Chicago Newspapers, the Blog

Roeser fingered by George

2010-04-01T08:27:00.001-05:00

My irritation with Cardinal George is turning toward contempt in view of this incredibly nasty ploy:--- On Thu, 4/1/10, Tom Roeser wrote:From: Tom Roeser Subject: TomRoeser.com ::To: jimbowman@ameritech.netDate: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 5:20 AM Tom Roeser #yiv1027184902 h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff important;} #

Wuxtry. Chi Trib head and historic reform

2009-12-12T23:18:00.001-06:00

"Historic reforms pass House," shouts today's Chi Trib hard copy front page main headline, and the picture next to it is of Rep. Barney Frank, D.-Mass. (he who stood and watched while Fannie Mae went down the drain), who is quoted in a cutline (but not in the story) beneath his and Pelosi's and another guy's pic (in which neither P. nor other guy is identified): "If a company fails [unless

No health bill in our stockings?

2009-12-12T14:07:00.000-06:00

Doubts grow over Senate's Christmas deadline for health bill - TheHill.com I'm glad to hear it, and not because I'm a bad Christian, as Joan M., an old (former) friend told me on OP Ave. some weeks back. I should read the gospels, she told me, convinced that Jesus would vote for this horrendous invasion of the private lives of Americans. I would like to say I have asked Jesus and he said to

Sayonara, Blogger

2007-03-01T07:50:00.000-06:00

Parting is sweet sorrow, as we know. But henceforward, go to my new WordPress site, for the excellent content to which you have become accustomed in a new, delightful format — much easier to use and more reliable. Enough of Blogger, first of the free blog sites. WordPress is free too, by the way. On, therefore, to http://blithespirit.wordpress.com/"Black Progress" Through Politics,” by Walter Williams opens with this:Blacks and Hispanics, especially blacks, are the most politically loyal people in the nation. It's often preached and taken as gospel that the only way black people can progress is through racial politics and government programs, but how true is that? Let's look at it.He goes on to inspect

Squabble by Dems

2006-11-16T10:11:00.000-06:00

POWER SHIFTDemocrats struggle to get House in orderParty's diversity will test its unityis the head on p-1 Chi Trib, bottom left. Story by Zuckman reads well, has the Will Rogers item up front, reference to his once-clever statement that he was not a member of any organized political party, he was a Democrat.But to make their struggle the price paid for diversity, that shibboleth of contemporary

Rummy's war

2006-11-12T12:00:00.000-06:00

Amer Spectator has a credible critique:Donald Rumsfeld tried to run a businesslike war. But warfare is not business; it is not fought at the margin. By striving to do just enough to win, we have done too little. The right strategy is to do too much.Citing ongoing Brookings Institution reports — its Iraq Index — Harvard Law prof William J. Stuntz concludes:More soldiers mean less violence, hence

Sausage fight

2006-11-11T10:16:00.000-06:00

Chi Trib has a front-pager that belongs in a neighborhood section, if there were one on Saturday, but to the general reader I know best, myself, is meaningless.Lawsuit over sausage cuts family links at plant, stores Bobak brothers sever ties; ruling sets limits on wholesale operationhas intense meaning to the Bobak family and their customers — and the story made the cut to the web site page,

The mayor and the tattler

2006-11-10T14:56:00.000-06:00

Mayor Daley says convicted and sentenced 11th Ward politician Donald Tomczak “disgraced his family. Basically, he destroyed himself." He talked that way just the other day about his former aide Forrest Claypool, who did not endorse Daley’s choice for county board president. It’s what comes to mind for Daley. He thinks familially, or we should say tribally. Tomczak stole money from the public,

This county ain't ready for reform

2006-11-09T21:23:00.000-06:00

Black politicians have to learn how to wink and nod like white ones. They are entirely too obvious in their corruption, as in freely discussing the jobs they expect to get as payoff for supporting Todd Stroger for county board president."If percentages are based on jobs, then I'm doing damn good," Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) was overheard telling Ald. William Beavers (7th) [at a victory party],

Race is the thing?

