More Suits In Chicago's Handgun Ban

Nothing has seen more Supreme Court action than the 2nd amendment. First, Heller once and for all decided that the 2nd amendment is an individual and not collective right. Then, just recently, the Chicago handgun ban was reversed and it was decided that the 2nd amendment applies to all levers of government federal, state and municipalities.

It took the Chicago city council less than a week to render the Supreme Court decision nearly useless in the city. The city council passed an ordinance that banned gun shops and it banned carrying guns anywhere but in your residence. As such, I can now own a gun. I just can't buy one in Chicago and if I buy one elsewhere, I have to keep it in my place only. Now, that is being challenged as well.

Mayor Richard Daley's newly minted ban on gun stores in Chicago is being challenged in federal court by a man who hopes to sell firearms from a storefront in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Joe Franzese, who owns Second Amendment Arms in north suburban Lake Villa, believes the gun regulation passed by the Chicago City Council on July 2 is unconstitutional because while it allows residents to own handguns, it outlaws their sale within the city, according to Franzese's lawyer, Walter Maksym.

"That would be like allowing people to read books, then outlawing libraries and bookstores," said Maksym, who filed a federal lawsuit Friday on Franzese's behalf.

Here is the 2nd amendment again.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

So, now we know that the right of the people applies to individuals, and this right can't be stopped by any government. Now, we are going to find out how far you can go before you "infringe". So, is forbidding gun shops in a city an infringement on that right? The Supreme Court will soon let us know.

More Big Government Propaganda

The reason for my break with Big Government is encapsulated in this piece. This piece is about Alderman Ed Burke, his wife State Supreme Court Justice Ann Burke, Chicago Corruption, and President Obama. It starts in a very dubious manner.

After Alderman Fred Roti was convicted on 2 RICO, 5 bribery and 4 extortion charges, the Outfit lost much of its leverage over city business. Over time, Burke stepped into the void and centralized legislative power in his own office.

Alderman Roti wasn't merely the Outfit's man in the Chicago City Council. He was, according to FBI records, a made member of the outfit. His father Bruno Roti was one of Capone's top Capo's. His son, Joseph Bruno Barbara is an unindicted co conspirator in several bombings from the 1980's and constantly mentioned in corruption. The youngest Barbara is also a long time friend of Mayor Daley as far back as high school.

Alderman Roti was around in the 1950's and Alderman Burke is still around. Is this piece actually saying that the Outfit's only connections are these two individuals. Comparing Roti, a made member, to Burke, who's ties are loose, is absurd. It also totally distorts the intertwined connections between the Outfit and Chicago government.


The piece itself is all right, if I'm being kind. Alderman Burke is one of the most powerful Chicago alderman and his wife sits on the Illinois Supreme Court. That makes the two of them major players in Illinois. They also both have long histories of questionable behavior. The piece summarizes that. It goes through three decades of shady behavior and does it in about ten paragraphs.

That's fine though there's nothing new here. All of this is public information and most of it quotes Chicago media as sources. Then, the piece says this.

Here’s the question: Why hasn’t The Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois (ARDC) opened an investigation concerning Cooley’s allegations against Alderman Burke? And why hasn’t the Chicago media demanded it?

Given that the Chicago media has been quoted throughout, this criticism seems out of place. That said, there's no doubt the Chicago media hasn't done a good enough job of fleshing all this out. Still, it's curious to quote the Chicago media throughout the piece and then claim they haven't done enough to flesh it out.

What's really bothersome about this piece is that it's really an excuse to attack Obama by loosely tying him to all this. The title is, Alderman Ed Burke III: Top Machine Boss of Obama's Chicago. The only tie is a favor that Burke once did for Tony Rezko. First, the top machine boss of Chicago is Mayor Daley not Burke. Second, this article is meant to do nothing but muddy Obama by guilt by association. Obama is tied to none of this. None of this is new. They're quoting documents from the 1970's and 1980's. There's nothing new here and so it's really nothing more than an excuse to go after the president through guilty by association.

The Outfit in Chicago

This Sun Times article is a window into how the Outfit (Chicago's Mafiosa) continues to have influence.

He's also the father-in-law of trucking magnate Fred Barbara -- a longtime Daley friend and nephew of the late Ald. Fred Roti, whom the FBI identified as a "made member" of the Chicago mob.

Barbara's companies have been paid a fortune through city deals under four Chicago mayors, and Barbara's wife, Lisa Humbert, was president of Karen's Kartage, a company that was paid more than $2.5 million from the city's scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program.

Barbara himself participated in a 1980s bombing of Horwath's Restaurant in Elmwood Park, according to testimony in the landmark "Operation Family Secrets" mob trial in 2007, though Barbara -- who didn't respond to a request for comment -- wasn't charged.

The article is about several employees that received cushy deals while working at McCormick Place. One of them is the father in law of Joseph Barbara. Barbara was implicated in a mafia investigation, though never indicted or convicted. Barbara's father, former Alderman Roti, was identified by the FBI as part of the outfit. In fact, Barbara's grandfather Bruno Roti Sr once ran with Al Capone himself.

Barbara is a trucking magnet that is also tied to the Hired Truck Scandal. He's identified as a long time friend of Mayor Daley. In fact, they went to high school together. There are just enough Outfit members that know Daley from the "old neighborhood" and from all their high school days. They've used those ties to help maintain influence.

What is a TIF?

My nominee for the non council submission this week (out later today) is from Ben Javorski about Alderman Ike Carothers. Carothers recently pled guilty to corruption related charges and is serving a forty eight month sentence.

The details of Isaac Carothers's recent guilty plea—how the former alderman accepted about $40,000 in home improvements from a developer in return for pushing a zoning change through the City Council—have already been splashed across the front pages.

But what hasn't been reported is the role played by our old friend, Mr. TIF.

To help Calvin Boender build Galewood Yards, a residential and commercial complex on the west side, Carothers not only put his muscle behind the zoning change but used his influence to get $5.3 million in property tax money funneled to Boender and his partners.

The concept of the TIF is central to understand the way the City of Chicago government works. They've often been mischaracterized. For instance, Michelle Malkin calls them a tool of wealth redistribution.

These “public-private partnership” scams inevitably involve tax-increment financing gimmickry to siphon off tax dollars to subsidize developers/builders/contractors who then reward politicians with big campaign donations. (See here for how it works.)

The Chicago Olympics bid involves TIFs at a massive level.

