The [Thursday] Papers

I just wrote this e-mail to esteemed Beachwood colleague Tim Willette:

Re: Khadafy

(that's the spelling I still prefer and insist on)

Looks like we elected John McCain after all!

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No, seriously, not like I didn't want Khadafy and bin Laden, um, dead, I guess. But Dems using it to bolster Obama's re-election makes me very uncomfortable. I'm sure Glenn Greenwald will articulate why better than I can right now.

Then again, with troops in Iraq coming home over the next few months - right? we're outta there? - foreign policy weirdly will be Obama's strength . . . even if we kill more civilians with drones than we ever have . . . and the detainment/rendition regime has been extended far beyond Bush . . .

Occupy City Council
"I absolutely support the Occupy movement." Joe Moreno, who happens to be my alderman, writes in the Huffington Post. "I believe that what these people are doing is the very definition of courageous. The people camping and marching should be admired for doing something that many people are too lazy or fearful to ever even consider . . .

"The constant media whining about the lack of message and leaders of the Occupy movement is, frankly, ludicrous. Life doesn't always fit within nice little succinct 30-second packages. In fact, it rarely does.

"Right now, this movement is more about expressing a feeling of revulsion and anger about where our society is. It's about creating a community, united by their loathing of the corporatism that has rinsed the vast majority (middle and working class) of Americans for the benefit of ultra-wealthy, over the last thirty years.

"Occupy Chicago's mission statement is that they're 'here to fight corporate abuse of American democracy in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world.'

"How can anyone possibly disagree with that?"

What Is Everyone So Angry About?
Well, for example:

"Legislature Readies Corporate Tax Cuts For CME, CBOE"

vs.

"State Not Paying Bills, Social Services Struggle To Survive"

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Memo to Chicago Mercantile Chairman Terry Duffy, who is angry because he thinks it's unfair that other corporations in Illinois have tax loopholes to take advantage of that he doesn't:

A) Now you know how the 99% feel!

B) The answer isn't securing loopholes for yourself but closing them for everyone else.

The Emperor Was Named Daley
And his courtiers were named Vallas, Duncan and Huberman.

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Guess who his handmaidens were?

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The "smoke and mirrors" weren't just in the budget.

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Daley Brags About Giving Kids The Shaft On Russian TV.

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To be fair (from the Beachwood last month):

"While high schools have long been considered the system's Achilles heel, the study indicates CPS high schools 'managed to accomplish a miracle,' said Barbara Radner, director of DePaul University's Center for Urban Education. Although each year of arriving freshmen showed up unprepared and not much more capable than the batch before them, high schools held on to an increasing number of them, and prodded them into improved ACT scores, Radner said.

"However, Radner said, after years of news conferences in which Daley trumpeted gains in elementary reading scores, 'in the end, the emperor doesn't have as many clothes as we thought' . . .

"Among the report's major messages is that 'publicly reported statistics used to hold schools and districts accountable for making academic progress are not accurate measures of progress.' Changes to the state tests, including changes in content and scoring , makes 'year over year comparisons nearly impossible without complex statistical analyses, such as those undertaken for this report,' Consortium researchers contended."

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On the other hand, even the publicly reported statistics used by CPS officials themselves are no longer in their favor now that the system is apparently no longer being gamed.

"About half of Illinois public high school students flunked state exams in reading, math and science this year, the worst performance in the history of the 11th-grade Prairie State Achievement Examination, statewide test results show," the Tribune reports.

"The record-low results, scheduled to be released Thursday, come after Illinois closed loopholes that kept academically weak juniors from taking the exams, a practice revealed in a 2009 Tribune analysis. Some local school officials attributed their declines in part to the larger testing pool that included less-prepared students."

Blue Ribbon Glee Club Joins Occupation
Chicago's Premier Punk Rock Choir scheduled to play Jackson and LaSalle on Monday night. Some performance highlights of their musical genius.

TV Starter Kit!
Featuring Walt Bodkin, Sales Manager.

(From the YouTube channel of the fine folks at FuzzyMemoriesTV.)

The Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report
Gruel 'n' Chips Edition.

In which:

"Two overrated defenses clash over the right to hold their opponent under 500 yards of total offense."

Chicago Beerfest: Last Call
Four events, one champion.

Nothing short of inspiring.

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The Beachwood Tip Line: Both grueling and festive.

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