Chicago Daily Observer

I was born in Chicago. The year was 1960, and I no doubt voted for John F. Kennedy for president.

When I worked in Illinois thirty years later, the political process was often explained to me as a contest over which set of county officials — Democratic Cook or Republican DuPage — could stay up the latest on election night to manufacture the greater number of votes.

Such is the reputation of Chicago and Illinois. Corruption remains an integral part of the political culture.

Today, the state’s previous governor has retired to a prison cell. The current governor is the target of an ongoing criminal probe. State government — though controlled wholly by the Democrats — is wholly gridlocked.

Worse yet, as a report by the Commercial Club of Chicago bluntly puts it: “Illinois is headed toward financial implosion.”

This is the environment from which Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s presidential ... Read More...

Some people you can really count on. Some you can’t count on at all.

Both statements pretty much sum up Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. As in “you can count on not being able to count on him.”

Blagojevich recently signed a pay raise for legislators, after promising during his campaign that he would definitely not sign any such pay raise. Oops.

As one legislator of the governor’s own party put it: “He’ll say anything and do the exact opposite. For him to do a complete flip-flop, I would say, it’s the only consistent thing he does.”

Why did the governor go back on his word? Well, you know, he wanted to bribe legislators and, now I’m just guessing, he really didn’t want to use his own money. So Blagojevich gave legislators a nearly 10 percent pay raise using taxpayers’ money.

The Governor explained his flip-flop: “I want to say this ... Read More...

The two Americas

Could Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards actually be right about something? Not where to go to get a haircut, mind you, I mean about there being two Americas.

There is the vibrant America . . . and the stagnant one.

There is the America of ever-increasing wealth, innovation, creativity, of a dynamic economy, new jobs, new products and services. Choices galore. Information overload. The abundant work product of freedom.

And there is the politician’s America: The regulated America, the subsidized America, the earmarked America. The failing America.

In one America it is what you produce that gets you ahead. In the other it’s who you know.

In one America, to earmark some money means setting aside funds (into savings) for a purchase — a car, house, college.

In the other America, to earmark is to grab from taxpayers to give to cronies. It is the highest rite ... Read More...