And voters oppose it at their own risk — including threat of violence against them by their own representatives!

Remember the video from March 2009 of an unhinged Chicago alderman attacking a citizen who dared to challenge the wealth redistribution TIF scheme?

Calling it a wealth redistribution scheme is a mischaracterization of what they are used for, though frankly TIF's are far too sophisticated for Malkin to understand.

To understand TIF's let's look at an example. Let's suppose you live in a property that has a yearly property taxof $2500. Now, your property is designated a TIF zone. What does that mean? To you it won't necessarily mean anything, YET.

Now, out of your $2500 property tax bill, say your first $2000 will still go to normal expenses: schools, roads, hospitals, etc. That will be limited to the first $2000. The rest goes into a fund for "community development". What is that? It's whatever the mayor wants it to be. So, a big condominium project can be designated a TIF project, theoretically.

Now, it's not quite that simple. Of course, any specific project must go through all the proper committees: zoning and such. Still, each of those committees are chosen by the mayor. Furthermore, whereas a TIF zone is designated, the money isn't spent on a specific project for months or years.

In the case of Carothers, he helped to funnel $6.5 million in TIF money to a developer, Calvin Boender, he was tied to. So a TIF is a great way to funnel city money, property tax money, to people of influence. Tracking what project gets what TIF money is nearly impossible. Often, the corruption is discovered after the fact.

TIF's have often been referred to as a slush fund for Mayor Daley. The case of Ike Carothers shows others use that fund.

Challenging the Constitutionality of Privatizing Parking Meters in Chicago

Since the City of Chicago leased its parking meters to the aptly named Chicago Parking Meter Incorporated, the entire affair was nothing short of a debacle. Some areas have seen their rates rise as much as 400%. While that came as a surprise to many Chicagoans, it shouldn't have. That's because these increases were negotiated into the contract. In fact, the Daley administration negotiated these increases into the contract. Desperate for cash and lacking political will to do it themselves, it appears the Daley administration saw this as the only way to raise rates and much needed revenue without suffering a massive political fallout. As it turns out, the fallout was huge nonetheless. Now, the constitutionality of this contract is being challenged.

The law firm of Clint Kristov is heading a class action lawsuit against the city, it's comptroller, the Secretary of State in Illinois, Jesse White, and the State's current Comptroller Dan Hynes, challenging the constitutionality of this contract. Kristov is himself currently running for state Comptroller as a Democrat.

The nexis of the lawsuit comes from this portion of the Illinois constitution.

public funds, property or credit, shall be used only for public purposes.

CPM is, however, a private enterprise. If someone parks in a designated parking meter and they don't pay, it is the city of Chicago that issues said ticket. By extension, they are enforcing for a private entity. Thus, in the view of th plaintiffs, this would violate this portion of the Constitution. It would be no different than the city issuing a citation on behalf of Macy's.

Furthermore, five or more violations of non payment of a meter also means the suspension of one's license. Here again, the State is using public funds to enforce for a private entity.

There is also, in the view of the plaintiffs, a violation of a city code

the corporate authorities of each municipality may regulate the use of the streets and other city property.

This right, in the view of the plaintiffs, doesn't give the city the right to lease a part of the street as it's done by leasing the meters.

Finally, the length of the lease, 75 years, also violates a basic function of the City Council. That's because city councils cannot enter into contracts beyond its terms. A city council is elected for four years. This contract is for 75 years. As such, future city councils would have no power over this lease.

The case is making its way through the city's Circuilt Court system and updates will come.

The Nice Ride of Ron Huberman

We all know times are tough for the government of the city of Chicago. Last year, Mayor Daley had city employees take three random days off. Just last week, an idea was floated to stop administering the police entrance exam. The city continues to face a massive budget deficit and city officials are looking to cut spending anywhere they can. One person that is doing very well financially in the city's government is Chicago Public Schools CEO, Ron Huberman.

In mid-October, Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman made a special trip to Springfield to implore legislators to restore funding cuts that were aggravating an already painful budget season.

What he didn't mention to legislators was how he got there, in the literal sense. The schools chief drove himself in a 2009 Ford Escape hybrid that costs taxpayers more than $800 a month. That vehicle is in addition to the Crown Victoria that Huberman rides around in while in Chicago; the school district leases it for about $1,000 a month, not including the driver's pay. Huberman, who was appointed a year ago, makes $230,000 a year.

To understand why Huberman is given a nice leased automobile at the same time that almost everywhere else in the city's government is cutting, you need to understand just who Ron Huberman.

For the last year, Ron Huberman has been the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, taking over for Arne Duncan. For a couple years prior to that, he was CEO of the CTA. For the two years previous to that, he was Chief of Staff to the Mayor, Richard M. Daley, himself. Prior to that, he was a cop for nearly a decade. That included stints as a bicycle officer and a stint in the gang team. For reasons that are still unclear, he became the youngest Assistant Deputy Superintendent.

There's absolutely nothing, outwardly at least, that can explain this man's meteoric rise from a mid level cop to the head of the city's entire school system. Since we're in Chicago, that means there's a story there that the public clearly doesn't know. Huberman, in fact, exemplifies what the term crony means in the city but the media is too afraid to call a spade a spade and too lazy to investigate how someone can go from bike cop to CEO of the school system in ten years.

It appears our media thinks that such rises simply happen based on merit in this city. So, is it any surprise that Huberman has two nice leased rides paid for him by the city. After all, that's how cronies are taken care of here.

Daley Silent

Who does Daley support in the Cook County President's race? Only he knows and he isn't saying.

Mayor Richard M. Daley’s neutrality in the coming Democratic primary for Cook County Board president has created a free-for-all campaign, with no clear favorite yet to emerge from the four candidates vying to oversee the county’s $3 billion annual budget and 25,000 employees.

The mayor has cut off support for the incumbent, Todd H. Stroger, ending the mutually beneficial, generations-long alliance between his family and arguably the most significant black dynasty in the local political machine.

The mayor’s hands-off approach to the Feb. 2 primary is a product not only of Mr. Stroger’s broad unpopularity but also of the diminished ability of Mr. Daley and the Democratic Party to dictate the outcome of elections.

I don't know that public support from Daley now would help the candidate on the receiving end anyway. It is a rejection of Stroger who's been part of his machine for quite a while.

Parking Meter Firm Defends Rate Hike?

I don't which is the bigger Chicago story of 2009, losing the Olympics or the debacle surrounding the parking meters. They're certainly cut out of the same cloth. On the eve of the new year, the beneficiaries of the parking meters are defending their latest rate hike.

Avis LaVelle, a spokeswoman for Chicago Parking Meters LLC, touted technological
advances such as the ability to use credit cards at the pay boxes in defending the higher costs to drivers."It's a greatly enhanced system that offers motorists many more conveniences than before," LaVelle said.

Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, one of five aldermen to vote against the meter lease in December 2008, called the argument that Chicagoans have benefited with better parking meter technology because of the lease laughable.

Of course, it's laughable. These folks are now near a 400% increase in the rates for parking in Chicago since they took over.

Of course, it makes absolutely no difference. At this point, the only folks that view Chicago Parking Meters LLC favorably are friends and family. Their awful image makes not the slightest difference. They're the only game in town. That's what happens when the mayor hands a private company a monopoly on parking meters.

When you're a monopoly, image is ultimatelyirrelevant.

Chatham WalMart Back in Spotlight

This summer the city of Chicago was focused on the Olympics bid. There was however a few weeks when the city took some time to consider the proposal of WalMart to build a new store in the Chatham neighborhood. The proposal was being stalled in the Finance Committee chaired by Ed Burke. Burke stalled the bill and the momentum was lost as the city council took time off during the fall.

The Chatham WalMart proposal would create 500 UNION jobs just during construction. It would create another 400 permanent non union store jobs. Furthermore, WalMart will self finance this proposal in cash and will require absolutely no assistance from the city of Chicago and its tax payers. Another Chicago WalMart has generated over $10 million in tax revenues for the city since its inception 2 years ago. Meanwhile, Chicago residents spend $500 million yearly at Walmart stores immediately outside the city.

In fact, the proposal should be a no brainer. The city has 10% plus unemployment. It has no money and Walmart will not only bring in jobs but a self financed project. Worse yet, the place where Walmart wants to build is currently a bunch of gravel. The only reason this proposal is being held up is that much of the city council is in bed with the unions. Even though Walmart hires union workers to construct the store, that isn't enough. Because Walmart itself isn't unionized, the city council must take a stand against its construction.

This story was laying on the backburner until yesterday. Then, Mayor Daley said this.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has launched a new push to bring more Walmart stores to Chicago.

He says with the recession dragging on, Aldermen, labor leaders and Walmart need to come up a way to make it happen.

The mayor says he knows he's raising a political hot potato.

There was a huge debate five years ago over a so-called "big box" minimum wage ordinance when Walmart was trying to build two stores in the city.

Now, in the last two days, both the Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune have each, again, come out in favor of the proposal.

Only seven shopping days left till Christmas, and you know what that means: Head for the suburbs.

This year's holiday shoppers have shorter lists, and they're looking for bargains like never before. Industry surveys show that half or more of them are spending time and money at big-box discount chains.

Can you say Wal-Mart? Consumers who are seduced by those ads for a $195 iPod
Touch or a $299 Toshiba laptop will likely find their closest Wal-Mart outside the city limits, thanks to Chicago's labor unions.The city still has just one, in the West Side Austin neighborhood.This is doubly maddening if all you want for Christmas is a job. Since 2004, when a divided City Council voted to allow Chicago's first Wal-Mart, the economy has gone down, down, down, while efforts to bring in a second Wal-Mart -- and 500 new jobs -- have gone nowhere

.

and...

The time for a South Side Wal-Mart has come. Unemployment in the Chicago region hovers above 11 percent, with higher rates among blacks.

City revenues are down 31 percent from a high point in 2007.

Even Mayor Daley, who hasn't pushed hard for Wal-Mart for fear of alienating the unions, is publicly going to bat for the superstore.

"People can't get jobs," Daley said Wednesday. "They're not only being laid off, they're being eliminated out of their companies. So I'm calling on everyone -- both the alderman, the community, all the unions involved and Wal-Mart -- to sit down and come up with some common ground as quickly as possible."

It's now up to Ald. Edward M. Burke to make it happen.

Burke, however, is making his stand. Meanwhile, Mayor Daley is paying lip service to this proposal but if he really wanted to have a Walmart built, they'd have already broken ground.

Chicago City Hal Hiring Abuses

A new report tells Chicagoans what they should already know.

A new report from a court-appointed monitor accuses Mayor Richard Daley's administration of violating hiring regulations and misleading her about efforts to deal with abuses at City Hall.

The report filed in federal court Friday by Noelle Brennan contends Daley's Office of Compliance failed to fully comply with court orders relating to reporting potential hiring violations. Brennan's report comes just weeks after Daley and his top lawyer said the city is ready to end court monitoring of its hiring system and give Brennan's oversight duties to the compliance office.

Brennan singled out Anthony Boswell, the compliance office's executive director, and Victoria Daniels, the city's hiring compliance officer.

The only thing surprising about this report is that it occurred at all. The way things work in City Hall is this. Friends and cronies always get the good jobs. In fact, the way you move up within city hall is to become a political asset. A great example is Michael Tierney. Tierney became foreman of an entire fleet of plumbers within five years. Without getting into too many details, that's a very rapid rise. His skills in plumbing are unclear. What Tierney was able to do was become an individual that could get judges elected, and thus, he was the beneficiary of all sorts of promotions.

Beyond this, within City Hall, the so called watchdogs: Inspector Generals, Compliance officers, etc. are themselves cronies always appointed by Daley himself. So, the watchdogs are almost always a part of the machine. So, the sort of hiring that is analyzed in this report never gets discovered since those in charge of discovering it are part of the machine themselves.

That's exactly what this report found. Noelle Brennan, the court appointed monitor, found weaknesses in the city's Office of Compliance. That's all part of the problem. If the fox is guarding the henhouse, then we have the sort of corruption we have in Chicago. This report says nothing new and yet, it's remarkable and refreshing to see a report on Chicago's hiring corruption that tells the truth.

Michael Scott Commits Suicide

Back during the Olympics debate, Michael Scott became a symbol of the corruption and waste in the Olympics. It was revealed by the Tribune that Scott had bought a prime piece of real estate right next to Washington Park. Washington Park was going to be home to some of the Olympics sites and thus the real estate was going to be worth exponentially more. Scott was on the committee of outreach. In other words, he was in charge of getting business and community leaders on board with the Olympics effort and show them that there would be plenty of opportunities for business and commerce if the Olympics arrived. Given his own deal, I always said that the line for deals started right behind him.

