Better Press Please

ArchPundit January 5, 2011 No Comments

Fine moments in bad punditry:

There’s nothing in her past to demonstrate any competence or effectiveness other than enriching her own life or self yet she cannot even do that.  There’s a reason Bank One wouldn’t hire the woman–she’s grossly incompetent at anything other than aggrandizing herself.

It’s fair to take a whack at both Rahm and Chico for enriching themselves at the public trough.  It’s true and it’s an obnoxious practice both of them are guilty.  What’s absolutely unacceptable is to put Del Valle in that category.  He makes a decent salary as a public servant. He has no history of using that power to enrich himself or his friends which is directly counter to everything in CMB’s public career.  Making CMB some sort of person of the people is pure and utter bullshit.  She has sold out every principle she claimed to stand for and yet still can’t make money–that  is incredible, but not something to celebrate.  Complete and utter incompetence is something to marvel at, but not in an approving way.  Worse, it takes away credit from a good public servant like Del Valle.

I don’t think Del Valle can win because he hasn’t raised enough money, doesn’t have a really strong ground operation and is at least splitting his natural constituency with a better funded candidate.  However, if one wants to base the campaign on who has a clean and honest record in public service he wins hands down.

Hinz on Racial Politics

ArchPundit January 3, 2011 No Comments

He hits a fairly thoughtful note here on the African-American community seeking a single candidate:

Really?  What is she going to do that Daley didn’t?  Other than wrought iron the man’s next obsession is with bicycles.  That doesn’t mean Chicago couldn’t improve, but there’s nothing in what she would do differently.

Web sites hit the high points, but compare it to Chico, Del Valle, or even Rahm.  She’s a candidate with few ideas or reasons for being Mayor other than her race.

Rahm at $10 Million?

ArchPundit January 3, 2011 No Comments

Greg Hinz is reporting he’s around there

For a Better Editorial Board

ArchPundit January 3, 2011 No Comments

Sun-Times on the budget:

The governor’s office wants to pay back the $15 billion plus interest over time with new revenue generated by increasing income, cigarette and gas taxes.

We say some of that new re-venue should be used to pay the state’s bills directly over time. Skip the borrowing.

Proponents of the $15 billion borrowing plan say it would be cheaper for the state than the alternative — continuing to be a deadbeat. That’s because the state, by law, must pay 12 percent interest when it’s chronically late paying its vendors. Alternatively, if the state sells its debt, it may be or 5 percent.

We’re not convinced that those savings will materialize. Borrowing would be cheaper only if Illinois continued to pay its bills late for the next decade or more.

We hope the state ends that shameful practice far sooner than that. Borrowing would work only if legislators passed a permanent income tax increase. We urge them to do so, but a temporary one may be in the cards.

Finally, borrowing would do nothing to encourage the state to spend less, as it must.

The good of catching up isn’t only in saving money–which their estimate is questionable, but also getting vendors caught up and under 60 days as it should be.  Right now, the state is months behind in payments to almost all of their vendors and that means social service providers.  Remember, the State of Illinois has a fairly small number of state employees with many services provided by private providers and they are all in significant trouble because of the state’s inability to pay on time.

The Sun-Times is suggesting that state vendors, already cash strapped, loan money to the State of Illinois and continue to do so for years ahead.  The state is still borrowing money, but instead of doing it from a bank and having set terms, it’s from hospitals, non-profit service providers, local governments, and schools.  Given these entities seldom have enough extra cash to be floating the state government a loan, this means they often have to get loans to cover the shortfall where possible raising the costs for vendors.

Stateline writer Dan Vock did a great piece on this:

It’s a safe place in a neighborhood troubled by gang violence. Two years ago, two participants at the Youth Service Project were killed, and two more were injured, in the fighting. The youth at the center, which runs an arts education program, responded to the deaths by painting an indoor mural of their memories of that summer’s events. It shows a SWAT team van, a church cross against a blue sky and a funeral home — although the center’s staff, fearing that the funeral home would be a distressing image for the kids to see every day, have moved a bookshelf in front of it.

