Chicago Tuesdays: Step by Step for Better Governance

Things may not be so bleak for Democrats this November, says Robert Creamer in HuffPo. Here's to hoping that he's right and that I won't be crucified for not voting straight party-line Democrat in two weeks. See, I just can't.

This is my line of reasoning and advice:

• The Tea Party and Corporatist Munchers Can. Not. Win.
• However, everyone needs to research all viable candidates.
• When one does this, one may find that some candidates that are not specifically Tea Party and/or Republican are, in fact, Incompetent Corporatist Munchers.
• These people also should not be given the keys.
• One such person in the ICM Party is Alexi Gianoullias.
• As mentioned here previously, Alexi is a failed bank executive who's risky ventures with his family's Uptown Bank were as reckless as any of the big losers on Wall St. He also somehow lost millions of dollars during his tenure as State Treasurer for an education program that, in hindsight, I'm glad my family never got to be a part of.
• Of course, his opponent, Mark Kirk of the GoodOl'Boys Party - among being a serial liar, etc., etc., - displayed his dirty white boy politics a couple weeks ago by bragging about putting mostly White overseers (basically, the Intimidation Crew) in predominately Black neighborhoods, watching out for any nasty "jiggering" that may go on there... Of course those "lawyers and people" will undoubtedly look just like the people in the communities they go into and will not, under any circumstance, try to intimidate residents from voting...
  
• Aww, who'm I kidding?
• Sometimes, such monumental political FAILS, there is no choice but to unplug.
• But, if we unplug, if we refuse to vote - to be engaged - the entrenched powers win. It's as simple as that. The fewer voters in general, the easier it is for them to amass the minimum votes necessary to stay in office.
• Until it's too late.
• What we need is a massive sea change. These kind of things take time. Lots of time.
• The next two years may be a wash, however, for progressives. Our fate, we seem to be saying. We weren't able to convince the Supermajority Democrats to promote a truly progressive agenda, especially in the most important area of job creation and economic stability and accountability. Some things were accomplished (health care; some job creation), but others weren't (health care; comprehensive immigration reform; job creation). And now most forecasters are trending that Dems will likely lose the majority in the House and certainly be on the run in the Senate. Either way, there will actually be MORE morons running around in DC thanks in part to a strange synergy between the Toilet Paper Nimrods and the Dick Army Corporatists. Obviously, allowing Republicans may not be the best option, but then we have to start thinking long-range and if the options are so similar that it feels like you've taken a dumpy-whirl, well... Are we flushed? Hanging in the boys' bathroom, waiting for the final bell to ring or our mommies to bring clean clothes - desperately trying to dry our hair out before anyone notices the sure marks of the dreaded swirlie.
• So, what's the option for those of us stuck with Evil and Stupid I v Evil and Stupid II? Pick someone else! For Chrissake's: Pick Someone Else!
• My suggestion: Go Green, baby. They're the party concerned about sustainability, not just ecologically (which is important), but in terms of health care, education, economics, business and governing. So this year, they get 5, 10, 15%, maybe (hopefully! likely!) pick up a seat or two somewhere, next time they come back to fight, there'll be a referendum on the GODumbnuts and Democrats will fight to fight for us - just a little more. Next time, 15, 20, 25%, and so on... Equity builds. We all win.

Chicago Tuesdays: The Politics of Politics

The Democrat idiot and Republican loser candidates for Illinois Senate (Obama's vacated seat) met on the air at NBC's Meet the Press with David Gregory the other day. Notably absent was any literate person with a plan for the US or Illinois. But that would entail the possibility that a major news network give equal hearing to a third party option. Because the only one on the ticket that's worth the ticket is LeAlan Jones.

In the words of Russ Stewart:

Both candidates, Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias are, at best, flawed, and, at worst, execrable. Voters feel as though they're choosing between a kick in the groin and a poke in the eye.

