The [Thursday] Papers

"The alderman whom Mayor Daley derisively calls Joe 'Foie Gras' Moore (49th) now knows how the geese and ducks feel," Fran Spielman deftly writes this morning.

"Two years after the City Council banned the liver delicacy made by jamming a steel pipe down a bird's esophagus, Daley essentially did the same to Moore on the City Council floor.

"By a vote of 37-6, the foie gras ban that Daley claims made Chicago an international laughingstock was repealed, thanks to a legislative end-run that set a new standard for violating protocol and rolling over the opposition."

I'm not so sure about that, given the midnight raid on Meigs Field, which would have resulted in impeachment hearings in a saner political environment than Chicago's.

But the point is well-taken.

"A repeal ordinance quietly introduced last year and referred to the friendly Rules Committee - bypassing a Health Committee that had approved the foie gras ban - was moved to the Council floor without a hearing, something that is seldom, if ever done.

"When Moore objected and tried to exercise his right to postpone the vote, Daley ruled him out of order."

It was a scene right out of Daley I, when Hizzoner used to turn off the microphones of aldermen who had the audacity to hold a view different than his.

"When Moore tried to debate the merits, Daley ruled that the measure was not debatable. He ordered the clerk to call the roll and to continue, even as Moore shouted for the right to be heard.

"'If it can happen to me, tomorrow it could happen to you,' Moore warned his colleagues.

"'Thank you, Ald. Joe 'Foie Gras' Moore,' Daley said.

Smugly, like a child.

"Some aldermen diverted their gaze, seeming to understand that it was their embarrassment, too," Mark Brown writes. "Others just laughed at Moore."

Yes. Pitifully.

(Though I wonder if Brown just got into town when he writes this: "But if the mayor's latest notion for bringing efficiency to our government is to short-circuit the democratic process on the basis that everybody knows how it's going to end up, then we've got a lot bigger problem on our hands than whether duck liver pate is on the menu."

(You think? Where is the change and hope, Obamaphiles? This is your guy's guy.)

A national laughingstock? How about hiring the dead and drunk?

Not worth the time? Then repeal the rest of the city's animal cruelty laws.

Would it be different if foie gras came from dogs? Horses? Chimps?

No harm done? See for yourself.

And then have yourself a good laugh.

Today's Best People in Chicago
Aldermen who defied the mayor and voted against repealing the foie gras ban:

* Joe Moore
* Toni Preckwinckle
* Ricardo Munoz
* Ed Smith
* Scott Waguespack
* Rey Colon

Today's Worst Person in Chicago
Because Richard M. Daley is already Worst Person Emeritus, this goes to Ald. Tom "Don't You Know Who I Am?" Tunney, chief enabler of the repeal.

Prohibition Era
Duckeasies?

Foie Fight
"Make them eat steak," writes Kristen McQueary.

Back On The Menu
"A diseased, rotting organ of an abused animal."

Foie Museum
If you're attending the Plan Commission charade today, the rules have changed.

Tribune's Wild Ride
The Six Flags Effect.

Division Street
More politics there later today.

Obamosophy
From the University of Chicago Press blog:

BARACK'S PHILOSOPHER: Senator Barack Obama described Reinhold Niebuhr as "one of my favorite philosophers." In his new introduction to our edition of Niebuhr's The Irony of American History, Andrew J. Bacevich says the book "provides the master key to understanding the myths and delusions that underpin American statecraft." Written as the Cold War began, it is surprisingly relevant to our current situation. Read an excerpt.

Kasstrated
"Try to imagine John Kass writing, and the Tribune publishing, a column that's all about how black people have terrible taste, and can you believe what some of them like, and no white person should have to sit through black-themed movies - not that they'd ever want to! ack! God forbid! - and how white people are constantly getting dragged, against their will, to movies that make them want to "peel their skin off and roll around in salt - and if not salt, then . . . a bathtub of lemon juice and slit our wrists" by their stupid black friends," writes Margaret Lyons at Chicagoist.

"That column would never run."

But one kinda like that did, and that's what's got her (rightly) so upset.

Rainbow Coalition
"Larry McKeon died Tuesday. He was 63.

"The obits will tell you that he was the first openly gay member of the Illinois General Assembly - which is a lot different than being the first gay member of that august body, as McKeon once said to me."
- Ben Joravsky

The Beachwood Tip Line: Force-fed.