Representative Alan Grayson Owns Republicans on Health Care
Representative Alan Grayson (D) - FL said that Repubs "want you to die quickly if you get sick" and called government's inaction on health care a "Holocaust". Republicans, of course, want to slap him on the wrist for his comments, by using the same mechanism used on ol' boy Ragin' Joe' Wilson.
Keeping the internet free from corporate consolidation is critical to the future of or democracy. Obviously democracy was fine before the internet, but our means of communication with each other should stay as free as possible. Check out the new Open Internet FCC website.
Former Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (once the chairman of the US House's Ways & Means Committee) back in 1989 was chased down by some senior citizens protesting legislation, Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act. They complained that they had to pay more taxes for the additional benefits. Rostenkowski seemed more rattled by the citizens than some of the Senators facing their own angry mobs in the current health care debate.
If only we had those types of contentious townhalls here. I can't argue about the people putting their politicians to the fire!
We've had a very surprising week as far as 2010 is concerned. The big surprise was that Lisa Madigan is staying put at Attorney General. This seems to be the week where those who were just waiting to make their moves are making them essentially.
Well depending on your perspective, this report of Roland Burris not seeking election to his Senate seat might be surprising. Perhaps some of us might believe that his ego might cause him to run for a seat many of us certain that he will not even succeed in a primary.
But since he's choosing not to run for the US Senate, then that opens the field up a little. Otherwise if Burris remained in the race, it wouldn't be difficult for me to say that the Republicans could pick up this seat.
Well now it might be a little difficult to predict. We have Mark Kirk for the Republicans and that field has yet to form. While for the Democrats we have a Kennedy, our state Treasurer who just so happens to be friends with the current President of the United States, and a Black woman who heads the Chicago Urban League. Right now the interesting field might be on the Democratic side but I won't predict who might be able to take this seat.
What say you? Who might be likely to be our next sitting Senator after 2010? Is that person in the race or have we ever heard of that prospective Senator?
Five local transit and planning advocates held a media briefing via conference call on June 25 to elevate the attention level of House Transportation Committee chairman James Oberstar (D.-MN)'s $500 billion surface transportation stimulus/funding bill, as well as to call for improvements in the bill. The consensus of the panel was that the bill provides much needed funding but still lacks some key elements, most prominently performance measures and a heavier mass transit emphasis, to effect meaningful change in national transportation policy.
Oberstar and Rep. John Mica (R.-FL) released the full draft text of the 775-page Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 ("STAA") on Monday, June 22. A shorter 17-page summary was made available the week before. Fuller account below.
Earlier this month, Americans crossed a significant milestone.
The amount owed to the U.S. Federal government by each and every American citizen reached $200,000.
A Chicago-area non-profit organization called the Institute for Truth in Accounting wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard this news, much less the news that the national debt is nearly $62 trillion, not the $11 trillion depicted on the national debt clock in Washington.
Given how much Schakowsky has flogged her early support of now-President Obama, I wonder if his close relationship with state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the other prominent Dem candidate (besides the--supressed chuckle--incumbent) weighed on her decision? Having months of leaked quotes stating that President Obama preferred his former basketball buddy would surely be humiliating. That is 100% speculation--I'd bet the President will avoid getting involved in any public way. But this is home state and his former seat; how absent can he really be?
UPDATE, 6/9: After getting some feedback from readers, my speculation doesn't seem to be the case. An interesting argument was made that, in fact, spots in Alexi Giannoulias' record--the Broadway bank loans to shady characters--could be a headache for the administration or state Democrats. That stuff was hashed through in '06, but obviously given the intervening humiliation of a Democratic governor getting indicted, it could have new teeth. In any case, the prospect of facing two immensely rich dudes (Chris Kennedy and Alexi) is more logically the overwhelming reason for Rep. Schakowsky's decision.
It's hard not to guffaw like a frat boy every time I come across news or analysis of yesterday's "Tea Parties" (Rachel Maddow=genius). It is particularly hard to hear clips of protestors talking about how "it's time for us to wake up those folks in Washington to what people really think," as I heard over and over again on NPR last night, as if Obama wasn't just elected by fairly comfortable margins and doesn't enjoy 60% approval rating. (or even that a large percentage of Americans think the tax system is fair). Those of us who lived through the Clinton years had very few illusions about the ability of the "extra-chromosome right" as Al Gore called them to exist in loyal opposition. So we're now subjected to debates over Obama's role in promoting piracy, governors advocating secession, and whatever other outrages emerge from the miasma of the right-wing politics of victimhood.