At the same time, Scott was embroiled in another scandal. This one involved his position on the school board in Chicago. He was linked to a scandal in which kids of parents with clout received special privileges as far as admissions at several highly ranked Chicago Public Schools like Whitney Young.

There were several concurrent investigations. This morning Michael Scott was found dead from what is being reported as a suicide.

The death of Chicago School Board President Michael Scott was ruled a suicide this afternoon by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, officials said.

When police found his body early this morning, Scott was face down in a foot of water along the Chicago River downtown, a .380-caliber handgun under his body, a source said.

Chicago School Board president Michael Scott was reported missing from his home in the Monroe police district on the Near West Side in Chicago Sunday.

The 60-year-old Scott, Mayor Daley’s go-to-guy for years, had a gunshot wound to his left temple.

An official close to Rod Blagojevich also committed suicide earlier this year. Hopefully, the tale of Michael Scott will be a lesson in the corrosive power of clout in politics.

More Privatization in Chicago?

a If the residents of Chicago thought the parking meter debacle went well, they may be in for a new round of privatization. This time the city's water system may be leased.

If the parking meter deal put a bad taste in your mouth, try swallowing this:Chicago is considering leasing its water system to help fix the budget.

The new boss could charge whatever they want for water, CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports.

Could it happen here in Chicago? It already has nearby. Homer Glen in Will County relies on Lake Michigan water, but the supply comes from a German-owned firm. Locals say there's a lot more than water going down the drain.

The parking meters are the most visible effect of privatization in Chicago, but the parking meter debacle is merely the most visible. Cook County Board Presidential candidate Tom Tresser told me that he fought a similar effort to privatize a park and sell it to the private school Latin High School in 2007.

Most people report that this rush to privatize is occurring because the city is cash strapped. Is that the reason? Of course, Mayor Daley isn't saying much. The privatization of the park to Latin High School occurred two years ago when things were booming and so that effort certainly couldn't be explained by a cash crunch.

One insider offered me a different motivation. In their view, privatization is occurring because the powers that be within the city government believe that it's much easier to shake down private firms than it is to run schemes within the city government. In fact, this view may have started with the city's Hired Truck Scandal. In that scandal, city officials shook down private trucking firms for millions in order to get contracts. Privatization cuts out the middle man and puts the city in direct contact with private firms. Furthermore, private firms are much more difficult to track. There's no Inspector General. They aren't required to give their taxes and other records to the public. So, corrupt city officials would have direct access to corruption, if of course, that was their motivation.

One thing that can't be argued is that privatization more often than not fails miserably to help the citizens of the municipality. The parking meters now cost exponentially more. In the story linked, another town is referenced that also leased their water to a private firm and the water bills have risen dramatically. Had the city leased the park to Latin High School it would have been used for that school's soccer field and thus unavailable to the residents of the city. We should thus view all attempts at privatization with skepticism.

The White House' Fox News Strategy In Context

The Politico puts the White House strategy of taking on Fox News in context.

With a series of private meetings and public taunts, the White House has targeted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest-spending pro-business lobbying group in the country; Rush Limbaugh, the country’s most-listened-to conservative commentator; and now, with a new volley of combative rhetoric in recent days, the insurance industry, Wall Street executives and Fox News.

Obama aides are using their powerful White House platform, combined with techniques honed in the 2008 campaign, to cast some of the most powerful adversaries as out of the mainstream and their criticism as unworthy of serious
discussion.

So, if you all remember President Bush's prnouncement, "you're either with us or against us", well, the current president has a similar pronouncement. The only difference is that the former president meant Americans' enemies whereas the current president means his own ideological enemies.

The irony here is just how much this breaks his campaign pledge to rise above partisanship, to unite, and to be a politician that is different than the norm. In fact, this is the Chicago Way politics. If you're an alderman in Chicago and you challenge the Mayor, watch how many, or better yet few, police start showing up in your ward. If you're a media person and ask a tough question he just unloads on you in what columnist John Kass calls his Chucky mode. If you're a whistle blower, you get targeted, harrassed, and moved. This is part of the hardball politics in Chicago that has made it one of the most cynically political places in the country.

This is also very much the opposite of how the former president treated his critics. President Bush rarely addressed criticisms. In fact, most said that the former president did a terrible job of taking on accusations that he lied about Iraq and other criticisms. Of course, the president isn't taking on his criticisms as much as his critics. He's shooting the messenger. For instance, when the insurance companies came out with their Price Waterhouse study, the president didn't address the conclusion in the study. The conclusion was simple. If the penalty for not having insurance is small and no one can refuse coverage for a pre existing condition, then many people will pay the fine and only get insurance when they get sick. That will drive up everyone's costs. Instead, the president demonized the insurance companies. Fox News has been ahead of the curve in covering waste in the stimulus, Van Jones, Anita Dunn, etc. The White House never explained why they hired Van Jones. In fact, Jones blamed his dismissal on a right wing cabal. Instead, the White House attacked Fox News.

Daley does the exact sort of a thing. He only goes into full Chucky mode (which is essentially an uncontrolled and scary bully face) when he's asked an uncomfortable question. He targets those that point out corruption within his administration. He targets those alderman that, however rarely, take him on. This is exactly what President Obama is doing. Of course, the Chicago Way is the exact opposite of what the president said he'd govern like. Of course being different was a theme of his campaign. He isn't different but in fact he's worse than the average politicians. All politicians have enemies and all challenge their enemies in some way. Few are as cut throat as Obama is. So much for trascending politics.

When the Water Main Broke at De Diego Elementary School

On September 14th, 2007, the water main broke at Jose De Diego Elementary School in the 1300 block of Claremont in in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. The Department of Water was dispatched following this break to investigate. The subsequent inspection found enough problems with the schools plumbing that the commissioner of the Department of Water, John Spatz, sent a letter to CEO of the Chicago Public Schools Arne Duncan informing him of the situation on September 21st of 2007. In that letter, Spatz recommended that water fountains in the school be covered until several problems are fixed. According the letter, Spatz' office believed the water was so compromised that it was no longer safe to drink from the fountains until several issues were resolved.

On the 24th of October of 2007, the Department of buildings sent out its own inspector to De Diego Elementary on what it termed a 311 call, or an inspection of high priority. Mike McGann was sent to De Diego Elementary School. The next day McGann filed a report with his bosses Frank Bathauer and Mario Olivella. That report found two pages worth of violations that included: fecal matter in the water system, contamination, and multiple compromises in the plumbing system that required immediate attention. That report was never filed. Instead, Bathauer called Alice Vera, principle of De Diego, to tell her that McGann had created "mass hysteria" the day before at her school and downplayed the violations McGann reported. Vera countered that in her opinion McGann acted professionally and all decisions were made in conjunction with her and her staff.