Kirk, a 10-year North Shore congressman, has come to be perceived as a serial liar, utterly devoid of principle, with no moral compass. In short, a crass opportunist and an ideological windsock. Giannoulias, the one-term state treasurer, is perceived as a clueless idiot, utterly lacking in judgment, whose performance as an officer at his now-defunct family bank was beyond inept. In short, out of his league.

The candidates' shortcomings -- Kirk's persistent exaggerations of his military record and Giannoulias's incompetence as treasurer and as a banker - mean that voters must choose the least unacceptable candidate. A plethora of media ads reinforce that theme: I'm not perfect, they say, but my opponent is worse.

Well, thank goodness for public radio, eh? The same questions that Gregory got to ask Mr. Military and Mr. Bank were also asked (in front of a much, much smaller audience) to Libertarian Party candidate Mike Labno and Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones. Take a listen.

On change since Obama took office: There has been very little change since he went into office. I think the president is an image that has really brought no equity to the voters who voted him in 2008 that thought that he was a voice of civility and credibility to their interests. The grassroots organizing skills that he won the presidency with have been lost to the corporate interests that are going to have to support him being there.

On earmarks: It’s very laughable [that Kirk says] that he’s sworn off earmarks for the 10th District, when many of those people are high net worth people who benefit when you have interest rates at zero. They’re the people who benefit when the Fed… buys bonds on the open market. So in terms of saying that they don’t need earmarks, that’s probably right when they have a fiscal and monetary policy that’s skewed to their lifestyles.

On spurring on the economy: The government has already run into problems The federal government needs to put resources in the hands of the people in the community that are actually in these communities and don't have banking relationships that are there: credit unions, shoring up pension funds, community co-ops, that have lost a lot of money over the years. But the sad thing about that... is that many of these people in the community have not built up the wherewithal to manage the resources you would put there, which creates a conundrum. We need a great deal of financial education in rural and urban communities so people can have a better management of their resources. Right now, there's gonna have to be a combination of working with the private sector, working with the public sector, and working with entrepreneurs that have been capitulated out of the job market for the last twenty-four months and creating a conversation out of these three entities. That will be the truest environment that can create the economic expansion that can create the employment levels that can help the suffering people right now.

Edward McClelland may have the last word, for now...

Of course, Jones can afford to tell the truth. He doesn’t have any campaign contributors paying him to say otherwise. That’s why he won the debate, but will lose the election.

But as I assert, if Illinois knew what was good for it, LeAlan would get the landslide...

Chicago Tuesdays: Hey! I'm WALKIN' Here!

One of the sites where I work is in the middle of an industrial park. As a motorist, for a few months I used to travel through here between work, church and school. And I appreciated this strip, because it is nearly half a mile of pure, unadulterated three lanes in an otherwise stop light-heavy major thoroughfare. If you hit the green at the south end, you've got another six blocks before the next light - but that's full of dangerous turns and it's more narrow, so it's not quite the joy to traverse.

So I see why cars don't necessarily have any desire to slow down at this juncture, despite the obvious pedestrian crossing markers on the floor.

However, Illinois just became the fifth state to pass a law wherein cars have to stop in order to let pedestrians cross at any crossing lane. And that would include unmarked lanes.

Motorists don't seem to be much aware of this law, though. And I'm sure that there are many who, when first hearing about the law, argue that it's unnecessary or reaching For instance, although 6,000 people are hit by cars each year, only a fraction of those result in injuries and fatalities. I can hear the everyman rhetoric right now. "Only 170 people died in the entire state from getting hit by cars while walking. Half of them were probably asking for it. How much are we going to lose in revenue to enforce this law? How much productivity are we going to lose to slow down every block for walkers?"

Similar arguments (at a more heightened and frightening level) were made about DWI laws, of course. But there is a major difference: Driving while intoxicated has killed multitudinous drivers, passengers, passerby, bicyclists and other motorists and their passengers. The culture-change that needed to happen there was not just necessary, but apparently so. And as Mad mothers started telling their stories, more people felt it necessary to be responsible (not always, but there is a legitimate sea change here).

