Wednesday, November 14, 2007
News / Clout City Talking points
Posted by Mick Dumke on Wed, Nov 14, 2007 at 1:36 PM
No members of City Council announced Wednesday that this budget and tax plan are the "bravest, kindest, warmest, most wonderful" budget and tax plan they've ever known in their lives.
But one after another justified supporting the city's $5.9 billion 2008 budget--featuring $276 million in new taxes, fees, and fines--by insisting that we simply must "keep Chicago moving forward."
The phrase may sound familiar. Mayor Daley ran for reelection this winter by urging voters to support him and "Keep Chicago Moving Forward."
Then he made the campaign slogan the theme of his budget address in October, arguing that record tax hikes were essential to avoid letting the city stagnate. "We have a choice in this budget," he said. "Do we maintain city services and make the investments needed to keep Chicago moving forward, or do we cut services, make substantial layoffs, and risk falling behind? I believe we have only one choice--we must keep Chicago moving forward."
His argument proved persuasive.
"When you serve as an alderman, you learn something new each day," 30th Ward alderman Ariel Reboyras said Wednesday. "As I drove through my ward these last few weeks and thought about and contemplated my position on this year's budget, my choice became clear: We can either continue to move the city forward as it has been these last 18 years, or we can simply quit."
Frankly, it sounded like the budget backers were given some talking points.
But 40th Ward alderman Patrick O'Connor, the mayor's floor leader, said that no one had been handed a sample speech or explanation cheat sheet, though it was clear some of the aldermen could have used the help. "I really don't tell people, 'This is how you sell this,'" he said. "I just try to get people in on a vote. And quite honestly, 'moving forward' is a platitude. 'Moving forward' doesn't tell you what you're doing--you could be moving forward in the wrong direction. The mayor coined that phrase and other people borrowed it."
Daley spokesman Lance Lewis said the mayor's office didn't issue any talking points either. "We don't do stuff like that," he said. "Believe it or not, the aldermen are independent. And I don't know if we would even trust them to read the talking points right anyway."
He was joking about that last part.
Comments (30)
Showing 1-30 of 30
The coward hypocrites that voted for the extra money for their offices and menu money, yet voted against the tax increase will feel the mayor's wrath in 2011 when they come, hat in hand either seeking his support for their re-election (Vi Daley) or to appoint a replacement of their choosing (Bernie Stone). Brookins and Allen can forget support in the primary. The Mayor should take away the committee chairmanships of Suarez, Bankds, Allen, Laurino, Levar, Schulter and Stone and give them to the courageous folks who had the guts to do the weightlifting on the budget. And the union folks will be happy to know that we got Dowell, Thompson and Cochran to flip onto the reservation. Union money well spent/wasted. Anyway, the voters will forget by 2011, but the Mayor will not. The budget passed and with it, another year of salary, earned pension credits and living the good life. Life is beautiful, NEXT !
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Maybe Kate allows the orion comments to remain because nobody, and I mean NOBODY, ever takes his ramblings seriously. In fact, orion has become THE resident clown-commenter, bar none. On the occasions, few and far between, when a comment appears that makes any sense at all, we can all be certain that orion didn't post it, regardless of the post having the name of orion on it. For those fans of intrigue, I pose the question: Could orion actually be Kate, not so well disguised? It's possible.....
The 2008 Budget is hard to understand by design. So as to make it easy for the Mayors people to swing votes from Ike Carothers,Jorge Cardenas,and Tom Tunny . All them do not know how to read or write.
"not know how to read or write" ? When you cannot even spell their names correctly ? GEORGE Cardenas and Thomas TUNNEY.
I BET YOU CAN SPELL HUBERMAN,AND HALL ALSO.IF THE BUDGET IS SO HARD HOW CAN A SEMI-RETARD LIKE DALEY GO THROUGH IT.TO ALL THE HACKS THAT ARE BASKING IN THE SUN,PLEASE REMEMBER ALL GOOD THINGS EVENTUALLY COME TO AN END.
Little boy Daley walked out of the CTA meeting yesterday when he did not get his way. He laughs in the face of total crisis because he knows Chicago voters are the best suckers in th world. He's the pied piper of Chicago, and it took all the suckers too long to figure out they've been duped. Higher taxes, collapsing CTA, collapsing city, full of rats (both above and underground), full of human like pigs who feed on the suckers. Maybe there won't be any changes, maybe voters will continue to vote him in and beat themselves silly with his halfwitted mentality.
Presumably the mode of transport used to keep "Chicago Moving Forward" won't be the CTA... Did richie bring up the "we gotta have libraries for the kids" comment yesterday?
Who cares what he said ? The budget passed, the paychecks and contracts will keep flowing, the pension will get fatter and..... LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, next !
