Free Republic

On November 5 on CNN, Florida Governor Charlie Crist told Wolf Blitzer that he didn't back the $787 billion Obama stimulus bill. Crist has since said that it isn't a flip flop when he says he supported the stimulus "in concept" but didn't support the specific bill. In essence he's trying to have it both ways. Claiming he wasn't a supporter of the actual bill, but hedging by saying he felt something was necessary. It seems to be Crist's way of straddling the line. Unfortunately, the facts seem to belie Crist's delicately balanced tightrope act because in February of 2009...

My favorite Chicago political photo of all time wasn't even shot in Chicago. It was shot in Paris in 2007. It depicts Mayor Richard Daley riding a bike outside Paris City Hall, wearing a suit and tie, squeezing the handlebars while steering a wobbly little circle, an impish grin on his face. Happy days. The bike was part of a unique program in which the mayor of Paris provided bikes to the people to make his city more "green." For a small fee, Parisians could pedal whimsically for hours through the city of light. And what did the bikes cost?...

Private Firm Would Jack Up Rates For Residents, Watchdogs Warn _________________________________________________________ If the parking meter deal put a bad taste in your mouth, try swallowing this: Chicago is considering leasing its water system to help fix the budget. The new boss could charge whatever they want for water, CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports. Could it happen here in Chicago? It already has nearby. Homer Glen in Will County relies on Lake Michigan water, but the supply comes from a German-owned firm. Locals say there's a lot more than water going down the drain. It's a vital resource you can't live...

Mayor Richard Daley continued his drumbeat of bad financial news Monday, outlining a wage freeze and an unpaid month off for nonunion city workers that fell short of explaining how he will balance the 2010 budget that he is to unveil Wednesday. With revenues coming in well below expectations, the city has projected a deficit of more than $500 million next year. The new moves announced Monday would save about $44 million: --Reducing such costs as travel and supplies by 5 percent: $20 million. --Declining to fill 220 vacant jobs: $18 million. --Denying a scheduled cost-of-living increase for nonunion workers:...

It’s been days since president Barry Soetoro received the Olympic smack down. Plenty of time to think about this whole ugly sorted deal. Is it just me or did our president look like an errand boy for the Mayor of Chicago? Well think about it, who has the power to send the president of the United States of America the First Lady, all the top Soetoro advisers plus Oprah Winfrey to Copenhagen Denmark to shill for a certain U.S. City? (see story) Come on, they took two “Air Force One” jets like, “Honey I’m working late you take your car...

Mayor Richard Daley and his supporters hyped the 2016 Olympic bid as Chicago's best hope for a sorely needed economic boost, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to raise the city's global profile and even a way to help keep more kids from dropping out of school. "The next five years, six years, tell me one thing that is going to have economic opportunities for any city," Daley had said in July, when asked about criticism of his Olympic dream. "If you have something better, I'd love to see it." But Daley headed home from Denmark on Saturday without a trump card. He...

*snip* Chicago's president of the United States wants Chicago's political boss happy and hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. "Chicago is ready, the American people are ready," said the president, with about two weeks until the International Olympic Committee meets in Copenhagen to decide whether Chicago gets the Olympic payoff. "We want these Games." But a recent Tribune poll showed mixed feelings. People might not be crazy about the Games, but Daley sure is. He reaches for the Olympics the way a drowning man reaches for a floating chunk of wood. And if Daley doesn't get the Olympics -- if the...

For most of last week, Mayor Richard Daley calmly made pronouncements, issued his sweeping edicts and decrees and commands, the usual thing. But then his alternate self, the terrifying Mayor Chucky persona, was revealed again, this time on Friday. *snip* But it was inevitable that Mayor Chucky would pop out. First came the aggravated facial expressions, then the hand waving, great circular motions from the shoulder, then the sneering, the finger pointing, the index finger jabbing at those who offended him, and finally, the angry lip curling. It sure was terrifying, worse even than that little killer doll in the...

Mayor Richard Daley's personnel chief resigned Tuesday, less than two weeks after the city's independent inspector general called for his removal. Homero Tristan, a member of Daley's Cabinet as the top human resources official, was accused of lying to investigators from Inspector General David Hoffman's office, which was looking into City Hall hiring abuses. Tristan called Hoffman's allegations "grossly erroneous and irresponsible." But Tristan said he could not fight the charges while representing the city in federal proceedings aimed at reforming its scandal-scarred hiring system. "I can't do both at this time," Tristan said. "I will continue to defend my...

