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...