9.26.2008

These Cats Were Not LOLing

I'm sure you've heard of the six-toed cats at Hemingway's joint in Key West. Maybe you've had a chance to see them up close. It's the Keys, you could find a worse place to hang your hat for a few days.

Anyway, the five-year battle to let the cats continue their roaming has finally ended.

The US Dept of Agriculture had threatened to fine the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum $200 per cat, per day. That's a lot of scratch. The USDA finally relented on advice from an animal behaviorist, but not until after the Museum spent about $250,000 on lawyers and a special fence for the property.

I'm super glad that the cats didn't take over Key West and start their own republic. Now if only the USDA would like to take an interest in the 1000s of feral cats roaming the alleys of Chicago. Perhaps the normal five-toed variety aren't threatening enough.

Palin Syrah

Drinking it is not a political statement. Please get your heads out of your asses.

You could even pronounce it correctly and avoid all confusion.

It's allegedly named after a hockey puck. Who even knew there was a name for a Chilean hockey puck?

His Handicap is Mental

A Cook County sheriff's officer was caught parking in a handicapped zone by a high school student with a phone cam. Allegedly, the officer was responding to a call at Shepard High School, though not an emergency call. The student claims there were open spaces just yards away.

This is fairly typical activity, but with the abundance of shutter bugs and cam phones, this kind of activity is hard to ignore. If the student had filed a complaint and there was no picture, nothing further would have happened. The Office of Professional Review has opened an investigation, but that will likely result in no disciplinary action.

There is always a debate from the officers and their supports that on duty personnel don't follow the laws as they may have to hasten away for an emergency. I can almost get behind that. The problem is the behavior is rampant and (as in this case) flagrant and unnecessary. It is also annoying to citizens who get hassled by these same officers. Not just ticketed for violations, but verbally harassed.

There are good officers, no doubt. However, anyone with a pair of working eyes has been witness to the liberties being taken. I don't need to hear about all the wonderful officers. I know they are out there doing what they can. It only takes a few rats to sink the ship and if you don't think the rats are there, you are ignoring the evidence.

These are the little things, but also evidence of an overarching systemic problem. Nothing about this adds to my sense of security.

9.24.2008

Elephants On Parade: Death Edition

An escaped circus elephant was struck and killed by a bus driver (technically by the bus, which the driver was driving) north of Mexico City. The bus driver did not survive the incident and four other passengers were injured.

OK, that's not super unusual. Granted, it's not an everyday occurrence, but we've all seen rampaging elephant footage over the years.

The real head scratching comes when it is reported that the elephant's body has disappeared. Cover up of animal abuse? Aliens changing their M.O. from the usual cow grabbing? Government conspiracy? Zombie Elephant? Yes, I think that sounds right. Zombie Elephant. Watch the fuck out over there, chilango.

9.23.2008

Sorting out Chicago's Backrooming - Cloutwiki!

Cloutwiki

This site is designed to provide basic information
on the political history and background of Chicago's political leaders. The
information gathered here is all publicly available, we have only compiled it in
one place. We've made a special effort to demonstrate the relationships and
connections between leaders.


Much of the work herein is a
extension of David K. Fremon's Chicago Politics: Ward by Ward, an unparalleled
snapshot of 1980's Chicago politics.

55-0!

The IL Governor's changes to the ethics bill got slapped down by the Senate. Why in the world this roll call had to require a call from Obama to put it in motion is beyond me. Far be it from me to question these world class politicians. Of course, this quick response had more to do with giving Obama something positive to point to in Chicago politics than it did with anything else.

There are still loopholes for determined fundraisers. Money can go to political groups, which can then funnel it back to state officials and there are no restrictions on donations to lawmakers, who are influential in the contract process. The bill focused on donations to state officials that dole out the contracts (Gov, Lt Gov, AG, Sec of State, Treasurer, Comptroller).

A Senate committee immediately advanced a bill that would address the Governor's proposals, but did not Blago's late additions prevent this tiny first step from going forward.

EPA looks at perchlorate

No surprises here. Perchlorate mucks up the thyroid. It is used to make lots of things, including rocket fuel, road flares, explosives and batteries. The EPA has decided that mandating a clean level of perchlorate would result in meaningful health risk reduction for people using public water. The Pentagon doesn't think their testing of various rocket type things was as big an impact in the contamination as is thought. The Pentagon is also relieved that they won't have to pay for anything relating to cleanup, but they also assure us that they did not influence the EPA in any way.