Pedestrian crossing laws and cultural shifts are, however, just as necessary, even if not as apparently so. Citizens are not necessarily dying at a heart-breaking rate from being run over or sideswiped. We are dying at heart-attack rates from inactivity, from NOT walking or bicycling. And as long as the rules of the road favor 1500 lbs of steel and plastic traveling at 30-60mph over roughly 200 lbs of cartilage and organs, capable of traveling from 1-10mph (or those same skins and bones on top of a 25lbs thin machine of oil and aluminum at 10-25mph), then we'll continue to suffer and die from preventable diseases. As long as current law and culture favors oil and gas-propelled vehicles over food-propelled movement, we'll continue to poison our waters, land, air, children and lungs. As long as we continue to promote vehicular use over and above other forms of transport, we promote violence for expediency.

So, I say, bold move Illinois legislature. Good show.

Chicago Tuesdays - Get Out the Vote, Bring Out Yer Dead

So, we vote and dine today for the primaries. In an off-year. Which means that not a lot of people are going to vote. And, compared to the amount of newbies that came out last year (my family being among them), there's just not that much excitement in Illinois for this mid-winter fest of golf claps. Yet...

The Senate race should be exciting. It just isn't. The forerunner for the Democrats is a pretty golden boy who played ball professionally in Europe and played with Obama during his campaign (and put considerable financial backing into the campaign as well). And he's money. And connected. And his family bank is going down in a blaze of Untouchables-meet-Goldmann Sachs glory.

Considering all the other scandals Illinois has had to put up with (or, rather, allowed itself to be thrust in the middle of. It's like an abusive relationship), we should know better than to allow this charmer, Alexi Gionnoulias, such a prestigious seat. Trouble with his two opposing front-runners (neither of which seems to be close) is that neither seems to be close.

First there's the reformer, David Hoffman. Chicago's independent General Inspector, he blew the whistle on the privatization of our parking meters when Daley and his minions were running around town saying what a great deal the city got and praize hizzoner and all that other bullspittle. Hoffman managed to get out (much to da Mayor's ire) that the city lost billions of dollars, not the other way around.

Good news is that in a state full of crooks, Hoffman is Elliot Ness. Or so I've heard. Which would be the bestest ever... if he were running for governor. That office could use some cleaning up. But the senate seat? We don't need Mr. Deeds to go to Washington this year. We need someone to fight for working class and middle class families. We don't need to fight off graff (well, maybe a little. Thanks for the extra help, SCOTUS). We need someone to knock some sense into those whose stonewalling tactics are based against the common man/woman/child and for @$$es like these guys.

Cheryle Jackson has done PR for Chicago Public Radio (home of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and "This American Life" among other fine shows) and was most recently the head of the Chicago Urban League. Which means that she knows poor and working class realities and struggles (and has fought for them), but also has an "in" with upper-middle class audiences and sensibilities. Being a woman and a minority also means that she can speak for groups that are not being nearly adequately represented, certainly not if she's not elected (Obama's old seat is the only one in the Senate since the Reconstruction that has been filled with an African-American, starting with Carol Moseley Braun). However, she also did PR for ElvisGovernor. Which, for most people - combined with her being out of the pocket and not well-known outside of Chicago (if indeed inside Chicago) means that nobody's backing her horse.

Which, to me, is thoroughly unfortunate and rather stupid. Why worry about one of Blago's mouthpieces (who left before Blago's second term, btw), but instead put in what could well be Blago 2.0? It's not the name, but the patterns we should be worrying about.

Today, I'll be voting for Cheryle. If Hoffman gets the win instead and if the vote is close, I may end up voting for him in the general election. If Jackson gets the nod, I will vote for her barring a complete moral failure on her part. Hell, I'll campaign for her. However, if Alexi gets the approval of Democrats in this more-or-less fine state, that's it, I'm voting Green. We don't deserve to win this seat. Might as well give it to the Republicans than allow the same machines to run their dirty mechanisms.

Also, if you need a little help, Evoter is a useful tool.

