Rahm Emanuel: C/D? (probably going to be a Chicago politics complaint thread too)

http://assets.dnainfo.com/generated/chicago_photo/2013/05/rahm-time-cover-1369923523.jpg/extralarge.jpg

D, imo

as repulsive as any GOP cock, maybe worse because he thinks he's liberal.

also:

cicadas!

"failing schools" my ass. His idea of rescuing them is forcing them to comply with testing guidelines.

that or turning them over to charter operators

http://www.thenation.com/blog/174478/rahm-emanuels-zombie-pigs-vs-chicagos-angry-birds

It must be pointed out that this deal, even by the standards of shady stadium operations, has people scratching their heads. Building an arena for a third-tier college basketball program as the heart of a new convention center? Was his second best idea a new snack called Nuts & Gum?

HUGE D

only 100% out for himself, no one else, don't let him ever fool you otherwise

Don't blame me, I voted for del Valle.

^^^

Rahm Emmanuel: Why Gitmo Won't End

you know i did not vote for this clown

^^^

So sick of the war on the poor / south-siders ... the violence is instigated by policies dummies

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2013/05/29/5232/chicago-impact-study-assumes-depaul-will-nearly-quadruple-attendance-at-new-arena/

awesome - Rahm pushing that Arena will drive up attendance to DePaul B-Ball games, right?

http://www.debatepolitics.com/midwest/161962-chicago-s-choice-closing-50-schools-but-spending-100-million-basketball-arena.html

must-reads

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/who-has-access-to-mayor-rahm-emanuels/Content?oid=4887900

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/rahm-emanuel-meets-with-gop-and-mitt-romney-donors/Content?oid=6801482

"A look at Rahm Emanuel's calendar shows how wealth and access, far more than party identity or ideology, have come to comand the attention of politicians—leaving everyday people out of the conversation"

He has done so many individual slimy things that he's like a rat king. Focusing on one is losing track of the bigger (slimy) picture.

dudder than dud, he's a repulsive little man who deserves comeuppance

everybody hates him (well, something like 60-70% of the electorate) but there's this power vacuum post-daley that means that nobody else has the name recognition or muscle to defeat him. the spineless city council deserves as much of the blame here.

this is why people should not be mayor for 20+ years.

totally agree. the mayor of my hometown has been mayor since...1986? he's at that point where he thinks he's bulletproof, it's ridiculous. not recommended anywhere.

basically chicago needs a functioning democracy

btw as a north-side jew (who went to high school in the north shore) i feel like I _know_ this guy, which makes my hate for him all the purer

this guy is a complete douchebag and has been for as long as i've known about him. shame because his brother is one of my favorite people

Seems to be getting worse by the week.

my only hope is the stadium thing proves so ridic in wake of the CPS battles that people get their shit together and run his ass out

probably pointless but it's what I have

but hey, bike lanes!

fuck this fucking guy.

running his ass out presumes there is someone who replace them that has something resembling broad-based support?

who the fuck would that be?

feel like kanye could pull a "rahm emanuel doesn't care about black people" and it would be way more pointed

but then obama would call him a jackass again

shame because his brother is one of my favorite people

Ari or Zeke?

(Guessing the latter...)

ha, i meant zeke, don't really know anything about ari other than the entourage character

amazingly powerful family though

"though"

speaking of chicago politics, anyone want to weigh in on the latest from our representatives mark kirk and bobby rush? rahm sided with rush, for obvious reasons and also because he wants to curry favor (win-win for him!) but the fact that a lawmaker is suggesting mass roundup and incarceration of "gang members", that really freaks me out.

Mark Kirk's a piece of shit.

^^ trenchant political commentary

Any proposal that boils down to "round up brown people and stick them in prison" makes me too angry to be more eloquent.

marK KirK ifyouknowwhatImean

yes, he is repellent and awful
but he is an elected representative
where are we getting these clowns
and wtf are they thinking?

he'd be fun to kick in the nuts

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/05/31/two-parking-meter-deals-are-worse-than-one

I really don't believe that the city couldn't get out of that shitty parking meter deal. People break contracts all the time. Sometimes it comes with penalties, but the combined clout of all these bozos in city hall should be enough to keep those penalties to a manageable level. It's a lack of will more than anything else.

Also, seriously, if RE could get the city out from under that contract, he'd be heralded as a hero no matter how many public schools he closed. So obviously something deeply gross (even for Chicago) is going on here.

Also also, I really expected RE to be a lot more entertaining. When he won (don't blame me, I also voted for DeValle) I consoled myself with the thought that there would be lots of temper tantrums and hissy fits and other absurd bits of political theater for our amusement but nope. He's just a stealthy creep.

It's like Pat Quinn. He's just as crooked as Rod Blagojevich but without the amazing hair and hilarious public appearances. Fucking depressing.

Prediction: this Ventra bullshit is going to be as crappy for the city as the parking meter deal.

http://i.imgur.com/sBXbmT2.png

hahaha!

i'm still pissed about mark kirk and the people who voted for him

Hadn't heard about Kirk's gang plan. In the wake of his stroke and his subsequent support of gay marriage, I'd softened toward him, but yeah, that's dumb.

Is Mark Kirk up and running again, or he he locked away somewhere, issuing statements from the shadows?

He returned to the Senate earlier this year.

I wrote this dude off after his request for emergency dictatorial powers in advance of some g8 meeting or whatever was rebuffed

what i really really really want to know is what the fuck does mark kirk know about our judicial system that makes him think this is legal, much less a remotely good idea?
how out there is this guy?!

i'm still pissed about mark kirk and the people who voted for him

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Friday, May 31, 2013 1:43 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

to be fair the democratic opponent was a joke

and also to be frank bobby rush is a useless blowhard these days.

a pox on pretty much every chicago politician.

Yeah I'm with you, but I'm just wondering what it will take for Chicago to demand less clowny representation/leadership.

I am a Jan (Schakowsky) fan. She's good. State rep Heather Steans also good iirc.

he shops at my sister's CVS, she said he's like 4 ft tall

I too am a major Jan Fan. She is straight up awesome.

Congressman Mike Quigley and State Rep. Anne Williams are also aces. Locally, Toni Preckwinkle seems to be doing the lord's work as Cook Count Board Prez and I hope she keeps it up. There were rumors she might run for mayor and I would actually go out and campaign for her (and not bc I want a city job, as I am done-zo with gov't work in this state/county/city. Barf).

I heard the Preckwinkle for mayor stuff too. The bossman at my former employer was buddy buddy with her.

Patrick FItzgerald got out while the getting was good I guess.

Jan's been in the house for a long-ass time, since the late 80s, iirc.

Schakowsky is my mom's district. she's good (except on Israel, which she coddles too much, but maybe she has to in order to retain Rogers Park Jewish vote?). i doubt she's interesting in running the city. i could see her running for senator, although her husband's political scandal would be an impediment.

although honestly who wants to be in the senate?

I'd give it a whirl.

http://www.wbez.org/news/take-peek-mayor-emanuel%E2%80%99s-tax-returns-107527

Tax returns!

State of the city, 2013:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/mayor-spends-tax-dollars-on-sports-arena/Content?oid=9769374

God, I'd totaly run for Senate if ILX financed it.

what would be your platform?

Untrammeled sexual relations with Jake Gyllenhaal clones and compulsory Bryan Ferry listening parties

that might get you Ft Lauderdale

Brooklyn and San Francisco too.

Think I' ll try for a seat in three states.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/mayor-emanuel-locks-in-parking-meter-deal/Content?oid=9931786

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/the-most-yolo-congresman-on-facebook

http://www.salon.com/2013/06/16/rahm_emanuel_is_losing_control_of_his_city/

thread needs:

http://i.imgur.com/JduZ79i.jpg

thing is, if there's no well-organized opposition with a charismatic candidate (there isn't), rahm'll still be reelected.

fuuuuuuuuuuuck

note that i heartily approve of anti-rahm graffiti.

btw they closed my mom's old elementary school (she went there in the 1940s/50s)

they even sent in some folks to start stripping the WPA murals from the walls while class was still in session

someone posted this link to a comment that jon/via/chicago made on facebook about the school closings - it's probably the clearest and most damning refutation of the government's claims about why it closed schools: http://www.wbez.org/news/fact-check-chicago-school-closings-107216

thanks -- saving for next semester's "check your facts" lesson
if you can read the word "schools" and not hear Lind@ Lutt0n saying it, i envy you

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/07/01/illinois-appellate-court-tells-city-cough-up-public-records

i hope dumke has protected himself

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/teachers-fired-vienna-beef-gets-tif-subsidy/Content?oid=10294370

On June 11 Mayor Emanuel officially recommended giving about $5 million to Vienna Beef to move its hot dog factory from the north side to Bridgeport. The mayor hailed it as a shrewd investment that will keep at least 250 jobs in Chicago for the next 15 years.