Stepping away from the hypocrisy and potential danger of the inflamed rhetoric on the right, one can't help but be impressed with the fearlessness of conservative politicians, pundits, and activists. It doesn't matter that the last eight years are widely viewed as a series of exhibits on the failure of their essential ideology or that they were roundly repudiated at the polls in November. Even if their grievances are fuzzy and inchoate and their way out of the current situation is to apply the same medicine that got us here, only in higher does, they are so convinced of the dire consequences of not opposing the current president that they will engage in pretty ridiculous behavior to see him stopped.
It's becoming pretty obvious from the reporting of Ben Jovarsky, budget woes, and the three tires I've had to change in the last month that calling Chicago the city that works is a rhetorical stretch, to say the very least. A broke, pock-marked city that attempts to replace front line police officers with cameras, sell off all its assets to the highest bidder in return for slush funds for Mayoral fantasies of grandeur is not one headed down the right road. But yet we have a more or less completely compliant City Council that marches in lock-step with the flailing failing policies of our mayor while the media focuses on Todd Stroger's foibles while letting Daley's slide by. It's probably also true that the Mayor has done a great job of making himself, and not the tenant farmers of the City Council represent government in this city, so that voters and non-voters alike rarely hold alderman accountable. The situation is especially disappointing to those of us who worked hard to elect a slate of independent alderman, only for them to come back and say "you don't understand how scary the Mayor can be." Our city is crumbling and the most those who are charged with fixing it can say is that they can't speak out because of the hypothetical fear of losing city services in their wards
Maybe Chicago needs some disloyal opposition, some crazy "tea-baggers" who will throw caution to the wind and not be afraid of the retributive consequences, real or imagined. If right wing Republicans aren't scared of the President and Democratic Congress who just thumped them in elections, then why are we still electing alderman who defeat the machine candidate in their wards and remain afraid of the mayor?
A reader reported to us that she happened to fly back from a trip to DC on the same American Airlines flight Thursday as both Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Roland Burris. The flight was delayed three hours, during which time Burris worked the gate, shaking hands and talking with other passengers. Durbin was nowhere to be found until the plane began boarding.
The senators turned out to be seated right next to each other -- Burris by the window, Durbin in the middle seat, with a large gentleman on the aisle. Durbin and Burris didn't speak the entire flight, according to our source, who was two rows in front of them. Burris reportedly stared out the window the whole way, while Durbin appeared to be sleeping. They went in opposite directions once the plane landed at O'Hare. Considering their recent meetings have been tense, it's no surprise -- but you'd think they would have been able to switch seats.
Greg Hinz says that Chicago Urban League CEO Cheryl Jackson is looking at a run for Burris' U.S. Senate seat. Here we go!
Probably the last thing embattled U.S. Sen. Roland Burris needs now is for another prominent African-American to make a move on his Senate seat.
But that's exactly what's happening.
Confirming political rumors, Cheryle Jackson, the president and chief executive officer of Chicago Urban League, says "I am considering a race" for the Senate seat now held by Mr. Burris.
"Given the economic crisis, I have to consider what I can bring to the table," Ms. Jackson said in an interview Wednesday. Whether she actually runs depends on where she concludes she can best pursue "my passion" of spurring economic development, she added.
Well I didn't think people would start declaring openly whether or not they'll run against someone. He hasn't been comfortable in his Senate seat for a month and people are already lining up against him. Of course we know why: It's been dominating the news since the weekend.
Some folks, like the bankers the Trib's Greg Burns quoted today, are saying that a trillion is so big no one can grasp what the bailout and stimulus numbers really mean. A trillion is a big number, but it's not impossible to understand. It's a thousand billions, or a million millions. You know what a million is, right? It's more than you probably make, and more than you probably have.
But this daunting figure is so large only because the U.S. is a big country of over 300 million people. Anything we do on a national scale is now, by definition, a big number. Break it down by population, and a trillion is easier to understand. And since this is money that ultimately comes mainly from you and me, let's break it down by taxpayer.
