Politics
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Media, Politics, News Bites Alinsky and Terkel, talking
Posted by Michael Miner on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Alinsky was a community organizer born and raised in Chicago who worked closely with friends in high places in the Catholic Church. On what was probably his last visit to Chicago before he died in 1972, Alinsky appeared at the First Unitarian Church of Chicago, spoke sympathetically of the middle class and dismissively of demonstrators, and said the only way to change the system is from within it. He also spoke about demonizing the opposition. An organizer can't afford to grant that the enemy is 45 percent good and 55 percent bad, he said, because "people won't put themselves on the line for 10 percent."
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The Reefer, Politics Memo to Mayor Rahm: You won!
Posted by Ben Joravsky on Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 4:26 PM
I won't reveal his/her name 'cause if I do, Mayor Emanuel will have a fit and send him/her a dead fish for even talking to me.
I'm not sure what the mayor has against me. It couldn't have been anything I wrote—or over the fact that I went to Evanston while he went to New Trier. Those old high school rivalries last forever!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Mudville, Media, Politics This is halftime!
Posted by Sam Worley on Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 1:14 PM
- Esparta Palma
Monday, February 6, 2012
Media, Politics, News Bites, News Hail, Hail, to Michigan!
Posted by Michael Miner on Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 8:57 AM
“I’m coming home. I just want to feel the love.”
“They haven’t had much to love in Michigan for a long time,” said the TVA.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Politics, News The end of segregation?
Posted by Steve Bogira on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 9:48 AM
These rosy revelations stem from a new study, brightly titled "The End of the Segregated Century," funded by the conservative Manhattan Institute. Many of the conclusions reporters have drawn from the study are exaggerated, and some are simply wrong.
Bedbugs Week, Politics Bedbugs and the Chicago Public Schools
Posted by Ben Joravsky on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 8:00 AM
I was up in Michigan. Which meant I stayed in a hotel. Which meant that before I could even put my suitcase on the bed, my wife had to check the bed for bedbugs.
Thus, we have a perfect tie-in for bedbugs week at the Reader!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Politics, Clout City, News Chicago Tourism: Second to None
Posted by Deanna Isaacs on Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 2:59 PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today that the city's tourism functions handled by the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, will be shifted to the private, nonprofit (but mostly tax-funded) Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, beginning immediately, with the change complete by this summer. CCTB president Don Welsh will head the combined group, which has a goal of raising the number of Chicago visitors by 25 percent (to 50 million annually). But don't hold your breath: the target date for reaching that goal is 2020.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The Reefer, Politics Tweeting Chicago City Hall
Posted by Ben Joravsky on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 5:42 PM
Alderman Rick Munoz wants to keep the city from blocking Twitter during the upcoming G-8 and NATO summits.
Apparently, you can shut down the whole tweeting thing "simply by turning off the power to the cell phone towers," Munoz told the Sun-Times.
Politics, News The mayor pitches a shutout
Posted by Steve Bogira on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 5:02 PM
What should we make of this? Not much. Murder rates rise and fall, and criminologists have tried forever to figure out what causes the changes, with minimal success. Moreover, when it comes to crime trends, a year shows very little, a month almost nothing.
Which is why a crime-fighting boast by the mayor earlier this month was ludicrous.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Media, Politics, News Bites Alinsky and Gingrich—separated at mirth? Alinsky's son speaks
Posted by Michael Miner on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 9:07 AM
Just about everybody who knows anything about Alinsky has weighed in on Gingrich's zany offensive, often with a guess-it-takes-one-to-know-one air of amused irony. For instance, here's how the Tribune's Eric Zorn began his remarks: "I suspect Saul Alinsky would nod with grudging admiration at the way GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich repeatedly injects his name into speeches and interviews."
And here's Philip Klein in the conservative Washington Examiner:
