Technology can't improve a stupid idea

Mayor says CTA 'super station' plan lacks punch of technology -- chicagotribune.com

Block 37 has been from the start a couple of decades ago one of the most ill-conceived urban renewal projects in this city's history. It's the only major undeveloped Loop block because the government decided it could do better than the private developers that have developed the other downtown sites.

The worst part of Block 37 was the idea of running "express" trains from a superstation in the basement to O'Hare Airport, on a CTA that clearly couldn't handle anything but local trains. Daley apparently thinks that it still can be done, even though the answer is obvious: Run express trains on existing Metra or other rail rights-of-way from existing downtown terminals.

Such trains could run to O'Hare much faster and at a fraction of the capital costs. Daley would never go along with it because it has to be "his" express trains, running on "his" decrepit CTA system, provided by "his" contractors and manned by "his" workers. And to hell with what makes sense for the metropolitan community.

And so it goes for America's most stubborn and short-sighted mayor.

Should you be able to impeach someone just because he is a blockhead?

By Dennis Byrne
Chicago Daily Observer

You should if he’s Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

And surprisingly, under the Illinois Constitution, you can.

Unlike the U.S. Constitution, which requires “high crimes and misdemeanors” as justification for impeachment and removal from office, the state Constitution is purposely vague on the subject. So being the blockhead he is, the General Assembly can grant his most cherished desire: to become a permanent resident of Ravenswood who never, ever needs to go to Springfield again.

To that I’d say hurrah and alleluia. And three cheers for the Democratic staff, which works under the direction of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, for getting the ball rolling for laying out one of the best indictments I’ve seen yet for kicking In-Rod-We-Trust out of office.

Read more at the Chicago Daily Observer

They must have been taking smartin' pills

The national media (at least the New York Post) are finally catching on:

OBAMA'S 'MOB-TIE' $IDEKICK - New York Post

Read "Caution: Offense Ahead" in the box to the right...

Then check out this article in the New York Times:

American Exception - Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech - Series - NYTimes.com

In memory of Gilda Radner

McCain's citizenship called into question

"Candidate may not qualify as 'natural born'"

NBC (who else?) reports that the liberal blog world is abuzz with speculation that McCain might not meet the constitutional requirement that only a "natural born" citizen can be president. If he was born in a hospital with with anesthetics, how can he be considered "natural born?" He should drop out of the election now, and save everyone the trouble of fighting over it.

What's that? "Natural born" means that he has to have born a U.S. citizen?

Never mind.

One down, one to go.

Obama's VP search leader quits

And Jim Johnson should, considering the background, as described by the Washington Post: He received more than $2 million in home loans that might have been below average market rates from the troubled Countrywide Financial, a partner of Fannie Mae and a leading purveyor of the kind of subprime mortgages that spawned a national housing crisis. For Obama-type agents-of-change, Johnson is exactly the kind of character they are supposed to despise.

But then there's a second member of the committee, Eric Holder, a Justice Department official involved in the disgraceful and yet-to-be-justified pardons and commutations granted by Bill Clinton on his way of the White House. Two of those pardoned were hippie-era radicals Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, persons that Obama had tried to distance himself from. If Obama didn't know that Holder spelled trouble, then Obama don't know nothing.

Already, Republicans criticism of Obama's "judgment" has become a campaign cliche, but the more that Obama reveals about himself and his friends, the more we have to wonder whether the change agent is a complete dolt.

The hunt is on for something else to rip up in Grant Park

No surprise here; the Chicago City Council today approved a new home for the Children's Museum in Grant Park.

Now that we've got it straight that Grant Park can be torn up on the whim of Mayor Richard M. Daley, as if it were another Meigs Field, maybe we should look around Grant Park for what's next to go. You've got all that empty space in the south end of the park, by Buckingham Fountain and the rose gardens that's just going to waste when it could be home to a horse farm and polo fields for Cindy Prizker's pals.

Or replace the puzzling Magdalena Abakanowicz's permanent statuary park, Agora, and its 106 9-foot-tall, headless cast-iron figures. Named for the marketplaces often used for political and public assembly in ancient Greece, its symbolism is no longer necessary. We don't need no more symbols in praise of of public discourse.

