Chicago Daily Observer » Think Tanks

Vouching for Education. Bringing Choice to Illinois

Illinois Policy Institute — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:39:55 +0000

Children in Illinois finally could have the champion they have needed. Illinois public schools, particularly inner-city schools, often are failing, which devastates children in working-class and minority communities. Young black men, for example, are less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than drop out of high school and land in jail.

Too many students are forced to attend schools that will not provide a decent education, despite earnest efforts to turn those schools around. Southland pastor and state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) seeks to change that fact. He proposes that families be given the choice of sending their children to the best schools they can find, even if those schools are private.

The reality for decades has been that parents of every income class use whatever means available to choose a good school for their children. Some rent a truck and move out of district. Others are lucky to transfer into a high-quality public school in their area, often a charter school. In the city, hundreds of thousands use their checkbooks and send their children to private school.

Read more at the Illinois Policy Institute

Climate Frauds and Schemes from The Anti-Scientists of East Anglia

Heartland Institute — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:17:24 +0000

In late 2009, the credibility of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) took a serious hit when email exchanges between some of its senior authors and editors revealed deliberate efforts to falsify data and silence dissenting scientists. The IPCC’s reputation was already waning in the wake of scandals concerning Michael Mann’s “hockey stick” temperature diagram and the role of government officials and environmental activists in its so-called “peer review” process. The IPCC Email Scandal of November 2009 meant the IPCC could no longer claim to represent the “scientific consensus” on global warming.

About the Scandal

Warmist Conspiracy Exposed?
Andrew Bolt * Herald Sun (Australia) * November 20, 2009
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/
comments/hadley_hacked#63657

Climategate: The Final Nail in the Coffin of ‘Anthropohenic Global Warming’?
James Delingpole * London Telegraph * November 21, 2009
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/ 100017393/
climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

The Death Blow to Climate Science
Dr. Tim Ball * November 21, 2009
http://www.heartland.org/full/26409/The_Death_Blow_to_Climate_Science.html

Presto! Alarmist Emails Not Such a Big Deal
Paul Chesser * American Spectator * November 21, 2009
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/11/21/presto-alarmist-emails-not-suc

The Evidence of Climate Fraud
Marc Sheppard * American Thinker * November 21, 2009
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/the_evidence_of_climate_fraud.html

Continuously Updated ‘ClimateGate’ News Round Up
Marc Morano * Climate Depot * November 21, 2009
http://www.climatedepot.com/a/3943/Read-All-About-it-Climate-Depot-Exclusive–Continuously-Updated-ClimateGate-News-Round-Up

Elsewhere in the Enviro-Activist Mediasphere
Paul Chesser * American Spectator * November 21, 2009
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/11/21/elsewhere-in-the-enviro-activi

Hackers Leak E-mails, Stoke Climate Debate
David Stringer * The Associated Press * November 22, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/
ALeqM5ikaqlFpp9jCRHWN0zNuamKXfyeMgD9C441LG0

Climategate: An Opportunity to Stop and Think
Joseph Bast * The Heartland Institute * November 23, 2009
http://www.heartland.org/full/26407/
ClimateGate_An_Opportunity_to_Stop_and_Think.html

Three Things You Absolutely Must Know About Climategate
Iain Murray * Pajamas Media * November 24, 2009
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/three-things-you-absolutely-must-know-about-climategate/

Once Home of Phantom Voters, Illinois Now Home of Phantom Congressional Districts

Kristina Rasmussen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:53:05 +0000

Picking up on a story from ABC News about stimulus jobs created in phantom congressional districts, I sorted the Illinois job count spreadsheet from Recovery.gov by recipient congressional district, and I found jobs/awards reported for the following “districts”:

District “0″
20th District
21st District
22nd District
28th District
33rd District
34th District
42nd District
44th District
53rd District
59th District

Or as Stephen Colbert would say, “the fightin’ 59th.” Too bad he wouldn’t be able to “better know this district,” because NONE OF THEM EXIST. Illinois has 19 congressional districts.

Notes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “On its Web site, the federal government is attributing about $6.5 million in stimulus spending to non-existent congressional districts in Illinois.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve delved into the Illinois stimulus spreadsheet. You can read about the other problems I found with the stimulus’s job counts, including guesses and obvious miscounts.

Download the Illinois spreadsheet for yourself from Recovery.gov.

Optimism in the Chicago Area: Heartland, CBS-2, Jim Ridings

Thomas F. Roeser — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:25:16 +0000

1. The Heartland Institute.

One of the nation’s finest think tanks is located right here in Chicago-but has exerted national influence. It is The Heartland Institute which has helped me in multifarious ways with innovative research and excellent speakers on current topics ranging from the economy through its superb discounting of the global warming baloney (now called by liberals “climate change” since lack of warming is so obvious). Heartland is celebrating its 25th anniversary tomorrow (Thursday) with its annual dinner at the Hilton downtown.

