Casmir Pulaski Day largely ignored
ArchPundit
The shame that a sham holiday meant as a killer amendment to Martin Luther King Jr Day isn’t observed by over 500 School Districts in Illinois.
January 2003
Pyrrhic Victories
So let’s say you think you are being mistreated by the local paper and want to call it to their attention. You are an important person so you call the public editor and then proceed to give him a lecture about that mistreatment. What happens? You win on the merits and get an agreement that you are correct in print….after a column making fun of you.
Congrats Pat Quinn–your reputation just took another hit. The column is quite interesting in its discussion of a small, but possibly growing movement, to return the Illinois Legislature to having multiple reps from one district.
And an important note to state-wide politicians–don’t make fun of small towns. At least don’t tell it to a reporter who is going to write about it. I don’t find Pinckneyville very interesting either, but I’m not asking for their votes. It’s the Pinckneyville Democrat also, not the Bugle. Good going Pat!
Africa and Terrorism
Yesterday, the Tribune editorialized on the need to support human rights and democracy in the fight against terrorism.
One of the most unstable continents for the near future will be Africa. Between AIDs, war, dictators, and poverty, the continent faces a series of challenges that will be extremely difficult to overcome. America must take a role or we will end up fighting Al Qaeda II in a country ravaged by instability. The Trib’s money quote is:
America sends its noblest message to the world when it holds its allies accountable for their human rights records and their commitment to honest government and free enterprise. By tying U.S. support to progress in human rights and economic development, America shows itself to be on the right side of history–the side that tries to find new solutions, not more problems.
One of the most troubling Trent Lott incidents was in ’98 when Clinton announced an African AIDs initiative. Lott claimed that there was no real reason for the initiative except to curry favor with African-American voters. I didn’t hear this and during an lower level class I was asked about it by a student. I did something unusual and told the student she must have misunderstood Lott and explained there are a lot of strategic reasons for our efforts to reduce AIDs in Africa. This was unusual because in class I rarely tell students they are wrong about some current event unless it is clear. I just couldn’t imagine anyone could be so stupid and short-sighted as Lott was being and not be named Jesse Helms (who has come around on the issue a bit).
Anyway, turns out I made my student feel bad. Lott really did say it. Once I realized it I blurted out that it had to be one of the stupidest statements I had ever heard and went on to make the argument that instability of the type AIDs could bring to Africa could well lead to the creation of havens for terrorists as we saw in Somalia. Today, I am even more convinced of this argument. Is the administration?
And another one is being cleared
The Trib covers another inmate who seems to be wrongfully convicted. Taylor’s case was highlighted in the amazing series of reports concerning Cops and Confessions. Taylor was in jail when the murder took place. Despite this evidence he is still in prison, though Dick Devine’s office is looking into the case.
Perhaps Chicago could lower its murder rate if it actually put the people doing the killing in prison and not some schmuck walking down the street.
Does anyone remember one of the last scenes in The Hunt for Red October? Jeffrey Pelt is wrapping up issues with the Russian Ambassador when the ambassador mentions another sub is missing. Pelt replies something like, "Ambassador, you have lost ANOTHER SUBMARINE!" and shakes his head. Pretty much the entire Cook County Attorney’s office has to feel like this every time the Trib calls.
Of course, in DuPage County they just claim they are victims of a press witchhunt.
You Want Gordon Baum, you got Gordom Baum
Well you will whenever the damn RiverFront Times posts the story on-line. There is a brief profile of Baum by Jim Nesbitt. There isn’t much new, but it is a good backgrounder.
For previous CofCC, Baum, Bugel, and Metro South Citizen’s Council see:
Up DATE: The RFT finally has the Baum story posted. Unfortunately the title is more interesting than the content. Mainly rehashed information.
Why isn’t anyone noticing the asbestos story?
I’m beginning to wonder why the asbestos story hasn’t broken to a larger audience. Sherffius sums up the issue quite well. Why is it bad to keep information from the public?
The Betty Files
It seems that the dedicated mother, has been spending some time at the slots.
Who says US Attorneys don’t have a sense of humor:
The extent of her gambling "suggests that Loren-Maltese’s quality time commitment to her daughter has been substantially limited by Loren-Maltese’s quality time commitment to casino gambling," the prosecutors’ filing states.