I was gonna post that yesterday but it was so depressing I just stared at it and thought about what I would say if I ever ran into this guy.

is he dead yet

he deserves boiling hot dogs poured over his head

Musically Smearing Rahm Emanuel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgyn5DpVeak#at=15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgyn5DpVeak#at=15

saw this like 5x and lol every single time

He's frottering the heck out of tha chair.

have we discussed this?

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/rahm-files-teachers-and-hoards-tif-funds/Content?oid=10422212

what a sick fuck he is

just a little slice

My guess is that Mayor Emanuel deliberately timed the release of the TIF portal announcement to gain a little positive PR on the day he was firing a couple thousand of school employees, in part because of the millions of TIF dollars he's hoarding.

It doesn't get much more cynical than that.

Just so you know—it wasn't the mayor who broke the news of the latest firings. No, it seems the mayor's never around when the bad news has to be announced.

He was skiing in Utah when CPS announced which schools were being closed. And he was vacationing in Europe when the early round of budget cuts were announced this summer. For all I know, he was skinny-dipping in the Bahamas when word broke of Friday's firings.

He wasn't seen in public that day. Most of the teachers got the bad news in calls from central office bureaucrats who were reading from scripts.

Now that the cuts are official, Emanuel is blaming them on the teachers—or at least the $400 million contribution he has to make to the teachers' dastardly pension system. Speaking of cynicism.

so deb mell huh

amaya pewar just said on facebook that his tif accountability ordinance (discussed here: http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130719/downtown/city-post-tif-district-information-online) has passed

EZ just posted this in the Chicago thread, but I thought it deserved a place here. This shit makes me furious.

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/20/privatization_fetish_grows_how_corporate_stooges_are_costing_cities_millions/

more tif fuckery

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/09/25/mayor-rahm-finds-92-million-for-his-south-loop-deal

He's disgusting.

more tif fuckery

Misread this.

C on my Tifs

Serious question: do TIFs ever work? Like, they almost kinda sorta make sense to me, but then I feel like the money must always get wasted and funneled to politician's lovers, etc.

i think they work ok in rogers park?

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/09/27/at-saint-sabina-basketball-and-boos-for-mayor-rahm

And yet from what I understand, there are no viable candidates to run against him on the horizon. Although I say that with caution, since the media approached his victory as an inevitability and that may be happening again. Not to mention Chicagoans being well-trained to view mayoral elections as something that happens to them as opposed to something they ultimately control.

Anyway, somebody good run against this clown. I'll pass out flyers for you.

Maybe Tio Hardiman will run. He's definitely not going to be our next governor, but he would be an interesting mayor.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/11/01/mayoral-ally-thanks-police-for-ignoring-the-pot-decriminalization-law-he-sponsored

Solis was the chief sponsor of the pot decriminalization ordinance that went on the books in Chicago last year, making international news. At the time, he called it a good first step toward ending the vast racial disparities in who's busted while freeing police for more serious issues.

It hasn't played out that way. Officers have barely issued any tickets—just 1,117 between August 2012 and this October. Meanwhile, they've made more than 13,000 arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession so far this year, a rate of more than 44 a day—higher than in 2012, records show.

...

The alderman has expressed his displeasure repeatedly over the last few months. In June he told me that he was going to demand that McCarthy publicly answer questions about what's gone wrong. "It's time to sit down and have him give us an explanation of what's happening," the alderman said at the time. "Why are certain communities still targeted? Why aren't we ticketing? What's it costing us?"

As recently as last week, he told the Sun-Times that he would urge McCarthy to get officers to "take it more seriously" and start writing tickets instead of hauling offenders to the station.

But Solis is one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's key allies, and what happened next was what usually happens when aldermen who depend on the mayor gripe to the media: somebody sat him down for a chat.

By Thursday, Solis had seen the light. "Let me thank you for the meeting we had last week," he told McCarthy. "I think it's important to point out that what we have done has been very effective. I'd like you to explain to the rest of my colleagues and to the media what has been accomplished by this ordinance."

Jesus.

I talk abt Chicago politics with people out here sometimes and alot of them will say "chicago's a really liberal city huh" and I have to explain it's the most Democratic big city you'll ever come across but about as far from liberal as you'd imagine from that long held status.

I don't understand this really but it doesn't seem good: http://apps.chicagotribune.com/bond-debt/

It's always sadly funny to me when really Chicagoy civic booster type people sneer at Detroit and other cities as if that kind of thing couldn't happen here.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZZlY6BCcAAKX27.jpg

Is that the Hideout?

Author of Mayor 1% runs into Rahm at Dallas Buyers Club:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/11/20/a-party-for-mayor-1

But Solis is one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's key allies, and what happened next was what usually happens when aldermen who depend on the mayor gripe to the media: somebody sat him down for a chat.

By Thursday, Solis had seen the light. "Let me thank you for the meeting we had last week," he told McCarthy. "I think it's important to point out that what we have done has been very effective. I'd like you to explain to the rest of my colleagues and to the media what has been accomplished by this ordinance."

gah this is so creepy. "just look into the light, my friend. look into the light."

my reaction to rahm emanuel--just the name, doesn't have to be a picture--is almost pavlovian at this point. i immediate start scowling and gritting my teeth.

chicago and illinois are run by shit heads. it's such an embarrassment. i think mike madigan is even more debased and cynical than mayor rahm if you can imagine.

it was apparent what Rahmbo was by 2006. Liberals really need to speed up.

Great job positioning yourself as morally and intellectually superior while not having actually done jack shit.

I thought I was over your boring vague scattershot cynicism as political ethos (oh you thought Rahm Emanuel was "up to something" in 2006? Congrats, so did literally everyone else in the world) but it's especially irksome when applied to local politics that do not impact you at all but do impact me, go fuck yourself.

lol @ morbs having figured the clintonistas out by 2006.

like patting yrself on the back for having the liberty league pegged by 1954

it was apparent what Rahmbo was by 2006. Liberals really need to speed up.

― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Thursday, November 28, 2013 8:53 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did I imply any of this was news to me?

also since does me = "liberals"?

you are a tedious fuck, morbs. my sympathies for having to live w/ yourself.

since WHEN does me

typos

I hadn't kept up with rahms career since getting to Chicago - worse than I feared

His eagerness to quit Washington and take over Chicago was the reddest flag of all.

InformationNo results found for "raw me manual".

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYaeNMCCIAE8Af-.jpg

As if he wasn't already some sort of cyborg.

i wonder how he would score on the psychopath test

T-1000

Seeing this image everywhere lately really grosses me out:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bcg7uu-CUAEJLQI.jpg

don't ✶✶✶✶ with my city

don't barf with my city

Don't Rahm with my city.

HECKLED
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Activist-Who-Heckled-Rahm-Says-Mayor-Hypocritcal-about-MLK-241151911.html

http://www.esquire.com/features/rahm-emanuel-interview-0314

― JuliaA, Thursday, February 20, 2014 2:39 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I get so depressed when people write about Chicago.

HE SUCKS SO MUCH ARGHHHHHHHH

Good article!

Like the political operative he once was, he frames any situation in the context not of what is right or fair or decent but of what is possible. The issue, in Rahm’s view, isn’t city workers who signed a contract filled with promises; the issue is that those promises were never real to begin with, and the only choice he has is to replace them with something that actually might happen. “Life is a series of choices,” Rahm says. “You may have to work longer, and that is pain. And it is also certainty. My view is I would like to give more certainty to more people, which doesn’t exist today.”

i cannot read that right now
i hate him so much

what a charmer:

A five-seven, fifty-four-year-old fitness fanatic who exercises seven days a week, whose weight fluctuates between 149 and 150 pounds, who as a child put pinholes in his mother’s cigarettes to protest her smoking, Rahm rebukes Walmart shoppers picking up alcohol and little else. “That’s a lot of beer,” he tells one young man hoisting an eighteen-pack of Modelo. “Don’t drink it alone.” (Rahm is what they call in Yiddish a kibitzer—he teases, he needles, he taunts, and even though he is in full greet-the-public mode, the booze hounds give him a chance to chide somebody.) Elsewhere in the store, Rahm sees a crying three-year-old standing next to a shopping cart, and checking first with Mom—or perhaps Grandma—he lifts him into the seat, calling for a pack of tissues from his press secretary to address the boy’s runny nose. “You okay now? Better?” Then the lesson. “What do you say to Tarrah?” he asks the boy, who is silent. “Thank you?” prompts the mayor, himself a father of three. Working his way to the front of the store, Rahm says “I’m ready” to his security man, and they head out to the pair of big black Chevy Tahoes idling outside.

