Chicago Daily Observer

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 news that Fred Thompson has pulled out of the race for the Presidency leaves me with a decision to make, You see, I was for Thompson and although he wasn’t perfect, to me he was the true “conservative” in the race.

The one problem I had supporting Fred was, the American people and me like governors or vice presidents as president. He was neither. His dropping out didn’t come as a surprise, he was not doing as well as some of us thought he would; whether he was too deliberate or didn’t have the fire in the belly the campaign never overcame the “Lazy” label given to it right from the start. So now people like me have to go back and choose another candidate.

When this primary field was announced I wasn’t crazy about the people who were in it (that’s why I went for Fred) I had ... Read More...

Proviso District 209 School Board President Emanuel “Chris” Welch is one of those curious political types who operates in the relative anonymity of Proviso township.

Situated two miles west of the city’s border, just beyond Oak Park, Proviso township is home to an array of folk who have hacked out their own little fiefdoms in the hinterlands, far away from the attention of the major media, or, for that matter, the U.S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois.

An ambitious attorney and would-be political player, Welch is a mediocrity who’s excelled only at fooling voters into believing he places the interest of students and taxpayers ahead of his own self interests. Welch spent over $200,000 to be re-elected in 2005 to the non-paying job of D 209 school board president, but hasn’t managed to move beyond the district where he grew up. He was crushed by incumbent Karen Yarbrough ... Read More...