2006-11-08T10:58:00.000-06:00

Sun-Times’s Mark Brown and Mary Mitchell see mainly race in the county board presidency race. The political divide between Chicago residents and Cook County suburbanites -- and between blacks and whites -- was on stark displaysaid the one.[T]he outcry over the way Todd Stroger ended up on the ballot resulted in a [black] backlash and cranked up loyal Democratic ward bosses,said the other, even if

The Cardinal is for Burning?

2006-11-07T13:16:00.000-06:00

Euros and Democrats blame us for our bad image abroad, but so does at least one prince of the church. That’s Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who told a seminary audience in Chicago 10/29:"The world distrusts us not because we are rich and free. Many of us are not rich, and some of us aren't especially free. They distrust us because we are deaf and blind, because too often we don't understand

Barack, we hardly knew ye

2006-11-06T17:29:00.000-06:00

"Hypocrisy, Anyone?" asks the perspicacious and engaging James Taranto at Online Journal:"Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois today urged hundreds of blacks not to vote along racial lines next week in Maryland's Senate race. Obama, the only black U.S. senator, came to the state to rally support for Democratic Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, who is white. Cardin's Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Michael S.

My wine, Jackie C., S-word, Blago's bishop

2006-11-06T10:58:00.000-06:00

* On reading Sun-Times about Mike Ditka Wine: Soon TBA: Jim Bowman Wine. Piquant and zesty, sure to rouse the laziest taste bud, and good for you too. Chockful of vineyard and crushing-floor vitamins. Grapes beaten down by bare-footed Venetians stomping to tune of "Figaro." Soon, at your nearest drug store or cheap-wine location.* On reading Chi Fed of Labor endorsement ad (from people who HATE

The head's the thing . . .

2006-11-05T17:01:00.000-06:00

. . . followed by the lede (opening sentence). They sell stories. So editors look to heads and ledes. Advice to them: send your copy desk to word school. Put them to reading verse, including blank verse such as this from Poetry for October:Look! I bear into this room a platter piled high with the rage my mother felt toward my father! . . . . She - just kept her thoughts to herself. She just -

Buying the farm

2006-11-03T13:41:00.000-06:00

Chi Trib has a Wash Post piece on the left column, front page, and an NYT piece on the right, which is what you call cost efficiency — they bought the services, why not use them? — in an age of shrinking circulation, worse than reported, by the way.The first story has the head “Study: A world without seafood,” which is alarming, to be sure. We have until 2048, say 14 researchers from Canada,

Obama besmirched

2006-11-03T07:35:00.000-06:00

Barack Obama, in the news a lot, but not for audaciously hoping. Rather, he’s in it for taking a favor from Illinois’ currently best known indicted political insider.Chi Trib’s John Kass explains it pithily here, following on yesterday’s Chi Trib reporting. Sun-Times’s Mark Brown explains it here. Upshot is, O. dipped a toe into corruption of the sort he condemned in Africa or didn’t know what

Nervous from the service

2006-11-02T21:09:00.000-06:00

In this we have Sy Hersh letting his hair down for some Canadians. A good editor would take him off the war beat and put him to covering tennis somewhere. He has forsaken journalism for advocacy. Not the first to do so, there will be others. But he is clearly a guy who knows what the story is before he writes it. He needs some surprises. It will be better for all of us.

Voting on paper

2006-10-27T10:34:00.000-05:00

Egad, even before I read this of January 29, 2004, I was suspicious of the paper record requirement in Illinois, remembering chads and the like and the contested 2000 Fla. vote:Howard Dean says on his website, "I support pending legislation to require that all voting machines produce an actual paper record that voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes, and allow election officials to

World citizen

2006-10-26T20:52:00.000-05:00

BBC man is tagging along with the bad guys. Anything for a story, or maybe he’s our new version of a man without a country. If he plays his cards right, he could catch a beheading or stoning of woman caught in adultery.