The Lilly Ledbetter Act is ridiculously long overdue. I remember Jesse Jackson fighting for equal pay in 1988. That there has been structural, institutional pay discrimination against a majority group in the population for the last, uh, forever, without public policy remedy is ludicrous.
"Ultimately, equal pay isn't just an economic issue for millions of Americans and their families, it's a question of who we are -- and whether we're truly living up to our fundamental ideals," President Obama said. "Whether we'll do our part, as generations before us, to ensure those words put on paper some 200 years ago really mean something -- to breathe new life into them with a more enlightened understanding that is appropriate for our time.
In fewer than 3 days on the job (or 2 if you were one of those who was getting ready to sue because of the flubbed oath on Tuesday) President Obama has moved decisively to expand government transparency at the federal level.
Contrarians are going to have a rough go of it for a while. That's OK, though; skepticism is easy when everybody agrees with you. It only counts when nobody wants to hear you.
Follow along as we liveblog the Inauguration from Chicago and Washington, D.C. We have several correspondents on the ground, and folks watching it from here in Chicago.
MarathonPundit nicely captures in a phrase the whiff that will follow Senator Burris around Washington. I used to (cruelly) refer to Congressman Hastert as "Denny Hastert (R-Brisket)." Now we have "Roland Burris (D-Blagojevich)."
Even after the Friday ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court made it pretty apparent that Roland Burris would be seated in the U.S. Senate, I continued to hear over the weekend scenarios by which various aspirants to fill Barack Obama's vacancy could still get there by way of a special election. The Chicago Tribune has been clamoring for one, putting the onus on, variously, presumptive governor-to-be Pat Quinn or Sen. Dick Durbin to somehow accomplish that.
John Fritchey, State Representative from the 11th District (Lakeview, Bucktown, and Ravenswood) and Committeeman for the 32nd Ward (Bucktown, Ukrainian Village) announced this morning that he also will be running for the seat opened up by Rahm Emanuel's resignation.
As many of us predicted, the opening of this seat is going to create a wide-open race that could have repercussions for city politics over the next couple of years.
Contenders will include Fritchey's neighboring Rep, Sara Feigenholtz, newcomers Justin Oberman and Charles Wheelan, County Commissioner Mike Quigley, likely 40th Ward alderman Patrick O'Connor, and of course attorney and author Tom Geoghegan, among others. O'Connor, if he runs, would likely win the endorsement of the county party, although that's no certainty (nor does it guarantee a win). Feigenholtz and Quigley hold major fundraising advantages*.
Given the presence of Feigenholtz, Fritchey, and Quigley, this race will be won west of Kedzie as those three, among others, split their base vote.
*Commenter John points out that Quigley hasn't raised the money yet, only that he expects to. The misreading is mine, that Quigley meant that he plans to announce he'd raised as much money as Feigenholtz, not that he had yet to raise it.
Labor lawyer and progressive writer Tom Geoghegan announced this morning that he will in fact be running for the 5th District Congressional seat opened up by Rahm Emanuel's resignation to serve President-elect Obama.
Geoghegan's entry could bring a little more national attention to the race, particularly from the progressive opinion leaders on the series of tubes we call the Internet.
Here's a sample from Geoghegan's "Issues" page:
"Indeed, all sides, even the Bob Dole Right, could stand a little more class-based politics, a little more Dunlop-type rationality. 'The great thing about class-based politics,' a professor once told me in college long ago, 'is that it's rational.' Instead of the Politics of Meaning, we talk $1.25. The purpose of such politics is not to heat the country up, but to calm it way down. Get back to the America of Dwight Eisenhower, when labor was at high tide and there was social peace. But to get back to that Era of Good Feelings, first we have to remind people, 'You're Being Robbed.'"
As reported earlier, the Tribune's Swamp blog live-blogged Roland Burris' failed effort to get seated in the U.S. Senate today. Burris was not seated, and thankfully there were no fireworks.
Something eloquent about the closing lines:
Burris got into a silver minivan with Massachusetts plates at 11:03 am EST and drove away. It was an Odyssey.
Hey, could we make this a haiku?
Burris got into
a silver minivan with
Massachusetts plates
Check out what Hotline says about the current state drama with regards to Blagojevich's pick to succeed the President-elect in his vacated Senate seat. Of course, it's brief as they cover two other U.S. Senate stories.
