June 26th, 2008 08:00pm
Aaron Chambers
The Joey Didier murder was big, big news in Rockford. Robert Lower abducted, raped and murdered Didier, a morning newspaper boy, in 1975. It was one of the region’s most heinous crimes.
But does the Didier murder warrant its own entry on Wikipedia, the interactive online encyclopedia? That question is the subject of much debate among Wikipedia contributors.
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| Joey Didier |
Some say the Didier murder may have been a big deal in Rockford, but that it doesn’t meet Wikipedia’s “notability” standard and that the story therefore ought to be removed. Others say it was big news even beyond Rockford and that it therefore ought to stay.
The entry, called “Murder of Joseph Didier,” is here. The debate over whether to strike it is underway here.
Those seeking to erase Didier’s story from Wikipedia have already succeeded in removing a separate but related entry called simply “Joseph Didier.”
What do you think? Head on over there and weigh in.
UPDATE 1
I’ve been on the road, and away from the blog. It is now evident, as Bookworm pointed out in comments, that Didier’s murder is not worthy of Wiki — at least not as far as a moderator was concerned. The moderator today deleted the post.
June 26th, 2008 12:25pm
Aaron Chambers
Gov. Rod Blagojevich today issued a statement to express his displeasure with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that individuals — folks unconnected with service in a militia — have the right to possess guns.
Only, the governor’s brief statement included at least two apparent typographical errors. It also was missing an apostrophe.
Can you find the errors? Here’s the governor’s statement:
Statement from Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich
On the Supreme Court Ruling on Gun-Control Law
CHICAGO – “I want express my extreme disappointment with the decision issued today by the Supreme Court. Every day, around the country, too many lives are lost to senseless gun violence. The Courts decision today will only add to the pain that parents, classmates and communities are forced to endure. It will also put more police officers at risk. I am an advocate for common sense gun laws. Gun laws that save lives, protect communities and offer greater safety protections for police officers. I look forward to working the Illinois General Assembly to provide additional protections for Illinois communities.”
June 26th, 2008 07:45am
Aaron Chambers
Gov. Blagojevich is on a fundraising tear, even as the floor drops out of state government and his popularity rating hovers near record lows.
Gov. Blagojevich has a major fund-raiser in Chicago on Thursday, in a big fund-raising week done with no transparency. On Monday, Blagojevich headlined a fund-raiser at the Hyatt on Wacker aimed at female donors. Labor leader Margaret Blackshere was the m.c.
Increasingly, Blagojevich has used his campaign fund to pay Chicago law firm Winston & Strawnfor legal representation. The feds are probing the governor’s hiring, contracting and fundraising practices, having just won the conviction of Tony Rezko, a top Blagojevich insider.
June 25th, 2008 10:40am
Andrea Zimmermann
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a figurehead among Illinois Democrats, is working to build his own Illinois voter database — a “voter file” distinct from the party’s central voter file, which is controlled by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s political organizations — as well as a new layer of the party’s grass-roots operation.
Durbin is working through the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association to create this new database and to expand the state party’s base in a year when supporters are expected to be highly energized by the presidential candidacy of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois.
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| Durbin |
“What we are doing is trying to build up the local party organizations in each of the counties with the new computer voters lists that everybody is using across the county, and to encourage more participation,” Durbin told me. “We think it’s going to be a great year for expanding our party in Illinois. … And being on the ballot, I want to capitalize on that for Barack and for myself.”
Durbin, a Democrat from Springfield, acknowledged that the Illinois Democratic Party has, under Madigan’s command, focused primarily on helping campaigns for Democratic House candidates. Though the Illinois Democratic Party ostensibly is the organization of all Democrats, in practice the party works primarily to advance Madigan’s interests.
A review of the party’s campaign finance reports from the 2006 election cycle on the Illinois State Board of Elections Web site shows the party spent its money supporting House candidates, other Madigan allies including Cook County Board President Todd Stroger and Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the speaker’s daughter.
Conspicuously absent from the list of beneficiaries were Democratic candidates for the Illinois Senate, for instance. Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, in recent years teamed with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, another Chicago Democrat, in a feud against Madigan.
“Under Speaker Madigan, (the Illinois Democratic Party) really has focused on the House, particularly,” Durbin said. (more…)
June 24th, 2008 02:22pm
Aaron Chambers
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has scheduled an afternoon news conference regarding the budget plan for next fiscal year …
**Governor’s Public Schedule**
For Tuesday, June 24, 2008
CHICAGO – Governor Rod R. Blagojevich will brief the media with an update on the status of the FY09 budget.