Truth more naked than usual

2006-10-26T11:43:00.000-05:00

Mayordaley II is the complete party animal in his criticizing Forrest Claypool for non-support of Todd (son of John) Stroger in the general election Nov. 7. Claypool should “move on” after losing in the primary to John, then stroke-disabled but hidden from view of all but fam and handlers, who was replaced by son Todd only after deadline passed for independent filings. Clever, those Cook County

Playing dumb

2006-10-26T10:34:00.000-05:00

News feature stories lend themselves to puffing whom you wish, ignoring the obvious. Thus Sun-Times has this by Dave Newbart, using already heavily puffed Obama cycle on which to hang something really nice about another Democrat:Political neophyte Dan Seals has been compared to Sen. Barack Obama.But Seals, who is trying to unseat Republican assistant majority whip Mark Kirk in the northern

Beastly

2006-10-25T13:49:00.000-05:00

Nature of the media beast: 2nd-last paragraph of "Fox Joins Duckworth in Stem Cell Support: Actor campaigns for fed funding of research," S-T 10/25/06, p. 8, ripped from the headlines, as they say in up-to-minute talk shows: [Republican candidate] Roskam, at a campaign appearance Tuesday, said he strongly backs stem cell research -- as long as cells derived from embryos aren't used.He said

Meeting Stroger

2006-10-25T10:41:00.000-05:00

Not that Marietta B. was waiting for him, as the Beckett characters waited for Godot, but there he was, at a Brown Line stop:I met Todd Stroger outside the Western El stop thismorning. I almost didn't even realize that it was him.I was handed a flier by a well-dressed man as I wasapproaching the station. I took the flier andresponded yes to his comment about the cold morning.Then as I got closer

Peraica and harassment case

2006-10-25T10:29:00.000-05:00

This about Peraica in the Forest Park Review neatly summarizes the case against Stroger, including this, that “the reformer who was trying to work within the Democratic Party system lost the primary to a candidate rendered barely conscious by a stroke.” Reform lost in the primary, in other words. However you feel about Republicans, that’s important. Whatever you consider the merits of

She says, he says

2006-10-24T11:25:00.000-05:00

There are times when you think Dennis Hastert has nothing to say. It’s that way with wrestling coaches, you suppose. But sometimes he does that preconception in:The United States cannot win the global war on terror if U.S. leaders don't understand it -- and Rep. Nancy Pelosi does not understand it, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said on Tuesday.Hastert -- who holds the job that Pelosi is eager to

Just what stems from what?

2006-10-24T09:41:00.000-05:00

Deep in Chi Trib’s p-1 story on Michael J. Fox, (embryonic) stem cell research, and the Mo. senate race, is that which if it were the lede would have sent the story to the city desk spike before it saw the light of the press room, much less my front step:Terry Jones, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said [Sen. Jim] Talent's loss of some moderate Republicans [

Rove rocks

2006-10-22T23:01:00.000-05:00

Victory architect Karl Rove, the man Dems love to hate even more than GW, tried out some winning-formula lines in Erie PA:"You can't say I want to win the war but not be willing to fight the war," said Rove, Bush's top political adviser. "And if leading Democrats have their way, our nation will be weaker and the enemies of our nation will be stronger. And that's a stark fact, and it's the reason

Stroger's the man!

2006-10-22T17:36:00.000-05:00

While recovering from being aghast at the Murtha story, I gravitated to Sun-Times for what turned out my biggest laugh of the day so far — it was only noon on a Sunday, and church, though satisfying in its way, afforded no laughter as such. It was the endorsement of Todd Stroger for county board president. For what well considered reason? Because he’s saying nice things about reform and can

St. John Murtha

2006-10-22T16:07:00.000-05:00

Chi Trib’s page 3–dominating story “`And they call me unpatriotic'” about John Murtha, “the gruff Marine and Vietnam War veteran,” is laughably partisan, a feature story in search of an op-ed page or maybe Trib’s own Perspective section, where reporters get to sound off. The difference is, we know it’s sounding off in Perspective, whereas on page 3 of the front section, even on Sunday, we do

Just checking

2006-10-19T13:36:00.000-05:00

Reading along in my EntireWeb email message, I ran across this, done in a hurry and spell-check-proof. It’s kind of nice, actually, with lots of possibilities:1. Sound like your dad: be an authorityAuthority is essential. You need to speak (well, write) with an air of authority. Talk about your chosen topic in a manor that draws upon your knowledge & experience. Be passionate, too. People will

The lining's the thing to bring down a king (GW)

