"Chicago politics"?

[heavenlyboy34]

A lot of people are busying themselves with discussing "Chicago politics" nowadays. All the complaints from the neocons and counterpoints from the "left" don't sound any different from any other (corrupt) city I'm aware of. Why the big fuss? :confused:

[cheapseats]

The question in my mind is this.

Why is there no fuss about ostensibly "smart," "savvy," "brilliant" Barack Obama claiming to be "unaware" of corruption in Chicago?

I would point out to people who think that not criticizing blacks proves they aren't racist that Barack Obama is either up to his eyeballs in bullshit or he is the biggest pollyanna that ever took the silver spoon out of his mouth.

[Pete]

Thank goodness Barky escaped from all that!!! ;)

[acptulsa]

Oh, the Windy City is a special case, all right. The Second City long had a desire to outstrip New York, and somehow not only created an even bigger Tammany Hall but maintained it.

I lived there during the Great Battle between Harold Washington and Ed Vdroliak (sp?). They pretty much considered themselves theater, as did the papers and the public. So did I, though I thought of it as Theater of the Absurd.

[heavenlyboy34]

Thank goodness Barky escaped from all that!!! ;)

lol..."Barky" ...~giggle~ ;):)

[cheapseats]

Not exactly, but almost exactly, I transcribed remarks made by "Representative" Bobby Rush (D-IL) on C-SPAN, pursuant to Blogojevich's arrest for brazen corruption.



"I am astounded, stunned and appalled. I'm in pain because once again it seems as though the CEO of a state has fallen victim [I LOVE that] to greed and gross malfeasance in office. People have been dealt a terrible blow.

They are entitled [ENTITLED?] to look to the CEO of a state to try to help them deliver themselves from the pain of this economic downturn, this recession that we're all going through. So I really am pained as are all the people of Illinois.

I am committed, as I have been, to a long term principle [PRINCIPLE?] that whosever selects the replacement for President Elect Barack Obama, that that person chooses an African American.

In the midst of this hubbub and indeed hysteria, that principle is still cogent for me and rises up even out of the controversy that whoever chooses the next senator from the state of Illinois that that person indeed chooses an African American.

We do not currently have any African Americans in the senate. There are three or four Hispanics, two or three Asians, a number of women, but there are no African Americans in the Senate. And I think that is shameful that we don’t have an African American in the senate, so I have been for the three weeks, two weeks as a matter of fact, leading a petition drive trying to petition Governor Blogojevich to appoint an African American to replace Obama.

I am currently now assembling a team of lawyers to ascertain what is the legal avenue, what are the legal options in order to ensure that, one, we have quickly a decision to replace President Elect’s seat and, two, that we can have the best and most favorable way to position ourselves to make sure that that person is an African American. [Huh?]

We are studying the issues around a special election but it is my feeling that a special election would probably put MY community at a disadvantage in that we would be hard pressed to come up with the money and the mechanism to elect an African American in the next two to three months. [See Obama’s campaign surplus.] And I believe that the process, that the mechanism for a special election will have to take place no later than April because the people of the state of Illinois deserve to have another U.S. senator.

But I’m again personally, I feel in pain that this Governor had no limits that he was bound by. It seems to me that in his mind, anything goes.

And he’s been a friend of mine, but until I read the actual conversations and his reported comments, I never really believed that he just had very little restraints and restrictions on what he would and would not do.”

Bobby Rush…who stands firmly if not clearly on the point that it is an African American’s “turn” for a senate seat…answered the first reporter’s question thusly, at which point I had to turn off the television.

“I have been trying to operate based on a principle rather than on a personality.”


Coulda fooled me, and did. Based on the flimsy evidence of his own words, I’da said that "representative" Bobby Rush operates on the basis of Race.

He should be recalled from office at the earliest opportunity.

And someone needs to quit pussy footing around just cuz our president-elect is black. Someone needs to roll up their sleeves and get to the bottom of WHY, until his arrest, pond scum Rod Blogojevich has enjoyed a substantially higher favorability ranking among African American Illinois voters than among American Illinois voters.

[angelatc]

A lot of people are busying themselves with discussing "Chicago politics" nowadays. All the complaints from the neocons and counterpoints from the "left" don't sound any different from any other (corrupt) city I'm aware of. Why the big fuss? :confused:

Having lived in about 12 different cities as an adult, my perspective on Chicago politics is that not only is it corrupt, it is very much openly corrupt. I don't know if I can describe it, but when we first moved there, we were astounded at how many people there just accept the corruption and consider it a cost of doing business.

For example, We got tipped off about how to buy a black market liquor license and skirt the zoning limitations from an alderman at a kid's soccer game. And we weren't even shopping for one. I was just musing that I thought it would be fun to own a club.

People who live in the city proper told me they have to register as a Democrat in order to get their garbage picked up or their water turned back on.

If you don't volunteer for the Democrats during elections, you'll never get a city job. And if you can raise money for the Democrats, you're absolutely entitled to a city supervisor's job.

If a restaurant or a grocery store gets shut down for health code violations, everybody just takes it for granted that the proprietor was late with his payment to the alderman.

It's just accepted that the government works for tips there.