Energy Watchdog Sees Demand for Crude Slowing - WSJ.com

Energy Watchdog Sees Demand for Crude Slowing - WSJ.com: "The lower demand outlook is beginning to jibe with anecdotal evidence in key consuming nations. In the U.S., Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles in March compared with a year earlier -- the sharpest monthly drop since the government began collecting such data in 1942 and the first contraction in that month since the 1979 Iranian revolution."

I bring you this good news (it reduces demand for gasoline, exerting down pressure on prices, and reduces gases blamed for causing global warming) because NBC's news anchor Brian Williams failed to mention it in tonight's newscast. But he did mention another part of the report--that spare OPEC pumping capacity is now lower than it has been since late 2006, which can lead to higher prices.

Here's yet another example of how the astonishingly biased Williams reports the bad news, but not the good, especially if it casts a shadow over the Bush administration.

One more thing:

Williams and NBC, reporting directly from Afghanistan, did a piece on how, since the defeat of the Taliban, girls now are allowed to go to school. No mention, of course, by Williams that it was the lying and hated George W. Bush made all that possible.

An item from the sound-the-alarm-department

This New York Times article frets that this will be an average harvest, which in the face of the global food shortage (a recent addition to the sound-the-alarm-department) will spell catastrophe. The story is illustrated with a picture that shows a sparse Indiana cornfield, with corn that is now supposed to be "knee high."

Bunk.

Anyone from the Midwest knows that it's supposed to be "knee high by the Fourth of July." But, what the heck, why let that stand in the way of a good alarm.

The Food Chain - Worries Mount as Farmers Push for Big Harvest - Series - NYTimes.com

Do you think this news will reach the Democrats?

Home Gauge Climbs Amid Bargains
By Jeff Bater
The Wall Street Journal
June 9, 2008 10:13 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A forecasting gauge of home sales climbed to its highest level in six months during April, given a lift by bargain hunters.

The National Association of Realtors' index for pending sales of previously owned homes rose 6.3% to 88.2 from March, the industry group said Monday.

Private analysts projected pending sales would be unchanged during April. The rate was the highest since 89.8 last October.

Illinois politics in D.C.

By Dennis Byrne
Chicago Tribune

More than his racist minister chums, his starkly liberal voting record, his pandering to the get-out-of-Iraq-right-now zealots, what really bothers me about Barack Obama is his association with politics as practiced in Chicago and Illinois.

This is not a crime, of course, but the fact that he is someone who got his start and was propelled to stardom after an internship in the incubator of perhaps the nation's most corrupt state gives me, at least, pause. It seems that everywhere you turn here, especially if it is toward the federal courthouse, some politician or political insider is being found guilty of some or another form of corruption. Antoin "Tony" Rezko's conviction last week, the George Ryan conviction last year, the federal indictments that make references to questionable conduct by alphabetized state officials, the reported investigation that is dogging Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the conviction of a City of Chicago patronage boss and others on the periphery of Mayor Richard M. Daley's inner circle . . .

Well, need I go on? That Obama can brush against the climate of corruption enveloping Chicago and Illinois like heat and humidity saturate rain forests and come out unblemished is remarkable indeed. It's possible; Chicago and Illinois have generated a number of clean and honest politicians. Like a pearl found amid the swine, perhaps Obama can be counted among them.

But if Obama's affiliations with the likes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., Rev. Michael Pfleger and ex-revolutionary Bill Ayers are legitimate issues, so is his political apprenticeship in the bowels of a political process that has sent governors, aldermen and countless other public officials to the pen. Has Obama picked up any bad habits by hanging around with these gents? Is he susceptible to the pressures that the "guys back home" will undoubtedly bring? The conventional wisdom among the Chicago punditry is that Chicago and Illinois pols are smacking their lips at the thought of installing an associate in the Executive Mansion.

I think that the conventional wisdom is right.And we're not just talking about Democrats. Many state and local Republicans are as pregnant with the audacity of swag as Democrats. My guess is that Illinois GOP big shots and moneybags will sit on their hands in the presidential election, to show how accommodating they are, so that they won't be forgotten when the food line opens.