Here are just a few of the many-many accomplishments it’s chalked up in the last quarter century: helped defeat tax subsidies for sports stadiums, convention centers and municipal broadband ventures…all of which should be paid by private funds…thus saving taxpayers billions…helped defeat hundreds of proposals to hike income, sales, excise and property taxes at federal, state and local levels…has become the country’s finest advocates of school choice, helping write legislation creating vouchers, tax credits and charter school programs that enroll 2 million students every year…

…helped defeat ClintonCare and is doing a great job educating the unwary on ObamaCare now…has led the way on the follies of global warming: the principal reason only 36% support it now. I remember when, before Heartland started on the issue, a heavy majority of Americans supported it, misled by faulty liberal reasoning…distributed more than a million books and a million videos on multitudinous topics but primarily debunking the propaganda on climate change-running nearly $2 million in advertisements, including one that challenged Algore to debate (he finked out)…hosted three international conferences on the issue featuring scientists from 26 countries.

To accomplish these thing it has benefited from a tremendous leader all those years in Joe Bast, its first employee. At his side is a brilliant guy who possesses great resources as one of the best communicators I have ever met: Dan Miller, the former editor of Crain’s who was business editor of the Sun-Times who was a regular for many years on Chicago Week in Review.

There’s still time to attend its birthday banquet. Call them NOW at

(312) 377-4000 and tell them you want to support them for the fine work they are doing to save this country.

2. Reward the Experiment by Tuning in CBS-2 Chicago.

While I’m in such a good mood about Heartland, I want to commend a great experiment in sold news content-the CBS-2 news show at 10 p.m. It’s no secret that they have had a rocky couple of years with their ratings…but lo and behold…they have totally revised their news presentation by stressing solid Chicago content at 10 p.m. (I haven’t caught the other hours). What I like about them is that it has no glitz, no endless happy talk, no joshing and giggling…but also they have dropped stories that fill their competitive stations with brain-dead and inane cotton candy-type fare such as…happy puppies with ribbons at a doggy fair…a 5-year-old weight lifter ad vomit which passes for “news.”

The news staff is one of the finest I’ve seen covering the news and I first started watching…gosh…when Fahey Flynn was on with his jowls and bowtie. The best anchor I’ve seen here in years is Rob Johnson…supported by Jay Levine…superb investigations by Pam Zekman who I’ve known since she was a faux bar owner of The Mirage which we at the Better Government Association set up to catch Old Man Daley’s crooked plumbing inspectors.

Do turn to it at 10 because I for one want to see a first-class content-wise news operation succeed…which may spur competitors to imitate them with content not fluff.

3. A Conservative Genius in Herscher, Illinois.

I’ve praised Jim Ridings before. He’s the gifted author of the only book written about the most crooked, most venal Illinois governor…and no I don’t mean Blago. Blago was an amateur. I mean Kankakee’s Len Small. Jim is a retired, aged 59, former investigative reporter for some southern Illinois newspapers. Now it turns out he varied his great writing with a cartooning skill that easily…very easily…surpasses anything Doonsbury has done, or Charles Schulz with “Peanuts”-or anyone else. So excited was I when I received his book of cartoons that I phoned him and asked if he would please draw and write for The Chicago Daily Observer.

Jim said he’d consider writing for it but he’s abandoned cartooning. I want to tell you that’s a great shame because his book of cartoons easily rivals in its way anything I’ve read that skewers liberalism. His cartoon book, written some years ago, is entitled “The Politically Incorrect Cheese Weasel.” I don’t know but it’s probably still available along with his Len Small bio which I definitely know is available. You can inquire by writing Jim Ridings at “Side Show Books, P. O. Box 464. Herscher, Illinois 6094.

$54 Billion Shortfall: Federal Receipts Tank Again in May

Bizzy Blog — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:15:45 +0000

It’s pretty hard to dress up a disaster as something less than that, but the Associated Press’s Martin Crutsinger gave it his best shot in his report yesterday about Uncle Sam’s the May Monthly Treasury Statement, in effect understating the amount and significance of federal government’s rapidly deteriorating financial situation.

With the help of dubious handling of last year’s stimulus payments in May 2008’s Treasury Statement, Crutsinger ignored serious declines in tax receipts from economic activity that are, if anything, accelerating. I’ll cover that problem in this post.

Additionally, after only briefly mentioning it last month (noted at the time at NewsBusters and at BizzyBlog), Crutsinger grievously erred in his explanation of how a convenient “accounting change” Treasury implemented in April relating to accounting for its Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) has affected the reported year-to-date deficit. That is the subject of Part 2.

Here are key background and receipts-related paragraphs from Crutsinger’s report:

The federal budget deficit soared to a record for May of $189.7 billion, pushing the tide of red ink close to $1 trillion with four months left in the budget year.

Nonsense about Unemployment: Create and/or Save Voodoo

Bizzy Blog — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:24:22 +0000

As yours truly noted a month after the presidential election (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), Barack Obama’s handlers and his teleprompter began telling the president-elect to begin using variations on the term “create and/or save” in speeches about jobs and the economy within days of his electoral victory. During the campaign, I found no example of where Obama used any variation on that phrase; it was always “we will create X number of jobs.”