"...40th Ward alderman Patrick O'Connor, the mayor's floor leader, said .... 'Moving forward' doesn't tell you what you're doing--you could be moving forward in the wrong direction. The mayor coined that phrase ...." A classic Freudian slip? A rare moment of frank honesty? A breach of mayoral propaganda security? An admission of co-conspiratorial guilt? A subtle attempt at appearing to be honest? An even subtler attempt to distance himself from the many bold-faced liars? A guilty conscience forcing a tiny bit of truth to leak out of his lips? A slick bit of reverse psychology? All of the above? Interesting. Beeeeery interesting.
"Daley spokesman Lance Lewis said the mayor's office didn't issue any talking points either. 'We don't do stuff like that,' he said. 'Believe it or not, the aldermen are independent. And I don't know if we would even trust them to read the talking points right anyway.' He was joking about that last part." Hmmmmm. Another case of 'loose lips, sink ships', perhaps? Although, this time, from the lips of mayoral spokesman Lance Lewis. The plot thickens. "Believe it or not, the aldermen are independent." Ja, de aldermen are independent, as in, independent of the interests and wellbeing of their constituents. "And I don't know if we would even trust them to read the talking points right anyway." Vell, vhy not? De mayor trusts the aldermen to approve of his budget and tax increases, vhy vouldn't he trust dem to remember a bery few lies, I mean vurds, to speak to the public? "He (Lance Lewis) was joking about that last part." Vas Heeeeee? Nobody is laughing.
How could you brag about your massive pay working for Chicago. People are losing their homes. People a suffering, living on food stamps, bouncing checks at the local jewel. People are driving old crap cars to support Daley. People are working the street corners to support Daley and his taxes. People are pulling the hair out of their head to make ends meet. Orion is a big weenie.
Bow down to me, because I am King!! I hope Georgie cars me, while Tommy tunes me!
Cure for City Council Idiocy: Abolish the city council. Have citizen interests represented by Deputy Mayors who have the collective authority to challenge and if necessary override the mayor TERM LIMITS-TWO TERM MAX AND YOU'RE OUT-APPLICABLE TO ALL FORMS OF STATE COUNTY FEDERAL MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
"The Mayor should take away the committee chairmanships ... " The aldermen are responsible for their committee chirs.
Wonderful Brilliant idea. Let's get rid of the LEGISLATIVE BRANCH of our city government and turn it over COMPLETELY to Dictator Daley. While we're at it, let's get rid of our city court system, fire all the judges and replace them with the mayor's hand-picked Hearing Officers, so we can really experience being TOTALLY under the thumb of Dictator Daley. Yep, that's the ticket. Abolish every last vestige of Democracy, pattern our city government after, say, the governments of China, the former USSR, the Taliban, Pakistan, Pol Pot's Cambodia, hell, let's have a Hitler-type Germany, 'cause Adolf ran a tight ship, let's abandon Democracy entirely, since Democracy hasn't seemed to work for us, here in the City That Works and the County of Crooks..... Cure For Citizen Idiocy, (according to TheAttitude): BEND OVER and TAKE IT UP THE ASS LIKE A MAN Real Cure for City Council Idiocy: HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
City Council Budget Debate Top Verbal Gaffe Award Jorge Cardenas (12th) "The question we have today, for all of us, is where is our compass? What do we want to go? Do we stand still or do we move forward? Will we turn back the PROSPERITY over the last decade and a half our neighborhoods have seen and are experiencing OR do we bury our head in th sand and ignore the obvious. These are the tough decisions we gotta make." It's a tough one for George. He may want to stick his head in the sand.
Hugh: In theory, aldermen organize themselves with respect to the committee assignments. In reality: Please, Mr. Mayor, let me be your rubber stamp March 26th - 1:51 p.m. If there was any hope that changes in the City Council would led to more independence, it was squelched by a series of comments offered by alderman Carrie Austin of the 34th Ward. In an interview with Sun-Times City Hall reporter Fran Spielman, Austin made no secret of her desire to replace former alderman William Beavers (Seventh Ward) as the head of the council's budget committee, a position her late husband, former alderman Lemuel Austin, also held. Among her credentials Austin, the new head of the council's black caucus, cited her "longevity and loyalty to this administration." Trouble is, the City Council's supposed to be the check that balances the mayor. If Austin had any backbone she'd be lining up the aldermanic votes she needs to be budget chair with or without Daley's blessing. And then she'd use her chairmanship powers to act as fiscal watchdog on how the city spends billions of property tax dollars. In reality, of course, chairing the budget committee is a plum position not because of its fiscal oversight but because of the jobs the chair gets to fill in exchange for staying blindly loyal to Daley. Come to think of it, we don't even need the budget committee, considering there's already a finance committee chaired by another mayoral loyalist, alderman Edward Burke (14th). If you recall, the budget committee emerged out of Council Wars, as former Reader staff writer Gary Rivlin explains in Fire on the Prairie, his book about Mayor Harold Washington. In 1986 black aldermen wanted Burke removed from the chair of finance because, as alderman Dorothy Tillman put it, "Why show a racist like Burke an ounce of sympathy or respect?" But 48th Ward alderman Marion Volini countered by insisting that Burke keep his chairmanship on the grounds that in her lakefront community he "is seen as the only thing between Washington, tax increases, and widespread cronyism." So now we have two rubber-stamp committees looking the other way while Daley does what he wants. And of course lakefront voters--out of apathy, idiocy, and all-around cluelessness--rewarded Daley with more than 70 percent of the vote in February's municipal election, even as the CTA collapses. I guess Volini had it wrong: lakefront voters really don't care about tax hikes and cronyism (PDF)--not to mention essential city services--so long as it's Daley and not Washington who's mayor.