Illinois Governors - the Facebook Profile Pics

In case you missed it, for the last week plus, my profile picture was of former governors of Illinois who ran afoul of the law either before or after their tenure. There are four, count them FOUR, within the last half century or so. Four of the last eight. Beautiful. That's a 50% chance. Not good odds.

Rod Blagojevich: 2003-2009
Pay to Play Scandal
(Did we mention that he looks like a Lego-Man? More info on him in ChicagoDads page. And yet some more to come.)

George Homer Ryan: 1999-2003
Licenses for Bribes Scandal (twenty-three charges, including racketeering, extortion, obstructing justice, accepting bribes)
(Fun fact: Wikipedia lists next Republican trying to replace him [and losing to Blagojevich] as "Jim Ryan [his son]". This is wrong. And bad, even by Wikipedia standards. The two are not related; that much was reported by the media numerous times during the election.)

Daniel Walker: 1973-1977
Savings & Loan Fraud in the 1980's
Quote from his autobiography, "I knew this was against regulations. But like most businessmen, I saw a huge difference between regulations and law."


Otto Kerner, Jr.: 1961-1968
Accepting Bribes
(Interesting note from Wikipedia - and this may or may not be apocryphal, Kerner was turned in because the Arlington Park race track manager deducted his bribes from her tax forms because she was under impression that bribes were an ordinary business expense in Illinois. To which I reply, "Well, to an extent.")

You Blag-Head!

Bla-Lego-vich is courtesy of spydrz (via Twitter)

Facebook status updates on our dear (ex-? One can hope) gov.

Jason Ol' Rod, we hardly knew ye good side: http://tinyurl.com/5zxpbk.

Jason Dye:

omg, he was going to use his appointing leverage to get himself a seat in obama's cabinet - as secretary of health and human services! - or as a high-ranking union official for a union-backed candidate, according to the trib.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rod-blagojevich-illinois-governor-2,0,4785755.story

he also, according to the suit & trib, sought to have trib editors fired in exchange for state backing of trib sellings - incl. wrigley field.

i mean, of all the things to soil wrigley w/ (as if frats, gawkers, bad baseball, broken promises, and boatloads of cheap, warm beer weren't enough), this just takes the poop-cake!

DN:
Will he be able to appoint a Senator from his jail cell? And will the Senate seat said appointee? It'll be interesting to see what goes down...

Jason Dye :

i think that that power is just so wrong in the first place. nobody trusted g-rod w/ that appointment in the first place. but i don't think anybody actually thought... jeepers.

as my wife said, here's to hoping mayor daley follows his accomplice du' nincompoopse.

DN:
That's a good one!

Maybe there's something in the water supply in Springfield...

Jason Dye:
here's the kicker: neither daley, obama nor blags are in the least bit 'friends', but they all live in separate neighborhoods in chicago. i think the last gov (ryan) lived in springy.

here's another thing, daley (like his father) wields a LOT of power, but he's got his machine wielded too tightly to get taken down (at least from where i sit. definitely not by anyone in chicago). he's been tied to one fed-exposed scheme conspiracy after another, but he makes reagan look like velcro. he gets away scot-free every time.

obama's shrewd enough to distance himself (for the most part) from any of these feuds / power-plays. mccain tried to make those associations stick but they couldn't.

g-rod, otoh, was just shrewd enough to get himself elected (based on, of course, good ol' illinois nepotism - that he turned his back on!), but built too many enemies to stay politically viable for long w/o sinking. which is prob why he tried so hard to leverage that appointment...

--------

KS's wondering if Rod will get his hair cut....

Jason Dye:
what a set-up, k---. ok, here goes:

Jason Dye:
only if they could exterminate the bees out first.

Jason Dye:
next preferred style for blagosjovic: corn-rows.

Jason Dye:

after airing the infamous clip of blags from monday where he says, "I have nothing to hide," john stewart says, "except what is on my forehead. my guess is, it says, 'bribe me.'"

