By Matt Farmer And The G Man
Progressive poseur
Walkin’ bulldozer
Union bustin’
Grade-school closer
Posted on April 2, 2013
First Rahm Came For . . .
First Rahm came for the public health system and I did not speak out
Because I do not use the public health system.
Then Rahm came for the public libraries, and I did not speak out
Because I do not use public libraries.
Then Rahm came for the public schools, and I did not speak out
Because I do not send my kids to public schools.
Then Rahm came for me
Said no rich person ever.
Posted on March 31, 2013
Redflex Ripples
Chicago Bribery Investigation Felt Nationwide
The latest . . .
“We are grateful to the whistleblower and the reporter who helped expose the flaws in our former colleagues and our processes,” Robert T. DeVincenzi, the president and CEO of Redflex Holdings Ltd. and CEO of Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., writes in the Orlando Sentinel today. The paper notes that Redflex “is vying for a red-light-camera contract in Orange County.”
Grateful? Not bloody likely.
Posted on March 27, 2013
Obama’s Choice For Energy Secretary Checks Off All The Key Revolving Door Boxes Including BP
By Justin Elliott/ProPublica
When President Obama nominated Ernest Moniz to be energy secretary earlier this month, he hailed the nuclear physicist as a “brilliant scientist” who, among his many talents, had effectively brought together “prominent thinkers and energy companies” in the continuing effort to figure out a safe and economically sound energy future for the country.
Indeed, Moniz’s collaborative work – best captured in the industry-backed research program he oversaw at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology – is well known. So, too, is his support for Obama’s “all of the above” energy strategy – one that embraces, fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewable energy sources.
But beyond his job in academia, Moniz has also spent the last decade serving on a range of boards and advisory councils for energy industry heavyweights, including some that do business with the Department of Energy. That includes a six-year paid stint on BP’s Technology Advisory Council as well as similar positions at a uranium enrichment company and a pair of energy investment firms.
Posted on March 20, 2013
The City Council’s Regressive Caucus
By Steve Rhodes
Well, I guess the article I reported for Chicago magazine on the city council is out, though not yet on their website, so no link yet.
[UPDATE: Link here.]
Here’s the truth: I was quite disappointed the piece was repositioned at the end of editing into what I view as a garden-variety city council rubber stamp story; the assignment, reporting and original drafts were focused on how Rahm specifically has dealt with the council, with him as the protaganist in a driving narrative that opened with his own campaign promises of change and closed with the genuflecting of aldermen to Dear Leader at the last council meeting of 2012. Hope folks like it, and the early feedback is good, but the final edit made me queasy. Also lost about a thousand words at the end due to, I guess, slow ad sales. But a full page of art!
But this post isn’t to criticize Chicago magazine, for which I’m grateful for the assignment (and the money). They know my views. It’s their call [UPDATE: Nah, I’m pissed. They suck.] It’s to introduce that story to readers as a way to segue into the brazen and bizarre creation this week of a second “progressive” caucus on the council. Normally, this might be news to cheer, seeing as how “progressive” in relation to the council is as much about being “independent” and not in the mayor’s pocket as it is about a left-liberal ideology. In this case, it’s depressing as hell.
Posted on March 14, 2013
Rahm’s Class Size Wars
By Steve Rhodes
On a recent campaign swing, Obama chastised Romney for speaking of teachers “as if he thinks these are a bunch of nameless government bureaucrats that we need to cut back on,” and he said the Republican budget plan would lead to bigger class sizes. “Have you ever met a teacher who said . . . I have too few kids in my class, I want a lot more kids?” Obama said at a North Las Vegas high school.
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President Obama’s campaign quickly responded with a video featuring a former Massachusetts school superintendent attacking the cuts and a fifth-grade teacher saying, “Come be in a classroom with fifth graders and tell me class size doesn’t matter.”
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The Emanuel administration really stepped in it again when Chicago Public Schools spokesperson Becky Carroll defended a plan to increase class sizes by dismissing concerns that students would be negatively impacted.
“It’s the quality of teaching in that classroom,” Carroll said. “You could have a teacher that is high-quality that could take 40 kids in a class and help them succeed.”
That’s a direct repudiation of the position of not only the current president of the United States, but also the previous Democratic president – both of whom Mayor Rahm Emanuel worked for and whose policies (including smaller class sizes) he vigorously championed.
Let’s take a look.
Posted on March 7, 2013
Despite New Pardons, Obama’s Clemency Rate Is Still Lowest In Recent History
By Cora Currier/ProPublica
On Friday, President Obama pardoned 17 people. But despite the new pardons, the Obama administration has still granted clemency more rarely than any president in recent history.
Indeed, the day before the pardons were announced, a Department of Justice spokesman said, Obama had denied 314 other applicants.
A ProPublica analysis of Justice Department statistics last November found that Obama had granted pardons at a lower rate than Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, or George W. Bush had at the same point in their administrations.
Posted on March 6, 2013
How Does The U.S. Mark Unidentified Men In Pakistan And Yemen As Drone Targets?
By Cora Currier/ProPublica
Last week, we wrote about a significant but often overlooked aspect of the drone wars in Pakistan and Yemen: so-called signature strikes, in which the U.S. kills people whose identities aren’t confirmed.
While President Obama and administration officials have framed the drone program as targeting particular members of al-Qaeda, attacks against unknown militants reportedly may account for the majority of strikes.
Posted on March 3, 2013
The Drone War Doctrine We Still Know Nothing About
By Cora Currier and Justin Elliott/ProPublica
The nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director has prompted intense debate on Capitol Hill and in the media about U.S. drone killings abroad. But the focus has been on the targeting of American citizens – a narrow issue that accounts for a miniscule proportion of the hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen in recent years.
Consider: while four American citizens are known to have been killed by drones in the past decade, the strikes have killed an estimated total of 2,600 to 4,700 people over the same period.
The focus on American citizens overshadows a far more common, and less understood, type of strike: those that do not target American citizens, al-Qaeda leaders, or, in fact, any other specific individual.
In these attacks, known as “signature strikes,” drone operators fire on people whose identities they do not know based on evidence of suspicious behavior or other “signatures.”
According to anonymously sourced media reports, such attacks on unidentified targets account for many, or even most, drone strikes.
Posted on February 27, 2013
What Researchers Learned About Gun Violence Before Congress Killed Their Funding
By Joaquin Sapien/ProPublica
President Obama has directed the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence as part of his legislative package on gun control. The CDC hasn’t pursued this kind of research since 1996 when the National Rifle Association lobbied Congress to cut funding for it, arguing that the studies were politicized and being used to promote gun control.
We’ve interviewed Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who led the agency’s gun violence research in the nineties when he was the director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. We talked to Rosenberg about the work the agency was doing before funding was cut and how it’s relevant to today’s gun control debate. Here’s an edited transcript.
Posted on February 26, 2013