By Steve Rhodes
I’ll get things started here this morning and then head over to Division Street to catch up with all the shenanigans our scurrilous public servants are currently perpetrating.
Air Blago
“The way Ali Ata described it, the waiting room in the North Side office of Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko seemed as busy as an airport terminal,” the Tribune reports.
Apparently if you paid Rezko a fee you could get bumped up to first class.
Early Departure
“We have a chance to do what we want to do, and that’s impeach the governor of Illinois,” says state Sen. Mike Jacobs of East Moline. He’s a Democrat.
Presidential Mentor I
“I need a pay raise. I need a pay raise.”
Presidential Mentor II
“This stiff-arm by Jones & Co. to Illinois citizens not only protects his pal Gov. Rod Blagojevich from a post-November recall effort, but also insulates Cook County Board President Todd Stroger.”
Rat Patrol
“New Design Takes Museum Even Further Underground.”
Journey to the Center of the Earth exhibit planned.
Higher Education
“Northwestern has conferred hundreds of honorary degrees during the last half-century,” the Tribune notes in a story about the university rescinding its offer of such a degree to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
I have a feeling that – like honorary street names in Chicago – we can find worse than Wright on that list.
Here’s an idea: Make people earn their degrees the old-fashioned way.
Mount Lou
Erupted yesterday just like our very own Marty Gangler predicted in this week’s Cub Factor.
Crash Landing
The Rod Blagojevich Death Pool.
97 Percent
Our estimate of the chances Blagojevich is indicted this year.
Mary Contrary
“The top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator in the Midwest resigned Thursday amid internal fights over dioxin contamination near Dow Chemical Co.’s world headquarters in Michigan, according to a published report,” AP reports.
“Mary Gade, regional administrator of EPA Region 5, told the Chicago Tribune she resigned as regional administrator of EPA Region 5 after two top EPA officials stripped her of her powers and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.
“‘There is no question this is about Dow,’ Gade told the paper for a story on its Web site. ‘I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I’m proud of what we did.”
*
In 1997, Governing magazine named Gade one of its Public Officials of the Year.
This Is Our Country
“Lynndie England, of leashed-prisoner photo fame, says all her troubles stem from a man – in this case Corporal Charles Graner, her lover, and a man officials refused to let speak to Morris,” Marilyn Ferdinand writes in her review of Errol Morris’s Standard Operating Procedure, which opens tonight. “Graner seems to have been the ringleader for most of the staged photos of prisoner humiliation. England did what he said out of love and at other times, out of persistent coercion. She was, she said, unwilling to stand by one of the Iraqis who was forced to masturbate and only did so when Graner gave her little option. England also didn’t notice that Megan Ambuhl, who was present during many such incidents, was cropped out of the photos being taken by her secret lover and current husband – Charles Graner. Morris restores the original framing of one photo to show us the reality beyond the edges of the image.
“This perspective is exactly what underlies Morris’ purposes in making this film – to show us that the reality we assume these photos show us is only partial. This presentation is, I think, meant to lead us to question what we think we know about Abu Ghraib and demand more answers to nagging questions about how widespread and systemic these abuses were (and are). He intends to show us that these “monsters” are human and, in fact, pawns who were nearly powerless to refuse to abuse these prisoners and predisposed by living in a hell hole in a war zone to dehumanize themselves and the detainees in their care.
“I completely agree with Morris’ intentions with this film, but my gut reaction to what I saw was that with the exception of Jeremy Sivits – a classic wrong place, wrong time case – these people were guilty and self-justifying.”
Ferdy’s interview with Morris is here.
That’s Stella!
Just for the record, Stella Foster came out this week in favor of child abuse (“parents should be given back the power to discipline their kids and teens without being afraid they will call the police and have the parents arrested for no good reason”), racial profiling (“In most cases, I am sure there is a gun or two somewhere in the car or on someone”), and the new Trump building (“the shine is just blinding”).
Horsy Sauce
I still haven’t come up with a good punch line about Arby’s buying Wendy’s. But I know there’s one out there.
Tout Sheet
Take this to the betting window on Saturday.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Wheel it.
Posted on May 2, 2008