So, will Obama successfully insulate himself from the influence peddlers, political insiders and maneuvers that have cemented our reputation? The Rezko case is troubling. As Obama was declaring himself the Democratic presidential nominee last week, a Chicago jury was declaring Rezko guilty of corruption, demonstrating the Fates' ironic sense of humor. Rezko and Obama knew each other as far back as 1990, when Rezko offered the young Harvard law student a job, which Obama declined. And Rezko was among Obama's early contributors in his first run for the state legislature. More campaigns and more contributions flowed in from Rezko, including a $10,000 donation that Obama later had to give to charity because it was allegedly tainted by kickbacks.

Just about every president has had questionable characters in or about his administration, such as Jimmy Carter's Bert Lance and Dwight Eisenhower's Sherman Adams. If similar characters slip through the back door into the Obama White House, please let them be from some other state.

Illinois' fake budget

By Dennis Byrne
Chicago Daily Observer

Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the Budget—Sec. 2(a), Illinois Constitution

The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.--Sec. 2(b) Illinois Constitution

Considering the constitution’s unequivocal command that the expenses can’t outstrip revenues, it’s hard to give any credibility to the Legislature’s assertion that it can go home after passing a budget that is, oh, just a couple of billions short of being balanced.

Yet, incredibly, that’s the claim being made by the Democrats....

Read more in the Chicago Daily Observer

The scariest part is the Trinity congregation

By Dennis Byrne
Chicago Daily Observer

Barack Obama’s pastor buddies don’t frighten me as much as his church-going brethren.

You have to expect that the bizarre likes of Michael Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright would ooze to the surface in any number of organizations or institutions—right or left, Republican or Democratic. But the multitude gathered in what is supposed to be a temple of God, cheering on the racist slobbering of the two “reverends’” is scary.

Cheering is too mild a word. Look at the video of Pfleger’s rant against Hilary Clinton; notice the guys in the background. They’re on their feet, clapping, laughing and cheering. One is nearly doubled over in laughter. Broader shots of the crowds show that while some people are sitting quietly—in disapproval, I hope—there also was widespread affirmation of both Pfleger’s and Wright’s “sermons.”

They were eating it up.

Read more in the Chicago Daily Observer

The UN is failing Myanmar

By Dennis Byrne
Chicago Tribune

As the clock ticks, uncounted Myanmar survivors of Cyclone Nargis are dying of starvation or disease while the world stands by, its helping hands supposedly tied by the country's Stone Age tyrants.

A month ago, the cyclone killed 78,000, left 56,000 missing and another 2.5 million facing hunger, homelessness and disease, and it will only get worse because the rulers of this impoverished nation have been systematically barring foreign aid workers and supplies. Some guess that the number of dead could double while help is stalled at the borders, but who really knows how many are imperiled by the hidden and grotesque eradication under way there? Yet, the world stands idly by.

This is, if anything ever was, a job for the United Nations. And what is the UN doing to move perhaps the only government in modern times to ban massive aid being offered by the international community? Talking. Conducting diplomacy. Seeking permission. Consultation. Exchanging views. The kind of blah-blahing that Barack Obama says will be the touchstone of his Democratic administration if he becomes president.

Here's a measure of the UN's futility: While hundreds of thousands are suffering and dying, a UN agency is asking permission to import six emergency vehicles. Six. The response as of this writing, from Hakan Tongul, a UN deputy director of some sort: "We haven't heard anything from the [Myanmar] government."

Sure, the UN is trying to do much more. It reports that about 160 aid flights—some 10 to 15 daily—have arrived. Last week's headlines said: "Myanmar approves all pending visas for UN aid workers." OK, that sounds like the devastated country soon will be crawling with hundreds, even thousands, of competent, compassionate and fully equipped aid workers. Well, no. Actually, it's more like 45—the number of pending visas. And there's more good news: Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders and the UN Children's Fund have sent in more than 14 aid workers. Wow.

