Chicago Daily Observer

Occasionally, Maya Brachear actually writes about religion as the Chicago Tribune’s Religion Reporter. Many of her columns are tolerable enough as sort of statistical analysis and trendwatch for a secular newspaper.

However, in her blog post yesterday she veered into journalistic trick/rant more suited to her rival at the Sun-Times than someone who observes and analyzes religion, rather than practicing partisan politics. Maya tells us (accurately):

It’s true that McCain did not attend Parsley or Hagee’s churches for more than 20 years just as Obama attended Wright's church for more than two decades.

Then Brachear questions:

But what makes their remarks any more palatable than Wright’s? Why shouldn’t voters hold McCain’s connection to Hagee and Parsley against him? If McCain and Obama face off in November, should they call for respect among religious traditions or just call it even and move on to other topics?


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A bit of pleasant news was buried in the Business Section of the Sun-Times yesterday. St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island was sold to an investor group who promise to keep the troubled hospital open and invest $30 Million in improvements to the facility.

Contrast this to the Front Page howls in the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times a month ago claiming that St. Francis could not be sold at any price. Apparently it could be sold, and even attract a sizable investor. Incidentally, this is the same investor who had been negotiating with St. Francis for over a year, apparently unknown to The Tribune and Sun-Times.

There still is a major hurdle to providing healthcare in Blue Island. The Illinois Healthcare Facilities Planning Board has yet to approve the sale of the hospital. Yes, this is the same Board once graced by Stuart Levine, brokered by Tony Rezko, and ... Read More...

Northwestern has asked the Evanston Historical Society to vacate the Dawes Mansion, the residence of the historical society since 1960. Citing concerns that Northwestern was not able to support a public museum in the home of former US Vice President Charles Dawes, Northwestern closed the massive Victorian structure to the public May 1.

Building engineers are claiming that $4 Million would be required to bring the mansion up to current codes for publicly accessible buildings, leading university spokesman Eugene Sunshine to dismiss the upgrades, stating Northwestern has “other priorities” than supporting a historic education center.

Per the Evnaston RoundTable, the Evanston Historic Society was offered the building by General Dawes in 1939, but rejected the offer as the society did not have funds for upkeep of the grounds and buildling. Subsequently, Northwestern was deeded the property, which was then leased for a nominal fee the the Historic Society for 48 ... Read More...

“Grassroots” campainging reached a new landmark in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries this week. Combined spending by Sens. Obama and Clinton topped $9.5 Million, making the amount spent on the two mid sized state greater than the entire amount spent by the Kerry Campaign in the 2004 primary.

Combining the available spending by 527 Funding organizations (not Lobbyists mind you) with the candidates own treasure, gets the party of the working man up to $10.6 Million mostly in the last week or so in the two states.

Spending per vote by Sen. Obama came in at $4.92 dwarfing the $2.47 per vote that Sen. Clinton was able to shell out. Yet, Sen. Obama got something of a bargain compared to the nearly $10 per vote he spent in Pennsylvania, only to get trounced by a 10% margin by Sen. Clinton (coming in at $2.64 per vote).

It does not ... Read More...

In what would have been a major violation of the law of supply and demand, Costco and Sam’s Club were reported to be limiting the quantity of rice that customers could buy.

The New York Times puts it dryly via the AP. The Chicago Tribune conjures up a WW2 era ration though the story notes that no store has actually run out of rice. The Wall Street Journal worries about rice hoarding. Reuter's headline is more frightening than the details where Costco's CEO explains that demand at Costco might be driven by the media reports of shortages.

So to clear this up, I made the bold step, apparently unknown to our media incumbents, of actually going to a Costco and observing the “rationing” first hand on Saturday, and buying some groceries in the meantime. Browsing down the bulk rice aisle, there were plenty of pallets ... Read More...

Bill Moyers lead off his self titled Journal last night on PBS with a lecture on his conversation with Rev. Wright last week. Moyers, ever the partisan scold, failed to see how anyone could question his judgment in giving a platform to Rev. Wright to do some damage control to his (and by proxy Sen. Obama’s) image. As is clear, Moyers failed last week, coming across like an infomercial rather than a reporter, and Rev. Wright only succeeded in appearing more radical, and more asleep through the last 20 years than his forgetful flock in the pews must have been.

Moyers solidified his position as the leader of the soft-spoken partisan hacks with this solemn attack on a broad swath of the population:

“Behold the double standard: John McCain sought out the endorsement of John Hagee, the war-mongering Catholic-bashing Texas preacher, who said the people of New Orleans got ... Read More...