Laura Washington of the Sun-Times breaks down the politics behind the "keep-the-seat" pro-Burris forces:
The Burris contingent has a compelling case. The law is on their side, Burris passes the credentials test with flying colors, and the nation needs and deserves a qualified African American in the Senate -- right now, not two years from now.
The preachers are on board. Chicago's powerful cadre of black ministers knows how to deliver their lines with elan. We need a black man in this white, elite chamber. "Amen."
The U.S. Senate cannot represent all of America if 12 percent of its population is excluded from representation. "Hallelujah."
"I am now the junior senator from the state of Illinois," he said from the pulpit of a South Side church on what he said was the eve of his trip to Washington.
Rick Perlstein, author of one of the best non-fiction books of the last five years, Nixonland, has started a Facebook group in support of labor lawyer and progressive author Tom Geoghegan running to replace Rahm Emanuel in Chicago's Fifth Congressional District. I don't believe Geoghegan (pronounced GAY gin, with hard g's) has officially announced his candidacy, but an ActBlue page and P.O. Box have been set up in support of a run.
If Geoghegan runs, it wouldn't be a surprise to see him garner national attention from progressive activists.
Rep. Bobby Rush (1st) is a guy with many facets. I pass along, without immediate comment, this email from his staff.
Well, OK, one comment: there will be no Will.i.am videos on behalf of this "movement." There is some downright repugnant demagoguery in this press release. That's two comments. Here's a third: Let it go, Congressman.
Fri., January 2, 2009, 2:00 p.m. 773-629-5948
CONG. RUSH ORGANIZES NATIONAL MOVEMENT TO SEAT
SEN. ROLAND BURRIS IN U.S. SENATE
Coalition plans massive support rally on Sunday, Jan. 4th in Chicago
CHICAGO -Today, U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush said he has organized a national coalition to ensure Sen. Roland Burris takes the oath of office next week in the U.S. Senate and he also reissued his call to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) not to 'stand in the door of the Senate' and block the only African-American member from the legislative body.
On Wednesday, December 17, the Chicago Board of Education held its regular monthly meeting, one day after Barack Obama announced his nomination of Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education. The meeting began with a standing ovation for Duncan, local champion of school "turnarounds" and school choice. The board praised Duncan for his work in Chicago. Principals from various CPS schools were on hand, each giving their iteration of how Duncan was wonderful for Chicago and will be wonderful for the nation.
The public comments portion of the proceedings, the time when community members are given the chance to weigh in on their proposals and reactions to the CPS, sharply contrasted the preceding love fest. In this time, a coalition of teachers, parents, and students was there to voice its concerns over Duncan's model for urban education. The groups, including members of CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators), PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education), and the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization took to the mics during the public portion of the meeting to voice their concerns about the school closings, school turnarounds, and Mayor Daley's educational piece de resistance, Renaissance 2010.
Most on the list of forty-four speakers spoke critically of the policies under Arne Duncan. One notable exception was the principal of Namaste Charter School , who proposed a renewal of her school's charter, citing a decrease in the Body Mass Index of her students. Two foci of Namaste are continual assessment of students and yoga.
Although our governors are making us the shame of the nation, much of the state is still feeling the afterglow of Obamamania. Slowly, we see our sons and daughter pack their bags and head out to D.C. to create change. The popular media have reported that Chicagoans are happy to see our citymen make the transition to the national spotlight.
Tuesday, Obama announced Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, to be his choice for Secretary of Education, to succeed Margaret Spellings. The popular media again report that we Chicagoans are all happy with the choice of Duncan, who they repeatedly mention as a "reformer."
Duncan comes from the camp of "reformers," a term widely used by the popular media to describe big-city superintendents who lead districts with vast disparities in educational opportunities using scarce resources. Duncan, Washington, D.C.'s Michelle Rhee, and New York City's Joel Klein share the belief that the underlying problem in education in the United States can be mainly pitted on "bad teachers." Solutions they propose: merit pay for teachers whose students make gains on standardized tests, giving parents the option to enroll their students in charter and specialized schools, and working around the much vilified policy of teacher tenure. These are all measures that keep budgets low but have unproven track records for success.