2006-10-19T12:48:00.000-05:00

Forbes has good stuff on the economy — how much, much better off we are than in 1967. (Rush L. spotted it.) For instance:Mr. and Mrs. Median's $46,326 in annual income is 32% more than their mid-'60s counterparts, even when adjusted for inflation, and 13% more than those at the median in the economic boom year of 1985. And thanks to ballooning real estate values, average household net worth has

Attic problem

2006-10-19T12:20:00.000-05:00

We have solved the problem problem. Nothing is a problem any more: it’s problematic. So welcome Chi Trib sportswriter Phil Rogers: Cubs’ hiring Piniella (since accomplished) could be “problematic.” More of this to come, I’m sure.

Trib for Duckworth

2006-10-18T10:26:00.000-05:00

You’d think there’d be something in this Trib endorsement of Duckworth about her being parachuted into the district by Rahm Emanuel and having no experience in public office. Wait, that latter sow’s ear is made a silk purse: she’s a refreshing change from politicians! And Roskam once was venal! And she’s an apt successor to Henry Hyde, “one of the great voices of conservatism” and a politician

Crime story

2006-10-17T17:05:00.000-05:00

What newspapers do #575: They sneak in their points with pointed coverage, as in today's Chi Trib, where editors give a huge ride to Kim Barker's story on an aged Gitmo detainee never charged after three-plus years detainment. There’s a huge 9x7 color headshot of the man, back home in Afghanistan. The story takes up pretty much all of page 8 with a "What is my crime?" head. It doesn't take an

Puff Central

2006-10-16T18:06:00.000-05:00

The city has a new screamer. Sun-Times has raised the decibels. And is sounding them in populist manner:“NOBODY’S WORTH $27 MIL. PER YEAR: Spotlight on Execs’ Monster Salaries on Eve of Big Hike in Your Electric Bill” [Grrrrrrrr]It’s the Michael Cooke-just-back-from-New York Effect. See the lede. It’s journalistic demagoguery:Stock prices at a near-record high.Robust profits.And a top exec

Murtha in news

2006-10-16T14:18:00.000-05:00

AP sent out a story 10/14 about Rep. John Murtha’s Wash Post column in which he objects to his and other Dems’ being called “Defeatocrats” by Republicans because they want to pull out of Iraq.Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Marine veteran who favors withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, wrote an essay for Sunday's Washington Post blasting Republicans for referring to him and other Iraq war opponents

Nazis controlled media

2006-10-16T12:01:00.000-05:00

Columbia U. Republicans recovered from disruption of their last speaker a week ago to host three reformed violent radicals:Each of the speakers stressed the impact of indoctrination in their youth. Hilmar von Campe explained that the Nazi system of political indoctrination operated not by issuing commands but by controlling key institutions -- such as the media and military -- that effectively

Islamic wisdom

2006-10-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

Here’s a group worth noting and giving wholehearted support:The Free Muslims Coalition is a nonprofit organization made up of American Muslims and Arabs of all backgrounds who feel that religious violence and terrorism have not been fully rejected by the Muslim community in the post 9-11 era.The Free Muslims was created to eliminate broad base support for Islamic extremism and terrorism and to

Peraica!

2006-10-15T10:42:00.000-05:00

“[A] squalid playpen for political cronies who pillage it for jobs and contracts” is what Chi Trib calls Cook County govt. in an editorial endorsing Tony Peraica (R-Riverside) for county board president. This sorry government, with a $3.1 billion budget that's bigger than those of many states, needs to be fumigated and streamlined. With those two priorities paramount, the Tribune today opens its

Chi Trib wins a few

2006-10-13T17:02:00.000-05:00

Chi Trib has some good stuff in its Metro section today, in which it shows what it can do to beat the smaller-staffed Sun-Times locally.* Excellent religion story tells of Poles come to study and be ordained here for service here. Anyone who has checked ordination info in recent years knows how few new priests come from the Chicago area. This would be no-priest-land if it weren’t for outlanders

Latin!