Same old story here. Don't worry, you can always buy your public water from Pepsico or some other bottler who will take it from your public supply and clean it for you. At least, clean enough that they still have a healthy profit margin. At least something will be healthy.

More importantly, the EPA's assistant administrator for water is named Ben Grumbles. Grumbles is on the case, so if your babies don't develop properly, you know it isn't from perchlorate in the water. You probably shouldn't have had that last hit of crack, but I don't blame you. Any comfort in a storm on that grim day when they repo'd your car and you couldn't pay your mortgage.

Remember to vote this coming November! Or earlier if you can. Some campaigners are annoyed that you can vote early. It's possible that their carefully planned barrage of politico-bullshit won't be able to snow you as bad if you go early. The man on the radio this morning worried that if you vote now, you might think the economy and the mortgage crisis is the main issue. I know you better than that, so grab a bottle of water and get to the booth!

9.22.2008

View from the Top

Sometimes there are nice things to say. Here is a nice article about green roofs, something that Chicago has had its eye on for a while. Mayor Daley instituted a grant program for green roofs in 2001, at the same time turning the City Hall roof green.

Chicago tops the surveyed group (estimated to be approximately 60% of all green roof industry activity) in square feet planted in 2007 at 517,633.


The city is nice enough to offer this guide to rooftop gardening.

Barry Plays the Heavy

While I was busy basking in the Cub glow, Obama rung up his old pal Emil Jones Jr. and gave him the secret code. The result was that Jones will now be recalling the Senate this week to deal with the ethics bill (see some other post I made...I'm too lazy to link it right now HALLELUJAH, HERE IT IS).

Blago also announced on Thursday that he would call the General Assembly into special session today to deal with ethics reform. He, of course, wants his changes to the ethics bill to be considered. Fat chance, I think.

Jones was at a Senate Democratic fund raiser on Wednesday night and declined to discuss the matter of Obama's phone call. He was conveniently busy fundraising and didn't feel like talking about ethics.

The one lingering question I have is whether the gang will make a definitive statement about the 15-day period that Jones and cronies had to vote on the bill until the bill died (whether that be 15-days from delivery, or 15-days from the first Senate meeting following, or what defines delivery, etc). They will probably let the ambiguity linger until it comes up again and they need to delay some other bill seeking to reign in politicians greed. Perhaps that one won't result in a call from someone running for President and the shenanigans can go on unabated.

9.18.2008

Think, Plan, Do

This isn't the way it works for government. They just take.

Chicago would like to host the Olympics in 2016. They think Chicago2016 is a good web address. Chicago2016.org is super duper and they love it.

The problem city officials see is that some joker already controls Chicago2016.com and they don't like that. The joker in question, an NU grad student (Go Cats!), has some designs of his own. He claims to want to foster debate about the Olympic bid (though he also registered Tokyo2016...and a total of 40 combinations of city names and years). Officials are seeking to gain control of Chicago2016.com through an arbitration organization. The student has gone to US District Court in Chicago to stop the arbitration proceedings and protect his claim.

A spokesperson for Chicago 2016, a trademarked name, claims that "the domain name is rightfully" theirs and is the "natural domain" for their site. I think, if that was so, those officials should have done something about it a long time ago. Either way, this should be interesting. Classic little pink house standing in the way of the freeway.

You Can Have Wings, But Not While Drinking

Attorneys General in 25 states want the beer companies to stop producing those alcohol-energy drinks.

Like most profit driven organizations, the top US beer makers have been searching for something to boost sales. Recent growth trends for their core market have not been good. Now you see the clamato bud, the lime flavored beers, and the low carb beers. The big producers are also dipping into craft brews and flavored malt beverages.

Of course, all the concerned parties are fretting over the youngsters and the abusive drinkers. Dear me, please think of the chilluns! They note that caffeine laced alcohol tends to result in massive benders and drunk kiddies. These attorneys general also claim that the marketing is targeted toward younger drinkers. Anheuser-Busch decided to cut the extra boost out of its products. I'm not really sure there is a reason to sell it anymore, but hey, they can figure that out for themselves. MillerCoors doesn't appear to be willing to give up the goat. I don't think they should. I happen to like those drinks. I also like the ads because like most men, I'm a juvenile at heart. The advertising is targeted to me and my low-brow, beer swilling cohorts.