The Seyfarth Country Residence, one of the most beautiful homes in Glencoe was featured on Chicago Tonight, in a story about “The Growing Gap” (WTTW video here) in income in the Chicago Area. The Arts and Crafts Style home, on the market for $4.75 Million, was touted by a real estate broker interviewed by Chicago Tonight’s Elizabeth Brackett, as “sure to sell in the next few months”, and trumpeted as evidence as stated by Phil Ponce that the “Super rich doing better than ever”.

Working with the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, I had evaluated the Seyfarth House, and for what my architectural opinion is worth, declared it a very good building, but hard to economically justify in the battered housing market. The Seyfarth House has been on the market for around 4 years now, with no takers. There has been debate in Glencoe about making it into ... Read More...

David Axelrod’s “grassroots” strategy for Sen. Obama has generally consisted placing favorable stories in the press and gathering huge amounts of money, then buying airtime to polish his candidates image.

However, the Pennsylvania Primary has shown the law of diminishing returns has long since kicked in to Axelrod’s investment plan, with the Obama campaign coughing up over $10 Million to get very mediocre results.

Sen. Obama pulled in approximately 1 Million votes, while Sen. Clinton received approximately 1,250,000 votes. The big difference is on spending per vote, where Sen. Obama comes in at $10/vote delivered vs. Sen. Clinton at $2.64/vote delivered. At a ratio, Sen. Obama is paying 400% more per vote than Sen. Clinton, and still losing by a 10% margin.

The Axelrod crafted story has Sen. Obama running a masterfully crafted campaign, brining new voters into the electoral process and a bipartisan tidal wave for the Junion Illinois ... Read More...

Chicago did what it does best on last Monday, with the City Club of Chicago holding the city accountable to being the host to visitors from all over the world for the upcoming Art Chicago international fair of contemporary and modern art.

Imagine this: you put 150 politicians, businessmen, journalists, and artistic types (with very little overlap) in one room, call on Chris Kennedy from the Merchandise Mart to give an enlightening presentation, and fill the above with Maggiano’s pasta and deserts, and ask everyone present to straighten up a bit so that Chicago can have an adult face to show the rest of the world. Democrats, Republicans (maybe only at the Observer table), Liberals, Conservatives with all partisanship devoted to supporting Chicago and the State of Illinois. It worked.

The show looks very interesting , and with 180 different exhibitors from local galleries and worldwide coming into the ... Read More...

Judge James Epstein has issued a preliminary injunction immediately enjoining Illinois Healthcare and Family Services expanded FamilyCare program.

The injunction was denied with respect to the expansion of the Free Breast & Cervical Cancer screening program in a narrowly worded decision.

Riverside attorney Richard Caro and business leader Ron Gidwitz have led the case against Governor Blagojevich in Cook County Court.

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The Chicago Tribune, the newspaper that did not have space to publish Fr. Pfleger’s death threats last summer, found the space to run a tired op-ed from Robert McClory conjuring up a ghostwriting assignment for Pope Benedict XVI visit to the US this week.

McClory imagines that speaking from “the heart”, the Pope’s top priorities are “its position on the ordination of women, homosexual acts, marriage after divorce, stem cell research and artificial birth control”. McClory speculates that a lack of focus on media friendly issues is what is responsible for a shortage of Catholic churchgoers. So McClory has the Pope jettisoning the missions of the Catholic Church so that he can promote the principles of the secular media and Hollywood like an episode of the Phil Donahue show in 1979 while disregarding the interests of the vast majority of practicing Catholics.

I am a Roman Catholic, involved in ... Read More...

I have disputed Sen. Obamas oratory since he was running against Alan Keyes, who generally defeated Sen. Obama in debate, while not having a serious chance in the general election.

Obama confirms his weaker than advertised skills in his muddled explanation of his put-down of small town America.

“I didn’t say it as well as I should have,” the Illinois senator said at a campaign rally at Ball State University in Indiana while dismissing it as “a typical sort of political flare-up because I said something that everybody knows is true.”

So if I have this right, because Sen. Obama says it, then “everybody knows its true”. Oh sure, small town America has been enjoying guns, religion and foreign trade for 232 years now, but Sen. Obama has declared the facts, so everyone else must be wrong.

David Axelrod can try to astroturf over this, as he has with Rev. ... Read More...

In his latest case of foot in mouth disease, Sen. Obama has declared residents of “small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest” to be bitter, then condemned the peasants for practicing religion and clinging to guns (morally equivalent in Senator Obama’s view, I suppose).