On the 31st of October, Commissioner Spatz sent a second letter to Duncan's office. In this letter, he informed Duncan's office that the Department of buildings would now be heading the investigation into the violations at De Diego School. Meanwhile, McGann's report still hadn't been filed (in fact, it's never been formally filed) and Bathauer was still maintaining the stance that the violations were minor and something not to "panic" over. Then, on November 20th of 2007, Deputy Commissioner in the Department of Buidings, Peter Ousley, sent Principal Vera a letter stating that conditions "do not represent conditions that are dangerous or hazardous". Despite this characterization, the water fountains were still covered and so on the 26th of November, Commissioner Spatz of the Water Department sent CEO Duncan his third letter suggesting that water bottles and hand sanitizer be brought into the school to make sure to deal properly with the situation.

On January 4th of 2008, a contractor was finally brought into the school. The contractor was Stanton Mechanical, a frequent recipient of city contracts. That's 125 days from the initial water main break and the kids had gone 111 days without functioning water fountains. Six days later Mario Olivella signed off on an all good order and wrote that all "permit codes have been met." The next day an anonymous call about De Diego Elementary School dispatched the city's Department of Health. DOH shut down De Diego School that day due to the water quality of the plumbing system, or the very thing given the all clear the day prior by Olivella. For the next six days the same Stanton Mechanical and a sub contractor they hired, Midwest Chlorinating, worked to fix the problems. On the 18th, Department of Water Commissioner Spatz sent a letter to CEO Duncan giving the all clear to the water system at De Diego Elementary School. The very next day Mike McGann was given a three day unpaid suspension by the Department of Water. In that meeting, McGann attempted to tape the conversation because he didn't have a union rep present. For this, on the 15th of February, he was issued a subsequent 15 day unpaid suspension.

Epilogue:

Mario Olivella, in May of 2008, was indicted for bribery and corruption charges. Mike McGann challenged his suspensions to the H.R. Department of the DOB. He eventually won his case and had his suspensions reversed. He's since been transferred to another part of the Department of Buildings and believes he's a target of retaliation for this and other "offenses" that city's DOB machine views as unacceptable. In his estimation, the list of problems couldn't have possibly been addressed in the little time the contractor worked on them. As such, he believes the water is still compromised and could lead to all sorts of health issues for any of the 1000 plus students at De Diego School. Prior to arriving at the Department of Buildings, Peter Ousley worked in the management office at the County Building at 69 W. Washington when that building burnt down. The Department of Buildings has become a spot for political operatives and favorites of the Mayor to receive cushy jobs like Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner. Whistle blowers and others who don't go along are frequent targets of retaliations including unjustified suspensions, transfers, and winding up working with the Strategic Task Force which works in the roughest areas of the city. It's not clear that either the Department of Health or the Department of Buildings ever sent an inspector in after the 18th to make sure that everything was in fact fixed even though both had formal complaints. Two stories were written about this situation by the Chicago Sun Times, on the 23rd and 30th of November 2007. (neither is any longer available on line) The whole episode is yet another example of the Chicago Way.

The Inside Story of Chicago's Losing IOC Bid

Ultimately, I still believe that we'll never know exactly what happened but here's what I've gathered after having conversations with members of No Games Chicago. In essence, one of the reasons that Chicago lost was that Daley's machine politics didn't transfer over to the IOC all that well. For instance, Daley said several untruths and many of these untruths were eventually discovered by the IOC. So, by the end, his credibility was weakened. Daley claimed that Chicago has a solid infrastructure. In fact, if Chicago were to host the games the city would need to totally transform its train system and highway system. He claimed that all the Olympics sites would be compacted next to each other. In fact, the equestrian would be held in Wisconsin. His biggest whopper was that there really isn't much corruption in the city of Chicago. He claimed the corruption really occurred in the Governor's office (Blagojevich) and with his ouster, most of the corruption was rooted out. As the truth was brought to light, Daley's credibility was weakened.

Second, No Games Chicago was the only group of its kind until the end. There was no equivalent in Madrid, Rio, and Tokyo only formed one such group at the end. In fact, in June, No Games Chicago went to Switzerland to lobby the IOC not to bring the games to Chicago, and the IOC said they'd never remembered a group like their's that locally was lobbying not to have their city get the games. No Games Chicago was interviewed by several Tokyo media in June and the media showed them video of similar demonstrations by Tokyo residents against the bid coming there. Yet, there was no organized group against the bid. So, in October, No Games Chicago had their equivalent in Tokyo. Is it merely a coincidence that those two cities were the first two knocked out? Also, support for the games fell in Chicago below 50% (and I believe in Tokyo) and that's always a magic number with the IOC. Once that happened, the bid was doomed.

President Obama also didn't help the bid any. He got criticism for going at all. As such, he shortened the trip tremendously. He and his entourage arrived at about 9 AM local time. That was two private planes (including Air Force One) and a charter plane. The logistics of that visit called for major roads and highways to be blocked off. Well, at 9 AM, that means a lot of residents of Copenhagen had difficulty getting to work. Furthermore, the President spent less than half a day in Copenhagen. The other leaders, from Brazil, Spain and Japan, spent a couple days in Copenhagen. Like anyone else, the IOC likes to be schmoozed. So, this clearly put Chicago at a disadvantage. Whereas the other world leaders spent days fraternizing with the IOC and locals, Obama was in and out before anyone could see him.

The bid in Madrid appears to have been doomed from the beginning. With Barcelona getting the games in 1992, it doesn't appear as though the IOC ever had any intention of giving them Spain the games again so soon. Their bid was thus propped up by Juan Antonio Samaranch. He's the former head of the IOC that was now leading the Madrid bid. In fact, about half the IOC members were put there by Samaranch. He pleaded personally with them to give Madrid the bid. They nearly got it even though it doesn't appear as though it had anything positive to offer besides him.

That leaves Rio. Rio, it appears, got it because it had the most reasons to get it and the least negative reasons to get it. First, it would be the first South American city to host the games. That's no small factor. Second, there was no visible opposition like in Chicago and Tokyo. Third, the President of Brazil promised to put the full weight of the country behind the bid. It won't merely be Rio funding the games but the country of Brazil. In the U.S., our federal government is barred from doing the same thing. With the full backing of the national government, the city appearing united in favor of the bid, and the opportunity to give the bid to a South American city, Rio got the bid.

