Digg this
| 
Post to del.icio.us
| 
E-mail to a friend
I got a big kick out of Mark Konkol's story in Friday's Sun-Times about the downtown residents who are seething at Mayor Daley for writing them off as a bunch of bigots because they're against his plan to move the Chicago Children's Museum to Grant Park.
The best quote came from a black woman named Ariel Elliott, who figures Daley has a helluva nerve playing the race card. "Who is he to say we're racists," said Elliott. "He grew up in Bridgeport. Please. Give me a friggin' break."
Of course, what I don't understand is why downtown residents are suddenly surprised to discover that their mayor is a bully who's not afraid to hit below the belt. I mean where have they been for the last -- oh -- 18 years as he's shoved one stupid idea after another (Soldier Field, Meigs Field, the failed airport in Peotone Hegewisch) down the throats of people who didn't want them?
The residents kind of remind me of the slackers who showed up at a City Council committee meeting this summer to bitch and moan about the city's proposed tax on concert promoters. It's like those dudes rolled out of bed early one afternoon, stumbled over their bong pipes, and realized they were living in a city run by a not-so-benign dictator.
Maybe the downtown residents are feeling like spurned lovers. They were almost cultlike in their allegiance to Daley in February's mayoral election. In the 42nd Ward Daley won about 86 percent of the vote against Dorothy Brown and William Walls, racking up more than 90 percent of the vote in two of the ward's precincts.
I always thought these voters were inconsistent for ousting incumbent aldermen Burt Natarus for Brendan Reilly. As anyone in City Hall will tell you, Natarus was only following the fifth floor's orders on zoning and development deals. You'd figure folks in this ward would be smart enough to connect the dots. But, no, they punished the factotum and rewarded the boss.
On the other hand, I can sort of understand why Daley's miffed at them. By Chicago standards, they're highly ungrateful. After all, Daley plundered the tax coffers to build them Millennium Park. With most Chicago voters, you give them a garbage can and they're yours for life.
These women he are talking about are like the "Bogan Broads" of the 60's, the women who waited outside of Bogan High School on the Southwest Side of Chicago to hurl racial ephithets at the black kids who were bused in as a part of court ordered desegregation.
Flash forward to 2007 - the language is not so coarse and the tenor is more sophisticated, yet the message is still the same. The folks in the Randolph high rises to not want "them" to come into "their" private park, playground, tennis courts, ice rink and field house.
The rubbish about free, open and forever clear is a smoke screen. If they meant that, they should tear down the existing field house, tennis courts, playground equipment and ice rink and plant a lawn if they are going to strictly construe Montgomery Ward's words.
Otherwise, they are doing a George Wallace job of standing in the schoolhouse door.
This is about control. Daley is irate that an alderman, and a freshman no less, would have the audacity to defy him. Daley knows he must defeat Reilly or other aldermen might find their spines. Daley made an ass of himself last week as he is pulling out all the stops to keep his aldermen tethered.
http://morsehellhole.blogspot.com/2007/09/paid-to-...
I'm amazed at the depths to which even 'orion' will sink, the level of bullshit is astounding.
Did 'orion' even read the article?
It seems unlikely, as, would even the likes of 'orion' be dumb enough to accuse a black woman of not wanting black children visiting her neighborhood?
Shit, 'orion', this woman HAS children.
This woman moved to this neighborhood precisely to get away from the effectively segregated area where Daley lives.
This woman states plainly that she doesn't want Daley to do what Daley wants to do.
How fucking difficult is it to read the article and understand the meaning of the words?
Maybe the truth is that the orion's of this town are the ones who don't want 'them' moving into 'their' neighborhoods.
Whoever 'them' and 'their' may be.
"Propaganda is alive and thriving in Chicago.
The spin machines are running night and day, day and night, 24/7/52, coating the many lies with paper-thin layers of truths.
Hard-working manipulators labor incessantly to keep the machine running smoothly, making heroic efforts to carefully assemble each component of the gigantic deception enterprise we've come to know and despise, aka, our city government.
The fuel this machine runs on, taxpayer dollars, is steadily flowing, like the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf, seemingly unstoppable, relentless, a flow one thinks one can depend upon, a force of nature.
Then, the unthinkable happens.
Daley speaks.
Daley spouts.
Daley fucks up that finely tuned and crafted bullshit machine, throwing it so far out of balance that those hard-working liars who strive daily to maintain it's balance are put to the test.
Can they repair the damage in time, to keep the now dangerously unbalanced money-making engine from destroying itself?
Can they do anything to save this machine from tearing itself apart?
Can they, somehow, get Daley to shut-the-fuck-up?
Can anyone?"
Nighty-night.
Thank you, jackie, your boss needs all the liars to work overtime on this one.
You are a trooper.
And, if he had to run again today, with all the "racist overtones" and Reilly just simply saying no top a Mayor run amok for too long.....they would vote him in again and again. They would beg him to continue to support the torturer Burge, the collapsing CTA, the out of control budget that favors corruption, and all.
Who can stop him?
Everybody, absolutely everybody, should check out
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/
it's fucking beautiful.
Whether you agree, disagree or just find it amusing, many articles and comments are spot on, even if you aren't an active duty CPD officer.
And the shit they say about our 'fearless leaders' rivals anything on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
Yep, orioboy can't help himself, he's got to stroke his monkey.
The Midget Mayor must be proud.