The center plays an important role in the life of Humboldt Park. Indeed, the state of Illinois, which provides 95 percent of the Youth Service Project’s funding, expects the center to provide all of the services under its contract. The catch is that, with all the state’s fiscal troubles lately, no one knows when the state will actually hand over that money.

In the past, the center has had to wait a month or two to get paid. This year, the center went six months without receiving a single check from the state. To get by, the center exhausted its line of credit, cut back on services and laid off seven of its 32 staff members. Only half as many children were able to take advantage of the Youth Service Project’s programs as did two years ago.

This summer, gang violence picked up once again. Three police officers were killed, including one who guarded the mayor’s house. While overall homicide rates are down in Chicago, the brazenness of the attacks prompted two state legislators to propose calling in the National Guard. The adults who work at the Youth Service Project have noticed more aggressive behaviors among the teens they serve, making them more difficult to work with.

There’s a good sidebar on a pharmacist as well.  But why should the state be borrowing from vendors and not banks?  Has Illinois gotten so weird that people just expect it to operate this poorly now?

“Because I don’t want to.”

ArchPundit January 3, 2011 No Comments

At least she isn’t trying to make an excuse up:

If Braun had chosen to match their disclosures, she could have exploited a vulnerability of Emanuel and Chico, who have both been accused of cashing in on their political connections.

But when reporters reminded Braun on Monday that she has yet to let reporters see her tax returns, the newly-minted consensus black candidate for mayor slammed the door.

“You won’t either until after the election. No. Not until after the election,” she said.

Asked why, she said defiantly, “Because I don’t want to.” With that, Braun ended the news conference called to repeat her promise to take Chicago parking meters back from private investors.

As she was walking out the door of her campaign headquarters, Braun was asked why she would refuse if she has nothing to hide.

“Oh, get out of here,” she said.

Braun’s refusal might have something to do with the still unpaid $250,000 loan she got from controversial former campaign contributor Joseph Stroud.

Please Save Us Gery Chico

ArchPundit January 3, 2011 No Comments

Carol Moseley Braun?  Really? Doesn’t anyone remember that she couldn’t run her Senate office let alone the City of Chicago?  When she was leaving the Recorder of Deeds office she hired several campaign workers on the way out the door.   Admittedly, nothing compared to Daley, but Daley can run the city at least.  And of course, the Nigerian dictators or generally no sense whatsoever, she is in the final four candidates and as a sole black candidate has a shot.  Rahm appears to be Daley without the charm.  Del Valle looks interesting, but doesn’t seem to be able to compete.

Leaving us Gery Chico who appears serviceable at running large organizations, is too cozy with Daley, but given the alternatives, and is quite progressive on many issues coming out for gay marriage in his 2004 run.

This is not a good field of candidates.

Rahm Control

ArchPundit January 3, 2011 No Comments

Rahm Then:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an8Moh3xuUs[/youtube]

Rahm inbetween and now:

This spring, President Obama promised Mexican President Felipe Calderon that he would work to deter gunrunning south of the border. Behind the scenes, White House officials were putting the brakes on a proposal to require gun dealers to report bulk sales of the high-powered semiautomatic rifles favored by drug cartels.

Justice Department officials had asked for White House approval to require thousands of gun dealers along the border to report the purchases to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF investigators expected to get leads on suspected arms traffickers.

Senior law enforcement sources said the proposal from the ATF was held up by the White House in early summer. The sources, who asked to be anonymous because they were discussing internal deliberations, said that the effort was shelved by then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a veteran of battles with the gun lobby during the Clinton administration.

Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Emanuel, who is running for mayor of Chicago, said Emanuel “did not stop the policy from being implemented.” Emanuel “has never taken a back seat to anyone when it comes to standing up to the NRA to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals,” LaBolt said.

LaBolt may have technically been correct, Rahm didn’t stop it, he just delayed it.  This is a no brainer in terms of the law in question.  Gun dealers have to do paperwork on every sale, having to report a bulk sale would be of no great burden.  The benefit of the move would be that once the ATF and other agencies know who is purchasing the guns so when they show up in the hands of cartels or other criminals, they have the tools to track down the suppliers.