Why Everyone Should Care About ACORN

There is some poetic irony in the fact that I am tracking the case of Dr. Anna Chacko at the same time I am tracking the events surrounding ACORN. That's because both have similarities. Both Chacko and ACORN used weaknesses in the American system to exploit, and both exploited those weaknesses for evil deeds. It's really that simple. As such, much like the case of Dr. Anna Chacko, everyone should care about unraveling exactly what ACORN has done and how they did it. Because if it's truly unraveled, then we can identify the weaknesses they exploited and fix them.



A lot of people have mistakenly identified what is at the heart of the scandal surrounding ACORN. Many have turned ACORN into an ideological battlefield. It isn't. I don't care if ACORN is Communist, Socialist, Marxist, or Anarchist. They are Americans and they have every right to push whatever ideology they choose. Anyone that sees ACORN through an ideological prism is missing what's at the heart of this scandal. What's at the heart of this scandal is corruption. It's not merely a little corruption here and there, but in fact, it's so much corruption that ACORN has become a criminal enterprise.



The folks at ACORN didn't wake up one day and suddenly become criminals. In fact, this is a process that took years and decades. Furthermore, their criminality expanded and it expanded because the system broke down. Just take the most recent news as an example. Today, we learned that ACORN recently received a grant in Louisiana for about a million dollars for fire prevention. Well, first, ACORN doesn't do fire prevention. Second, and much more worrisome, even after everything that has been revealed, ACORN is still managing to receive government money. That is yet more evidence of how our system broke down.



The first way in which ACORN exploited our system is through our tax code. Often folks on both sides of the aisle bemoan the complicated nature of our tax code. In fact, our very complicated tax code helped ACORN get away with serious malfeasance for years. I spoke a few months back with Mathew Vadum. He has been following ACORN for nearly a year. He told me that he tried to track ACORN's money among their multi hundred affiliates. The problem he had was that the affiliates were all of different tax structures with different rules of reporting. So, he would track money to an affiliate that wasn't required to disclose their books and lose the money. ACORN has several hundred affiliates and each has their own tax structure. Each is also required to report different things to the IRS. Some aren't required to report anything. In such an environment, it's easy for anyone to lose track of money. That's because it eventually winds up in a place that doesn't have to disclose anything.

All of this was done by design. ACORN was created into a complicated maze of affiliates with their ABC of tax codes so that tracking what happened to any of the money would be near impossible. ACORN did all of this using our very complicated tax code. ACORN used our tax code's complications to hide illegality. They exploited the weaknesses caused by those complexities to hide this illegality. We're only going to know exactly what those weaknesses are with a full and open investigation.

Beyond this, ACORN has always used their ideology, their mission to help the poor, and the fact that most of their members and the people they serve are black to their advantage. The last part is ironic since most of the power is held by whites. Even now, Bertha Lewis constantly goes back to the idea that "ACORN is focused on helping low income folks stay in their homes". She's called the recent charges "right wing attacks". ACORN has always attempted to turn any accusation of criminality against it as a right wing attack. For a long time, it worked. The Issa Report was scathing. Yet, most people dismissed it as a partisan attack. In other words, most people dismissed the criminality uncovered in the report simply because Republicans took the lead in investigating it. That's been the game that ACORN has been playing for a very long time. Our society has become so polarized on ideological lines that we fail to see obvious corruption just because the corruption comes from a group or person we happen to agree with philosophically.

We live in a society where a politician like Sarah Palin can be crucified by media all over the world while any criticism of Barack Obama is immediately viewed skeptically and a charge of racism is applied. ACORN exploited the politically correct nature of our society to marginalize any and every critic so that eventually, they convinced enough people that any and all criticism was either politically, racially, or culturally motivated. Frankly, enough people bought it so that despite mounting evidence of systemic criminality, ACORN continued to operate relatively freely until just the last two months. ACORN exploited the weaknesses caused by our political correctness and that can never happen again. That problem can't be solved until it's recognized.

What's most scary about ACORN is the political power they hold that most people don't know about. Before Republicans get excited, make no mistake that when it comes to power, ACORN knows no ideology. While ACORN certainly more often than not allied itself with Democrats, they certainly didn't miss an opportunity to ally themselves with any politician. I was amazed to be on a call with the Conference of Mayors and Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO, in May. This call occurred two weeks after Lewis' interview with Bill O'Reilly. It came only weeks after Glenn Beck first revealed information about CCI and began unraveling their criminality. So, while Beck was exposing their criminality, ACORN was working with the nation's most powerful mayors on foreclosure relief. One of the leading mayors on that call was Mayor Bloomberg of New York City. A few years back, ACORN engineered a total restructure in the Baltimore city council.

I always remember the most remarkable thing that an insider once told me. The folks at ACORN often marveled at how a politician would get on the floor in Congress and go into a long anti ACORN diatrobe, then an ACORN affiliate would meet with the same politician and they would approve funding. That's how tied into the political system that group is. The only way to know just how tied into the system they are is with a full investigation. The only way to do that is to have a public engaged. If politicians are getting in bed with criminal enterprises, that's something everyone must know.

The most important reason that everyone must care about ACORN is because for far too long our society has treated corruption far too lightly. The mayor of Chicago is notorious for his corruption and still everyone in our city expects him to get re elected. Furthermore, when stories of corruption break, they are rarely full flushed out so that all responsible are held responsible. In the Hired Truck Scandal here in Illinois, Donald Tomczak is currently in jail for receiving bags of money, but the media didn't dig far enough to figure out who sent him the bags of money. That scandal brought down dozens but left hundreds of others also involved unscathed. Because our society takes such a lax attitude to corruption, that encourages more of it. If someone or something is corrupt, nothing else should matter. That's unacceptable because corruption costs everyone but those that are corrupt. It's the antithesis of everything this country stands for.

It's gone on far too long because stories of corruption are treated with a relative yawn. People are simply not nearly outraged enough when someone in a position of trust abuses that trust. If all of ACORN's corruption isn't fleshed out, our society misses yet another opportunity to treat corruption the way it should be treated. The way it should be treated is with righteous contempt and the full force of the law. That rarely happens. More often, a few heads roll and the public loses interest. As a result, most of those involved in said corruption get away with it and continue on. That sort of an attitude only encourages even more corruption.