We've been artificially stimulating consumption for decades now. Isn't it time we stopped and thought about what we should be "stimulating?"
I think "stimulus packages" are nonsense, but if we are going to go down that path, shouldn't we rethink what we should be stimulating? We ought to be stimulating the production of value, and nothing else. Perhaps more importantly, stimulating the production of value goes hand-in-hand with preventing (current and future) the unnecessary destruction of value, which comes in the form of waste, corruption, duplication of effort, and any other misallocation of resources in both the public and private sector.
Last month I posted a blog that spring-boarded off an article from this website I like to read, LewRockwell.com. The main thesis of this article is that the government by its nature isn't "liberal" and it doesn't do what it is supposed to do.
Well, needless to say, LewRockwell is a libertarian website that would say that there are some functions that government assumes but these functions are better served by the market. Well, the reason why I write this post isn't at this moment to argue about what offers the best services: private entities or the government.
I wanted to somehow relate that article with the state of government -- well, mostly in the city, since city government is delivering most of the services we rely on. We could expand this topic to talk about county government or state government. But let's focus on city government for now.
It has often been said that the residents of the city of Chicago will tolerate a certain amount of corruption as long as city services are delivered and government is well run. Never mind what the U.S. attorneys or anyone else might discover as far as something illegal in city government.
But perhaps someone should ask the question: What does good government entail to those of you who live in the city? Or indeed I could ask about any aspect of government in Illinois. What is good government?
A better question: What do you expect from your government?
By all accounts, Cong. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is on the "short list" of possibilities to fill Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat for the next two years. Some newspapers and activists have been actively lobbying for Gov. Blagojevich, who has sole discretion in the decision, to appoint Jackson.
Mr. Obama is co-sponsor of a bill that would require employers to recognize unions if a majority of employees sign "union-authorization" cards, eliminating the current secret-ballot process. The House passed the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007, but Senate Republicans blocked the bill. It faced a certain veto from President George W. Bush.
...
Chicago hospitals appear ready for a battle regardless of whether the bill passes. After spending much of the last two years campaigning for labor-friendly Democrats, local union leaders say they'll quickly shift their focus to organizing. A sweeping labor-reform law would boost those efforts, they say.
Employers use the language of a "secret ballot" to portray themselves as defending their employees' rights, conveniently ignoring the fact that it is every single step up to the secret balloting that makes America's labor law regime outright hostile to private sector organizing. Currently, workers need to demonstrate a "showing of interest" by signing authorization or union cards (or a petition), file it with the National Labor Relations Board (which, since 1976, has been more or less dominated by conservative appointees, thus creating reams of hostile case law), and then the fun part starts: deciphering which employees are reasonably considered in the same collective bargaining unit, which specific employees can't be included, negotiating the place and nature of the election, etc. etc. All the while the employer is targeting and harassing union activists, and forbidding activists from campaigning for the union while they actively campaign against it -- basically, it would be a "fair secret ballot election" if you consider an election where only one side is allowed access to the voters, is allowed to campaign, and can fire voters who disagree with them as a "fair secret ballot election."
The media, understandably, were quick to seize on Barack Obama's race and relative youth as reasons for his historic victory. These salient, obvious characteristics correlate neatly to two demographics - black voters, and younger voters - among which he did handsomely. Less apparent and far less discussed, but manifest in national voting patterns that go deeper than the over-tired red-blue electoral map, and with equally significant portent for future national policies, is Obama's urbanity. Not only is Barack Obama the first Chicagoan (albeit non-native) to gain the Oval Office, he is the first president in a long time who hails, at least in adult life, from a city.
It shocked many education wonks when President-elect Barack Obama announced Linda Darling-Hammond as his campaign's education policy adviser.
Their pick would have more likely been a staffer from one of the big-city school districts that adhere to the a very simple orthodoxy. The formula is simple. Deprofessionalize teaching, hire fresh-faced Ivy-League graduates ready to do their two years of service in the classroom (that they would normally reserve for the non-profit sector), privatize everything from school services to curriculum, and make the bottom line as small as possible.
Hurray! Barack Obama has been
elected the next president of the United States. You always knew it would
happen - perhaps as far back as 2004 - because after all, you're from Chicago.
And if you're a Chicagoan in politics, chances are you're already thinking
about getting that nice gig in DC.
