My Blog

Category: Politics

  • Rahm Talks Trash

    An interesting bit, shows that Rahm’s not just another pretty face:

    (1) Establish a “benchmark” price per ton after comparing the cost of collecting Chicago’s 1 million tons of annual garbage to costs in 10 major cities.

    (2) Give the city’s 1,142-strong, $173.7 million-a-year refuse-collection army a chance to generate the savings necessary to meet those benchmarks.

    (3) Switch from a ward-by-ward to a grid or zone system of collecting garbage if Phase Two doesn’t work.

    (4) And, if all else fails, implement a “managed competition” between city employees and private companies to achieve savings.

    (Full story here.)

    My complaint?  It’s a fine plan, but it’s also politics as usual.

    Let’s face the facts, how long does it really take to establish a baseline price?  If it’s more than a 20 minute phone call to Waste Management or Onyx then it’s taking too long.

    But we all know how this is really going to go.  The Union will high-ball the number and preach all kinds of doom-and-gloom about snow plowing.  The city will counter, and back-and-forth and round-and-round it will go and then magically, over steaks at Gibson’s a deal will be struck.

    I say we accept 1 through 3 and inevitable and get right on to Number 4.  Find out what a private contractor will bid for the job and let the union compete.  Whole process should take a few weeks and immediately save the taxpayers millions.

  • Why Gutierrez Isn’t Running for Mayor

    From the Sun-Times:

    Convicted political fixer Tony Rezko gave U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez free upgrades on a riverfront town house after the congressman asked for them, Gutierrez told the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

    Gutierrez’s comments to federal agents in a previously undisclosed 2008 interview contradict what the congressman told the Sun-Times in 2006 about the purchase.

    (Full story here.)

    Ladies and gentlemen, it is up to us to say that we’ve had enough.

  • Subpoenas Deny Hendon

    Ooops.

    State Sen. Rickey Hendon today took himself out of the race for Chicago mayor, a week after revelations that a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas for records on dozens of state grants, some of which he sponsored.

    (Full story here.)

    Well another one bites-the-dust.

    My guess is that if Lisa Madigan had been doing her job we would have an even narrower field.  Maybe an honest businessman would have had a chance instead of the hoi polloi of political insiders left standing.

  • The Chicago Way

    With the election now behind us I’d like to pause on a great little story in the Trib. today.

    Cook County voters Tuesday narrowly retained four Circuit Court judges who had been deemed unqualified to continue on the bench by several legal groups.

    Jim Ryan and Susan McDunn each garnered about 63 percent of the vote, just above the required 60 percent to be retained; Dorothy Jones pulled in 64 percent; and William O’Neal recorded 66 percent.

    (Full story here.)

    This is nothing short of embarrassing.  We must do whatever it takes to change the crooked system that keeps unqualified people in office.  Apathy is not an excuse, let alone a reason, for poor judges to be retained.

    All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

    — Edmund Burke

    That about sums it up.

  • SECOND WARD ALDERMAN

    The decision has been made:  I’m throwing my hat into the ring for Second Ward Alderman.

    There are other candidates running I highly respect and believe would make excellent public representatives.  However, I believe that I can and will, simply, do better.

    I will begin revealing details about my campaign and how I plan to help lead the city in the coming weeks.

    I look forward to meeting and talking with every resident of the ward between now and Feb. 22.

  • State Borrows Another $3.4 Billion

    Clout Street is carrying a short story about Quinn standing at the bond counter selling your future and mine.

    As of today the State of Illinois is about $120 Billion in debt.  That’s around $9,400 for every man, woman, and child in the state.  And the Governor’s passing out paper making the whole situation worse.

    I’m not sure that people really understand how bad this is for the state and everyone in it.  Imagine you or your household living high on-the-hog spending a few extra thousand each month on the credit cards.  A few extra movies, a nicer car, more eating out, etc.  Well what happens when you have to pay all that spending back — with interest!

    Because of the interest, the payback is tougher.  The budget cuts must be deeper and it will take longer.

    Quinn and his ilk have burdened us for years and years to come.

    Now if only we’ll wake-up and do something about it.

  • We’re moving on out…

    Today’s Tribune has a story about Hookah bars closing in Worth and Palos Hills.  Seems the local town folk don’t want anyone smoking anywhere in public in their town.

    Here’s the money quote:

    Havana Cafe owner Ray Salem said he’ll likely reopen as a sandwich shop, although he estimates he’ll lose 50 percent of his business. He is considering moving the hookah business to Indiana, where there is no statewide anti-smoking law.

    That’s right.  Another business, a employee creating tax paying business, in route to Indiana.

    When are politicians going to wake-up and realize that you cannot treat people like garbage and expect them to stay?  I guess the other question is when are more people going to say “I’ve had enough” and just leave?