Give the Trib the Nobel
First, let me say, I love TalkLeft–it is one of the finest blogs on the web and one of the few that I learn something from nearly every day.
I have a problem with George Ryan and I think many opponents of capital punishment have overlooked his sins in making him out to be a folk hero because of the moratorium. I don’t particularly care why Ryan has been serious about death penalty reform, but I give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it is because he sees the horror of a system that doesn’t work.
Working with the kindest assumption above, it makes his behavior all the worse in the license for bribes scandal. The license for bribe scandal has two elements. The primary element is that patronage workers were pressured to kick back to the then Secretary of State’s campaign to be governor. To raise the money workers accepted bribes for licenses from various driving schools and for low numbered Illinois License Plates. Here is a decent summary.
One of the Commercial Driver’s Licenses sold for a bribe went to a truck driver who could speak English about as well as he could drive a truck. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do either. To get a CDL in Illinois one must have at least minimal ability to read and write in English.
While driving through southern Wisconsin, the driver, Ricardo Guzman, had a tail light assembly that was about to fall off of the truck. Several other truckers attempted to contact him by radio and by sight, but because of the language barrier, Guzman didn’t notice. The assembly fell off, and the debris hit the Willis family minivan which burst into flames killing their six children and badly burning the parents Scott and Janet. Three others died in accidents with truck drivers who had illegally obtained Illinois CDLs.
An investigation followed. A close aid to Ryan, Scott Fawell, blocked the internal investigation, lied under oath, and had records destroyed. Over the last week we found out what everyone suspected, Ryan knew.
Not only did the above occur, but state workers were paid state wages to do campaign work. While this is nothing new in Illinois, the abuse of it in this case was quite extensive. Additionally, Fawell was in the business of encouraging stalking horse candidates.
Going by the standard Jeralynn cites from the Nobel Prize page " "those who, during the preceding year, "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind," George Ryan has subverted the honest working of democracy in Illinois, tampered with the judicial system and led to the loss of innocent lives solely for the pursuit of higher office. To this day he refuses to meet with Scott Willis even in private and has been quite indignant at suggestions he was responsible.
The moratorium is a great step, but given his other actions, George Ryan has no business receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. While all individuals should be judged by more than their worst actions, George Ryan shows contempt for democracy and that is to me, contempt for mankind. What puzzles me is how a man can see the humane reasons for death penalty reform, but be oblivious to the havoc his actions caused to the political system and the Willis children.
Give the Nobel to those muckrakers who brought the issue to the forefront–The Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions or even the Chicago Tribune.
I oppose blanket commutation, but only on the pragmatic grounds that the outrage that would follow would doom any reform efforts in the next session and probably forever. ]
Up DATE: First, a couple minor grammar errors fixed–and change to death penalty reform in the third from the bottom paragraph.
In comments, Jeralynn suggests Barry Scheck for the prize which I think is a fantastic idea, though I still prefer Northwestern’s clinic.
Why do Arabs have so little credibility?
I don’t know. I do know why some law professors do–this one in particular seems to draw generalizations a bit far instead of specifying sub-groups of an entire ethnicity. Sort of like the majority used to in Mississippi to use his example. Mississippi has come far (still a long way to go)–maybe Reynolds could join the journey.
Nobel Peace Prize Nomination for G-Ry
I was outraged after getting this from Ross the Bloviator (scroll down–when I tried the archive link I got an unfamiliar foreign language that looked like it was from Northern Europe). Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune has sugggested this before (Scroll down again-no place holders–Feb 19)
Ross actually expresses my outrage pretty damn well so I’ll save my sanctimony for now. However, let me remind everyone of the 6 dead Willis children George Ryan is responsible for due to the license for bribes scandal. The SOS office has long been a place of questionable ethics, but G-Ry took it to a new low. G-Ry won’t even meet with the Willis family now and has been incredibly offensive when the father attempted to talk to him in the past.
The moratorium is great. I think Illinois First is fantastic. I think G-Ry deserves to rot in prison, not be awarded a prize.
Quick Up DATE: Go read the Bloviator’s other posts as well. He has done an excellent job on disecting the complex issues regarding vaccine liability and his posts on Smallpox vaccinations are first rate. And he spells a lot better than me.