By Steve Rhodes

“Politicians exerted their influence at the University of Illinois to boost admissions prospects for the relatives of lobbyists, fundraisers, a union leader and other connected applicants,” the Tribune reported over the weekend.
“The first broad analysis of who benefited from the school’s clout lists shows that a number of lawmakers championed applicants whose relatives donated to their campaigns or represented groups that regularly made political contributions.
“Family members of at least three lawmakers also were part of the now-abandoned secret system, known as Category I, a separate admissions track that allowed some subpar students to get admitted to the state’s flagship university.”
Well that makes sense, since we obviously have subpar legislators.

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Posted on February 28, 2012

By The Beachwood Sin Tax Bureau

Whenever a city, county, state and federal government faces seemingly insurmountable budget problems, our fearless leaders turn to sin taxes – namely boosting the assessment on booze, tobacco and sometimes gambling. In other words, fun. What’s next, condom taxes? Of course, if everybody stopped engaging in vices, sin taxes wouldn’t deliver anything to the bottom line. Makes us want to stop boozing just out of spite.
But we here at the Beachwood Sin Tax Bureau think immorality is in the eye of the beholder. We propose these new sin taxes.
* A new tax on bad taste, starting with music. Every purchase or download of a work on our list will be assessed at 5 percent. Six percent for Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Lana Del Rey and the Jonas Brothers.

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Posted on February 26, 2012

By The Beachwood 99 Percent Affairs Desk

Whose side are you on?
1. “Facing a grim fiscal situation, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn proposed a $33.9 billion state spending plan that includes a $4 million funding reduction for HIV programs. The governor also proposed deep Medicaid funding cuts, which would severely hamper access to health care for people with HIV,” the AIDS Foundation of Chicago says.
“The governor’s proposal seeks $25.4 million in FY12 state funding for HIV services through the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), a reduction of 14 percent from the current fiscal year. Budget blueprints released yesterday indicate Gov. Quinn proposes no funding cuts for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), which provides life-saving medications to people with HIV. As a result, the entire $4 million funding cut would reduce community-based HIV prevention, housing, corrections, minority health-promotion and harm reduction programs.
“While the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) lauds the Governor’s recommendation for full ADAP funding, it strongly opposes the overall funding cut that will decimate community-based HIV programs.”

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Posted on February 24, 2012

Uploaded to YouTube by 26thAndCalifornia

“Denom and The Wolf teamed up to make this bangin’ remake of Pink Floyd’s Machine. Buried in the archives, I’m glad we dug this up.”

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Posted on February 23, 2012

By The Beachwood Zero-Based Budgeting Bureau

“Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn will deliver a bad-news budget Wednesday, suggesting that Illinois close numerous prisons, mental health centers and social service offices, cut health care for the poor and shut down popular tourist sites for two days a week at times during the year,” the Tribune reports.
It’s going to be even worse than that, the Beachwood has learned. Sources tell us Quinn will propose the following:

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Posted on February 21, 2012

By The Beachwood Occupation Affairs Desk

Adopted by Occupy Chicago last week:
* Our solidarity will be based on respect for a political diversity within the struggle for social, economic and environmental justice. As individuals and groups, we may choose to engage in a diversity of tactics and plans of action but are committed to treating each other with respect and working towards a common goal of peace and justice.
* As we plan our actions and tactics, we will take care to maintain appropriate separations of time and space between divergent tactics.
* We oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption, limiting our action to “free speech zones,” and violence, or attempts to divide our movement through the conscious creation of divisions regarding tactics, organization, strategies, and alliances.
* Any debates or criticisms will stay internal to the movement, avoiding any public or media denunciations of fellow activists and events.
Explained:

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Posted on February 20, 2012

By Cora Currier/ProPublica

Citigroup agreed Thursday to pay $158 million to settle a lawsuit over bad loans that the bank passed on to the Federal Housing Administration to insure. The whistle-blower who originally brought the case, Sherry Hunt, an employee of Citi’s mortgage department, said the company actively undermined the process that was supposed to check for fraud in order to push through reckless loans and get higher profits.

The suit itself makes for good reading. We’ve pulled out the juiciest bits, and explain just what Citi appears to have been doing.

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Posted on February 18, 2012

Presented by Saint Xavier University

Highlights:
* The Cook County Jail is now the largest mental health provider in Illinois. This is not good.
* Charlie Trotter and Publican buy their produce from the jail garden. This is not a secret.
* About 20 inmates work at the city’s animal control facility. They’ve replaced bad employees.
* Eighty to 85 percent of the jail population never goes on to prison. They go from jail back into the community because of time-served, probation, etc.
* Three former prostitutes work sweeps to help redirect women off the streets.

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Posted on February 17, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Lincoln’s Birthday on Monday got me to thinking: Is he him yet?
Headline: What I See In Lincoln’s Eyes
Author: Barack Obama
Date: June 26, 2005
Excerpt: So when I, a black man with a funny name, born in Hawaii of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, announced my candidacy for the U.S. Senate, it was hard to imagine a less likely scenario than that I would win–except, perhaps, for the one that allowed a child born in the backwoods of Kentucky with less than a year of formal education to end up as Illinois’ greatest citizen and our nation’s greatest President.
*
Headline: Maybe It’s Right Time For Obama To Run . . .
Author: Rich Miller, Sun-Times
Date: December 8, 2006
Excerpt: “The experience issue is less of a problem for me. Abraham Lincoln ‘s sole governmental experience was eight years in the Illinois House and just two years in Congress, yet he was one of our greatest presidents.
*
Headline: . . . But If He Does, He’d Better Be Ready To Face Nasty Opposition
Author: Andrew Greeley, Sun-Times
Date: December 8, 2006
Excerpt: “There are three reasons why he should not run.
“The first is that he has not had enough experience. One could reply by citing another citizen of Illinois who ran for president, another man of integrity, intelligence and honor whose experience was also mostly in the Illinois Legislature and a year in the House of Representatives. With two years in the Senate, Obama could boast more ‘experience’ than Abraham Lincoln.
*
Headline: Linking To Lincoln: Obama Campaign Dares To Make Most Of Parallels
Author: Jennifer Hunter, Sun-Times
Date: February 9, 2007
Excerpt: “There is no argument there are many compelling parallels between Honest Abe and Barack . . . By the time Lincoln left Springfield in 1860, he understood himself to be a man of destiny. And he knew he was going to be leading a fractious nation. As president, he was able to assemble a Cabinet of his rivals, using adroit political skills to win their cooperation. Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy explained that Lincoln ‘really was not a great general like Napoleon or Washington; he was not such a skillful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the Great; but his supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar moral power and in the greatness of his character.’
“Obama ‘s campaign strategists are suggesting he can bring the same moral authority and greatness of character to the White House. That takes daring . . . and hubris.”
*
Headline: Obama-Lincoln Comparisons Favor New Guy
Author: Eric Zorn, Tribune
Date: February 13, 2007
Excerpt: “Obama may be no Lincoln, but Lincoln was no Obama.”

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Posted on February 16, 2012

By Cora Currier/ProPublica

The Obama administration recently unveiled a string of proposals to help struggling homeowners and get the housing market back on its feet 2014 part of the administration’s “We Can’t Wait” election year to-do list. Of course, the White House has made big promises before about helping homeowners, only to see them disappoint time and again.

Here are the latest proposals, whether they are anything new and whether they stand a chance of going anywhere.

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Posted on February 15, 2012