The Blog

Well put.

Damn, Zach, you beat me to it!!!

Ben, what did I tell you about getting off message ? Stick to TIFs and leave the analysis to us.

make it stop ben, please make it stop!

The only real reformer is not Commissioner Quigley (the Hansen/Vrdolyak protege)although Quigley may not wear a gold 29 pinky ring but Commissioner Frank Avila of the MWRD. State Rep John Fritchey (understanding his family lineage via marriage) is also very indpendent) Commissioner Quigley endorsed Todd Stroger in 2006 when he could be beat for jobs for his family and staff (called nepotism and patronage) Commissioner Quigley ran against Helen Schiller in the 46th ward for alderman with the help of the 19th ward as a puppet and shill for Daley (when Helen was still independent) The Merlo-Hansen RDO was not a reform breeding ground but rather one of patronage and nepotism which Quigley practices to this day.

And Barack is bringing Chicago corruption, highest sales taxes and the rest of its antics to the national level

You forgot to mention our pummel happy police department, total lack of affordable housing, and lousy winters!

For some reason they just scraped and repaved only 1 lane of Jackson Blvd downtown-in like 24 hours. I asked the cop if that was so O could have a bump-free ride in. He said 'yep'. On my corner a 6 foot section of corner curb has been "unfixed" for months.....

"47th November 21st - 10:58 p.m. You forgot to mention our pummel happy police department, total lack of affordable housing, and lousy winters!" If this were true, you'd have had to type your post with the eraser end of a pencil duct taped to your forehead. As for affordable housing, first, learn to do something of use to an employer, second, get a fucking job, and third, pay your own way, for the first time in your life. And concerning the wonderful variety of our winter time outdoor environmental conditions, they clear the streets of riff raff, vermin and other assorted pests, whether of the four legged or two legged persuasion. Now stop spanking your monkey and get to sleep. It's way past your bedtime, junior.

Must be written by a bitch-assed, pummel happy cop that would cry like a pussy if he didn't have a badge and gun, like most cops.

Washington, DC - President-Elect Obama and Congress are considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition. "Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said President-Elect Obama in a news conference at his Chicago transition headquarters. "We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing." In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 87 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U.S. employer of Persons of Inability. At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons of Inability (81%). Private-sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against the Inept include Fannie Mae (76%), Freddie Mac (75%), the automotive industry (71%), and the airline industry (62%). President-Elect Obama pointed to his own hometown of Chicago as "showing the way by having achieved an Olympic level of success in employing Persons of Inability", stating that "fully two-thirds of all workers for the municipal government of Chicago are Persons of Inability and, I am proud to say, the Office of the President of the Cook County Board has achieved the amazing record of being 100% staffed by a Person of Inability." Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million "middle man" positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance. Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given so as to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability into middle-management positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires. "There is no reason why every company in America cannot achieve the standards of Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers," President-Elect Obama said. Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, 'Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?' "As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them," said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, due to her inability to remember "rightey tightey, lefty loosey". "This new law should be real good for people like me," Gertz added. With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Said Senator Dick Durban (D-IL): "As a Senator with no abilities, I believe the same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so."

If Chicago sucks so much, why do you live there? You don't have to -- you can actually live anywhere in the entire country, maybe even outside of the country if you try hard enough. This post is full of the kind of defeatist, everything-sucks attitude -- oddly often paired paradoxically with a defensive inferiority complex -- that has plagued Chicago for years. There's also much working backwards, the favorite rhetorical technique of everyone who's already made up their mind about something and now is forced to prove that something incontrovertibly true is actually false. Case in point: The NYT says it's great that Chicago has a grand new landmark skyscraper in Trump Tower, but actually it's terrible because the building is a financial mess! What? Please tell me how that affects the lives of real people actually walking around and looking at the building. The building is finished! It's got a hot restaurant and lounge open inside! Who cares who lives there? Pretty architecture is good for its own sake. Are wrecking balls being sent to the site to knock it down? Stop being so contrarian. Start thinking about what you say first.

There's a place with buildings with no inhabitants. It's the fabulous city of Pyongyang. Heard of it?

The Al Jolson-Percy (1971 film)scumbums like Frank Coconutty, Tony "I'm A Sore Fucking Loser" Prickraca, His meth-stoned offspring Marko, Pat'e "It'll Bring The (N-Word) In" Philip, John "Hunters Nightclub" Geils, Peter "Fairy Dust" Roskam & Live in East St.Louis with them.......

I'm sorry Ben, I think I misread that. Did you say even old Donald was having trouble peddling the nuts? I'm no fan. Just hope they hold firm in Scotland, where he was trying to build a Golf course on a rare nature area used by migratory birds. Feels like whomever should lose the complex before Chicago looks just like what people leave New York to get away from.