It is difficult to take a pH test on the general population, so bitterness is hard to judge, but the audacious Senator went on to declare residents of small towns, “anti-trade”.

This week 208 out of 218 House Democrats voted against a trade pact with Colombia. All of the US Reps from Chicago voted against free trade. Sen. Obama and Sen. Durbin are on record as opposing free trade with Colombia. To the dismay of the Canadians, Sen Obama has stated he wants to disregard NAFTA.

I am from a small town in Central Illinois where employment is ... Read More...

Illinois, the home of John Deere and Caterpillar, is one of the great export economies in the United States. Literally tens of thousands of UAW jobs are dependent upon exports from Illinois factories to overseas markets.

So when our Illinois Democratic Congressional delegation claims to be pro-union, I suggest we examine their voting record on one of the most important trade pacts to come before Congress this session.

A free-trade pact with Colombia, a major player in mining industries (and a huge consumer of Illinois Heavy Equipment) was just voted down by a 224–195 margin in the House.

9 Illnois Democrats voted against the deal. Only 1 Democrat, Melissa Bean, voted for it (Bobby Rush was not voting).

So Bill Foster, Jesse Jackson Jr., Rahm Emmanuel, Dan Lipinski, Danny Davis, Jerry Costello, Jan Schakowsky, and Phil Hare…you just voted against Illinois Union Members, Illinois Employers, Illinois Retirees and Illinois ... Read More...

The Tribune and AP’s Jeannine Aversa continued the election year shriek that we are in a recession, with the proclamation:

“Huge Job Losses Set Off Recession Alarms”

Then telling us

“the economy now has lost 232,000 jobs in the first three months of this year.”

yet, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has it that 574,000 and 1.1 million more Americans had jobs in March than in February and January, respectively.

So which is it? Did the economy gain jobs (as the BLS states) or lose jobs as the Tribune states?

Well, since the Trib story is based on BLS statistics, I would tend to believe the BLS, and note that job numbers are seasonally adjusted, so the additional “unemployed” are actually resulting from slower growth, rather than a reduction of workforce.

Contrary to the Tribune story, “Pink Slips” were not issued to 80,000 more workers, nor are ... Read More...

Carol Marin brought on top notch group of innovators to WTTW‘s Chicago Tonight to resolve the gun violence issue.

Dexter R. Voisin, a Ph.D from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration told us that more spending on education is the answer. Voisin noted that spending per student in Kenilworth is higher than spending per student in Chicago, and surmised that this spending keeps the gun violence down in Kenilworth.

Fr. Michael Pfleger called for tighter gun laws and more government regulation to stop the violence. Carol Marin repeatedly asked “But when is the violence going to stop” in rhetorical display of courage unmatched since the Founding Fathers.

But, none of the panelists noticed the actual trends in violence in Chicago. Murder hit a 40 year low in Chicago in 2007. The number of students murdered is down 25% from the last school year to the present ... Read More...

It may be possible to prevent a recession with the use of hand calculator. Or at least to check the arithmetic of our leading economic minds conjuring up a recession (despite most signs to the contrary).

From The Economist:

“The recent rise in corporate bankruptcies in America may well be a sign of much worse to come”

Further down The bankruptcy rate is at 1.28% up from a record low of 0.87% in November 2007. The bankruptcy rate in 1991 was 11%; In 2001 it also hit 11%.

“But most forecasters expect it to rise sharply over the coming months” the Economist reassures us, perhaps even rising above 1/10 of the number of bankruptcies in the previous recession.

The New York Times tells us:

“the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in ... Read More...

A year ago the New York Sun breathlessly reported that the Obama campaign “hinges on whether the uncharted power of the social networking sites on the Internet, such as MySpace and Facebook.com, can offset the organizational advantages of his strongest opponent”, while the New York Times announced that Rudy Guilliani’s daughter had- gasp-listed herself as a Friend of Sen. Obama on his Facebook site. Obama’s campaign sought to gather 1,000,000 Friends on Facebook, as sort of a showing of Web 2.0 support for the rookie Senator.

In a year I have spent gaining a greater understanding of how David Axelrod works, the Obama as grass roots candidate seems to be a part of Axelrod’s astro-turfing services rather than a newly networked group of political supporters. Consider, Stephen Colbert’s brief, Pat Paulson style, presidential campaign gained three times the number of Facebook friends as Sen. Obama in a few weeks vs. ... Read More...

Loretta Napoleoni, writing in the Chicago Tribune would have us believe that ”love, hate, power and greed” are causing bad investments in the housing market, which is a bit surprising to those of us who bought homes just wanting a roof over our heads.

