By Steve Rhodes

I’d be more impressed by the Sun-Times‘s gimmick of dedicating its paper today to a wounded Rolling Meadows soldier if the paper apologized at the same time for abdicating its journalistic duty in favor of the kind of war cheerleading that needlessly put him in harm’s way. How about a Sun-Times cover with photos of every wounded and killed Illinois soldier with the words “We’re Sorry”?
Bryan’s Story
The Tribune also features soldier Bryan Anderson on its front page today; the paper first wrote about Anderson last December.
Best Wishes
The best advice anyone could offer Bryan is a warning to not let others use and exploit him.

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Posted on November 22, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

I can’t figure out the Alfonso Soriano deal either, except to say my instinct is that it will end disastrously. Either he’ll put up Sammy Sosa numbers and the Cubs will still finish in the second-half of the division, or he’ll get off to a slow start like almost every other free agent the Cubs sign and things will get ugly pretty quickly.
Murray Chass, perhaps the dean of American baseball writers, says the deal means Tribune Company is selling the team. Even if not, he’s far from impressed.
“[He] committed 11 errors, most among N.L. outfielders, for a .969 fielding percentage, which ranked him 32nd among 34 defensively ranked outfielders.There was talk yesterday that the Cubs may use Soriano, who will turn 31 in January, in center field as a replacement for Juan Pierre, also a free agent. But some baseball executives were incredulous at that prospect.
“They also questioned the size of the package the Cubs gave Soriano, saying it was far too much for a leadoff hitter. That kind of money, they suggested, should be saved for a middle-of-the-lineup hitter, a run producer like [Alex] Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez.
“Soriano has driven in more than 90 runs in each of the past five seasons, but in his most productive seasons he knocked in 102 and 104, an impressive total for a leadoff hitter, but not necessarily for a $17 million hitter.”
Bruce Miles, in the Daily Herald, reported on Monday, though, that the Cubs are likely to move Soriano to right field.
Dayn Perry, at FoxSports.com, says the Soriano deal is “idiotic in the long term.”
Carol Slezak at the Sun-Times is admirably skeptical, and the best line I’ve seen is the headline to her piece: “Soriano’s Good, But Can He Pitch?”
She also thinks the deal means TribCo is prettying up the property for sale, though in other reports both interim president John McDonough and general manager Jim Hendry say they have had no such discussions with their corporate minders. Then again, all it takes is for Dennis FitzSimons to tell them to go for it – he doesn’t have to explain his motivation.
On the other hand, I wonder if the Soriano deal – and the Cubs exploding payroll in general – is a poison pill that is somehow designed to keep the Cubs in TribCo hands.
Either way, this can’t be good.

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Posted on November 21, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

1. It looked good in practice.
2. Nine overtimes.
3. When Neil Steinberg complains about “those people” “hooting and hollering,” “weeping and shrieking ‘Hallelujah’ in that hairdresser’s,” he means black people even though the dominant images of people celebrating the acquittal of O.J. Simpson were broadcast from college campuses, not inner city salons. But that’s not how Neil Steinberg sees black people, which is why he got these responses and why he was called a racist on WVON-AM on Saturday afternoon.
4. More Steinberg:
* “[Jay Mariotti will] say anything just to get people excited.”
* “Kass is a genuine fraud . . . Every 10 columns is a good column.”
* “When I met Michael Jordan, I didn’t know who he was.”
5. When you’re are Dick Mell’s daughter and Rod Blagojevich’s wife, well, this sort of thing is only natural.

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Posted on November 20, 2006

By Natasha Julius

The Weekend Desk is a little strapped this week. In light of recent events, we’d laid a healthy chunk of our operating budget on Joe Paterno in the Big Ten Legends death pool. You can imagine our shock when freshly-pacemakered Bo Schembechler beat JoePa to the line. Forgive us if we’re a tad distracted.

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Posted on November 18, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