Opponent for 2015?

http://inthesetimes.com/article/16321/amara_enyia_rahm_emanuel

A five-seven, fifty-four-year-old fitness fanatic who exercises seven days a week, whose weight fluctuates between 149 and 150 pounds,

I can't figure this out. I'm 5' 7", I rarely exercise and my weight hovers between 142 and 145. Does this mean Rahm has 5 pounds of pure muscle on me?

he's got an aluminum skeleton

he had some weights implanted in order to walk the brass balls walk in addition to talking the talk

http://inthesetimes.com/article/16321/amara_enyia_rahm_emanuel

Opponent for 2015?

http://inthesetimes.com/article/16321/amara_enyia_rahm_emanuel

― That's So (Eazy), Friday, February 21, 2014 3:38 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oops! Sorry! I should read first then post.

Anyway, I like this lady and while I don't think she'll win, I hope she helps spur some viable opposition.

me too -- i don't think he's a stick around forever kinda guy but i could see him going for another term until he decides what he will decimate next.

I dunno, Washington faced a pretty steep uphill battle in 1983, and people are more pissed at Rahm today than they were at Byrne then. And most of the old racist white Democratic machine are either dead, retired, in jail, or are now Republicans who wouldn't stand a chance anyway.

But will those pissed off people vote, that's the question. I sure hope so! I do my part to make voting seem like a vital/necessary activity.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhcOeaRIMAA7-H8.jpg

uuuuuuuuuugh

people are more pissed at Rahm today than they were at Byrne then.

are a lot of people really pissed at him? i mean, sure, huge numbers of folks in progressive and many minority communities. but i don't get the sense that rahm-hate is quite as widespread as it would appear from reading this thread.

also the problem electorally is not really rahm it's whoever might run against rahm. there just haven't been good high-profile candidates with enough name recognition, personality, and funding prospects.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Woman-Heckles-Mayor-at-City-Birthday-Celebration-248426171.html

my CPS teacher friends were all fired up about that. apparently heckling is the only way to get him to listen. also, he deserves it.

Announcing the James Beard nominees right now:

http://new.livestream.com/jamesbeardfoundation/events/2839907

rahm always keeps himself where the real city action is

but i don't get the sense that rahm-hate is quite as widespread as it would appear from reading this thread.

I thought it was nearly as widespread...? I assumed his closing schools while funding that dumbass DePaul stadium was pretty much writing off huge voting blocs.

(but I'm 800 miles away)

well, this is a speshul pol

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/19/chicago-republican-who-blamed-autism-and-tornadoes-on-lgbt-rights-wins-her-primary/

did any of y'all hear the bold shameless pandering to latin@s that rauner (and the lady who introduced him) were doing during the acceptance speeches last night? whoa. never heard anything like it in this state. quinn is over there talking about how the ford plant has THREE shifts and it only had ONE when he started; rauner and gang are literally screaming MAS TRABAJOS

does Rauner have a chance? I live in the People's Republic of Urb@n@ so I haven't kept up with what the Chi feeling is on this. as a state employee I'm not super keen on Quinn's pension "reform" but otoh I don't know what better options there are

i think so
mainly because quinn is weak

he's not a bad person and he is way better than having an activist republican governor, so i'll vote for him, but he is from another time
rauner is thinking forward more than quinn is, and i can see him getting a significant # of votes

i'm not talking about actual policies here, just demographic courting

hey even the .01% need gardeners

well, this is a speshul pol

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/19/chicago-republican-who-blamed-autism-and-tornadoes-on-lgbt-rights-wins-her-primary/

― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, March 19, 2014 2:22 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

“God is angry,” she told the Herald. “We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions. Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it’s in our military, it will weaken our military. We need to respect God.”

Yep, that'll win her Evanston.

Holy shit that lady won!

She is a ridiculous human being. I can't believe she won the primary.

Even a legit candidate would probably not unseat Jan Schakowsky so I'm going to just sit back and enjoy this political absurdity.

he's not a bad person and he is way better than having an activist republican governor, so i'll vote for him, but he is from another time

This is OTM. Quinn is the definition of meet the new boss, same as the old boss. He just hasn't been caught yet. And as a former state employee, I actively dislike him and would love to vote against him but there is no way in hell I'm voting for a Republican for governor.

i will admit that i voted for tio hardiman on account of wanting to express support for his attempt to run
he got 108,065 votes i think (which was 28%)

is Rahm dead yet

Immortal, motherfuckers.

Think I didn't vote for Governor at all yesterday because it didn't seem to matter.

I went on Rauner's website to see if there was a chance he was a "reasonable republican" and a bunch of his plans seem to be "I will crush unions like a bug and this will fix everything." I hope Illinois doesn't get stuck with the new Scott Walker.

i would advise everyone to consider that possibility
he has a lot of money and is pandering furiously

Yeah, I suspect "pension reform" is a dog whistle for "destroy AFSCME."

He's not totally anti-choice, surprisingly enough.

Yeah, at least he doesn't seem socially conservative. Though if ALEC get their claws into him, it might not matter.

Even a legit candidate would probably not unseat Jan Schakowsky so I'm going to just sit back and enjoy this political absurdity.

― carl agatha, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 1:49 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, think about it this way: jan can save a lot of money on campaigning this year.

pro-choice republicans are pretty common in Illinois, no? and in New England...

governor's race is definitely a "lesser of two evils" proposition. even is launer wins (yikes), my guess is that neither the senate nor the house will turn over to the GOP so at least there will be MAJOR checks on the gov's power. so it won't get as bad as here in wisconsin, where the GOP owns the government right now.

Or Ohio (sob)

I remember very different times.

Or Ohio (sob)

― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Wednesday, March 19, 2014 8:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or michigan, right?

2010 was a BAD YEAR.

Amusing to look at what counties Pat Quinn carried in 2010:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Illinois2010.png/403px-Illinois2010.png.

I assume he'll win Cook again. He he'll still probably lose all those other counties as well, but by bigger amounts this time? Who knows.

cook county is worth over 1/2 of those other counties tho

btw did anyone see that CNN online doc or whatever it was about chicago whose ads featured our man rahm in this steely chiaroscuro portrait? i assumed it was trash.

Here's some good links for you guys:

http://pando.com/2014/04/08/revealed-rahm-emanuels-top-donor-bought-stock-in-marriott-just-before-it-was-awarded-huge-chicago-contract/
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117247/contentious-interview-rahm-emanuel

Oops.

That Marriott thing is so shady.

I'd be surprised but it seems like this shit has basically been happening in the open.

lol @ the first exchange in that interview

"We have a great city. The principal reason is the people. We have very strong middle-class neighborhoods."

Somebody show show him this gif

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/2014/04/1.gif

Strong, as in strength. As in the middle class triathletes that still live in the city. Duh.

I wonder how many truly middle class people Rham knows.

I wonder if he could distinguish between a middle class person and a banana.

Anyone else get kind of a Gene Simmons/Gallagher vibe from that interview?

I can't even begin to imagine what that vibe would be. Spitting blood on a smashed melon?

Something like that, but verbally.

It's more a desperate-sounding unearned overconfidence combined with dickishly doubling-down when he knows he's completely wrong.

I think he has his own special brand -- everyone who plays as dirty as he does needs to hide it under a unique façade so as not to be confused with other megalomaniacs.
ugh i can't stand this guy!

i agree about the unearned part though for sure

I loved this interview.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/19/chicago-deadly-shooting-guns-rahm-emanuel-2014

Stung by a 16% spike in killings in 2012 that led Moody’s, the ratings agency, to downgrade the city’s debt due to its "unrelenting public safety demands", Emanuel promised a tough response. Amid spending cuts, the former White House chief of staff to Barack Obama has ploughed tens of millions more taxpayer dollars into policing. Sure enough, in January he proudly announced that 2013 had seen the city’s fewest homicides since 1965 and lowest crime rate since 1972.

Yet a startling 7,000-word investigation earlier this month by Chicago Magazine cast serious doubt over the crime-busting miracle of Emanuel and his superintendent, Garry McCarthy. It identified at least 18 apparent murders in 2013 that had either been quietly redefined as “non-criminal deaths” or shunted off the city’s books by other statistical sleights of hand.

Professor Eli Silverman of the City University of New York, an authority on the CompStat-style data systems used by police in Chicago, New York and other major cities, told the Guardian he had been contacted by several Chicago officers concerned about the determination among chiefs to drive down crime numbers at whatever cost.