I dare say that Rotary International and its ShelterBox program may have accomplished more on its own. ShelterBoxes are staged, ready-to-deploy containers that provide a tent, stove, water-purification kit, blankets, tools and other necessities that enable families to survive for six months. Rotary said it had landed more than 1,000 containers in Myanmar, but many more are needed.

Still, in the face of the piddling amount of aid that the Myanmar government is allowing in, these heartless tyrants incredibly insist that the "Myanmar people are self-reliant and can stand on their own without foreign assistance." The government would have the international community believe that the relief phase of the disaster has ended and the economic recovery phase has begun.

The UN apparently accepts such nonsense at face value. John Holmes, UN undersecretary general for this and that, told the media after a visit to Myanmar that no cyclone-caused diseases have been reported. Yeah, sure—this after international aid agencies were unanimous in their warnings that disease and infections from the stacks of unburied bodies and widespread malnutrition were now the most serious problems.

Nor will it get any better. The cyclone devastated the fertile Irrawaddy River delta region, the country's rice basket. Farmers are missing the rice-planting season.

The UN says Myanmar has expressed "great sensitivity" about allowing in outside aid, especially from western nations, and most especially from the American relief vessels, waiting patiently just over the horizon. The UN, as always, is sensitive about everyone's "great sensitivity," so it does little more than dither. Clearly, dealing with the Myanmar bullies requires aggressive policies.

The UN was created for such circumstances, and it is failing its charter miserably. Does the UN even dare think about violating Myanmar's sovereignty by barging in uninvited? Does it have the moral and political mettle to gather a coalition of willing nations to save the lives of hundreds of thousands? Or will the UN continue its high regard for brutish sensitivities while tens of thousands are without food, water, shelter or even the means to bury its dead, and while, incredibly, the government reportedly is forcing survivors to return "home" when there is no home to return to? While the Myanmar government attempts to shoot down rescue helicopters, would the rest of the world idly stand by? It would.

Wanted: Fiscally responsible politicians

By Dennis Byrne
Chicago Tribune

State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) suggests that a massive, costly, long-awaited and controversial statewide public-works program won't be considered by the legislature until after the fall elections.

The idea that politicians can't settle difficult issues before an election has become so widely accepted that it hardly raises an eyebrow anymore. That's the way it is, we're told. But is that the way it should be?

Think about what this practice says: Elected officials are too frightened of voters to do the right thing. They hope that putting a couple of years between what they do and the next election will help voters forget. Beyond what should be an embarrassing display of cowardice, it also reveals a low regard for public opinion and a lack of faith in the democratic process.

What Illinois legislators are putting off is a huge—maybe $35 billion huge—proposal to fix the state's decaying highways, mass transit and other public assets. Hardly anyone argues whether the fix is needed—witness the pathetic CTA—but no one can seem to agree on how to pay for it. Some suggest the state should sell or rent out some assets, such as the state lottery, but no one wants to say that taxes should be raised.

What voters lose is the opportunity to rapidly respond to the politicians' decisions. Voters have to wait two to four years for their chance to punish or reward. If anything, it should be just the opposite. Actions involving revenues, expenses and the budget should only be allowed, say, three months prior to the next general election. If politicians don't pass a balanced budget by those elections, government should shut down and not reopen until the newly elected politicians enter office and pass a balanced budget.

Draconian and pie in the sky? Yes. But how bad is that compared with Illinois' current state of collapse? As it now stands, lawmakers are stumbling around trying to pass an annual budget by the end of this week. Unfortunately, their failure to do so won't bring on a government shutdown; the only consequence is that a budget passed after month's end would require a supermajority, giving Republicans a stronger voice in the process.

One might think that's a good thing, to rein in the Democrats' propensity for big-money programs. But it's not necessarily so; Republicans have displayed fiscal irresponsibility by proposing an Illinois gas-tax holiday, which could put a $200 million hole in the budget, according to some estimates. A gas-tax holiday is a giveaway, pure and simple, one that doesn't do anything to solve the problem of high fuel costs.

But since Illinois Republicans no longer know what they stand for, I'm not surprised that they're acting more like Democrats than Democrats.