I’m taking the morning – and possibly the day – off. I’ll return to rail against state legislators voting themselves a pay raise, Neil Steinberg’s latest noxious thoughts, and the Tribune editorial page’s warped sense of economics sometime between now and Monday. Don’t forget to check in on Saturday for the always superlative Weekend Desk Report of Natasha Julius, and go right now to Pat Bataillon’s latest What I Watched Last night entry about why he chose to watch Modern Marvels: Metal last night instead of 30 Rock. Don Jacobson has a new Chicago In Song that finds a thread between Dean Martin and The Handsome Family, and Eric Emery provides you with a guide for How to Watch a Bears Game With a Bears Fan in his latest Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report. The Beachwood Tip Line remains open.
The [Thursday] Papers
Jesus, a few aldermen just unload on the mayor and it’s the Sun-Times that puts it on front page and writes the best account while the Tribune lays back. Does that mean it didn’t really happen?
The unbelievably great highlights:
* Ald. Ed Smith: “There is no headline in this budget that reads ‘The Department of Criminal Affairs’ . . . there is no line item for a $40 million Hired Truck scandal . . . for buddies swiping in buddies . . . for phony sick pay.”
* Ald. Toni Preckwinkle: “It’s not so much the number of people being arrested, it’s that they are connected. They’re part of the political operation, frankly, of the administration, and that’s what’s so problematic.”
* Ald. Arenda Troutman: “The Duffs stole $100 million earmarked for blacks and other minorities . . . White men [used] their mothers, sisters and daughters to steal $40 million. They abused the Hired Truck Program designed to help blacks and other minorities pull themselves up by their bootstraps. These people were getting contracts because they lived in a white city. They were greedy and wanted the minority share.”
Ed, Toni, Arenda – where have you been all my life?

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Posted on November 17, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

Jesus, a few aldermen just unload on the mayor and it’s the Sun-Times that puts it on front page and writes the best account while the Tribune lays back. Does that mean it didn’t really happen?
The unbelievably great highlights:
* Ald. Ed Smith: “There is no headline in this budget that reads ‘The Department of Criminal Affairs’ . . . there is no line item for a $40 million Hired Truck scandal . . . for buddies swiping in buddies . . . for phony sick pay.”
* Ald. Toni Preckwinkle: “It’s not so much the number of people being arrested, it’s that they are connected. They’re part of the political operation, frankly, of the administration, and that’s what’s so problematic.”
* Ald. Arenda Troutman: “The Duffs stole $100 million earmarked for blacks and other minorities . . . White men [used] their mothers, sisters and daughters to steal $40 million. They abused the Hired Truck Program designed to help blacks and other minorities pull themselves up by their bootstraps. These people were getting contracts because they lived in a white city. They were greedy and wanted the minority share.”
Ed, Toni, Arenda – where have you been all my life?

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Posted on November 16, 2006

Okay, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court wins a libel suit and a $7 million judgement and it’s not front page news at the Sun-Times?
The 7-year-old son of a Chicago woman holed up in a church to avoid deportation for entering the country illegally travels to Mexico to speak to lawmakers who pass a resolution asking that the woman not be deported and its not front page news at the Sun-Times?
A “small army” conducts a brazen daylight raid and kidnapping at the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad – we cannot even secure the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad – on a day when 117 people were killed around the country in a deteriorating situation that is nearly beyond catastrophe and it’s not front page news at the Sun-Times?
And, just to be fair to its nature, O.J. Simpson will go on TV and describe how he committed the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman . . . “if he did,” and it’s not front page news at the Sun-Times?
“SCHOOLS SETTLE RACIAL RIFT” is better than “O.J.: HOW I DID IT!”?

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Posted on November 15, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

So . . . how ’bout those Bears?
The Bears have been proving me and the Beachwood Sports Affairs desk wrong all season, but when they lose in the first-round of the playoffs, we’ll finally get to say we told you so.
Meanwhile, this is pretty cool. And here’s a bunch of other Devin Hester returns.

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Posted on November 14, 2006

By Steve Rhodes

1. This is Our Country.
2. This is Our Truck.
3. The Sun-Times described its Veteran’s Day front page photo montage on Saturday thusly: “The 147 Illinois servicemen and women who have died since the 2001 attack on the United States.”
I thought it was clear by now that the only link between 9/11 and the Iraq war was the one fabricated by the Bush Administration. I guess the press’s old habits are hard to break.
4. All the president’s father’s men
5. Rumsfeld rolling a doobie has got to be the highlight in this election roundup.
6. The [Rahmbo] Papers.

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Posted on November 13, 2006

By Natasha Julius

Now that the Revolution of 2006 is complete, we turn our attention to the races and faces that will shape our world in the next ten years. Here are our official predictions.
Cartoon Cabinet Villain ’06: Various Candidates
With Don Rumsfeld falling on his sword in spectacular fashion, the Bush administration has lost its most blatant gruff-voiced cartoon villain. Front-runners to replace Rumsfeld’s hand-rubbing nastiness include the following unsavory characters:
Robert Gates as Wile E. Coyote
Dick Cheney as Snidely Whiplash
Karl Rove as The Penguin
Michael Chertoff as Lex Luthor
This race is tough to handicap, as each distinguished candidate comes with a lengthy list of dubious achievements in villainy. However, we project that Cheney’s star is waning as a result of his close ties to Rumsfeld. A botched mid-term election campaign seems to have knocked some of the wind out of Rove’s sails as well. In a tight contest, we expect Gates to pick up right where his predecessor left off.

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Posted on November 11, 2006