. We probably didn't learn that last one well enough. Sorry Dorothy.

We often disagreed but loved the give and take. We always knew that when push came to shove, she would be there in the front lines of the battle. That give and take with mutual love and respect went on until she died. News of her passing saddens us, along with a whole generation of L.A., activists that Dorothy trained, led and nurtured.
She will always be a part of us.
In struggle,

Mike, Fred & Susan Klonsky
September 22, 2006

http://web.mac.com/richardhealey/iWeb/Dorothy/Comments/C11589BF-7FDF-435C-B2E3-2ADD1A871749.html

Paul Vallas - Meets The Opposition in Mark Brown and What Lies Beneath

I believe that Mark Brown, who is fed scoops of news by the Uriah Heep of Illinois Politics, Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, pounced early on news that Paul Vallas would return to challenge Todd Stroger for President of the Cook County Board as a Republican, in order to put some root rot under Paul's path.

Click my post title for Mark Brown's column.

In his column today, Brown catalogues career Democrats who switched parties to advance their holds on the public imagination - Aurelia Puchinski, Ed Vrydolyak, Bernie Stone & etc. - as means of poisoning the well for Vallas. Mark Brown has had a long detestation of the 19th Ward and got embroiled in a dispute with a Mike Quigley challenger Miss Daly some years back*. Miss Daly's father as I recall had words for Mark Brown. It got ugly - for Mark Brown.

Ugly lasts and so Mark Brown seemed to go after Paul Vallas and his motives. 'Why GOP?' asks Mark Brown.

Well, gee Mark, the Chicago and Cook County Democrats did handsomely for Paul Vallas, prior to his exile in Philly, his attempt to get on the ballot against Blago in 2006, and his subsequent voyage to Louisiana. Paul Vallas is a Greek American and that means that his memory is sharper than any Irish grudge holder ( and that is longer than the odds on any Subway World Series). Paul Vallas remembers the people who were threatened by his work ethic, skills, honesty and energy. He knows who is slapping his back. Vallas understands what lies beneath a newspaper writer's questions and from whence those questions sprung up.

Paul Vallas gave Brown a terse and honest answer, 'Vallas also emphasized that this state's Democratic establishment, with the exception of the Sheahans, abandoned him in 2002 against Blagojevich, then blocked him from running for governor in 2006 because of his residency.' The Sheahans are great people - loyal, honest, energetic and did I mention that they are loyal? So is Paul Vallas.

Vallas will do well. He knows the ground - some of it is solid and some paths are sink holes.

*
Author: Mark Brown
Date: March 6, 2002 - ( Contemporary to the Blago Dreamscape Campaign for Goveronor!)
Publication: Chicago Sun-Times
Page: 2
Word Count: 1023
Excerpt:
Mary Ellen Daly is a 27-year-old manager of an Oak Street bridal shop who wants to unseat Cook County Commissioner Michael Quigley, the leading troublemaker on the County Board.

“I’m not very experienced, obviously,” she said last week when I asked about her background in politics, which by her own account is limited to handing out literature, hanging up campaign signs and stuffing envelopes for other candidates.

Lache pas la patate, Frere Paul Vallas !

OooooooooWeeeeeee Some folks is Hot that Canille Paul tipped the pieroge and rows North Home! Seems the folks in Ray's Chocolate City found out about Frere Paul's plans to Passer un bon temps on Todd Stroger, the Cook County Democratic Organization, and the Twin Menaechmi of the County Board -Menaechmus Quigley and Sosicles Claypool:

Recovery Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas will leave New Orleans by the end of the year to run for president of the Cook County Board in Illinois, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Vallas is from Chicago, and his family has lived there since he took the helm of the state-run district in the summer of 2007.

Last year, Vallas had publicly flirted with the prospect of returning to Chicago to run for governor. After dropping that idea, Vallas said he planned to stay in New Orleans through the 2009-10 school year. But he never signed a contract with State Superintendent Paul Pastorek, and seemed to be keeping his options open.