The Daley administration would be prohibited from signing a string of month-to-month leases — such as the one at a South Side industrial site co-owned by Mayor Daley’s nephew — under a crackdown in the works to restore “credibility” to the leasing process. As chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate, Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) says he should have signed off on the lease at 3348 S. Pulaski. Last week, Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) demanded to know why the city has paid nearly $500,000 to lease the space co-owned by mayoral nephew Robert Vanecko and his...

William Moorehead, the Oak Park resident sent to prison in 2007 for stealing more than $1 million from various federally supported public housing concerns, apparently ran with a powerful inside crowd connected to both Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and a then-state senator named Barack Obama. Published news reports show that Moorehead was once a "longtime business partner" and legal client of Allison Davis, who until recently was the business partner of Daley nephew Robert Vanecko. Davis is also often referred to as Obama's mentor, a role he reportedly fulfilled as the future president's first law firm boss. At one...

Let's give Mayor Richard Daley a big, gushy get-well wish, so he recovers quickly from the flu. Because I bet you can't wait to hear him tell you how shocked he is that his nephew Robert Vanecko, now under federal investigation, made a fortune after receiving almost $70 million in city pension-fund money to invest. And how Vanecko did it all without Daley's knowledge. He'll expect you to believe it, since he figures you're a bunch of chumbolones, and that, like so many times before, you'll take a slap in the mouth and then ask, "Please, sir, may I have...

City pension officials have been hit with subpoenas from a federal grand jury trying to determine how they decided to invest $68 million with a start-up company co-owned by Mayor Daley’s nephew. The grand jury issued the subpoenas Wednesday, nearly two months after city pension officials refused to comply with similar subpoenas issued by the city of Chicago’s inspector general, David Hoffman. Hoffman said Friday that he and federal investigators are now jointly investigating the pension fund investments with DV Urban Realty Partners, co-owned by Daley’s nephew Robert Vanecko and one of the mayor’s top African-American allies, Allison S. Davis....

Mayor Daley is urging President Obama to bail out an airline industry that has “weathered one extraordinary challenge after another” since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In an April 10 letter to the president, Daley referred to the “precarious state of our nation’s airports and airlines” and argued that the airline industry is every bit as deserving of a federal bailout as the banking, insurance and auto industries. “In contrast to the hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars directed to the banking and insurance industries during the past few months and the tens of billions funneled into two...

Mayor Daley's son and nephew have hired a criminal defense attorney to represent them in the ongoing investigation of their investment in a sewer-cleaning company that won millions of dollars in no-bid contract extensions from City Hall. Charles Sklarsky, a former federal prosecutor now with the law firm of Jenner & Block, confirmed Thursday he is representing Patrick Daley and his cousin Robert Vanecko. Sklarsky wouldn't discuss the investigation, which the city's inspector general and federal authorities began in December 2007. That was days after the Chicago Sun-Times disclosed that Daley's son and nephew had held a hidden ownership stake...

Can Private Security Guards Act As Cops? That's Exactly What They May Soon Be Doing On The Far South Side . . . private security cars patrol Michigan Avenue between 100th and 116th streets, and a proposed city ordinance would give them many police powers. CBS They're private security guards, already on patrol, but they may soon have the powers of Chicago Police officers. As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, the private security officers now on patrol on the city's Far South Side are expected to have their powers expanded as part of a citywide ordinance now being...

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez introduced Jack Blakey today as her office's new special prosecutions chief. The former assistant U.S. attorney will be in charge of pursuing corruption cases, as well as organized-crime and narcotics investigations. Blakey moves to Alvarez's staff from the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, where he was on the team that successfully prosecuted Tony Rezko on corruption charges involving state of Illinois deals under ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. As Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed reported today, crime-busting is in Blakey's blood. His father, George Robert Blakey, was the principal author of the Racketeer Influenced...

Dan Zanoza, Executive Director of RFFM.org, interviews Carl Segvich, a Republican Committeeman in the 11th Ward--the ancestral home base of Mayor Richard M. Daley. Segvich discusses what it's like to be a member of the GOP in the city of Chicago, Chicago-style politics, the Chicago way and "pay to play". It is an insightful look into one-party, big city liberal politics which sould be an eye-opener for those wanting to learn more about President Barack Obama's political roots. Q. During the last election, it was reported there were some election irregularities in your Ward. Can you elaborate about this for...