There are no real studies on these products and the attorneys general, as usual, are swinging wildly and hoping to land something that will be seen as a glorious step forward for society. I don't know that they realize that the drinking age is 21 and the mechanism is in place already to prevent the kids from overindulging. I also don't think they realize that the kids can still buy the components separately and if they want a beer and red bull mix or a vodka and red bull, they are damn well gonna have one. Not to mention that MillerCoors' entrant in the market, Sparks, makes up 1% of their production last year. One percent.

Here's a tip. Alcohol is not evil. Being drunk is not evil. Being drunk at 18 is not the first horrid step toward a life in the gutter blowing degenerates for enough money to buy some crank. Suing MillerCoors, if they choose to produce a legal product, is not a good way to spend the peoples' money and is a waste of court time.

Yes, there are negatives in life. Some people have addiction problems. Some people abuse their liver until it doesn't function correctly. Some people drive into things and kill people while intoxicated. The populace is an abusive lot and they tend to make shitty decisions. We will never be able to legislate them into doe-eyed compliance and state enforced happiness. At least not in the world I want to live in.

These AGs and their backers can take their self-righteous bullshit and shove it. Put your efforts into something more constructive. The jails are stacked and I doubt we would have saved any of them had they just not been exposed to Sparks early in life.

9.15.2008

A Swim in the Park








I don't think my gear is ever going to dry.


Yikes!

Nothing to see here. Like you've never posted something to one of your blogs that you meant to post to your Britney Rulez! blog. I can't believe people are such haters :( I hope you're all happy now.

9.12.2008

Can I Get an FU!

I'm a busy bee. Hardly have time to get rip roaring drunk like I should. Nevertheless, I couldn't let some local political shenanigans go by without comment.

Oddly enough, someone thought there should be some ethics legislation. Who'd a thunk it?

The ethics bill (good old House Bill 824) would ban people and business that have a minimum of $50,000 of contracts with the state from making campaign contributions to state officials that decide who gets state contracts. The Guv'na made some changes to the bill, extending the ban to lawmakers and party leaders, prohibiting lawmakers from holding other government jobs while in the General Assembly (double-dipping) and, best of all, changing the voting for pay raises such that a "yes" vote supports a pay raise (where currently a "no" vote supports a pay raise). The Guv'na sat on this for a bit while he generated some contributions but when it finally got in front of the Illinois House, the revised bill was voted down 110-3.

Now comes our pal, Emil Jones Jr. The Illinois Senate needs to shoot down the Guv'na's new version of the bill now, or the whole thing dies. Jones is our venerable Illinois Senate President and will preside over things with his usual majesty.

The Senate has 15 days to vote. Jones will not be reconvening the Senate until November 12. The Jones camp thinks they have 15 days from the next Senate meeting. [more on this below] There is also the matter of construction financing and budget issues that aren't going to be discussed until the fat cats get themselves back in session.

I won't debate whether Blago's ideas were bad, they seem to have some merit (though more in a you backstab me, I'll backstab you sorta way), but the end result is decent. He did overload the bill, making his version unlikely to get votes (and stalling the process yet again). Some Reps are correct in their clamoring that they are the legislators and the Governor isn't (everyone wants their say).

Yet....I'm pissed at these knob polishers as usual. I'm pissed that this will end up in the shitter eventually. These guys would fuck up a free beer because they were too busy hustling bj's in the bathroom for 2 beers a go. Greedy, selfish and shameless.



The Veto Procedure:

You can read it all in the Constitution of the State of IL in Section 9 "Veto Procedure".


(c) The house to which a bill is returned shall immediately enter the Governor's objections upon its journal.If within 15 calendar days after such entry that house by a record vote of three-fifths of the members elected passes the bill, it shall be delivered immediately to the second house.If within 15 calendar days after such delivery the second house by a record vote of three-fifths of the members elected passes the bill, it shall become law.

If you read this like I do, Jones and Company are missing the window (as the House has delivered the bill). However, there are more than a few that agree with the Senate's interpretation that the bill isn't officially delivered until it is read into record. There is a nice recap of the issue here. Either way, this is just further mucking up the works and ensuring that business as usual continues. Congratulations, assholes.

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