It matters not what side of the politically philosophical aisle you are on. ACORN covered up embezzlement. They failed to pay their taxes. They engaged in systemic voter registration fraud. They systemically comingled funds so that funds often went for purposes they weren't intended to go for. They committed ERISA violations, abused their employees, and that's only what we know. They are a criminal enterprise that has been allowed to operate, mostly freely, by a system that was supposed to stop it. Instead, the system often helped ACORN in their criminality. This can no longer go on. The only way to know how to fix all the flaws: legal, tax, and societal, is with a full investigation. A full investigation will expose exactly how ACORN did what they did so that everyone can see. Then, we can fix all the weaknesses that ACORN exploited. That's why everyone should care about ACORN.

A Half Hour With Two Chicago Whistleblowers

I met Pat McDonough about a month ago. The best way to describe McDonough is by this Shakespeare quote.

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

For McDonough, his greatness if you will was thrust upon him. I doubt Pat would call it greatness and he'd also want to admit that all things being equal, he might even take his earlier life. That said, Pat McDonough is one of a handful of whistle blowers that was instrumental in uncovering the Hired Truck scandal about five years. He told me that he acted as a pseudo deep throat to some of the biggest breaking stories on that scandal. For his trouble, he was targeted by a large part of Chicago's political structure. That included superiors and even his union. He is now square in the cross hairs of Mayor Daley.

Upon becoming a whistle blower, McDonough also became an activist. He started the web site Chicago Clout. This site tracks incidents of corruption in the city. The site was like most blogs, viewed somewhat sparingly, until a few of his friends did a song to "celebrate" the corrupt nature of the city. The group, affectionately known as the Clout Meisters, became a near instantaneous viral sensation and McDonough received publicity that has helped raise the profile of his site. From time to time, he and fellow whistle blowers put on a half hour television show that runs on CAN TV locally and gets posted on his site. Neither Pat nor his colleagues are professional broadasters, and when you view the video you won't mistake any of us for Bill O'Reilly. Still, Pat and his colleagues all share one thing, they were put in a position to report on Chicago corruption. They did, and for it, they were targeted. Now, they aren't merely plumbers, plumbing inspectors, and union laborers, but activists. Greatness if you will has been thrust upon them. None asked for it, but none was willing to look the other way when they came face to face with corruption.

I did a show with two of Pat's compatriots on Friday, John Swietczak and Michael McGann. Swietczak was also a whistleblower on the Hired Truck scandal, however, Swietczak has since been a whistle blower on numerous incidents of corruption. On some he takes credit and on others he remains anonymous. In fact, about a week prior to taping on Friday, Swietczak blew the whistle on exactly the sort of corruption that is likely common place throughout Chicago. While making his rounds as a plumbing inspector, Swietczak noticed that a truck doing resurfacing work was taking water from a city fire hydrant without a permit and without a device to prevent construction debris from contaminating Chicago's water system. Swietczak approached the truck and asked that the operator produce the proper permit. They didn't have one and instead got the owner of the trucking company on the phone. The owner, Michael Tadin, owns MAT Construction and MAT Construction was one of the biggest firms involved in the Hired Truck Scandal. According to Swietczak, when Tadin got on the phone, Tadin responded to the request as such.

The guy straight out tells me he's been doing this for 25 years, and he's never
bought any permits," Swietczak said, noting that contractors pay $13.16 per day
for hydrant use.

When Spielman called Tadin for comment, he remembered the conversation differently.

I never said that. I said this is the first time I've been checked for a
permit in 10 or 12 years

Whatever happpened, it's not in dispute that the truck was operating without a permit. What happened next was pure Chicago. Spielman was hurriedly gathering all details to finish the story and the story was unfolding as she was working on it. Keep in mind that not only was this truck using the city's water supply illegally but this company had already been implicated in a previous scandal. Normally, we'd expect the government to sever all ties with the company pending an investigation. That's not what happened here. Instead, in the matter of hours a permit was rushed and approved for MAT. In fact, it was rushed and approved all while Spielman was gathering evidence. Swietczak told me that normally such a process could take weeks. This took hours and Spielman added that to her story. For blowing the whistle on this corruption, Swietczak expects to be targeted and he said as much in the video.

Michael McGann is also a fellow plumbing inspector. In the next couple weeks, I expect to do his story in detail in the next couple weeks. Here it is in a nutshell. In October of 2007, he was called to De Diego Elementary School following a water main break. McGann found a series of violations that he felt were so serious that it was dangerous for the kids in the school to drink the water out of the water fountain. Rather than taking his concerns and REPORT seriously, superiors attempted to bury it. He complained to his union and to the Inspector General and later found that those complaints lead to retaliation. He has been the target of a series of retaliations since but worse than that, in his opinion, the structural problems with the school's plumbing hasn't been fixed and as such the kids' water continues to be at risk.

Pat is trying to send me the embed code for the video but in the meantime, please go to the link and watch the video of our three conversation on his site.

UPDATE:

Here's the video.

President Obama to Copenhagen

In a story being reported by ESPN and other outlets, President Obama has done a 180% turnaround and will now come to Copenhagen to pitch for Chicago to get the games.

President Barack Obama will travel to Denmark this week to support Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, told The Associated Press on Monday morning that Obama will leave Thursday and join his wife, Michelle, in Copenhagen, where they'll make the pitch to the International Olympic Committee.

Obama would be the first U.S. president to take on such a direct role in lobbying for an Olympics event.

This is not terribly surprising and something that I predicted largely. I, however, predicted that President Obama would make a surprise appearance in Copenhagen. I thought he was merely playing possum with the Committee and wanted to make a more grand entrance. Instead, it appears that he was simply waffling, as he tends to do. In any case, most experts thought the city of Chicago had no chance without Obama at Copenhagen. Now, the city is back in the game.

The much more interesting report is the one that's on the front of Drudge. This report claims that the local Fox affiliate was told to not re air a report about Chicagoans not wanting the Olympics. The Olympic Committee told WFLD 32, the local Fox affiliate, that this report would hurt the bid. A new group called Chicagoans for Rio has received some attention and a sort of cult following. Well, WFLD ran a report on this group and it appears that the Olympic committee told them not to do it again. (no embed available but video is available at the link)

That raises all sorts of questions about what the media in Chicago is doing. Their job is not to be a mouth piece for the bid, but rather to report the news. No Games Chicago is holding a rally tomorrow at 5:30 PM at City Hall (121 N. LaSalle locally). How much media coverage will that receive? It appears that it won't receive much. This news isn't just surprising but shocking. For the media to be told what they should and should not cover by an extension of the local government is something akin to the media arrangement in North Korea.