Here is the list of projects that Mayor Richard Daley said today Chicago wants to pursue with new funding from the pending federal economic stimulus plan. Compare his less-than-detailed announcement with the lists compiled by other mayors, linked below. ### *Repair or reconstruct 15 miles of public transit lines *Retrofit and improve more than 200 schools for the 21st century *Resurface more than 150 miles of arterial city streets *Retrofit more than 200 miles of city street lights *Install or repair 75 miles of sewer and water mains *Install solar panels in more than 200 city facilities *Repair a substantial...

Watching Illinois Gov. Nosferatu (the walking politically undead) continue his media blitz on ABC's "The View" on Monday was like watching an old cheesy horror flick—"The Brides of Dracula." (snip) As he sat with the women of "The View," the Illinois Senate began the final act of the impeachment. Democrats are certain he's become infected and deadly, and so they'll amputate in a matter of days.

Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted public competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked for them, according to a report by the CPS Office of Inspector General. That was just one example of questionable CPS actions detailed in the inspector general's 2008 annual report. Others included high school staffers changing grades to pump up transcripts of student athletes and workers at a restricted-enrollment grade school falsifying addresses to get relatives admitted. In the case of the cappuccino machines, central office administrators...

With Gov. Blagojevich facing impeachment, Mayor Daley is trying to engineer a political end-run around Springfield when it comes to Chicago's share of the $800 billion economic stimulus plan being crafted by President-elect Barack Obama. "Mayors are going directly to the federal government. They have to. We can't wait. You can't allow Springfield to take your money, hold the interest, then eventually give it to you in the middle of winter. You'll never get the job done in the middle of winter," Daley told reporters. "You just go straight to the federal government and say, 'We have all the construction...

The city of Chicago is one of the few major metropolitan areas which runs away from its past at every opportunity. Yet, indeed, the very construction of the city led to the term "underworld." And with rampant corruption controlled by infamous individuals like "Big Jim" Colosimo, Al Capone, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca, Murray "The Camel" Humphrey and Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, Chicago can hardly bury its past--no pun intended. Since the turn of the 20th century, what Carl Sandburg referred to as the "City of Big Shoulders" was perhaps the center of organized crime in the United States. Though New...

After a quarter century of following politics, there are some canards that will never let you down. For example, a good way to judge the character of an individual is to look at that individual's enemies. Also, if some unsavory individuals are all unified against one person, there's probably something rotten in Denmark and I'm not talking about eggs or cheese. Beleaguered Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has certainly fit the bill regarding some of these words of wisdom. For a moment, let us look at those who are most zealous in their criticism of Blagojevich. The leader of the pack...

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing and plans to stay on the job. In his first official statement since his arrest on corruption charges last week, Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-Uh-vich) says he will fight until he takes his "last breath." ... The Democratic governor says he intends to "answer every allegation in a court of law."

See the title. Just appeared on TV.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that, in the wake of the shocking allegations against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, observers almost immediately evoked the Windy City's rich, colorful history of corruption. But after a couple of days Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, the son of the man synonomous with cronyism and backroom Chicago politics, wasn't about to let the comparisons go unchallenged. At a Wednesday press conference, a subdued Daley, who is bidding to land the 2016 Summer Olympics, went out of his way to distance himself and his city from the stain of the burgeoning scandal. "We don't have...

Extorting Children's Hospital is a new political low. Chicagoans and Illinoisans love political scandal the way that Milanese love opera. We trade recollections, like baseball cards, about the secretary of state (Paul Powell) who stashed money in shoeboxes, and the Chicago mayor (Harold Washington) whose birthday was April 15 but never filed his income tax return. Rod Blagojevich stands a chance to be the fourth Illinois governor in recent history, and the second in a row, to wind up in prison. This run suggests that Illinoisans are indifferent to political corruption, and it's hard to argue with such an impressive...

If anyone believes Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich dreamed up all of this corruption which may now put him behind bars of a federal prison for many years, I have a bridge I'd like to sell them for a very low price. The fact is Blagojevich was weaned in a political cesspool which is centered in the city of Chicago. Chicago politicians for the most part have been given a pass by many local journalists because if you didn't play along with the game and asked too many questions, your access to information would be cut off and the same could...

<p>A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning. The U.S. attorney's office would not confirm the information, and a spokesman for the governor did not immediately return a phone call for comment.</p>

States with lax gun laws had higher rates of handgun killings, fatal shootings of police officers, and sales of weapons that were used in crimes in other states, according to a study underwritten by a group of more than 300 U.S. mayors.