“The pressure from the top is unrelenting,” he said one had told him. “The defenders of the system always say ‘You can’t hide a dead body’,” said Silverman. “But you can reclassify one.” City authorities deny any impropriety.

They juked the stats.

i think all cities do this, maybe it's worse in chicago b/c of pressure from on high?

man if i have to hear about how mayor rahm is courting tech and brought motorola back to the city and then listen to an audio clip of someone talking about where the xbox lounge is at their new merchandise mart hq
i am going to go bananas

hate this guy

he's pretty hate-able, it's true

also reported today: he has agreed to install air conditioning in the remaining 30% (iirc?) of CPS schools that are currently not air-conditioned. he made that pledge.

that pledge made, he returned to his office and went back to feasting on the organs of chicago's impoverished children while laughing heartily at a joke told by one of his many CEO friends.

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2014/04/24/the-new-president-obama-school-even-though-cps-closed-50-schools-last-year/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-rahm-emanuel-chicagoland-met-20140425,0,2516905.story

ha, one peek at that video series and that's pretty obvious. last thing we need is propaganda airbrushing a huge dick (figuratively) on emanuel.

it's too bad chicago politics are so dysfunctional that he's all but guaranteed another term in office.

i think the combo of being brought up in a north shore enclave, surrounded by the rich and powerful, and having basically ZERO capacity for imagining the thoughts and lives of those different from him — evident in any single interview w/ him — and hence having no real (as opposed to slicked-up, fake) empathy basically means this asshole will never change. i'm half-convinced he's a sociopath.

half convinced? i've been totally convinced for some time.

http://www.wbez.org/news/education/chicago-add-new-barack-obama-college-prep-high-school-110073

of COURSE it's on the Near North Side, you know, where all the disadvantaged students live

(ok, to be fair, Cabrini -- but that's almost gone now)

(or I guess it was all gone in 2011--guess I haven't driven by there for a while)

in the near north side there's already Payton. and there's Jones in the south Loop. there's Whitney Young on near West side.

why doesn't he just put it on the south side, like in the 30s somewhere, or father on the West side?

oh, wait, it's Rahm fucking Emanuel.

rahm will be mayor for as long as he wants to be, unless he's torpedoed by some enormous scandal. i don't think he's on some teflon daley family shit, i just don't see him losing. also he's still a folk hero to a lot of dems despite everything, bc he's basically as big an asshole as a lot of republicans.

he all but IS a republican, except on obvious cultural issues like gay marriage etc.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/27635186-452/could-rahm-lose-race-over-bike-lanes.html

On one hand this is just the Sun-Times trying to stoke controversy with a headline. On the other hand, I like bike lanes a lot but it'd still be pretty funny if Rahm lost as a result of his work on them. If we keep building bike lanes despite that, all the better.

I want my bike lanes and Rahm out of office, too.

the new gun control stuff is good, i'll admit. but any mayor of chicago would do that.

he doesn't do anything for other people -- it's all for him. if it makes sense for him to engage in measures that increase gun control, he will. if it does nothing for him, he'll wait til it does and oh well if dozens of people die while we're waiting for gun control to be worth his time.

well to be honest how many politicians aren't thinking of self-interest above all? he's an exceptionally egocentric politician but i think the different is in degree not kind.

i like to believe that there are some. personal history would indicate that i'm not wrong!

surely it is a no-brainer for the mayor of a big liberal city to push for gun control. but that doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do.

all i'm saying is that he does it when it's convenient for him
like he does everything

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140709/wicker-park/rahm-campaign-donation-from-development-co-raises-concerns-wicker-park

haven't read this closely yet but it looks pretty good

http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org/2014/07/discussion-of-chicagos-crime-problems-ignore-what-rahm-emanuel-has-done-to-the-police-department/

http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/exclusive-poll-karen-lewis-could-give-rahm-run-his-money/sun-07132014-302pm

If the mayoral election were held today, the lightning rod union leader who was the architect behind a 2012 teachers’ strike would beat Emanuel by 9 percentage points in a head-to-head contest, the survey found.

Lewis was leading Emanuel 45 percent to 36 percent with 18 percent of the likely voters undecided.

HMMMMMM interesting!

Well she needs to shit or get off the pot. And start raising a lot of money.

i don't think she should run, and i don't think she will. i have a lot of admiration for her, but she shares with rahm a difficulty in letting go of personal grudges and an inability when she's being interviewed to avoid taking little snarky potshots even though she has plenty more to say.

That's the problem with most potential candidates. They spend so much energy being anti-Rahm that they don't actually say how they are going to fix things. Just being anti-Rahm isn't going to get them elected.

true. but it will go a fairly long way!

i just met a girl who's office window looks accross lasalle and directly in to rahm's city hall office

just imagining a slow zoom into rahm's office with him standing right by the window giving you the eye of death

apparently the workplace gossip last week was that someone saw "a woman sitting in rahm's chair"

Does the chair face the window? Is he allowed to expose himself to that much light?

http://www.nosferatuscoffin.com/portal/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/noslookingoutwindow.jpg

I dream... of charter schools... everywhere...

Xpost I suppose, I can only speak to my voting tendencies, but I'll vote for Rahm again unless a viable opponent offers a compelling reason that they can do a better overall job.

you know, you don't have to vote if you're disappointed in all the candidates.

True, also an option I would consider.

please consider it!

Mayor of Chicago is such a crap job, it's amazing that anyone wants to do it.

mayor of any place is a pretty tough job

I'd at least rather be a mayor of a city that isn't in such dire straits financially.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Opinion-Beating-Rahm-Will-Take-More-Than-Good-Poll-Numbers-267036301.html#ixzz37TNHqrh2

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-preckwinkle-wont-run-for-chicago-mayor-source-says-20140715,0,1763939.story

That's disappointing. I'd definitely rather for vote for her than Karen Lewis.

"quinn likes talking to people face to face" is a good persuasive tactic for his campaign! i don't want to give him money or even talk with him especially, but "genuinely enjoys meeting people" is more persuasive to me than "rauner will eat your children's educations, digest them, and shit gold coins which he will then invest and use to purchase attack ads for his next campaign"

here's the email i received (i get them every day and enjoy giving a silent mental thumbs up or down to their persuasive techniques)

Governor Quinn loves watching the White Sox -- but you won't find him in the luxury seats.

He sits in the upper deck with the fans.

He likes to say he chose his seats because “You can see the game” from up there, but I know the real reason he sits there is that he loves talking to people.

Bruce Rauner -- a billionaire who owns a stake in not one but three professional sports teams -- is more likely to be watching a game from the owners’ suite. And that’s pretty much how he runs for governor: behind closed doors, surrounded by other billionaires.

That’s not the guy I want running my state. I’m voting for the guy who'd rather sit with me in the cheap seats.

If you agree, donate $5 or more today to be automatically entered for a chance to join Governor Quinn at a baseball game.

While Rauner hides behind millions of dollars of attack ads, the Governor is out there every day meeting people face-to-face, talking through problems, and fighting for solutions.

He’s hoping to get a chance to meet you.

You can enter as many times as you’d like, so even if you’ve chipped in already, there’s still time to up your odds.

Enter today for a chance to win:

https://www.quinnforillinois.com/cheap-seats

See you in the stands,

Carrie

Carrie Glenn
Senior Advisor
Quinn for Illinois

Caption contest.

Also, Al-Jazeera asks Is Rahm Doomed?.

http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/emanuel-pac-created-destroy-eight-aldermen-fioretti-says/mon-08042014-757pm

thanks for closing half the mental health clinics in the city and then spying on protesters!
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/police-infiltrate-mental-health-clinics-nato-three/Content?oid=14519438

^^^that story gave me the rage

closing 50% of the mental health clinics in the city without any studies/task force, plans for what to do next, or approval from anyone but his own decrepit unused conscience?!? that's reprehensible, but trying to squash dissent is some serious misappropriation of power

cannot stand him

genuinely worried about gov race though tbh

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/29378381-452/drop-cps-reform-strategy-cps-neighborhood-school-growth-outpaces-charters.html

http://www.ibtimes.com/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-received-more-100000-comcast-boosting-merger-1676264

>:|

you guys i know quinn is a dullard but we cannot let bruce rauner be the governor. we just can't. he is greedy and awful.

That is a summary of every gubernatorial voting decision I've made since I've moved here.

Quinn is more than a dullard. He's as much of a crook as Blagojevich. He's just not as flamboyant about it.

yeah he's horrible
but bruce rauner is worse! he could eliminate one of the state educational grants that keep me employed/provide so many low income people with access to higher education so i had to ask -- please do not let him be our governor

I would never vote for a repub governor, especially after seeing what kind if nasty bullshit they got up to in WI and NC (to name but two).

and OH!

but the democrats in OH have not exactly provided viable opposition. their current candidate is dead in the water because it was revealed that he has been driving without a license...for a decade!