WHO: Governor Rod R. Blagojevich
WHAT: Gov Blagojevich holds media availability on FY09 budget.
WHEN: 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: Governor’s Office
JRTC, 16th Floor
100 W. Randolph Ave.
Chicago, IL 60601
The governor says that budget plan is more than $2 billion out of balance. But he has yet to say how he might rectify that plan. Will he finally take a stand? (more…)
June 23rd, 2008 03:33pm
Aaron Chambers
Check out Barack Obama’s new “presidential seal” …
Here’s the actual presidential seal:
Yeah, that’s a bit much on Obama’s part.
He may want to stay focused on winning his race for president, not pretending to be president.
More discussion here and here.
UPDATE 1
Obama drops his “presidential seal” …
Barack Obama’s communications director said Monday that the presidential seal the campaign unveiled last week at a meeting with Democratic governors won’t be seen again.
“That was a one time thing for a one time event,” Robert Gibbs told CNN.
June 23rd, 2008 12:39pm
Aaron Chambers
Hillary Clinton, the presidential wannabe, will join Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, for a campaign even this Friday in Unity, New Hampshire.
From an Obama campaign news release:
FRIDAY: Senators Clinton and Obama to Campaign Together in Town of Unity, New Hampshire
Candidates received 107 votes apiece in Granite State town
CHICAGO, IL— Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama announced today that they will hold a “Unite for Change” Rally this Friday in Unity, New Hampshire. Both candidates received exactly 107 votes in the western New Hampshire town in the primary.
More details to be announced soon.
FRIDAY, JUNE 27
Unity, NH
UNITE FOR CHANGE RALLY
UPDATE 1
The Trib has more.
June 23rd, 2008 09:58am
Aaron Chambers
Will the great flood of 2008 save Rod Blagojevich’s political career?
It’s doubtful, given the Illinois governor’s extreme unpopularity (his popularity rating neared 13 percent in recent months) and his ongoing troubles (continuing federal probe of his administration, talk about possible impeachment and his fundamental difficulty with managing state government).
But it’s clear that catastrophic flooding of Illinois communities was, for Blagojevich over the last week, the gift that kept on giving. Each day, the governor traveled to flood-ravaged scenes while his handlers focused on producing a steady stream of news releases highlighting the governor’s efforts. (more…)
June 23rd, 2008 09:30am
Aaron Chambers
As you may know, I’ve taken a keen interest in the fact that judges tend to refuse to consent to breath tests — or, in many cases, roadside sobriety tests — when arrested for DUI.
A motorist faces a mandatory license suspension for refusing to blow, but he or she denies the state solid evidence of intoxication. (There is no such mandatory suspension for refusing a road sobriety test.)
Who knows the law better than a judge? They tend not to blow.
Well, Kane County prosecutors have an answer for motorists who refuse to blow: They’ll take blood to prove intoxication, with or without consent. (more…)
June 23rd, 2008 08:10am
Aaron Chambers
The Politico.com today published a mostly glowing profile of Barack Obama’s time as president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama was the first African-American to head the prestigious student-run publication.
The eight dense volumes produced during his time in charge there — 2,083 pages in all — show the Review to have been a decidedly liberal institution, albeit one in transition as its focus on race and gender was contested by both liberals and conservatives. Under his tenure, the Review published calls to expand the powers of women, African-Americans and the elderly to sue for discrimination.
But Obama, who this March referred to “identity politics” as “an enormous distraction,” was not so easily pinned down. He published a searing attack on affirmative action by a former Reagan Administration official. And when, in an unusual move, he selected a young woman from a non-Ivy League law school to fill one of the Review’s most prestigious slots, she produced an essay focused on individual responsibilities as much as on liberties, which criticized both conservative judges and feminist scholars.
The article quotes scholars whose work the Law Review, under Obama’s direction, published. It also walks through the focus of several of those articles.
It concludes:
In the end, though, Obama’s time on the review mirrored other aspects of his life. Even in the staunchly liberal milieus in which he’s spent his entire adult life, Obama has managed to lead without leaving a clear ideological stamp, and to respect and even at times embrace opposing views. To his critics, that’s a sign of a lack of core beliefs. To his admirers, it’s the root of his appeal.
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