Since the Supreme Court upheld the individual right to own guns last summer, one municipality with handgun bans after another has faced reality. Washington, which lost the case, changed its law. Morton Grove repealed its ban. So did Wilmette. Likewise for Evanston. Last week, Winnetka followed suit. Then there is Chicago, which is being sued for violating the 2nd Amendment but refuses to confront the possibility that what the Supreme Court said may apply to this side of the Appalachians. When it comes to firearms, Mayor Richard Daley is no slave to rationality. "Does this lead to everyone having a...

This Is Not The Machine You Are Looking For If you've read my Integrity Gap series on Barack Obama, or lengthier treatments like David Freddoso's book, you will be familiar with what was probably the most scandalously under-reported story of 2008, which is President-Elect Obama's deep and longstanding ties to machine politics in Illinois, most notably to the Daley machine in Chicago. You'll also recognize two other key themes: Obama's ties to politically well-connected housing interests ranging from slumlords like Tony Rezko to Beltway powerhouses like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ACORN, and Obama's practice of providing official favors...

On Anderson's Cooper 360 they did a major investigative look at the Ayers/Obama connection. They even interviewed Stanley Kurtz. Bottom line: Just a guy in my neighborhood? Served on one board together? CNN Says bulls**t! They worked closely with each other and worked together on TWO boards -- both Annenberg and the Woods Foundation. They also talked about Ayers little tea party to launch Obama and found Obama hadn't been entirely honest about "just stopping by..." It was an event they planned and hosted TOGETHER. Sarah Palin needs to come out tomorrow and ride this just like she did the...

Back in the early eighties, in an interview with David Horowitz and Peter Collier, Bill Ayers remembered his reaction upon learning that he would not be prosecuted by the government for his bombing spree as a member of the Weather Underground. “Guilty as hell, free as a bird—America is a great country,” he exulted. Ayers is now a university professor, but he must have been exulting all over again after reading Saturday’s front-page story in the New York Times. The article explored the putative relationship between Ayers and Barack Obama during the time they worked together on the Chicago Annenberg...

Please copy, paste, and circulate this press release from the Governor of Missouri. Note the Web domain of the press release, governor.mo.gov. This is not "someone's blog," a "rumor," or a "smear." It is the official Web site of Missouri's state government. The Governor of Missouri says openly that Barack Obama conspired to misuse his state's law enforcement resources to "threaten and intimidate his critics."We cannot overemphasize the gravity of Governor Blunt's accusation. While we are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice, "Conspiracy against rights" is a felony under the U.S. Code, Title 18 (Crimes). At present, Governor Blunt's...

Anti-gun hysterics have a new spokesman: Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. I had barely finished writing about anxiety disorders over guns, and "His Honor" opens his mouth and makes my case. Mayor Daley was reacting to the Supreme Court decision striking down the D.C. gun ban, and the likelihood that a similar challenge will soon come against the Chicago ban. Now, some of his rhetoric is the same tired old stuff we've heard before; he called the high court's ruling a "frightening decision" and predicted a "return to the days of the Wild West." The Mayor should be so lucky...

Conservative writer Stanley Kurtz—researching an article for the National Review about connections between Barack Obama and former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers—made a big mistake. The poor man took a wrong turn on the Chicago Way. Now he's lost. Kurtz's research was to be done in a special library run by the University of Illinois at Chicago. The library has 132 boxes full of documents pertaining to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation vested heavily in school reform. Kurtz believes the documents may show Obama and Ayers were close—far closer than Obama has acknowledged—over oodles of foundation gifts on education...

Gov: Chicago may get troopers, National Guard By DON BABWIN | Associated Press Writer 5:14 PM CDT, July 16, 2008 CHICAGO - Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday raised the possibility of bringing in state troopers or even the Illinois National Guard to help Chicago combat a recent increase in violent crime -- an offer that Mayor Richard Daley didn't know was coming. Appearing at signing ceremony for a bill that toughens the penalty for adults who provide guns to minors, Blagojevich said "violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control." "I'm offering resources of the state to...

Politics produces a gap between words and deeds. Obama exaggerates the credit he deserves for a limited piece of ethics-reform legislation. He embellishes when he presents himslf as having a consistent record on the Iraq war when in fact he's done done a fair amount of zigzagging. He says it was the 1965 bloody attacks on civil rights protesters in Selma, Alabama, that inspired his parents to marry. They had been married for years already. He engages in doubletalk when, on free trade and Iraq, he tells the yokels one thing and the policy people another. He overstates when he...

Even though all the Founding Fathers pretended that they hated the media (which then meant newspapers and tract publishing) each of them had their very own newspaper supporters and nearly all paid for tracts that supported their viewpoints and policies to be published. These tracts and newspapers were usually subscription supported, but sometimes they were freely distributed. Flash forward to today in Chicago. Today, thanks to a law ushered in the back door right under everyone's noses, it is illegal to distribute free newspapers. Were the Founders alive today, Richard Daley, King of Chicago, would prevent them from distributing their...