Holy shit!!!

Man the hubris.

i know
he is a total loser

Good piece in Jacobin about Karen Lewis' disappointing rightward shift:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/09/dont-back-down/

Lewis faces a choice of running a campaign that’s true to the principles she’s championed in the past, or running a conventional race in which she adopts mainstream policies to chase centrist votes while turning off a potentially wider working-class political base. Voter turnout in the 2011 mayoral race was a meager 40 percent. If Lewis becomes a conventional Democratic politician, working-class voters will likely stay home again.

Just as the CTU strike succeeded because of the mobilization of the union rank and file, a Lewis campaign will need to be driven by grassroots organizations and working-class militants, not Democratic professional campaign strategists whose only political principle is “electability.”

http://www.davidbowie.com/sites/g/files/g2000002506/f/201409/mayor_rahm_emanuel_insane_1000sq.jpg

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Sorry Lachera was going to warn you about the giant face

it's a good thing i didn't just eat

should i read that jacobin piece? that website posts so much grad-school-radical bullshit that i'm wary of even clicking over to it.

ok, i read the jacobin piece. i find myself largely agreeing with it, although i think they fail to make a crucial distinction between the CTU drawing huge popular support during the strike and during emanuel's assault on public schools, and Lewis as an individual drawing electoral support as a mayoral candidate. rahm's desperate attempts to scapegoat teachers blew back in his face b/c people like teachers and figure they probably have a better idea of what needs to happen w/ schools than a rich asshole like rahm. i'm not sure that the same dynamic applies if we're talking a mayoral race.

i agree that she shouldn't try too hard to tack to the center not just because it won't be efficacious but also because it's so transparent as to diminish a sense of her as a commanding and canny figure.

but the idea that her endorsing quinn represents some kind of fatal compromise is ridiculous. quinn is a shitty governor, to say the least, but rauner would be horrific, on the level of scott walker here in wisconsin. to make that distinction—which seems clear enough to me—is not the same as giving up.

but that's the same problem i have with everything jacobin publishes, to a greater or lesser extent. i guess we need people saying what they're saying, so i shouldn't be too harsh. but they seem to be mostly writing from the perspective of that old leftist fantasy that the people would only follow if leaders stayed true to their leftist bonafides.

tv is talking about a rauner victory and "change"
O_O

$60 million of his own dollars

60 million dollars

they're playing "don't stop believing" at the rauner HQ

quinn HQ is "quiet"

I feel literally sick right now, like nauseated for real.

You and me both. Major bummed. My wife is from Wisconsin, and her twin sis is a teacher there - get ready for Walker-like attacks on labor & education budget slashing here too. Gee thanks Citizens United for making it easier for rich nutters to get into office. Just sick to my stomach ...

Meet Illinois' new governor.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/17314/bruce_rauner_will_run_illinois_like_his_businesses._that_should_terrify_us

My mom, who campaigned for Carol Moseley Braun in '92, voted for Rauner.

Did she say why?

She said she likes candidates with "raun" in their last name.

I got a Rauner exit poll robo call yesterday and answered the questions out of morbid curiosity and the one about "Do you think Bruce Rauner is pro life or pro choice?" really pissed me off because it narrows the focus of that issue so much as to make it almost pointless. Like you can support Roe v. Wade but also destroy women's access to healthcare and it will have the same effect as making abortion illegal.

When asked whether I would prefer to have a beer with Bruce Rauner or Pat Quinn, I said Bruce Rauner because he's rich so I assume he'd buy.

Also: death to that question forever, fuck.

the do raun raun raun the do raun raun

Seriously, though, I don't know the specifics, because I didn't want to engage her when she told me. But I know she was not a fan of Quinn. I also know that she has grown more conservative over the last 10 or 15 years. By no means a Fox News-watching wingnut -- but before she retired, she had become an executive in a hospital system and just generally became more sympathetic to management over labor. Had nothing but scorn for unions. Also, Rauner kind of reminds me (and maybe her?) of her husband.

This question feels kinda dense but I really don't understand the logic behind spending $60 million of one's own personal cash in order to have the right to slash the educational budget for an entire state. It just doesn't make sense to me. I'm worried about the MAP grant and my students' access to higher education and also my job. Trying not to catastrophize this, but man my innards flop around every time I think about it.

it helps to be overseas this year, but yeah, as a state employee I don't want to think about what this means for higher ed statewide, if/when I return to campus.

esp since the president & chancellor of the U of I have been such bunglers already this year

I just hope the fucker gets indicted sooner rather than later.

history's on our side!

You're not just getting a new governor, you're getting his golfing partners.

save us o rahm

jk we r fucked

By no means a Fox News-watching wingnut

Whatever the realities are of what's going to happen, I noticed this too -- people who would never vote for someone campaigning on a conservative social platform supported Rauner as a "smart-businessman Republican" or whatever.

I will ruin you! I will destroy your family! I will eat your children. /rauner

Great. What kind of press is this going to get nationally. How embarrassing.

Speaking of moms, I don't think my mom has voted for an Illinois Democrat in YEARS, because of some weird personal beef (Durbin excepted), and she voted Quinn because she was so scared of Rauner. Illinois is just weird. I think voters just thought, "fuck it. Let's do something new."

I think your last point is a good one. That's definitely where Rauner was pitching his campaign ads.

i feel pretty low about this

2x

Yeah, I did my best to not pay too much attention to this election, but the results are still kind of crushing.

Maybe the voters want Jim Edgar to come back.

Whatever the realities are of what's going to happen, I noticed this too -- people who would never vote for someone campaigning on a conservative social platform supported Rauner as a "smart-businessman Republican" or whatever.

these are the only kinds of republicans that get elected statewide in illinois IIRC, so of course rauner is going to pitch himself that way.

honestly, of all the elections yesterday that went sour, this one bothers me the most, since i wasn't paying quite enough attention to realize that rauner had a real chance (i'm up in wisconsin and sadly assumed Walker was going to win here).

rahm should be ecstatic, he and rauner are buds.

quinn already moved to eviscerate state employee pensions, i can't imagine what rauner will do.

the good news is that none of it matters because human civilization will be wiped out in a few decades anyway.

silver linings

I just found out a friend of mine waited NINE HOURS to vote yesterday.

what

i think a lot of people voting for rauner probably saw the mess that is illinois and said, "well, it can't possibly get any WORSE." they are wrong.

xp Sounds as if his polling place was one that was hit by the election judge robocalls.

Which, btw, is one of the most underhanded dirty things I have ever heard of.

now we will have a sociopathic mayor AND governor, it'll be lovely

But so many free cool summer events!!! Sobsobsob

I've had to actively try to raise my spirits today.

9 hours and Rauner still winning is like waiting for Hot Doug's and the shop closing right before you get in. And then a piano falls on you.

Owe ya a beer if i ever meet ya Jeff 'cause I'm totally tweeting that.

Quinn won the 43rd Ward by only 0.7%:
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20141106/lincoln-park/43rd-ward-split-between-rauner-quinn-vote-totals-show

http://blogs.wttw.com/chicagotonight/files/2011/02/43rd-Ward-Map.jpg

What a wacky ward.

doe trixies vote?

does

they all live in logan square now

http://www.chicagoreader.com/binary/f20a/1415996071-bx152_1480_9.jpg

RIP Jane Byrne

Tony Arnold ‏@tonyjarnold 41 minutes ago

Emanuel says he wouldn't be mayor now without Jane Byrne and Harold Washington breaking glass ceilings before him

demographic check mark 1
demographic check mark 2

yeah - that's pretty screwed up he'd even say something like this - maybe we'll have a future mayor from naperville that'll thank Rahm for breaking the residency glass ceiling

Meanwhile:
http://www.chicagonow.com/kelly-truth-squad/2014/11/rahm-emanuel-bruce-rauner-violate-sec-pay-to-play-rules-with-pension-cash/

Female population of Chicago/America - 51%/51%
Black population of Chicago/America - 32%/12.6%
Jewish population of Chicago/America - 1.1%/2.2% or less

xp I posted that link on fb because somewhere along the way I picked up a Rahm insider friend, B3cky C@rr0ll and I hoped she'd bite. She did, calling the writer a far right tea partier and the article a bunch of BS, so I said I didn't know anything about the writer (I don't) and asked if the report it was based on is false (http://www.ibtimes.com/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-accepted-campaign-contributions-financial-firms-managing-1723396). She hasn't yet responded.