The media in Chicago has done nearly zero critical reporting of the Olympics. They've been little more than cheerleaders. Despite this, the latest Tribune poll has barely a majority of Chicagoans supporting the bid. Imagine what would have happened if the media in Chicago wasn't acting as a mouthpiece. If Fox capitulated they have a lot to answer for, however this particular story explains a lot about the way this story has been covered.

Bird Sanctuary Another Daley Victim

Jarvis Migratory Sanctuary is a bird sanctuary located in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago. It sits between Belmont and Sheridan right on the lake shore. It's a scenic area home to more than 100 species of birds which often use Chicago to rest and refuel on the way North or South, depending on the season. Here's how the view and activities are described.

Although a fence prohibits visitors from entering the sanctuary itself, a viewing platform and peripheral wood chipped path provide ample viewing opportunities for bird watching. Additionally, during the summer months, visitors can see purple martins flying around and bringing food to their young at the six adjacent purple martin houses. At dusk, look for bats entering the newly installed bat house near the viewing platform. A dedicated group of community volunteers helps maintain the ecological health of the site by regularly collecting and scattering native seed, removing invasive species, planting native species, and monitoring vegetation, birds, and insects.

It's also, if current plans hold, a victim of Chicago's Olympic bid. That's because current plans have about 12 world class tennis courts being built within a block of Jarvis. With construction, dirt, and dust, from the building of the courts the sanctuary is likely to no longer attract many of the birds that currently visit the sanctuary.

The Jarvis Sanctuary is only one of the green victims of the Olympics. The biggest victim will be Washington Park. Washington Park was originally the vision of famed landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead. Olmstead also designed New York's Central Park. Washington Park was first conceived by Olmstead more than a century ago. It's become a fixture of the city. It will also be destroyed if the Olympics come to Chicago. That's because current plans for the Olympics have the 80,000 person stadium to be used for opening and closing ceremonies being built in Washington Park. That construction will of course destroy the park.

Worse yet, both the tennis courts and the stadium are temporary venues. They will both be torn down once the Olympics are over. In other words, these two Chicago landmarks will be destroyed to accomodate stadiums that will only be around for two weeks.

The destruction of Chicago's landscape is yet another underreported story of the bid. Today's Sun Times had a story on the sanctuary. Of course, it was a small story that was surrounded by a story about how the Olympics will be most handicapped friendly Olympics ever. (that's in the print edition) The failure to critically look at disruption to the parks and greenery in the city is just one of several things that Chicago media has been nearly incompetent in reporting.

It's tragic. That's because this Olympics could be planned properly, but the public must be informed. The media in the city has been little more than a cheerleader. Currently, the Mayor has a media entourage following him to Copenhagen as he makes his final pitch. The coverage of the Olympics has been much closer to the sort of mouthpiece coverage of a totalitarian regime than of the free press we are supposed to have. As such, a historic park and a perfectly good sanctuary are set for destruction. If there was some media scrutiny, the planners might even have to take the destruction of such landmarks into consideration when making decisions.

Thug Politics

It's hard to put into words just how heavy handed the Democrats are being towards Humana. Humana sent out a flier to their customers telling them that health care reform will cut benefits to Medicare. Then, Max Baucus and the Democrats stepped in.

Political intimidation has always been part of the current Congress's health-care strategy: "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu" is tattooed on every lobbyist and industry rep in Washington. But Max Baucus's latest bullying tactics are hard to believe by even these standards, as the Senate Finance Chairman has sicced federal regulators on the insurer Humana Inc. for daring to criticize one part of his health bill.

Earlier this month, Humana sent a one-page letter to its customers enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans, which offer private options to Medicare beneficiaries. Humana noted that, because of spending cuts proposed by Democrats, "millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable." The Kentucky-based company also urged its customers to contact their Representatives. Pretty tame stuff, as these things go.

Mr. Baucus took it as a declaration of war. He complained to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal health-care agency, which on Friday duly ordered Humana to cease and desist. CMS claimed the mailer was "misleading and confusing" and told the company it has opened an official probe as to whether the mailer violated laws about how the insurers that manage Advantage plans are allowed to communicate with their customers, as well as other federal.

Try to imagine what's happening here. A private company is making a private correspondence to its own customers. That correspondence isn't very favorable to the health care proposal that the party in power is pushing. So, that party files a cease and desist order and begins an investigation into the flier.

Now, let's put this into perspective. There's all sorts of regulations governing advertising. You aren't allowed to lie or to mislead. That's to keep someone from claiming that their product does something they know it doesn't do. For the most part, these rules are rooted in some sensibility.

This advertisement wasn't even about the company's product. The flier was about a piece of legislation that would affect the company. The company was making a point of policy. It was a point unfavorable to the administration. So, the administration threatens to sue. Ironically enough, the CBO, not a week later, made the exact same point. So, the so called "lie" is the exact same point the CBO is making. Since the Dems can't muzzle the CBO, they are trying to muzzle Humana.

What's really troubling is that this is the latest incident of thug politics. Back in August, Henry Waxman asked the major insurance for numerous financial documents. It was never clear what he was investigating and whatever investigation there was has gone nowhere so far. This was simply a tool of intimidation. Obama had gotten most all special interests: the drug companies, the AMA, the AARP, the nurses, on board with health care reform. The insurance companies were resisting and so in stepped Henry Waxman to intimidate them into capitulating.

In May, the administration, according to bankruptcy attorney Tom Lauria, threatened creditors of GM and Chrysler that didn't get on board with their auto bailout with having the media smear them. Later on, the administration referred to Lauria as a "terrorist".

Then, there's the case of Gerald Walpin. He was the Inspector General of Americorp that uncovered information negative toward Kevin Johnson, an ally of Obama. Walpin was summarily fired and it was hinted that he's senile.

Jon Kyl referred to the latest reincarnation of thug politics as Chicago politics. There's no doubt about that. If you write a negative story about Mayor Daley, no one in the city council or city hall will ever speak to you again. If any alderman crosses Daley, the streets aren't swept, the garbage isn't picked up, and the cops don't show up in their ward. That's how it works in Chicago. That's thug politics. Now, that thug politics has filtered into D.C. and anyone that challenges the administration and its allies had better expect to be retaliated against.