Winning a city job or promotion isn't supposed to depend on your politics. But federal officials said Thursday that Al Sanchez, a top city commissioner and key leader in Mayor Daley's Hispanic Democratic Organization, made sure those spoils went to political foot soldiers. Al Sanchez is the former Commissioner of the Dept. of Streets and Sanitation. If they hadn't worked on a campaign, they were asked to ante up to political piggy banks. Others got jobs, funded by taxpayers, as a reward for taking care of Sanchez's lawn, shoveling his snow or working on his house, prosecutors alleged. This happened...

CHICAGO — Eighteen years ago, Richard M. Daley went into the family business, which is the business of being mayor of Chicago. Back then, he hardly could have imagined that he would become an accomplished practitioner of today's new wrinkle in public finance, here and elsewhere. He says his father, who died in 1976, would approve, but one wonders.

it's a Christmas tradition for the boss to give gifts to the workers. At Chicago's City Hall, the boss--Mayor Richard Daley--also gets a gift. A memorandum sent out last month on city stationery asks department heads and senior staffers to give a "$35 voluntary donation (no checks please)" toward a gift for the mayor and his wife, Maggie. The offering will be presented at the Daleys' annual holiday party for staffers to be held Friday at Kendall College. In past years, employees have given the Daleys gifts such as a saltwater aquarium and a piece of artwork from China. This...

(snip) Donald Tomczak, 71, formerly No. 2 in the city's Water Management Department, was sentenced to about four years in prison, ordered to forfeit $175,000 and fined another $15,000. Tomczak lost his more than $89,000 annual pension that he had accrued after 45 years. The onetime city official admitted to pocketing $400,000 in bribes and to taking part in corrupt hiring practices now under fire at City Hall (snip) Part of 'Old Chicago' system Tomczak also admitted he commanded a 250-strong army of water department employees who did political work for Mayor Daley, Al Gore, Rahm Emanuel and others in...

Security and terrorism won't be an issue if Chicago wins the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games because, by that time, there'll be a surveillance camera on every corner, Mayor Daley said Wednesday. "By the time 2016 [rolls around], we'll have more cameras than Washington, D.C. ... Our technology is more advanced than any other city in the world -- even compared to London -- dealing with our cameras and the sophistication of cameras and retro-fitting all the cameras downtown in new buildings, doing the CTA cameras," Daley said. "By 2016, I'll make you a bet. We'll have...

Federal investigators are zeroing in on why city officials hired young building inspectors, including the 19-year-old son of a top union official, as the federal Hired Truck probe continues to broaden... Agents want to know what role the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs played in getting a job for Andy Ryan, who was hired in 2004 when he was just 19, despite the city requiring all inspectors to have completed a four-year apprenticeship and have two years work experience. Ryan is the son of Tom Ryan, the secretary-treasurer of Carpenters Local 13. The union was Mayor Daley's largest campaign contributor...

July 28, 2005 — Mayor Daley is denying that he had any knowledge of a memo regarding the Hired Truck investigation that was improperly leaked to the city's Law Department and others. That memo contains the names of city employees who are cooperating with the government's investigation into City Hall corruption. Two big questions Thursday night: What, if anything, will U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who also handled the highly publicized CIA leak case in Washington D.C., do about a leak in the City Hall corruption case in Chicago? And even if Mayor Daley didn't see the list, why would a...

In a move that amused some and worried others, the Cook County Republican Party announced yesterday a $10,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to the indictment and conviction of Chicago’s Mayor Daley for political corruption. Writing in the Chicago Tribune, Jim Walsh reports that Gary Sokien, the Cook County GOP chairman said in a statement, “The arrogance of Richard Daley is appalling...The corruption (in Chicago) is so pervasive, so extensive and has been going on so long that most of these insiders don’t even have a clue that their actions are illegal. We hope that this reward will...

More than 1,200 city workers--most in jobs that are supposed to be free from political influence--belong to a select few groups that have supported Mayor Richard Daley, a Tribune investigation has found. And most of those employees get their paychecks from City Hall departments targeted in a federal investigation of hiring. High-level mayoral allies including former top Daley aide Victor Reyes, Chicago Park District General Supt. Tim Mitchell, Chicago Housing Authority chief Terry Peterson, Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) and Ald. Patrick Levar (45th) have played key roles in the organizations.