(btw she is the head of Rahm's superpac: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140620/BLOGS02/140629984/emanuel-backers-form-super-pac-to-raise-millions)

So get this, it turns out *making* the donations is legally questionable, but *accepting* them is not. So, according to Rahm's PR hack, everything's cool.

man i saw her post on fb and she sure needs to use a lot of words to justify his behavior
smh

I didn't even bother responding to her after a while, there's nothing there but spin.

Considered saying "You've made more of a comment here than anyone from your camp has in the media, maybe I should fwd this to B3n J0ravsky?" but didn't feel like it was worth it.

yeah she's like a full laundromat

just forward it to the reader

saw him in a coffeeshop this evening, should have thrown a shoe

You'd probably make the paper!

Bummer that Amara Enyia dropped out of the race. No chance in hell of winning but I liked her better than
Fioretti.

For local election news I recommend signing up for the free aldertrack newsletter http://eepurl.com/4ZXcH. I also paid 10 bucks to get their aldermanic election guide, which is updated daily.

http://www.guysdrinkingbeer.com/lagunitas-political-contributions

Not Rahm but

http://chicagoist.com/2015/01/12/rauner_names_cabinet_team_meeks_to.php

At least the Blankenhorn appointment to IDOT director will probably kill the Illana Expressway.

The important stuff.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150113/BLOGS03/150109858/my-coffee-with-the-mayor

That's about the level of reporting I expect from Crain's.

“I hear about places and if I'm in the neighborhood, I'll try it,” he told me during our coffee meeting at Star Lounge in Humboldt Park. "By 'places' I mean schools, and by 'try it' I mean close them."

lol

"But not if there are a lot of white people in the neighborhood," Emanuel clarified. "I wouldn't do that to my constituents," he chuckled.

A cleverer version of "What's on your iPod?"

http://inthesetimes.com/article/17533/how_to_sell_off_a_city

http://inthesetimes.com/images/uploads/InTheseTimesPrivatizationUnderRahm.png

DISGUSTING

I ran into a coworker/friend last night who encouraged anyone interested in removing this pustule from the mayor's office to volunteer for Chuy Garcia. He gave me some compelling reasons, one of which is that Garcia's experience working with the city goes back to Harold Washington's administration, so he has a lot of experience. I dunno. I'm sure he's not ideal but he's better than gd Goldman Sachs owning our preschools.

chuy garcia is great, a few friends are working for his campaign

Works for me. I volunteered to make calls or knock on doors.

That graphic makes me angry in the pit of my stomach.

illinois, you're in for it

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/28/illinois_new_gop_governor_declares_war_on_labor/

i.e. welcome to my world

What, you got a problem?

http://abc7chicago.com/news/mayors-motorcade-caught-running-red-lights---again-/496698/

Got my vote by mail thing today! I've never done this, will make voting much more likely for me.

enjoyable article about the career and life of Chuy Garcia http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/jesus-chuy-garcia-rahm-emanuel-chicago-mayor-race-karen-lewis/Content?oid=16255514
worth reading even if you don't have a Chicago zip code (hell plenty of Rahm's rich friends/campaign supporters don't have Chicago zip codes either and they are very literally invested in this mayoral race)

Finally unfriended my Rahm shill friend on fb when she started deriding the League of Women Voters.

omg
what's her damage?

"spin"

lmao she's a PR hack

i guess i really don't understand the headspace those people occupy whatsoever
their pov is just so, i dunno, bleak? like people are just creatures who can be manipulated this way or that way and whatever happens next who cares.

The best was when she was doing communications for CPS... or just using it: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/tensions-between-cps-fired-ceo-jean-claude-brizard-and-becky-carroll/Content?oid=7932019

i guess i really don't understand the headspace those people occupy whatsoever
their pov is just so, i dunno, bleak? like people are just creatures who can be manipulated this way or that way and whatever happens next who cares.

― groundless round (La Lechera), Thursday, February 5, 2015 5:09 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think people like Dan's friend are true believers. Which is also pretty bleak.

true

true believers are the ones who are the most strident defenders of the worst shit that they'd be the first to leak to the papers if an opponent did it

although i have seen true believers of one sort turn into true believers of a very different sort
those who truly don't care what happens to people scare me slightly more than believers

I think this person truly believes in whomever is paying her.

it's so depressing to think that chuy garcia has little chance. i'm stuck up here in wisconsin, but y'all should campaign for him for reals.

every time we come close to moving back to chicago and are forced to push the date i'm disappointed but also i don't know what the hell i am or would be getting myself into with this asshole running things, and i presume he will win another couple terms before he decides to quit or before there's a candidate who can take him down.

oh, most places have assholes running things, no? chicago is just a very big place.

l.a. is run by very ineffective assholes, mostly, though i guess eric garcetti is a bit of a minor emanuel in a lot of ways. rahm just seems like a very, very effective and deeply entrenched asshole.

I had dinner with some of my former state govt colleagues who had insider info on how Rauner is running things. Short answer: the same exact cronyism as every previous governor (specific example: appointing all of his people to the key political patronage jobs with a 40% raise while giving speeches about eliminating govt waste) but he's also working on getting rid of the union from the inside by telling employees they could have merit bonuses if it weren't for that darn union.

Tribune endorsed.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-mayor-endorsement-rahm-emanuel-edit-0208-20150206-story.html#page=1

reducing the political process to sighs and lols doesn't really work for me, but here is a lol to balance it out
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150206/downtown/mayoral-candidate-willie-wilsons-city-club-speech-was-stuff-of-legends

i like "scrootened" as an abbreviation of "scrutinized"

this kinds of reminds me of rick santorum's "blah people" --remember that?

"blah people" says the wet mayor

That's a defensive word.

Well this is straight up pandering: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/363086/rahm-emanuel-jrw-title-little-league-international

I'm still undecided in this mayoral election. Leaning towards just leaving it blank.

please vote and try to force a runoff
please?

Good Zirin piece on JRW here:

I reached out to Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey who said to me, “Mayor Rahm closed half a dozen schools in Jackie Robinson West’s part of the city, and tried to close the school, Marcus Garvey, where the founder of JRW—Joe Haley—worked. Then Chicago Public Schools cut funding for high school freshman sports, laid off a thousand teachers. CPS put 40 kids in physical education classes and doesn’t even put a librarian in most of the school libraries in [the South Side district of] Auburn Gresham.”

Yeah, I think a runoff is very possible and it would be great and so voting is important.

Still haven't paid too much attention to the candidates, but garcia seems pretty good?

I found out some bummer garcia news this weekend - firm where I work represented his son in some sort of criminal proceeding and there may have been a conflict of interest (I'm being purposely vague - feel free to giggle that on the intertubes). But - probably still going to vote for him, b/c he seems least slimy and most likely to do the job well - anyone but rahmbo for me.

vote for chuy, i would if i could

is there a good rundown of aldermanic candidates' positions anywhere?

Sign up for the aldertrack newsletter. Best source for local politics news I've found. http://www.aldertrack.com/archives/

thanks. i also found this: http://www.suntimescandidates.com/ which seems helpful altho i definitely don't trust the sun-times's endorsements

Yeah, skeptical of all endorsements basically. Even the Chicago Defender endorsed Rahm.

A little light, but there is this too. http://bit.ly/1zOOIAm

please vote and try to force a runoff
please?

― groundless round (La Lechera), Thursday, February 12, 2015 9:30 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're right. I'm just intrigued enough with Garcia to want to know more that an additional two months of campaigning would probably bring out. I'm not sure I would vote for him over Rahm in April, but a run off would be better for everyone. Well except for Rahm, but he'll get over it.

He'll get over it alright. I heard a story about the Chicago superpac on the radio the other day and they are all about the sleazy mailers -- that's totally a Rahm tactic.

Jeff! Chuy is a marathoner! I just learned this and thought you might find that interesting. He has completed ~three~ marathons, apparently.

Yeah, I saw that. Rahm is just a stupid triathlete. Screw triathletes.

Anyway, mailed my ballot today, voting for Garcia. but I will be very surprised if rahm doesn't get 50%.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150218/BLOGS02/150219820/city-transit-hospitals-could-be-targeted-in-rauners-first-budget

If this passes, the RTA cut is going to suck.

"For transit, the Regional Transportation Authority would get a roughly $110 million cut, other sources say. Half or a bit more would come from the Chicago Transit Authority, the rest from Metra and Pace. The CTA has an overall operating budget of about $1 billlion, so something is going to pinch."

does the red line still run all night?

Yah

i can see that being a victim of the cuts :(

Moving back in a month, y'all are getting me a little worried.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/alderman-race-elections-2015-aldermania-city-council/Content?oid=16577750

The 11th ward favorite, DALEY Thompson, is so smarmy I can't handle it.