She then goes on to connect “Prime Minister John Majors (sic), former president George Bush and the Arab super-rich, among whom are members of the bin Laden family” as founders of Carlyle Group, and Carlyle Capital.

In Loretta’s melodrama, Carlyle Capital has gone bankrupt, showing those bad old world leaders and Arabs a thing or two about what happens when you dare to make an investment.

Of course, Loretta forgets to mention that Carlyle Group is doing just fine, while the bankrupt entity, Carlyle Capital, was only 15% owned by the Group. The Carlyle Group is organized much like a McDonald’s with a “ringed ... Read More...

“My mother liked good food. She used to say: ‘I’d rather have good food than bad food any old day’”
—Don Knotts as Luther Heggs in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

“All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn”
—Barack Obama in the Huffington Post

Obama “is, in my view, a better speaker than Kennedy”.
—William Rees-Mogg, a venerable former editor of The Times (London)

Though Luther Heggs may be a better speaker than Obama.

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I was riding in a taxi to the Ogilvy Transportation Center when, delayed by construction, the driver explained “Republicans, all of these delays are because of the Republicans”

“What do you mean”, I said, “is the President in town”?

Cabbie: “No, no, no, the Republicans steal the land and do these crazy condo projects where no one lives, then they go bankrupt, then we are left holding the bag on the empty buildings. This place (the Loop) is always under construction, but nothing gets finished”

“But”, I exclaimed “How can this be the Republicans fault. The Mayor is Democrat, the Governor is Democrat, the County Board is Democrat, and both State Legislatures are Democrat”

“That is what the Republicans want you to think” revealed the Cabbie.

Well, he has a point, albeit 180 degrees reversed from the actual case in Chicago. The media seems dead set to obscure negative information ... Read More...

In the WWII Sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, an illuminating laugh-getter was for the Allied POW‘s to observe the choice of the hapless Col. Klink, then chose the opposite. As Klink was generally wrong, inverting his decision tended to have good results.

Brilliantly, The Sun Times has picked up on the Klink Heuristic in endorsing Republican Jim Oberweis in the 14th Disctrict of the US House. The “Republican” Tribune has endorsed Oberweis opponent, Democrat Bill Foster.

Simply inverting the opinion of the Tribune is bound to be a major improvement over the Cheryl Reed Sun-Times. Well Done, Bright One!

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This might be obvious to anyone who owns a home or has an empty adjacent lot next to his dwelling, but the Press is missing a simple economic key to Rita (Mrs. Tony) Rezko’s ownership a neighboring lot to Senator Obama.

Most homeowners like having a large yard or garden. Even more people like having their neighbors mow and landscape that vacant lot. Having a well kept adjoining green space increases the value of your lot, and your home.

So when Rita Rezko owned and cared for the lot adjoining Sen. Obama’s home in Kenwood, the value of Sen Obama’s home increased. If Rita would have filled the lot with garbage (not all that uncommon in the neighborhood), or built an ugly house on that lot (again not all that uncommon on the South Side), Sen. Obama’s house would have decreased in value.

Lot values in urban areas are dramatically ... Read More...

Frequent contributor to the Chicago Daily Observer, John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, will be on WLS 890 AM with Jerry Agar tomorrow morning at 9:35 a.m. Thursday February 21 to discuss Governor Blagojevich’s state of the state address. You can also listen online live.

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Topic: Chicago’s Paul Revere on Tax Increment Financing

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 6:30 PM

TIME: 6:30 – 7:30 pm – Networking
7:30 pm – Program starts

LOCATION: The Lincoln Restaurant, 4008 N Lincoln Ave (773) 248–1820

Speaker: Ben Joravsky columnist for the Chicago Reader who specializes in TIFs or Tax Increment Finance districts. He began working as a freelance writer for the Chicago Reader in 1985 after specializing in investigative work for The Chicago Reporter, a monthly newspaper devoted to covering racial issues. Throughout his career, Joravsky has worked to uncover information that isn?t readily available to the public so he could shine light on issues affecting the life of Chicagoans. Tax Increment Financing affects way more than you might know. Come see how it affects you.

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No question about it, The Sam Adams Alliance does some great work in Chicago, and nationwide in promoting individual liberty. So it was pleasant to see the Feb 8, Tribune give Sam Adams a mention for defending the right to cook pork outdoors.

Yet, yesterday morning, Sam Adams was painted out of the story, to be replaced by a generic ”Chicago non-profit Libertarian organization” as one of the supporters of cooking out.