Great to have you back, Paul! Keep your neck on a swivle! They will come at you from everywhere -GOP and Democrats. Your friends and Illinois have waited long enough!

To my Cajun neighbors -Ça va et C'est la vie !

Cook County - Laissez les bon temps rouler ! Somebody -wake up Todd and tell Todd - very slowly.

Joe The Plumber! Ask Paul Vallas How Well Obama Redistributed Annenberg Wealth!

Here is how Barack Obama redistributed the wealth while Executive Director for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge - ridiculously bad.

Paul Vallas*, who actually made all of the school improvements in the Chicago Public Schools and then was forced out by Mayor Daley, recently explained just how Barack Obama and his boss Billy Ayers pread the wealth to radical community groups like ACORN, while they had their elbows up to millions of dollars:

Posted: 4:51 am
October 20, 2008

Chicago's former schools chief has flunked the education foundation headed by Barack Obama and founded by 1960s terrorist Bill Ayers - saying it failed to monitor projects and funded school "reform" groups that campaigned against boosting academic standards.

"There was a total lack of accountability. If you went back and asked, you'd be hard-pressed to find out how the money was spent," said Paul Vallas, the city's school superintendent when Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg Foundation from 1995 to 1999.

Annenberg spent $49.5 million, mostly on grants to 211 public schools that partnered with community-based groups. But despite collecting millions, those schools performed no better than other public schools, a study found.

Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois and an ex-Weather Underground bomber, wrote the grant that won the Windy City funding from the national Annenberg Challenge. He was a key adviser to the Chicago Annenberg board.

While much debate has centered on Obama's relationship with Ayers, there's been virtually no discussion about how the Annenberg schools performed.

"Very little of the money found its way directly into the classroom," Vallas said.

Most frustrating, Vallas said, was that Annenberg under Obama and Ayers funded groups that fought his mission, under Mayor Richard Daley, to impose uniform standards and stricter accountability in low-performing schools.

Many of Vallas' goals were later adopted by Mayor Bloomberg in Big Apple schools.

"Many of the school-reform groups viewed greater accountability as an infringement of local control. Some opposed ending social promotion and grade retention," Vallas said.

Obama defended the foundation's performance, saying it dispensed its funds to help struggling programs and train teachers.

carl.campanile@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10202008/news/politics/f_for_baracks_school_fix_134391.htm


Hey Joe! Watch your wallet!

*
Paul G. Vallas is currently superintendent of the Recovery School District of New Orleans, Louisiana.

He first gained fame as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). During his tenure from 1995 to 2001, he led an effort to reform the school system, and his work was cited by President Bill Clinton for raising test scores, improving relations with the teachers' union, balancing the budget, and instituting several new programs included mandatory summer school, after school programs, and expanding alternative, charter, and magnet schools.

The position of CEO of the CPS was created by Mayor Richard M. Daley after he successfully convinced the Illinois State Legislature to place CPS under mayoral control. Vallas had previously directed the budget arm of the Illinois State Legislature and served as budget director for Daley.

Controversy plagued Vallas towards the end of his reign as CPS CEO. Following criticism from the mayor, and the election of a union president who ran on an anti-Vallas platform, Vallas resigned in 2001 and ran for Governor of Illinois as a Democrat. Vallas placed second in the Democratic primary, losing narrowly to now-Governor Rod Blagojevich while running ahead of former state Attorney General Roland Burris.

Following the election, Vallas was appointed CEO of School District of Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, he presided over the nation's largest experiment in privatized management of schools, with the management of over 40 schools turned over to outside for-profits, nonprofits, and universities beginning in Fall 2002.

In 2005, Vallas considered challenging Blagojevich again for Illinois governor in the Democratic Primary but decided against it. He then signed a two-year contract (2007-2008) as superintendent of the Recovery School District of New Orleans, Louisiana.

On April 28, 2008 he appeared before the City Club of Chicago and on Chicago news shows discussing a possible run for governor in 2010.[1][

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!