I'd like to run for alderman one day, but I'm sure I have an offensive tweet or ilx post somewhere that would do me in. But my ward would have the best crosswalks in all the land.

you could take over for ameya pawar when he becomes mayor, his office is right next to half acre so there's half your demographic right there

I would totally vote Pawar for mayor if he's able to bring back the Lincoln bus.

I wonder if Waguespack will ever run. He's be rumored to have interest, seems like he'd be ready to go in 2019. From the progressive Caucasus alderman, seems like he'd be a much stronger candidate than Fioretti is this year.

Waguesp@ck is under attack by the Rahm-fueled superpac acc to the radio interview I heard from the guy who followed the campaign $$

Yes, including funding his opponent. Which is still find bizarre, because she has absolutely zero chance of winning. Wags is too popular in this ward. I'd be surprised if he got any less than 75% of the vote.

http://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/2wr8m8/im_bob_fioretti_candidate_for_mayor_ama_about_my/

Read Bob copy and paste stuff off his website to answer questions.

Classic Rahm. So predictable!!

Lots of good links in today's aldertrack email: http://eepurl.com/be8r3f

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site?CMP=share_btn_tw

Whoa.

what?
how does the guardian get this sort of scoop i wonder

idk, from the article it seems like all this information was already really out there. It's just that the guardian gives enough of a shit to publish it?

like i genuinely wonder -- not being flippant
and this is published on mayoral election day?!

Looks like the author has published several stories on police abuse in the city and even connections to Gitmo.

wow, I'm pretty speechless.

idk, from the article it seems like all this information was already really out there. It's just that the guardian gives enough of a shit to publish it?

Or they are far enough removed from any political consequences.

http://baytechlabel.com/photos/7148_small.jpg

Our polling place is on our block! That's never happened before. Also, I was the only voter there.

So, my ward was apparently not voting on the elected schoolboard question, but most other wards seem to be doing so. Anyone know why that is?

Also related to the CPD article, a connection between the CPD and Guantanamo:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/18/american-police-brutality-chicago-guantanamo

The elected school board question was only on the ballot in 37 wards. It's only a referendum though, so basically meaningless.

gets ppl out

Sends a message, too.

So I'm guessing the 11th ward machine kept that one off our ballots?

xpost

Eh, I'm not convinced that if a percentage of the 30% of people that actually vote from the 37 wards is much of a message.

Even though I voted yes, I'm not sure it's the best idea. Or at least it wouldn't be any better or worse than an appointed board. I think it's a good idea in theory, but the reality is that certain people and groups will be able to maintain control over who runs and most likely who wins. Perhaps I'm just being too cynical.

Actually 30% turnout is optimistic. Reading some reports from the polling places, some wards are on track for a 20% turnout.

I'm going to run for school board.

I'll make sure you get elected. I have the power.

"aldermanic" is such a fun adjective

during my lolcollege punk phase I used to dye my hair regularly with aldermanic panic.

It's time for aldermaniacs
They're crooked to the max
So just sit back and relax
Increment financing comma tax
We're aldermaniacs!

About half of precincts reported and rahm at only 45.3%. Go team!

[With 68 percent of precincts reporting, Emanuel had 45.5 percent to 34.1 percent for challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. Willie Wilson was running third at 10.3 percent, Robert Fioretti had 7.3 percent and William "Dock" Walls had 2.7 percent, according to unofficial early returns.

to be honest, chuy's doing better than i had feared. but i wonder where those remaining 32% of precincts are.

it's a good thing wilson didn't fool too many people

i mean, if 75% of the votes for fioretti/wilson/walls go for garcia—and, crucially, those folks are motivated to turn out for a runoff—rahm might be beatable. at the very least he'd be embarrassed.

I don't think he's beatable. The only thing a run off will cost him is more money.

Idk, if chuy can get 34% now, maybe he can get 50% in april? Also, I think a runoff will force the media to pay a lot of attention, which could increase turnout.

Chuy will get more money in a runoff.

Yeah, I think people will be more motivated in a rahm vs. chuy election, as opposed to a rahm vs. a bunch of dudes election.

Shit, if Wilson's votes went to Chuy, he'd be pretty much in a dead heat with Rahm.

lolling at RTs of the old @MayorEmanuel account that I'm seeing

I don't think he's beatable. The only thing a run off will cost him is more money.

― Jeff, Tuesday, February 24, 2015 8:26 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, i don't think so either.... :(

spare us the defeatism, there isn't even a runoff yet

WGN calling it for a runoff now lol

Mema Ayi ‏@MemaAyi 2m2 minutes ago

Willie Wilson atty Frank Avila says campaign takes credit for 1st runoff in history of non-partisan races in Chicago. #ChicagoElection2015

lol

race to the top for these clowns
bring it

lol indeed

I got pretty excited about the runoff and then I remembered that this means two more months of robocalls to our landline. >:|

My ward is set for a runoff as well.

The worst thing about Garcia, other than the 1000 more cops thing and his red light camera stance, is that I cannot in conscious call a person Chuy.

Call him Jesus. Call his mustache Chuy.

If you knew more Chuys it wouldn't be as weird.

Perhaps. Do you know any I can contact?

I know several! Just one Rahm though.

I only know one:
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/darth/images/3/3c/CHEWIE.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width/391?cb=20080623000509

A couple coworkers used to call me Chuy so you kind of already know a Chuy.

I would not vote for you. Well maybe if you brought back the true Lincoln bus.

Oh I would, believe that.

^ Guy named Chuy, only knows how to say "Raaaahhhhhmn."

xp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-td-ceXIAU6Hee.png

way to go Chi, now get the ratbastard out

popcorn.gif

It's time for aldermaniacs
They're crooked to the max
So just sit back and relax
Increment financing comma tax
We're aldermaniacs!

― from batman to balloon dog (carl agatha), Tuesday, February 24, 2015 3:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

somehow missed this before, lolling @ "Increment financing comma tax"

Thank you. That was my favorite part.

Interesting off the record stuff from aldertrack yesterday:

The one thing we know for sure is that the Chicago City Council will never be the same. Nineteen runoffs, seven that came very close to a runoff and one incumbent knocked off outright means a lot of potential seat changes. A tightly contested mayoral race also means those 19 remaining contested ward races will get a whole new level of attention from voters and donors.

Today, the Aldertrack team spoke to dozens of consultants, alderman, candidates and activists in an effort to understand the new playing field. Almost all of those conversations were off the record because all of these people still have something at stake for the April 7 runoff. This report is a digest of what we learned today.

Mayoral
Almost uniformly, our sources say Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s path to a runoff victory is still unclear, but he has an apparatus that can execute well and ready access to plenty of money to keep the gears turning. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia has a path to victory, our sources say, but he lacks enough talented staff to execute a strategy and raise (and find) the money needed to win. There will be lots of national interest from union and progressive groups that will want to assist Garcia’s campaign, but whether or not they will be able to mesh with his existing team has to be resolved.

The most important endorsements to secure will be Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Willie Wilson and Bob Fioretti, in that order. Preckwinkle will either endorse Garcia or do nothing for either candidate. Wilson and Fioretti both told Fran Spielman last night that they would support Garcia, but Wilson’s campaign told us this morning they are still working on details on exactly what sort of work for Garcia an endorsement would mean. The devil will be in the details.

Not lost on anyone is that the runoff election is two days after Easter, when plenty of African American voters will listen to a sermon at church. Willie Wilson is better poised than anyone to ensure the “right” message is delivered.

We’re told the two mayoral campaigns started working on rounding up aldermanic candidate support late last night; calls started up again well before breakfast to winning alderman and runoff candidates across the city. Not surprisingly, Emanuel and Garcia are doing everything they can to set their teams in the wards.

The Council
The biggest change, however, is that the mayor runoff, and the sheer volume of aldermanic runoffs puts everything in flux. Since Richard M. Daley’s election in 1989, Chicago government has thrived on stability. That stability is is threatened now, as nobody is quite sure who will be the man at the top. Committee chairmanships, major city projects and sacred cows are all up for grabs as horse trading is just beginning and is likely to continue until the bitter end.

Our sources tell us that while big corporate CEOs have strongly backed Rahm in the past, medium-sized and smaller business leaders–the majority of the business taxpayers in Chicago–see no benefit to sticking their neck out for either mayoral candidate. A better investment, they believe, is to play in the 19 Council runoffs to find leaders who will protect their interests in what is sure to be a chaotic next four years in Chicago government.

