"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!