The Daily Herald twists the story in a different direction, entirely leaving out the ACLU and the Sam Adams Alliance, lending only Filipino “newspaper and television representatives” as interested in the case, chucking out the civil liberties angle, and picking up on the outdoor-cooking-gasp-Catholic-immigrants in the suburbs angle.

We hope to receive a full report from the Sam Adams Alliance on the delicate balance between commercial enterprise and private property rights as applied ... Read More...

Following up one of my least favorite smells of the summer, raw sewage in Lake Michigan, I checked the Tribune’s endorsements for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

The Trib lets us know:

“If last year’s troubling saga of refinery effluent entering Lake Michigan imparted one lesson, it’s that the Chicago area needs to zealously guard the quality of its public waters.”

Of course BP did not pour much of anything into the Lake, nor did they propose to pour much more of anything into the Lake. The MWRD poured 220 million gallons of raw sewage into Lake Michigan, without the local press whispering any concern.

So, the Trib endorses Frank Avila, a board member at MWRD during one of the more botched up environmental messes in recent memory, without mention of any issues that may have occurred under his watch.

Candidate Spryropolous (endorsed by the Trib) tells us that ... Read More...

The Chicago Tribune has dedicated some editorial resources to reading other publications to find out more about Todd Stroger’s planned reorganization of the Cook County Hospitals management. The Editorial Board at the Trib tells us that they do not like what they are reading in other publications about this reorg.

The Tribune’s coverage of the shakeup has been limited to one story, which also questions how independent this board can be. It is a good question, but still begs for some background. How does the Tribune hold off on a story like this for a week without publishing any details of the proposal? Is the crack staff at the Tribune so busy telling us that Barak Obama is probably not a Muslim (today’s hapless lead op-ed, and similarly hapless feature in the Tribune’s “Seeker” blog) or digging into Drew Peterson’s Ebay sales to skip the #1 ... Read More...

In case you missed the Daily Herald story about an independent board being set up to manage Cook County Hospitals, or if you are not a Crain’s subscriber (the story, while on the front page of the print edition, is not freely available online, nor via syndication), you might have missed one of the biggest developments in Cook County.

Cook County Hospitals are the biggest line item on the county budget. The Tribune and Sun Times have mercilessly (and perhaps justifiably) pounded away at the Stroger administration’s mis-manangement. One might ask, if mis-management is something new in the healthcare industry, but Trib and Sun-Times have put a lot of ink to explaining how Todd Stroger has botched things up, something that we might assume was not the case in the previous administration, given the new found dedication of the Trib/Sun-Times to muckrakery about 1900 Polk.

Perhaps overwhelmed by promotion ... Read More...

If nothing else, Governor Blagojevich makes a great case for the media to keep an eye on politicians.

Here are a couple of sites worth watching:

Richard Caro keep his site up to date with the latest details in his constitutional case pitting Caro, Gidwtiz and Madigan against Blagojevich. Attention Chicago Reader, SunTimes and Tribune employees, this site employs hypertext links. Clicking here will take you to a site with first hand observations and documentation about a major case involving our elected leaders.

And on Reverse Spin, Dan Curry has been keeping us up to date on our Governor for some time, and has had the audacity to notice that Governor Blagojevich shares a lot of funding sources and politican machinations with Senator Barack Obama. Dan is relentless on organizing facts, and does not flinch from scrutinizing issues.

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George Will tells us in the Tribune Senator "Obama's candidacy fascinates because he represents radical autonomy: He has chosen his racial identity but chosen not to make it matter much". Clarence Page proclaims also in the Tribune"Obama an escape from politics of race". Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times decides that "The fact that Iowa - an overwhelmingly white state - could vote for Obama seemed to have put the race question to bed" Edward Blum in the National Review deciphers for us "Sen. Obama, so far, has prudently not predicated his candidacy as a racial metaphor"

Great minds think alike, fools seldom differ I suppose, but couldn’t one of the guys write something that wasn’t spoon fed to them by the Obama PR staff?

As Christopher Hitchens chides "There's something pathetic and embarrassing about our obsession with Barack ... Read More...

The Tribune published a not very well thought out Op-Ed by Tracey Barnett, pumping “Republic 2.0”, a not very well thought out book by University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein.

Sunstein’s claim is that people filter information they want to read using technical tools on the internet, blocking out opposing opinion.

Of course this isn’t even close to a novel thought (or true for that matter, read a comments section sometime and tell me you can’t find differences of opinion), but the Trib did something to make it all the more interesting.

Here are th