Incumbents heading into a runoff will be pressed hard to align with Emanuel, we’re told, but there’s little incentive to do so, since yesterday’s results show little connection between supporting a mayor candidate and an aldermanic candidate. Endorsements, whether they come from aldermen, congressmen or presidents, have much less impact than they did in the past, it seems. So aligning ward organizations with one mayoral campaign or another will have less to do with getting votes than ensuring a place at the table after the election.

Progressive groups are also salivating at the chance to create an actual, effective Progressive Caucus in the Council. Between the wins progressives expect in the runoffs, sitting Progressive Caucus members and aldermen they would hope to peel off from the sort-of-progressive Paul Douglas Caucus, as many as 19 members of the Council could become Progressive Caucus members. A group that sizable would force any mayor–or Ald. Ed Burke–to negotiate with them on every major issue. All of a sudden, the Chicago City Council might actually behave like a typical legislative body.

Very interesting. Thank you!

rahm should try to give himself emergency powers during the run off like he tried to do a couple years ago when the g8 came to town

exciting times! maybe i should come down and help campaign for chuy, but i worry that even though i'm from chicago i'll feel like an interloper.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/27/us/27chicago-callout.html?_r=1

New York Times reporters covering the Chicago mayoral race would like to hear from Chicago residents about their experiences living in the city during Mr. Emanuel’s tenure. Your comments may be published, but your contact information will not. A reporter or editor may follow up with you to learn more about your story.

Uh no. Go away nytimes, we'll handle this.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/03/01/wilson-ill-vote-for-garcia-but-may-endorse-emanuel/

What a strange dude. Kind of wish I had voted for him.

hahahaha what a joke

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150302/rogers-park/rahm-overtakes-chuy-49th-ward-after-mail-in-ballots-counted

Interesting that it was so close up there. A bellwether ward?

http://www.trbimg.com/img-54ee9151/turbine/chi-elect25rahmworker-ct0027229128-20150225/750/750x422

http://www.trbimg.com/img-54ee666b/turbine/chi-rahm-today-ct0027228971-20150225/750/750x422

Okay those are making me LOL.

Candidates on transpo issues. http://www.redeyechicago.com/news/redeye-chicago-mayoral-candidates-on-transit-20150302-story.html

Disappointed in Garcia's comment on the Ashland BRT. Of course it is going to limit the number of car lanes, that's the whole point of having a dedicated bus lane. If you don't have a dedicated lane or have an excessive number of left hand turns, BRT won't work. Also wish he would give more consideration to the Belmont flyover instead of dismissing outright. I don't think it should be a top priority over something like extending the red line or fixing existing slow zones, but don't dismiss it entirely.

I wish either of them would fire Claypool, but Rahm won't, and it doesn't look like Garcia would either.

Rahm's posture in that first photo reminds me of a Bruce Eric Kaplan cartoon.

Like this one:
http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/66/6609/4Y3E100Z/posters/bruce-eric-kaplan-you-tested-positive-for-being-negative-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg

first photo has got me picturing a looney tunes cartoon where rahm is walking along and falls down a rabbit hole

a man can dream

I was thinking SIX MORE WEEKS OF RUNOFF, AMIRITE?

based on that map it looks like chi won much of albany park, right?

i mean, chuy

I know very little about economics, but from all I've read over the past several days, it all looks very dire. Just look at the numbers:

• $550 million due to police and fire pension, $688 million due to CPS
• $20 billion overall in unfunded pensions (worst of any large city)
• Unless renegotiated, $58 million due to agreements after this latest bond downgrade
• Illinois has the lowest credit rating of all 50 states
• Chicago hast the worst credit rating of any major city outside of Detroit
• $210 million less in state funding coming to Chicago if the Rauner budget is implemented

Not saying that one candidate has better ideas than the other, just that both are doomed to fail. Sadly, a potential measure of success will be who can kick the bucket further down the road to avoid an immediate downfall.

Or who can fail the least!

My pet peeve is that Boeing and other similar-sized companies pay no tax here, that'd be a start.

Hell yeah. Also end tax exemptions for religious organizations. Fuck, the suburban mega churches could probably get Illinois out of the hole on tax revenue alone. Make Joel Osteen pony up.

At the city level, no potential mayor is going to say tax churches if they want to ever get re-elected.

I know. I'm just dreaming because I have no idea how to fix this shit.

Two words: Trump Casino.

Arguments against a casino are that gambling revenue has been declining for years all across the country. I'm sure a large percentage of your area gamblers would still rather hop on a free/cheap shuttle to Indiana to gamble rather than deal with coming into downtown Chicago.

Hell yeah. Also end tax exemptions for religious organizations. Fuck, the suburban mega churches could probably get Illinois out of the hole on tax revenue alone. Make Joel Osteen pony up.

― from batman to balloon dog (carl agatha), Tuesday, March 3, 2015 10:29 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark

hell yeah to both of these ideas
joel osteen is one of the slimiest people i have ever laid eyes on

No we're fucked. The stupid governor built his campaign on the threat of corporations moving elsewhere if Illinois doesn't give them whatever they want. Corporations have no loyalty whatsoever to American heritage or culture, no loyalty to the Midwest. Look what they did to Detroit without remorse.

Then they go and re-locate to some utterly unsustainable place. We need a political culture that is more militant in criticizing corporations and their lack of social responsibility.

http://www.ibtimes.com/rahm-emanuel-runoff-chicago-mayor-tied-lobbyist-citys-red-light-camera-firm-review-1833780

The red light cameras were such dirty business I don't care if they're all removed.

It needs reforming and it certainly deserves to be scrutinized because of all the corruption. But I'm biased and 100% ok with it being purely revenue generating. I'd put one at every stop light in the city if I could.

It irritates me when every article that criticizes the safety claims links to that same flawed tribune investigation that looked at the raw number of crashes rather than the severity of the injuries as the result of t-bone crashes vs rear end collisions.

Having to cross a 6-way intersection every day makes me kind of crabby about the whole thing.

i've seen more people sail through red lights in the last 4 months than i have in my entire memory -- like at least 6 or 7
not like sneak through at the last sec during the yellow (that's normal) -- i mean didn't slow down at all after looking to see if anyone was coming from the other directions sailed right through

sure those people are assholes but it makes me worried about the general breakdown of polite society when people stop obeying traffic signals
it's like just generally a bad sign

Yeah that's my take too -- if someone wantonly flies through, uncaring who they might hurt/kill in the process, you think they give a shit about a $200 fine enough to change their behavior? People drive drunk, without licenses and/or insurance and all the regulation in the world doesn't stop them. That's why I don't like the things: their inception was corrupt to begin with, they ticket innocents, and since they can't motivate better behavior they're just a revenue generator, not a safety enhancement.

I say this as a daily bike commuter (only one day off this winter so far) who consistently sees new and innovative shitty road behavior almost every day. (But I run stop signs and lights too, if no one's coming.)

But as I mentioned, contrary to the Tribune's reporting, they have been shown to reduce the severity of crashes, even if the actual number of rear end collisions increase. FHWA study: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/05049/

I wonder if there's anything to show that the cameras have been placed at intersections with a high likelihood of right angle crashes as well as the other factors recommended in the conclusions.

Related: Garcia updated his transportation platform to actually mention bikes and pedestrians. When he originally released it last Monday, there was no mention at all. Looks like he got some backlash from that and tacked a paragraph onto the end. http://www.chicagoforchuy.com/issues/safe-and-reliable-transportation

xpost. That would be the compromise. I think it would also make sense to increase the yellow light time at intersections that need it too. It's kind of crazy that the same 3 second standard is used regardless of the distance that needs to be covered in the intersection. But I'm not sure that there can be variable yellow light times in the system, it's an all or nothing setting, if I recall correctly reading somewhere.

A camera every red light is just my little retribution dream. Totally unrealistic, but it would make me feel so good when I almost become a hood ornament that the asshole that did it would be $100 poorer.

I voted for Chuy, and I'll do it again, but I can't imagine how a vote for either of them would affect my life in any meaningful way. Thinking about other Chicagoans.

that's what voting is about -- good for everyone, not just you!

We're all pedestrians.

Guess I'm not very civic-minded.

Now HERE'S a transportation issue I can get behind!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/redeye-bridgeport-activists-call-for-31st-street-bus-20150302-story.html

Two positive Garcia articles:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/03/the-rahm-slayer.html
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/04/rahm_emanuels_political_nightmare_jesus_chuy_garcia_tells_salon_why_hell_oust_the_mayor/

Also, I don't know who this woman is, but she goes off on Willie Wilson:

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Felsenthal-Files/March-2015/Hermene-Hartman/

some of garcia's answers strike me as a little weasely (sp?) but nobody said he wasn't a politician. he's certainly no visionary, but he seems like a reasonably honest guy with many of the right instincts, which puts him several miles ahead of rahm.