Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Wednesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

Former Gov. George Ryan will be sentenced today. This says it all.
By Georges
George Ryan’s favorable rating among Illinois residents is 35 percent, the Southern Illinoisan reports. George W. Bush’s favorable rating among Illinois residents is 32 percent. (via Capitol Fax Blog)
Katie Cakes
All you need to know about Katie Couric’s debut as anchor of the CBS Evening News is that Marianne Murciano told the Sun-Times, “I’m really happy that I saw what Suri looks like.”
Big Time
Though my favorite Katie Cake was when she informed New York Times columnist Tom Friedman that the Taliban were back “in a big way.”
Couric also directed viewers to the CBS News website to catch up on the, um, news. Then she returned to the show.


War Cry
The Tribune editorial page today takes former Tribune Company director Donald Rumsfeld to task for his latest speech implying that Democrats are unpatriotic appeasers. The page also reminds us that “The U.S. faces an enemy that is not open to negotiation. It is an enemy that will have to be defeated . . . There is an enemy.”
But just who is the enemy? Everyone agrees that Al-Qaeda is an enemy. Has been since the Clinton Administration. But what does that have to do with Iraq?
Iraqis are not the enemy, though they are each other’s enemies.
Terrorists are enemies. But they can’t be the enemy because they’re all fighting for different causes. And some actually are open to negotiation.
Lately we’ve been hearing that the enemy is Islamofascists. As opposed to other kinds of fascists? And again, what does that have to do with Iraq? Weren’t the Islamofascists we were fighting in Afghanistan? Apparently they’re back. In a big way.
If you are three-and-a-half years into a war you’re still trying to justify against an enemy you still can’t identify, you have presided over a colossal failure.
The Donald
Rumsfeld Has Shoulder Surgery To Repair Torn Rotator Cuff.”
Cubs expect him ready to go next spring.
Condi Cub
Rice Compares Iraq Conflict To U.S. Civil War.”
Which side are we again?
“Rice, a former academic, said she spent the summer reading biographies of the Founding Fathers and was certain ‘there were people who thought the Declaration of Independence was a mistake’ as well.
And most of them are in the Bush Administration.
Worst Cabinet Ever.
Being Bin Laden
Bush: Bin Laden Wants Us Out of Iraq.”
Declares mission accomplished. Where does he want us next?
Toddler I
Ald. Todd Stroger (8th) said Tuesday he’ll create an independent inspector general’s office if elected Cook County board president. Stroger, however, could not name the county’s current inspector general – even after facing questions about him for a couple weeks in connection with the plethora of 8th Ward workers on the county payroll.
Stroger said the fact that he can’t name the county’s current inspector general – Joseph Price – is a sign that Price is doing a good job. Sigh. This isn’t even fun. It’s pathetic.
“Price was appointed by Stroger’s father, longtime Board President John Stroger, reports directly to the president and has made $3,100 in contributions to John Stroger’s campaign funds,” the Sun-Times reports.
Toddler II
“No thinking person in Cook County will believe Todd Stroger is a reformer,” said Stroger’s challenger, Tony Peraica.
Peraica also said Tuesday that the 8th Ward Democratic organization’s finances are a mess. “State reports show it was $144,000 in debt in mid-August. It has fluctuated almost $1 million since, and has a current balance of about $500,000,” the Sun-Times reports.
The organization’s treasurer is Donna Dunnings – Todd Stroger’s cousin and the county’s budget director.
Stroger said he had never heard of Dunnings, and that meant she was doing a good job.
Sneedling
Michael Sneed is taking the day off. She also won’t have a column today.
Vague Signals
“Last week, CHA chief Terry Peterson resigned to run Daley’s re-election campaign in the first concrete sign that Daley intends to shake off recent corruption scandals and seek a sixth term,” Fran Spielman reports today in the Sun-Times.
In other news, the sun rose in the east this morning in the first concrete sign that another day was dawning, but scientists said they wouldn’t hold a press conference announcing the existence of today until December. Journalists agreed to play along.
Post-Mayoral Blues
Eugene Sawyer: From City Hall To Bankruptcy.”
Well, there’s an opening on the county board . . .
Network Effects
The Sun-Times editorial page came out against “net neutrality” this morning, arguing that Internet providers such as phone and cable companies should be able to charge higher fees for better service that would, for example, load sites faster for those who could afford it. The rest of us would be screwed, competitively speaking. We can only hope that if the Sun-Times gets its way, the Tribune buys faster, better Internet service, steals all their advertisers, and crushes them.
Hunter Effects
It’s not e-mail that has “wrung all the civility out of us,” as Jennifer Hunter, wife of Sun-Times publisher John Cruickshank, argues today. All those nasty reactions Hunter gets to her columns exist apart from the availability of e-mail. Without e-mail, though, her awareness of such reactions would not exist.
Triple Play
Study: Low-Paying Jobs Cost State Billions.”
Illinoisans Shell Out $2 Billion Yearly To Help Low-Wage Earners Subsist.”
Higher Wages Can Save State Money.”
All in the Sun-Times today.
Beachwood Specials
* If you haven’t done so already, please read all three parts of our Fall TV Preview and then try to tell me that it isn’t the best Fall TV Preview in the land.
* Also, trade in your Cubs and Sox disillusionment for Bears disillusionment, in Eric Emery’s Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report. Eric also authors Over/Under, our weekly sports hype report.
* Finally, check out our daily inside look at life in sucky office jobs, by our pseudononymous workplace affairs correspondent, J. Bird, in Life at Work.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Workplace-friendly.

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Posted on September 6, 2006