By Steve Rhodes
“As a 19-year-old working in Illinois, [Karl] Rove used an assumed name to gain access to the headquarters of Democratic state treasurer candidate Alan Dixon,” the Tribune notes this morning. “He made off with campaign stationery, which he used to print 1,000 fliers promising ‘free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing’ at Dixon’s Chicago office. The fliers were given to homeless people on Lower Wacker Drive. Years later, Rove expressed regret for the ‘youthful prank.'”
People are who they are.
Clowning Around
Rick Halprin, Joey “the Clown” Lombardo’s lawyer, “denied his client took part as charged in the massive criminal conspiracy but admitted he had one connection to questionable activities on the West Side,” the Tribune reports. “‘He did, in fact, run the oldest, most reliable craps game on Grand Avenue,’ Halprin said with a smile.”
So that’s where I’ve seen him.
Cookie the Clown
* “We’ve always carried celebrity news,” Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown writes this morning in what could only be described as a missive at editor Michael Cooke’s schoolboy Brangelina fixation. “It’s just that in the past we usually managed to carry it off without wetting our pants.”
* “We have met the circus, and it is us,” Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper writes this morning in what could only be described as a missive at editor Michael Cooke’s schoolboy Brangelina fixation.
* “Obsessed with Brad, Angelina? Get a life,” say eight Sun-Times readers representing thousands more in what could only be described as a missive at editor Michael Cooke’s schoolboy Brangelina fixation.
Parking Passes
“Last fall, Chicago aldermen held their noses and expanded a residential permit parking system gone wild – by creating a $300-a-year parking permit for real estate agents, social workers and home health care providers,” the Sun-Times reports.
“It was either that or blow a $2.4 million hole in Mayor Daley’s 2007 budget.
“Nearly a year later, all but $15,900 of that $2.4 million hole remains. Only 53 real estate agents and home health care providers have bought the new stickers.”
The city will now propose a new sticker if you park anywhere near real estate.
Meter Maids
Uh-oh. Don’t tell Da Mayor.
Existential Meltdown
“Insurers Shy Away From the Geico Guy.”
Barack Blame Game
“Sen. Obama sneaked in through the backdoor of the Mysore Woodlands Restaurant on Chicago’s famed Devon Avenue and claimed that he has been misrepresented by the media,” New America Media reports. “He said those who are protesting his remarks haven’t read his exact remarks and were instead relying on twisted reports. Obama said that he did not advocate outright military action but that in case the Pakistani government was unable to take out known al-Qaeda targets in its territory, then the American military could launch targeted attacks.”
I’d score this one 50-50.
Here is the original remark:
“If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharaff won’t act, we will.”
1. Obama never said he would invade Pakistan, as has been widely reported. The implication from the start was about targeted strikes.
2. In backtracking, however, Obama has carefully shifted from “if Musharaff won’t act” to “if Musharaff can’t act.” That may seems like splitting hairs, but the difference is huge. The first statement rests on Musharaff’s belligerence to America’s wishes in favor of the political balancing act he’s performing to retain power. The second statement allows for Musharaff’s political and/or military inability to act – which sounds an awful lot like current U.S. policy.
Lovable ‘L’osers
“In The [Monday] Papers, you mentioned Chicago’s loyalty to the CTA:
What’s so maddening is that the CTA has a product that so many peoplehave been so loyal to for so long despite the fact that it doesn’t work very well.
“I find it quite humorous that you can say almost the exact same thing for the Cubs. There hasn’t been a World Series win in almost a hundred years and the city is still bleeding Cubbie blue and proclaiming that this is the year.”
– Michael Pfammatter
Surge of Stupidity
* Sun-Times columnist Steve Huntley on Sunday: “We’ve been hearing more positive reports about the military surge strategy implemented by Gen. David Petraeus – and they’re coming from unlikely sources.
“Perhaps the most influential assessment came in a New York Times Op-Ed titled ‘A War We Just Might Win,’ written by Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack of the prestigious liberal-leaning Brookings Institution. Well-known for their fierce criticism of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war, O’Hanlon and Pollack said they were surprised by the military progress they saw during eight days in Iraq and ‘the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.’ They said Congress should sustain the current strategy into 2008.
“A measure of the significance of this report surfaced immediately in the eruption of rage in the netroots anti-war blogosphere.”
* Salon’s Glenn Greenwald on Sunday: “Last Wednesday, I interviewed Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution regarding the trip he recently took to Iraq and the highly publicized Op-Ed in the New York Times about his trip, co-written with his Brookings colleague, Ken Pollack. The full transcript of the interview, which lasted roughly 50 minutes, can be read here.
“O’Hanlon’s answers, along with several other facts now known, demonstrate rather conclusively what a fraud this Op-Ed was, and even more so, the deceitfulness of the intense news coverage it generated.
“To his credit, O’Hanlon acknowledged (in my interview with him, though never in any of the media appearances he did) that many of the descriptions applied to him – including Dick Cheney’s claim that the Op-Ed was written by ‘critics of the war’ – were inaccurate,” Greenwald writes.
“But the far greater deceit involves the trip itself and the way it was represented – both by Pollack/O’Hanlon as well as the excited media figures who touted its significance and meaning. From beginning to end, this trip was planned, shaped and controlled by the U.S. military – a fact inexcusably concealed in both the Op-Ed itself and virtually every interview the two of them gave. With very few exceptions, what they saw was choreographed by the U.S. military and carefully selected for them.”
Western Union
* Jim DeRogatis hands it to Perry Farrell.
* Tracy Ibgui hands it to Neil Steinberg (last item).
The Beachwood Tip Line: Send a message.
Posted on August 14, 2007