  • Relocate To Make It

    Have you heard of this?

    According to a recent Pew Research Center study, one in 10 adults between the ages of 18 and 34 said the poor economy has forced them to move back in with mom and dad.

    Tribune has a story about it here.  It’s pretty straightforward, kids leave home trying to make it on their own and can’t.  So they return to the nest and live in their parents’ basements with all their stuff taking up a spot for the car in the garage.  I’m not trying to be harsh or curt here, just stating what it is.  Besides, I admire their perseverance.

    What struck me about this story is that people will relocate — even to less than desirable conditions — to improve their lives.  Maybe I’m reaching here but in my neighborhood in Chicago there are a lot of young couples who are just kinda holding it together.  And every time there’s a crime in the neighborhood, or the parking meters go up again, or the CTA raises its rates, or any one of the dozens of things that annoy city residents happens they ask themselves, “Why do we live here?”

    Our politicians better stand-up and take notes.  People will leave Chicago and make a new life somewhere else.  Somewhere where city stickers don’t cost an arm and a leg.  Where taxes are reasonable.  Where you can park on the street.  Where potholes get fixed.  Where the schools are safe.  Where the leadership doesn’t sell of revenue and damn our children to paying for today expenses.

    If the politicians don’t move on this, the people will.

  • The Body Scan Scam

    Let the dance begin.  Security gurus versus privacy rights advocates are starting the new year off with a very loud public argument on the use of millimeter wave body scans at U.S. airports.  The problem is that they’re not even debating the right question.  Like many things, this would be funny it not for the potential deadly implications of the debate’s outcome.

    Here’s the rub: the body scans which make your naughty bits visible to some TSA employee (and who knows where the images get stored or for how long) are worthless at detecting low density items like the explosive carried by the attempted Detroit Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.  But because the Obama administration, Homeland Security, the TSA, and a whole bunch of other folks who have initials instead of names know this already that debate cannot be had.  Why?  Because it would scare the American people who might stop flying thus leading to another whole series of bailouts which are politically unpopular.

    Choice quote from article:

    Tests by scientists in the team at Qinetiq, which Mr Wallace advised before he became an MP in 2005, showed the millimetre-wave scanners picked up shrapnel and heavy wax and metal, but plastic, chemicals and liquids were missed.

    Uh oh.

    Kevin Murphy, product manager for physical security at Qinetiq, admitted this SPO system would also not have picked up the Christmas Day bomb, but insisted that it could be used as part of a “layered approach” to security in mass transportation, which would also include monitoring people’s behaviour.

    But don’t worry, TSA just spent $165 million on these machines to provide you, the traveler, with the added cost, inconvenience, and potential humiliation just so that you can be provided with the illusion of security.

    Please tell me that I’m not the only one who thinks we need to take a long hard look at air travel security in the country and come up with some real solutions instead of these stupid toys.

  • The Overton Window

    Something not out of the paper today but that’s been on my mind for awhile.  I sometimes feel like I’m nuts; like I’m the only one who’s still clinging to the past with my old fashioned notions of working hard, saving money, living within your means, treating people fairly, not eating with my elbows on the table.  I’m physically very happy engaging in my own little urban renewal on the West Side but somehow my brain is still on the far Northwest Side and it’s still 1985.

    Well it turns out that society (I, you, we) has been manipulated over the years by forces beyond our control.  And for whatever reason I have a personality that I guess is just slow to change.

    The Overton Window is an interesting concept named after a guy you’ve never heard of called Joe Overton.  Perhaps it’s fate I like this because Joe and myself share a few things in common.  We’re both guys who have engineering degrees, went to law school, but really love political science.  Maybe Joe was a genius; maybe I’m just eating fruit from my own tree.

    Anyway, a brief explaination of the concept is this:

    Imagine, if you will, a yardstick standing on end. On either end are the extreme policy actions for any political issue. Between the ends lie all gradations of policy from one extreme to the other. The yardstick represents the full political spectrum for a particular issue. The essence of the Overton window is that only a portion of this policy spectrum is within the realm of the politically possible at any time.

    Let me put it another way: on the spectrum of ideas on any topic there is a range of acceptable ideas and people with thoughts and ideas outside of that range on either end are considered nuts.   Now sometimes the window is moved in a good direction. e.g. racial integration.  And sometimes the window is moved in a bad direction. e.g. prohibition.

    The reason I’m explaining this now is because this is going to be a standing topic.  I will point out examples of where I think politicians and the media are trying to move the Overton window.  And I will need you to tell me if I’m right or if I’m outside of the acceptable range, a/k/a paranoid.

    Maybe you can think of a few examples of your own.