Until now, no one in the press of note has paid any attention to this “clever” abandonment of logic and accountability. After all, by the new “create and/or save” non-logic, Dear Leader has “saved” over 130 million jobs since his inauguration — even though, on a seasonally adjusted basis, almost 2.2 million Americans lost theirs from February through May:

Finally, someone in the establishment media has done a serious call-out of Team Obama’s risible ruse. Here are excerpts from William McGurn’s hard-hitting column in today’s Wall Street Journal:

More at Bizzy Blog

45,000 Jobs Lost “Deeply Troubled Economy”; 345,000 Jobs Lost “Brightest Hope Yet”

James Taranto — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:40:48 +0000

News reporters aren’t supposed to be partisan, and look at the lead paragraph from a dispatch by the Associated Press’s Jeannine Aversa, headlined “US Loses Just 345,000 Jobs in May, Raising Hopes”:

Employers throttled back on layoffs in May and cut the fewest jobs in any month since the financial crisis erupted last fall–raising the brightest hope yet that an economic recovery will take hold later this year.

Contrast that with Aversa’s report on the same statistic a year ago, titled “Jobless Rates Jumps [sic] to 5.5 Percent–Biggest Rise Since ’86″:

The nation’s unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May–the biggest monthly rise since 1986–as nervous employers cut 49,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate was 5.5% then; now, it is 9.4%. The number of jobs cut last month was seven times as high as in May 2008, and this comes on the heels of months of even greater job losses. But last year’s numbers, according to Aversa, “showed a deeply troubled economy, with dwindling job opportunities,” while this year’s raise “the brightest hope yet.”

More at WSJ

image the oft-hyped megaflop Segway

Schakowsy To Reject Call to Higher Office

Greg Hinz — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:00:40 +0000

(Before the Voters Get the Chance to Reject Her)

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is taking a pass on the race for Barack Obama’s old Senate seat.

In a phone interview, the Evanston Democrat said the while she’s concluded that “I have a good chance to win this race,” she’s also decided that this is not the time to spend many months raising money and barnstorming from Chicago to Cairo.

New Lake Michigan “Czar” Has History of Blind Eye Toward Pollution

Chicago Daily Observer — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:07:38 +0000

You remember Cameron Davis don’t you? He is the president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, the “environmental” organization that was napping (for several years now) while the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) has poured billions of gallons of raw sewage into Lake Michigan. In yet another move to solidify Chicago politicians hold grip on Federal issues, Cameron Davis has been named as a sort of extra-constitutional “Czar” to “clean-up” the Great Lakes.

Sure enough, Lake Michigan Water Quality and Cameron Davis bizarre approach to it, was one of the first issues that the Chicago Daily Observer ever covered, here by Dennis Byrne, questioning what standard, if any, is applied to businesses located near Lake Michigan. Then, questioned in an open letter by John Powers regarding (one of a string) of massive sewage dumps into Lake Michigan by the MWRD.

To which Davis responded (in non-sequitir) that “for every new measure of pollution per day that BP discharges from Whiting, it commits to knocking off $1 per gallon of gas that same day”, and reminisces about the old days when the MWRD routinely reversed the flow of the Chicago river. We suppose that we are supposed to be thankful that the MWRD only dumped Billions of gallons of sewage into Lake Michigan swimming and drinking water last year.

It was responsible of Cameron Davis to answer the Chicago Daily Observer, and we thank him for that. But the practice of polluting Lake Michigan by politically connected organizations has only increased since that time. While making a stink about a trivial increase in Lake Michigan dumping at British Petroleum in Whiting, Indiana (echoed by Mayor Daley, Rep. Kirk and Rep Lipinski), Cameron Davis has ignored massive dumping of untreated sewage into Lake Michigan by the unaccountable MWRD.

One might think that environmental organizations would hold all polluters to a set of standards when fighting for clean water. One might also think that environmental organizations were capable of some basic arithmetic in determining what is a serious problem and what is a pro-forma Left-Wing attack on legitimate business. But our experience with Chicago politicians shows this to be dead wrong. Taking Machine politics nationwide was one of the great dangers of electing Barack Obama to executive office. Appointing run of the mill political actors like Valerie Jarrett, Arne Duncan, and now Cameron Davis takes limited local players onto the national stage, which begs the question…is Congress and the National Press up to the task of checking the Chicagoans?

Chicago Daily Observer

image Loyola Beach, Chicago, closed on multiple occasions due to high bacteria count in 2008

Sotomayor: No Empathy for Property Rights

Richard Epstein — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:24:25 +0000

Here is one straw in the wind that does not bode well for a Sotomayor appointment. Justice Stevens of the current court came in for a fair share of criticism (all justified in my view) for his expansive reading in Kelo v. City of New London (2005) of the “public use language.” Of course, the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment is as complex as it is short: “Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” But he was surely done one better in the Summary Order in Didden v. Village of Port Chester issued by the Second Circuit in 2006. Judge Sotomayor was on the panel that issued the unsigned opinion–one that makes Justice Stevens look like a paradigmatic defender of strong property rights.
Read More at Forbes