chicagodads

I completely and utterly apologize if I was wrong about the lack of connections between the Chicago Democratic Machine and President Barack Obama. I know that they were never really the tightest of friends, but I’m not too sure what that means. All I hope it means is that our president will not be listening to his old (and still present, really) mayor in terms of short-sighted but deep-pocketed advice. I’m not even just talking about clearing the way for the Chicago Olympics (which would effectively displace entire neighborhoods and destroy a huge and much-needed park on the South Side for a five-week stint seven years in the future — complete with temporary stadiums). I hope to God that the Prez remembers his South Side and activist roots. And, indeed, from what I understand, Mayor Daley did not look to the junior senator from Illinois for federal help in becoming one of the top spots that the International Olympic Committee was reviewing.

So, anyhow, now I’m just rehashing old stuff. And doing a pretty poor job of it.

Our honorable Top-Dog gave some advice to the President - hopefully it’s unwanted or at least goes unlistened to. Daley actually thinks it a good idea to lease out public space to private companies/corporations for about a hundred years a piece . He’s rushed City Council through several votes involving billions of dollars of public space and infrastructure within the last year or so, telling them with each subsequent vote that they’ll lose out on such a great deal and may never get it back, but they’ve only got minutes to decide. And that’s why we no longer own our own parking meters (but are paying exorbitant fees for them all through the city within hours of selling them), the Skyway connecting Chicago to Northwest Indiana, or - soon - Midway Airport.

In other words, Daley’s playing card shark with the big boys, and the bloody, legless and rudder-less victims are the tax payers who pay exorbitant fees to the lawyers and accountants to do all the necessary legal and financial transaction numbers for us (a bonus, in Daley’s opinion, because we would put newly down-sized Wall Street types back into work for the next ten years. And this is supposed to make me feel good how?) only to get screwed by the very companies we’re selling out to within days. Nevermind that its short-term, at best and that, eventually, you’ll run out of stuff to sell. Nevermind the fact that private investment firms don’t necessarily have the public’s best interest at heart (and where would I pick up that negative assessment from?). nevermind that, in a recession, quick cash looks good, but it’s never a good idea to give a junkie or gambling addict a wad of cash in anticipation that they’ll invest it. And that’s what’s happening in Chicago. And really, most government.

Alas, the Wall Street Journal reports that a coalition led by banks is also supporting such an idea (h/t to Mike Dumke ). God, does everybody think Obama’s an idiot?

The piece of advice that I did find useful from Daley is his mentioning of having to leave gov jobs off the Do Not Touch List. Daley is right in saying that in these tough economic times, it’s fiscally unfaithful to expect that each and every government job is riskless. But of course, the federal government doesn’t really worry about things like debt…

Trackback URI | Comments RSS