2006-10-11T11:15:00.000-05:00

From a devoted correspondent, to whom multas gratias:Pope set to bring back Latin Mass that divided the Church Pope Benedict XVI is understood to have signed a permission for priests to again celebrate the Mass used throughout the Church for nearly 1,500 years I note: It never was forbidden by Vat 2, which permitted English. Very big deal, this.More:The new indult would permit any priest to

Take me out

2006-10-11T08:50:00.000-05:00

#4 Daughter keeps me up on NY Times, sends me this about 7–11 shenanigans in the coming championship season:It is not easy to conjure $500,000 out of the ether, but the Chicago White Sox have discovered a way. Their financial trick was really quite simple. They changed their evening game times at U.S. Cellular Field.No more 7:05 p.m. or 7:35 p.m. games, of which there are about 50. They will all

McGuire off rehab hook for now

2006-10-11T08:36:00.000-05:00

Rev. Donald McGuire SJ need not undergo rehab as sex offender for now, a Wis. judge decided. It would involve discussing his past, which could be used against him in court, his lawyers argued. They are not admissible, countered the prosecutor. His lawyers want probation suspended pending appeal of his conviction, but prosecutors are mulling revoking of it and thus keeping him in jail. He is

Fair & providing balance

2006-10-10T12:55:00.000-05:00

Here’s an amazing piece from San Francisco, of all places in the Chronicle, in which Debra J. Saunders makes precisely the point to be made about Fox News:AS FOX NEWS celebrates its 10-year anniversary, media watchers should appreciate how Fox, which tilts right, has provided balance to major new operations such as CNN and the New York Times, which tilt left.Many tilt without knowing it.Go to

Nostrum bites dust

2006-10-10T11:15:00.000-05:00

A fool and his money are soon parted, you say? Bosh, in view of the Ted Turner experience. He still has his money."I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere," Turner said [in a Sept. 19, 2005, interview on CNN after meeting N. Korean officials]. "There's really no reason for them to cheat" and use nuclear power for weapons instead of generating electricity and

Muslim cabbies . . .

2006-10-10T10:53:00.000-05:00

. . . won't take alcohol-carrying passengers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, Daniel Pipes reports. The relevant city commission effectively goes along with this as an easy way out. He's worried about this concession to sharia, rightly so. Egad, considering all that is forbidden by the Koran, what's next?

Piling on Com Ed

2006-10-09T22:42:00.000-05:00

If you are tempted to resent Com Ed’s wanting to raise electricity prices, read Dennis Byrne in Chi Trib and Dan Miller in Sun-Times. Between the two of them, you will be moved to resent the politicians who want to stop the world so we can all get off.Byrne on “Playing politics with electricity rates” in part:Nothing says more about the pandering, spineless nature of our current knot of

How To Describe Strategy 101

2006-10-09T14:22:00.000-05:00

Look at this week-old story about Dems in pursuit of election victories and compare it with the weakness of a Chi Trib-Tackett or Sun-Times-Sweet column or so-called analysis. Nobody faults Wall St. Journal coverage, just its editorial page, as far as I know. This account of Dem strategy and strategists Schumer and Emanuel is enlightening and balanced. I can rarely say that for our local

A National Tribune?

2006-10-09T12:25:00.000-05:00

Take on the NY Times? Can Chi Trib do that, as this provocateur suggests?

Damn the investors, full speed

2006-10-08T21:24:00.000-05:00

“Civic concerns, the long-term health of the paper and journalistic values” are losing out to shareholders’ interests, complains ex-publisher of the LA Times John Carroll. It’s a shame they are not more altruistic, like the Chandler family who sold the paper off for $8 billion of those shareholders’ money.

What to do?

2006-10-08T18:17:00.000-05:00

On the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, opposite the northern tip of Scotland, lines are drawn about building a wind farm that would harness the island’s natural resource — it’s a very windy place — and help the warming world. Or would it? Environmentalists find themselves between a rock and a hard place:Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and other groups back the project. Lining up against

Modest experiments

2006-10-08T15:48:00.000-05:00

Omaha schools are segregated after decades of federally imposed admission guidelines, but there’s nothing to be done about it, says fed court. One of their ideas, Howard Witt relates, was toDivide the Omaha Public Schools into three new districts, one mostly black, one mostly Hispanic and one mostly white, so parents of each racial group can control their schools.Can’t do that, of course.