An interesting phenomenon, as of late, has been occurring on the board, to wit, the seeming emergence of an 'Orion' with a split personality. We've all gotten accustomed to seeing the 'Orion' we know, the one whose posts are reliably full of shit, so, this recent appearance of an 'Orion' whose comments actually contain some semblance of intelligence and rationality, is a bit puzzling, to say the least. The first thought on this that comes to mind is, of course, there are two completely different individuals posting under the nom de plum of 'Orion'. (Actually there have been three, if one counts the poster who humorously mocks the poster who maliciously mocks all those critical of Dictator Daley) The evidence of there being two completely different individuals posting as 'Orion' is, quite naturally, to be found within the content of the comments themselves. Malicious-Mocker Orion's comments are easily recognized and need not be reviewed as to their nature and content. Reasonable-Orion's comments bear no resemblance, whatsoever, to Malicious-Mocker Orion's, thus leading one to conclude that these are two separate individuals. Furthermore, Reasonable-Orion seems to have an understanding of the true purposes and intended functions of governments, which Malicious-Mocker Orion sorely lacks. An authentic case of dual-personalities, or two completely different individuals? You be the judge.
I BELIEVE THE GOING RATE, ACCORDING TO LUCY VAN PELT, IS 5 CENTS FOR YOUR MATCHBOOK COVER UNIVERSITY PSYCHOANALYSIS. TELL ME WHO TO MAKE THE CHECK PAYABLE TO.
There will be no charge to you, buddy, as you are certifiably a charity case. You may, if you wish, donate that nickel to your favorite charity, (yourself), though, since you'll be receiving what you're giving, you might want to pay yourself more than the going rate. We're still awaiting the answer to the question posed: "An authentic case of dual-personalities, or two completely different individuals?"
Lets see, you think that I am looney, but you still engage in protracted conversations with me. What does that make you ?
It would make me your analyst, if I were the person you seek for analysis. Since I am not your analyst, then, it might make me a person seeking truth, even from those whose minds are filled with lies, such as yourself. I don't think you are "looney", just a common, dishonest thief, with a taste for pretending to be what you could be, but are not. Is being what you are truly worth the material gains you have received? I so, then you've sold yourself cheaply.
I have many personalities, which makes me more efficient to Daley! LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, next !
The jokes on the people in the 3rd ward who thought they were getting an independant alderman. The ward is being run from the 5th floor. The new alderman Pat Dowell voted YEA to every single thing the mayor asked. We thought she would be more progressive like Preckwinkle. The mayor needed a alley and now he has her. Talk about waste. The 1.9 million Park on 47th and King Drive that has been PAID for is now going to be dug up so Pat Dowell's white developers can get a piece of it. They didn't like Tillman's 70/30 plan or the Blues District that was to include majority African American workers and culture...Well to my neighbors, You Order It, You Eat It...I am hoping that St. Rep Ken Dunkin win committeman a then got after her for the alderman seat...He has my vote...
"Believe it or not, the aldermen are independent." Nope. Don't believe it. "And I don't know if we would even trust them to read the talking points right anyway." Yep. Like Mayor Mumbles?
Corrupt Patrick O'Conner is onner in the business of making his wife Barbara O'Conner rich through real estate deals. Do you think Barbara O'Conner is the largest producing realtor because of her charm and beauty? HARDLY!
"But 40th Ward alderman Patrick O'Connor, the mayor's floor leader, said that no one had been handed a sample speech or explanation cheat sheet, though it was clear some of the aldermen could have used the help. "I really don't tell people, 'This is how you sell this,'" he said." I BEG TO DIFFER. HE TELLS EVERY DEVELOPER HOW TO SELL HOMES... through his wife Barbara O'Conner.
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