Archive for January, 2008
January 15th, 2008
Someone I know who’s familiar with the Clintons informs me that Hillary’s campaign has brought in the wrecking crew from Bubba’s White House years, and that poor ol’ nice guy Barack Obama is not going to know what hit him because he’ll soon be under attack from every direction.
Obama, though, predicted the onslaught of negativity from Camp Clinton in an interview last week with NBC’s Brian Williams. O said that he could hear the beep-beep-beep of the garbage truck backing up to his house.
The Clintonistas, expert at the art of dirty campaigning, are playing the race card in such a way that they have black surrogates make a racially-coded charge against Obama, then deny that the campaign had anything to do with such charges — of course repeating the charge in their denial.
Then the Clintons claim to be victims of the media for misinterpreting what was said. What would that be, the vast, left-wing conspiracy?
Hey, just asking.
The latest example is Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson’s speech at a Clinton at an event on Sunday. See it on YouTube.
The now infamous remark, about Obama “doin’ somethin in the neighborhood, don’t know what it was, but he said it in his book,” while the Clintons were supposedly down for the struggle alongside black folks, brought a hilarious (Hillarious?) clarification from Johnson when the original remark went over like a lead balloon.
Johnson “explained” that he was talking about Obama’s community organizing efforts in Chicago. Right. That’s so transparently disingenuous it would require a willing suspension of disbelief to give it credibility.
The Clintons thus get the charge repeated endlessly and also get to deny that they have anything to do with it. Kind of like Andrew Cuomo’s “shuckin’ ‘n’ jivin” remark aimed at Obama and the other racially-charged remarks by Clinton surrogates.
Republicans could never get away with this racie baiting, but it’s not new to the Clintons. Remember Bubba’s Sister Souljah moment? It played well among white voters, which was the idea.
One e-mail that’s going around the country — I don’t know who’s responsible, so I’m not blaming anyone –warns that Obama is secretly a radical Muslim who was educated in a radical Muslim school called a madrassas, and that his mother was an atheist. I received it from a well known Rockford businessman who asked what I thought of it.
Well, I’ve talked to Obama at length about a number of things, including his faith, and he’s a Christian. He went to a public school for two years in Indonesia, and he also went to a Catholic school there for two years. His mom was spiritual in her own way but not religious in the sense of practicing a certain faith.
CNN investigated the school in Jakarta and discovered it’s just a normal school. Sure, it’s nominally “Muslim,” but that’s the religion of most people in Indonesia.
January 13th, 2008
Why is it that when we talk about mass transit funding, it’s invariably called a “bailout,” but when we write about road dollars it’s always called “road improvements?”
Transit has been chronically underfunded for decades because that’s the way the road lobby has wanted it. They don’t want people riding in buses and trains because it means they get to build and widen fewer roads.
Cars are popular, and I like to drive mine, too. It’s just that we’re running out of room for new superslabs, and we say we’re concerned about reducing pollution.
If we could take an additional 10 percent of the motorists off the roads in the crowded urban megaplexes, we would save billions in road costs.
Here’s a compromise: I’ll go along with calling mass transit funding a “bailout” if we can call road funding a “road contractors subsidy.”
By the way, kudos to state Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, for keeping his word and voting for the Chicagoland mass transit funding.
January 13th, 2008
Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have the Big Mo, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that just went live on the Internet.
January 13th, 2008
The UK, where snooper cameras spy on you from every street lamp, is turning into a fascist state, slowly but surely. The latest? They’re going to start implanting prisoners with microchips so they can track them — presumably forever. Now, I have no problem with my dog having a chip in his ear, and I know a few people with chips on their shoulder, but chipping someone who has paid his/her debt to society is wrong. The story, in today’s editions of The Independent, says that the chips, once implanted, are nearly impossible to remove.
January 13th, 2008
Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen promised me that he would see to it that the black covering over the windows in the lobby of the Hotel Winnebago would be removed. He’s made good on half his promise. The covers on the State Street portion have been removed. But the glass on the Winnebago Street side is still blacked out. The effect is still hideous. C’mon, Scotty, let there be light.
January 13th, 2008
The Republican race for Winnebago County state’s attorney has so far produced just one TV commercial, and that’s by Phil Nicolosi, the appointed s.a.
In it, he says he’s been prosecuting criminals for more than 20 years.
Well, yeah, but … They were misdemeanors prosecutions, for traffic-related offenses or ordinance violations, during the time he was was the attorney for Loves Park, Roscoe and Rockton.
I’m sure he did a good job, but it’s hardly a crackdown on serious crime, as the ad would have us believe.
So, where is his opponent, Chuck Prorok? Outside of a mailer, I haven’t seen him on TV or heard his ads on radio. Against the onslaught of the well-funded Nicolosi campaign, Prorok had better get something on TV, and fast, if he wants to get any kind of a message out.
January 11th, 2008
I’m so glad I’m bloggin’ in the USA. Why? Well, CNN.com is reporting that a blogger in China was beaten to death by 50 government officials.
January 10th, 2008
The nerve of some tree huggers is exasperating. India’s Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata auto company, has rolled out a small car that the growing Indian middle class can actually afford. Environmentalists, though, fear it will add to worldwide pollution if millions of Indians become auto owners like Californians or Brits or Germans and drive around at will.
Give me a break. Read the story in today’s GuardianÂ
January 10th, 2008
Remember after the twin floods of 2006-2007 that Rockford City Hall said cleaning out the Keith Creek channel wouldn’t stop flooding?
Then, after the ‘07 flood, Winnebago County decided to “git ‘er done” and clean out the channel. Rockford helped out, too, but the county took the lead.
Seems that at least people think the cleanup is working. They’ve been watching the water flow faster than it used to. I realize that City Hall can’t admit that the cleanup works, because then they’d have to answer questions about why nothing was done after the 2006 flood.
January 10th, 2008
Only in public education do we propose cutting services to the customers to pay the employees more money and benefits.
But that, incredibly, is what might happen in good old Rockford School District 205, because there might be, there could be, we’re not quite sure, a $4 million deficit.
I agree with School Board Member Mike Williams, who suggests that we trim the fat from the very ample administrative salaries on South Madison Street. I’d start with the guy that makes the budget projections, Tom Hoffman, who seems to be the defacto supernintendent these days.
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