Jason Dye:

in prison, he'll still carry on his political-given nickname, only amended. cell-mates will be heard saying, "that's G-Rod, Bruno's Be-otch."

KS:
You have way too much free time ;)

Jason Dye:

i wish. i thought of those during my semi-weekly shower.

but, if you so desire, i'll supply more after i cool down from this craaazy week.

----------

CD would like to know what's going on with our Illinios governors, are they not paying you enough ?

JFD:

I didn't know we had more than one governor.
Unless you referring to the multiple personalities of G-Rod.

CD:

no I was referring to our previous governor that was caught selling cdl's

JFD:

ah yes . . .

Jason Dye:
yeah, seriously, though. i wonder how blaggy kept on complaining that he needed more money and how he came to be in such financial constraints that he would ALLOW HIMSELF TO BE TAPED TRYING TO EXTORT BRIBES...

i mean, besides the fact that he's a big dummy.

fwiw, ryan got the bribes while he was secretary of state. tried to cover it up while gov.

CD:

regardless of that fact, I hate that b'cuz you rose to those ranks does not give you the right to be corrupt while us ppl on bottom are starving

CD:

I hope O'bama does something bout corruptness in our gov't I really hold that mainly responsible for the economy

Jason Dye:

yep, and he rose through the ranks by marrying a powerful state rep's daughter. and then he back-stabbed that whole family as soon as he got in office!

CD:

well thats our govt for you

------------------

AS can't believe the mockery of goverment in IL.

Jason Dye:
hey, so do you think our next guv will bring up our education status so that we're 48th out of 50? or just get arrested?

DW:
I think we should declare his residence in Chicago as the new Governors mansion, and when he is booted out of office - declare eminent domain, and take it :D

Oh, and he is a tool who steals our money
---------

WVK is proud Illinois is living up to its reputation.

CH:

lol!

RU:

Tell me about it

AT:

Yay for Pat Fitzgerald, for exposing all this. The message--that outrageous corruption is not accepted as status quo--actually fills me with hope.

Jason Dye:

continuing our long, proud tradition of gubernatorial convicts beginning w/ bugsy malone, al capone and johnny cash.

CBP:

wow...who knew?!

(please note intended sarcasm :) )

WT:

This is pretty low. I hope Illinois doesn't have the potential to go any lower....but I have my doubts.

AP:

What a mess!!!

------------

AT is yet again amazed by Patrick Fitzgerald's cojones, and hopes Obama does not replace him.

Jason Dye:

fitz is THE MAN!

i would not wanna get on his bad side. i wouldn't want him running for office, becoming mayor or gov or even AG. but, for what he's set up to do, he's the best.

---------------

And finally, the first person to comment on this story in my facebookiverse, my wife:

JFD hopes Daley follows G-Rod to his happy place.

PA:
are there puppies and kittens and rainbows and sunshine in the happy place?

MP:
Preach it.

JAS:
Amen

Jason Dye:
jfd,
let's hope so, babes. although i fear daley's too shrewd.

pa,
i hope not. but then again, blago does strike me a as a bit odd...

PA:

i wonder how many more secrets are hiding in his hair...

MR:

i'm very curious what daley and roderick are up to, since i'm not in chicago and haven't seen chicago news for a while.

MP:

MR: What are they up to? They are up to no good. As usual.

MR:

well, yeah ... that's a given. and i love how they've retained their offices (probably through the cemetery vote).

Jason Dye:

i don't know how/why rod got his 2nd term. but richie's got his machine pulling all the right strings. it'd be a beautiful symphony if they were playing the right tune.


I now understand why people don't regularly blog their facebook status updates. Re-formatting was a not-nice piece-o'-work --- so I didn't even finish.

Happy Casimir Pulaski Day, Comrades!

The first Monday in March is known to schoolchildren and teachers all throughout Illinois as a holiday that nobody understands.

So, thanks to Asthmatic Kitty Records for doing much indepth investigation on the man, the myth, the Casimir. As well as for posting an early demo of the Sufjan Stevens song.