What’s most disturbing is that Rahm wants to try and position himself as the next Daley, but this Daley never took a day off on gun legislation pushing it when it wasn’t popular because he was tired of the violence.  Daley went far enough where there were even some proposals I thought would be ineffective, but he never stopped pushing because it wasn’t convenient.   This was a benign rule that had an important role in both domestic gun running and foreign policy with Mexico and Rahm tried to delay it.  Nice.

CofCC Is Upset That Talented Black Actor Chosen for Role in Thor & Hailey Steps in It Again

ArchPundit December 20, 2010 No Comments

Because, you know, only white people can play Norse God Roles:

Part of this that is underlying the anger is that there is a significant Norse pagan(is that correct?) religious movement in the White Supremacist movement.

Kyle Rogers sent a message to the members of Council of Conservative Citizens.

Kyle RogersDecember 15, 2010 at 10:45am
Subject: Boycott Thor by Marvel Studios
Marvel Comics has a long history of promoting the extreme left-wing that goes all the way back to the 60’s. Just last year, the comic book company declare war on the TEA Party movement.

Now Marvel has taken their anti-white, radical campaign even further. They cast a black man as a Norse Deity in their new movie Thor, coming out May 6th, 2011. Even though Marvel co-produces an explicitly pro-black (and anti-white) cartoon for BET, they don’t think white people should have anything that is uniquely their own. Not even their own mythology and folk tales!

CofCC webmaster Kyle Rogers has launched a new website called http://www.boycott-thor.com and a facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-Thor2011-by-Marvel-Studios

Visit these sites and click the “like” button on the facebook page.

Thanks,

The actor in question is Idris Elba, Stringer Bell on The Wire.  He’s an incredibly talented actor who has played Achilles and has had several recent roles in comedies that were hysterical (Office and The C Word).  Never mind that Shakespeare is often cross culturally cast, it’s a black guy!

It’s only morons like Rogers above that don’t understand that the amount of melanin in one’s skin does not make those with other levels of melanin them.  But no one accused the Council of Conservative Citizens of being smart.

Brett Schenker at Graphic Policy, a great comics blog for those interested in such things, posted on this last week and I haven’t had time to follow up.

Andrew Belonsky at Death and Taxes also addresses it with this:

Though many politicians previously connected to the Council have disavowed its racist agenda — that list includes high profile leaders like Mike Huckabee, Bob Barr and Haley Barbour — the group has been defended by equally powerful leaders, like Ann Coulter, and this year collaborated with Tea Party groups in Florida and Mississippi to help elect our new conservative Congress. Their racism is real, and definitely worth keeping tabs on. That doesn’t mean, of course, the Council and its followers aren’t still totally ridiculous.

While we all know it’s great fun to hypothesize on the economics of superheroism, the majority of people know that Thor, Captain America and all those other costumed wonders aren’t a depiction of real life. Sure, the Council needs to work out its racist tendencies — America as a “European nation,” c’mon — but would also do well to suspend disbelief for a second and enjoy the show, because they’re doing nothing more than making themselves look like complete idiots.

A bit of irony with Barbour today, but you get the gist. Andrew indicates Barbour denounced them, I’m not sure that’s entirely correct, but his brother has also met with the Mississippi Chapter and attended their events–as has Hailey in the past.

Barbour today defended the Citizen’s Councils as not racist, but all evidence is to the contrary. For a really offensive rant from one of their Board Members Earl Holt, go here—he sent that to me several years ago. And Holt was a Board Member well after he sent me that e-mail.

The Council of Conservative Citizens was recreated from the Citizen’s Council years ago by Gordon Baum who was an organizer for the Citizen’s Council.  Baum was the CEO for years and is still involved in governing the organization.  It has long fancied itself as a reputable group, but that’s just bullshit. They are racist assholes who happen not wear hoods.  While they have become increasingly irrelevant to the mainstream, many have been active in the Tea Party. Now, some in the Tea Party have shunned them (good for them), but they still attend and brag about how great the movement is when you read their blogs and newspapers.

Barbour:

“You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.”

The entire existence of the Citizen’s Council was to fight for segregation–Barbour is trying to rewrite history.  To the extent they deterred the Klan it was only to put a better face on white supremacy and segregation.  They were town leaders, but let’s be clear what that meant–they were leading the town to continue segregation and white supremacy.

IBM Smarter Cities Challenge

ArchPundit December 20, 2010 No Comments

A couple folks I know are helping out with a IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge and asked me to take a look at it–I approve wholeheartedly as it brings out my tech geek and marries it to my city redevelopment ideas.  Here’s a bit from IBM:

Could your city use an infusion of IBM talent and technology? The computing giant is offering its help with the Smarter Cities Challenge, a grant program that will dole out $50 million worth of technology and services to 100 cities around the world.

The program, launched this week, will give $250,000 to $400,000 worth of services to each city selected through the competitive grant process. Those services may include access to City Forward (an IBM tool which allows cities to analyze and and visualize data across systems), workshops on social networking tools, time with top IBM talent, and assistance with strategic planning. IBM explains:

A consistent theme will be collecting, sharing, analyzing and acting on data. For instance, IBM experts might suggest ways to link the processes and objectives of multiple departments to reduce cost and improve productivity. A city’s education program could be more effective if it was closely coordinated with social services, transportation, parks and recreation, public health, and safety. Police officers might be more effective if timely, customized information were electronically “pushed” to them while walking the beat or in transit.  Citizen engagement could be improved if computer access were more widespread.  Snow removal teams might be more efficiently deployed if ultra-precise weather data were obtained and analyzed.

Anyone who deals with city governments, and Chicago as well as many other cities in Illinois included, know that often one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing and citizens often have a hard time figuring out who to talk to where.  While efforts are made to make it better, seldom can cities coping with a recession and any number of other problems take a larger strategic view of it’s systems and plan how to integrate them.

The important thing to keep in mind is that, the applications are due by the end of the year.  That’s the bad news, the good news:  the application is awesomely simple compared to most grant applications.

1. Fill out the application here: https://smartercitieschallenge.org/reg.do

2. The proposal has to include the following criteria in order to be successful:

– Describe 1-3 potential problems or opportunities to address with the grant

– Provide clear, compelling evidence that the city is well positioned to utilize the resources offered in the Smarter Cities Challenge

– Outline how a grant of IBM talent and technology has the potential to substantially enhance the city’s capacity to act on key issues

– Highlight recent efforts to develop innovative solutions to public problems, including any initiatives to implement new technologies or open data policies

– Demonstrate the city is ready to match IBM’s investment with its own commitment of time and talent, including access to the city agencies and personnel relevant to the project

If you’d like to know more, you can watch a short video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmhs4-QplWc

You don’t have to be an avid Governing reader to figure  this out, just make sure your city knows about it and can take advantage of it.

Read the Below Post and Then Explain Plan B

ArchPundit December 8, 2010 No Comments

Steve Benen points out the problem with stopping the compromise on taxes:

But let’s say they’re all wrong. Let’s assume, for the sake of conversation, that the liberal economists don’t fully appreciate the larger principles at stake here; their stimulus projections are overly optimistic; and their entire perspective is skewed by weakness, a poor understanding of political tactics, and a Neville Chamberlain-like worldview.

Indeed, let’s also say, just for the sake of conversation, that the liberal policy experts lose the argument and Congress rejects the agreement. Dems decide it’s a bridge too far, so they scuttle the deal and take their chances.

What’s Plan B?

I don’t mean this to sound snarky and this isn’t a rhetorical question; I’m genuinely interested in understanding the back-up strategy. When I posed this question yesterday to some Capitol Hill aides I know, they said they’d recommit to fighting even harder for the original Obama tax plan — permanent breaks for those under $250k, Clinton-era top rates for those above $250k. If/when this week’s compromise goes down, Republicans, they said, would likely cave and accept the Democratic approach. They’d be out of options — it’d be a choice between the Dem plan and higher taxes for everyone. Dems would regain the leverage they lost before the midterms.

But they wouldn’t be out of options.  One can pass a bill retroactively affecting the tax rate from January 1st fairly easily and beginning in January, Republicans will control the House and have a Senate much closer.  At that point they can likely extract more for compromise and the incoming class of GOPers are likely to demand just that.  Now add this to Susan Collins behavior below and tell me how this gets any better?