Chicago -
By Dennis Kucinich
Dear Friend,
Though I would prefer to focus your attention on my work dealing with the profoundly important issues that face our nation, such as job creation, getting the economy back on track, and ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – it seems that some are more interested in discussing my personal dental issues. Given the degree of public interest you should know some details:
Posted on January 31, 2011
By The Beachwood Mystery Debate Theater Team
Once again the Beachwood Mystery Debate Theater team of Steve Rhodes, Tim Willette and Andrew Kingsford gathered at Beachwood HQ to bring you the absolute best debate analysis bar none of the big Chicago Tribune/City Club debate moderated by editorial page editor Bruce Dold and WGN anchor Micah Materre.
Well, actually not quite. Despite Tim’s plan to surprise us with Big Flats beer (broken here more than a month ago and now finally starting to show up in the lamestream media) and Andrew’s plan to surprise us with a Red Baron pizza, we ended up having to watch from our separate domiciles, or residences, or homes. Depending on your definition of each.
Me and Tim still managed to wring some funny out of the proceedings. Let’s take a look. (Edited for clarity and comedy.)
Posted on January 28, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
Second of a two-part series.
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Part One: Paperclips and petitions.
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The reporting on the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to reverse the appellate court and allow Rahm Emanuel on the ballot for mayor hardly does justice – no pun intended – to the weird legal theory employed by the court or to the legal arguments which came before it.
On Monday, in the third and final installment of Rahm’s Rules, I’ll examine the media coverage of the residency challenge. Today I’ll examine the legal arguments from start to finish, starting with a couple reports of Thursday’s ruling, then going back to the beginning and circling back to the state supreme court so you can see why the five justices who wrote the majority opinion are so misguided and why the two who disagreed (including Anne Burke) with the majority’s approach – mostly in tone – but still sided with Rahm wrote the most reasoned argument of the entire proceedings, though they, too, still got it wrong.
Take a look for yourself.
Posted on January 28, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
First in a two-part series.
“A member of the Lemont-Bromberek District 113A school board was disqualified Tuesday from running for re-election after an electoral board determined her nominating petitions were not fastened together,” TribLocal Lemont reported earlier this month in “School Board Candidate Removed From Ballot After Paperclip Debate.”
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“Richard Hissong has been knocked off the April 5 ballot while Mario Palacios can continue to run for alderman, the Des Plaines electoral board ruled,” TribLocal Des Plaines reported last spring.
“Hissong fell short by one signature of the 41 he needed. He claims one signature was invalidated because it was missing a middle initial.
“‘I don’t feel it’s worth my time and my effort at this point,’ Hissong said when asked if he would appeal . . .
Posted on January 27, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
With all the talk about blood libel in the air, you’d think Crain’s would want to avoid a headline like this: “Rahm Emanuel Has Daley’s Will To Power, With An Eye For The Bottom Line.”
It’s bad enough that “will to power” is a Nietzschean phrase associated with Adolf Hitler and other “gangster-statesmen“; it’s even more insensitive when used in association with a Jew, as Emanuel is.
But Crain’s is using term approvingly – probably because veteran political reporter Greg Hinz so approves of Emanuel. Let’s take a look.
Posted on January 20, 2011
By Steve Rhodes
“A ‘big city’ needs a ‘big mayor,’ and that’s why Chicago needs the man who helped him pass the Crime Bill, former President Bill Clinton told a crowd of 700 people at the Cultural Center Tuesday,” the Sun-Times reports.
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We – meaning reporters – don’t have to do things this way.
Posted on January 19, 2011
By Astralopry 2011
“Arkansas Traveler” (excerpt: “The Residency Question”)
The New Lost City Ramblers (1968)
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Posted on January 18, 2011
By Astralopry 2011
“Clinton To Campaign Here For Emanuel.”
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Kelly Harrell & The Virginia String Band, “My Name is John Johanna.” (1927)
Posted on January 15, 2011
You Cannot Outsmart Crazy
“How do you make sense of these type of senseless situations seems to be the question that’s on everybody’s mind and I don’t know that there is a way to make sense of this sort of thing. As I watched the political pundit world, many are reflecting and grieving and trying to figure things out. But it’s also true that others are working feverishly to find the tidbit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other and watching that is as predictable as it is dispiriting.
“Did the toxic political environment cause this? A graphic image here, an ill-timed comment, violent rhetoric, those sort of things? I have no fucking idea. We live in a complex ecosystem of influences and motivations and I wouldn’t blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine.
“And, by the way, that is coming from somebody who truly hates our political environment. It is toxic. It is unproductive. But to say that that is what has caused this or that the people in that are responsible for this, I just don’t think you can do.
“Boy would that be nice. Boy would it be nice to be able to draw a straight line of causation from this horror to something tangible because then we could convince ourselves that if we just stopped ‘this’ the horrors will end. To have the feeling, however fleeting, that this type of event can be prevented forever. It’s hard not to feel like it can.
“You cannot outsmart crazy. You don’t know what a trouble mind will get caught on. Crazy always seems to find a way. It always has.”
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Posted on January 11, 2011