If Republicans wanted to be Republicans, they should take the advice of Citizens Against Government Waste and the Illinois Policy Institute. They note that the problem with the state budget and its ballooning deficits isn't the lack of revenues, as so many assume. In fact, revenues are the highest ever, but expenditures are growing faster. In their "2008 Illinois Piglet Book," the organizations identified $686 million in waste. Here's some of what lawmakers believe we can't do without: pheasant and fur-bearing animal conservation; a culinary arts center; petroleum marketing; displaced homemakers counseling and training; salmon stamp design; Chinese erhu music; Polish folk dance; polar bear photo essays; grants, contracts and administrative expenses associated with the development of the Illinois grape and wine industry.

Yes, I'm cherry-picking the obvious, but you also can question the big items. There is the $12 billion and ever-increasing money going for education, even though, as the "Piglet" points out, student performance remains flat.

"Piglet" is fat with such examples, and you don't have to hunt hard to find your own. Despite the billions spent by the state to protect children, the Tribune last week described the horrendous case of the severely disabled Jaylen Brown, 13, who died of abuse so horrible that it's hard to imagine. Jaylen was in the care of a mother and two state-provided nurses, all charged with felony neglect.

Is it fair to suggest that one botched case demonstrates a systemic breakdown? Probably not. But you sure can add Jaylen to the list of people who weren't served by the state's bloated budget.

Dan Seals' campaign ploy offering cheap gas snarls traffic

Up in the North Shore's 10th congressional district, Democrat candidate Dan Seals was surprised that his offer of $1.89-a-gallon gas tied up traffic in Lincolnshire for a mile and a half. Only about 50 motorists got to the pump, and the rest sat fruitlessly in line, idling away gasoline and polluting the air. Not exactly the "greenest" political stunt, but it sure shows voters what kind of mind they'd be dealing with if he replaced incumbent Republican Mark Kirk.

Oh, yes, while his campaign workers were handing out bumper stickers to waiting motorists, Seals told a reporter, "We're not asking people to vote for me." A good reason not to.

Newsweek as a mouthpiece for Obama

Even for the usually biased Newsweek, its May 19 cover story ("Sit Back, Relax, Get Reday to Rumble") was an extraordinary paean to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Essentially, it suggested that any criticism that John McCain leveled at Obama's position would be construed as a personal attack. To its credit, Newsweek has published on its web site the response of the McCain campaign. It's worth a read.

Exploring the nature of Illinois voters

Chumps.

That’s what Illinois voters are. We got a healthy reminder of that today when we were treated to the latest outrage about an old, old story—the sweet deal that some insiders wrangled from state government to build a fancy hotel in Springfield. The deal was that if the hotel didn’t make a profit, the insiders wouldn’t have to pay off a state loan they got to help build the palace.

Read more at the Chicago Daily Observer

GOP wants state gas tax holiday(s)

These are fiscally responsible Republicans? A tax holiday that could cost $200 million when the state deficit is one of the nation's worst? Has the state GOP sunk so low that it has joined the "give-it-all-away" Democrats? Does the state GOP stand for anything at all? No wonder that it is virtually as extinct as the Field Museum's Sue.

Chicago Business News, Analysis & Articles | Ill. House wants gas tax holiday | Crain's

Class warfare bites Democrats in the ass

Gee, what a shame. The political party most responsible for fueling class warfare for the past 50 years is itself now torn by class warfare. Can the Democratic nominating process get any more nasty? The pleas for "ending the divisiveness" have reached near-hysteric proportions by those who can't wait to launch class warfare against John McCain and the Republicans.

Here's one analysis of how silly it has become:

The white vs. off-white election -- -- chicagotribune.com: "West Virginia had too few delegates at stake to matter much. Still, it's been easy to get the feeling that some people, particularly those in the Stuff White People Like demographic, have concluded that the place is so backward it doesn't matter at all.

The problem is, voters like those in West Virginia don't see it that way. They may represent a shrinking demographic, but, as all the campaigns know, there are still enough of them that they can't be ignored. The catch is that in an election in which race plays such a prominent role, the greatest tension may not be between black and white but white and off-white."