Politics
Monday, January 21, 2013
Poverty Politics News Obama speaks up on inequality
Posted by Steve Bogira on 01.21.13 at 06:01 PM
- Win McNamee/Getty Images
- President Obama at the U.S. Capitol before delivering his inaugural address.
Things haven't improved since '65. New and renewed presidents have soared to higher and higher platitudes. In his 2009 inaugural, Barack Obama reminded Americans of their preeminence. "In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given," he said. "It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less."
America "will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories," Obama went on four years ago. "We will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do."
And so on.
He withdrew heavily from the First Bank of Stale Metaphors. Rising tides of prosperity and still waters of peace were followed by gathering clouds and raging storms.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Politics News Mayor Rahm channels his inner Herbert Hoover
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 01.18.13 at 12:38 PM
- Library of Congress
Mayor RahmHerbert Hoover
In the midst of spending his time trying to bring a casino to Chicago, he dashed over to the banks of the Chicago River to attend a ground-breaking ceremony for River Point.
That's the upscale office skyscraper subsidized with $29.5 million of your hard-earned property tax dollars taken from the mayoral slush fund known as TIF.
Or tax increment financing, to be proper about things.
In the TIF program, the city diverts over $200 million a year from the Chicago Public Schools—currently about $1 billion in debt—to fund much-needed economic development and eradicate blight in low-income neighborhoods.
Media Film Politics Can the torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty be defended?
Posted by Michael Miner on 01.18.13 at 10:33 AM
A great movie whose expedient plotting is all on Bigelow. Mark Boal, who wrote the script, was nominated for best original screenplay.
In a statement defending herself and her movie, Bigelow calls herself a "lifelong pacifist" opposed to "inhumane treatment of any kind," and she wonders "if some of the sentiments alternately expressed about the film might be more appropriately directed at those who instituted and ordered these U.S. policies [of torture], as opposed to a motion picture that brings the story to the screen. Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement."
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Arts Visual Art Politics Steve Musgrave's portrait of Obama and friends
Posted by Deanna Isaacs on 01.16.13 at 09:23 AM
- Steve Musgrave
And here is the key to the crowd of friends and influencers behind him:
Monday, January 14, 2013
Politics News The Rolling Stones, the Bulls, and the United Center property tax deal
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 01.14.13 at 06:44 AM
- John J. Kim/Sun-Times Media
- Jerry Reinsdorf
"Great owner," Thibodeau told Joe Cowley of the Sun-Times. "From a leadership standpoint, he sets the tone for our franchise. He’s fair, he’s honest, and you can’t ask for anything more than that."
Well, obviously Coach Thibs is not a Chicago property tax payer. Otherwise, he might have a different view of his employer.
Thanks to a new study written by Sean Dinces, a graduate student at Brown University, and published by the Chicago Teachers Union, we now have a sense of the impact of the property tax break the state gave to Reinsdorf and Rocky Wirtz, owner of the Blackhawks, to operate the United Center.
To put it mildly, it's a nice deal for Reinsdorf and Wirtz and not so nice for ordinary taxpayers.
Here, read the study yourself.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Gross This Will Kill You Moviegoing Film Politics Gangster Squad is the most violent Hollywood movie in . . . two weeks
Posted by J.R. Jones on 01.11.13 at 03:05 PM
Politics News Mayor Rahm's new advisory board: Advise and consent but no dissent
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 01.11.13 at 09:01 AM
- John H. White/Sun-Times
- Why is Rahm smiling? Because his advisory board will do whatever he tells them!
I knew you'd be excited.
It's called the Advisory Members of the Chicago Infrastructure Trust Board of Directors. A name that just rolls off the tongue. Here's the press release.
Their role—as the title suggests—is to advise the members of the Infrastructure Trust, which is itself essentially an advisory board to the City Council.
The Trust's advice to the council—when they get around to giving it—will generally go like this: Do what the mayor says or else!
As if the council needs advice to do that.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Crime Politics News City officials say they're committed to community policing, just not to funding it
Posted by Mick Dumke on 01.10.13 at 01:20 PM
- Brian Jackson/Sun-Times Media
- Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police brass promise they're going to "revitalize" community policing in Chicago—but it's not clear how.
"Some new guys popped up over there and the other guys didn't like it," said H.T., a Vietnam veteran who's lived nearby for 27 years. "There was a shooting over there an hour ago."
Captain Roger Bay knew just what H.T. was talking about. Bay, one of four cops at the meeting, recalled that police cleared out a drug operation on the same corner last spring, arresting the "main characters" and posting 24-hour sentries for several weeks. But now some of the dealers were back on the street, and in the meantime others had tried to move in.
"The guy shot today is not from around there," Bay said.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Politics News Mayor Rahm sabotages Bill Daley's run for governor
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 01.09.13 at 12:50 PM
- Sun-Times Media
- From left: Bill Daley, former Mayor Richard M. Daley, and current Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2005
Daley makes another move toward gov run, the headline reads.
Inside, columnist Michael Sneed's got the inside dope from unnamed inside dopesters about Bill Daley commissioning a poll "to determine his viability in a race for governor of Illinois."
"We're hoping he'll run, but the polls will tell all," Sneed quotes "a top Dem source."
Meanwhile, one paragraph later, Sneed reports that Mayor Rahm, "who is this/close to Bill Daley," recently "called a heavy duty top Dem contributor asking if he'd be willing to contribute to a Daley gubernatorial run.
"The response: Sneed is told the answer was: 'No.'"
Translation: Tired of being a rich banker, Bill Daley wants to run for governor, but Mayor Rahm's doing whatever he can—including leaking poisonous stuff about Daley to gossip columnists—to sabotage that effort. While pretending he's Bill Daley's friend.
Hey, Daleys, I told you not to trust this guy.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Crime Politics News Demand for gun control surges, and so does demand for guns
Posted by Mick Dumke on 01.04.13 at 06:45 AM
- Rich Hein/Sun-Times Media
- Some of the 7,444 illegal guns Chicago police say they recovered last year.
They also highlighted the fact that Illinois is the center of our nation's confusing and contradictory approach to guns.
Consider:
