By Steve Rhodes
“In my old neighborhood,” Bob Reed writes, “we had a saying: If you owe someone a little money, they have you. If you owe them a lot of money, you have them.
“Wall St. owes us a lot for these taxpayer-backed bailouts. Man they got us good and that’s why I’m not shedding any tears. Instead, I’m concerned that when this financial mess has passed, Wall St. is going to try and get us all over again.”
The Tamale Guy
Reviewed on Yelp.
Palin Burgers
Close, but no moose.
UPDATE 12:33 P.M.: And apparently Grizzly’s is closed! Anyone with the 411 should send me a note, but I just called the number on their website and it’s disconnected.
COMMENTS: 12:47 P.M.: “Closed for months, if not a year” . . . “newspapers on the windows” . . . “ran out of moose meat” . . . Okay, I made up that last one. But I think we’ve got this confirmed. Citizen journalism!
Media Muddle
“Internet values reward instant punditry, the more flamboyant the better,” writes Michael Miner. “Simple, solid reporting is OK, but flamboyance is what attracts page hits, and page hits attract advertisers – enough of them, in a theoretical tomorrow, to keep journalism afloat . . . Cool dispassion is what a few old-school reporters clinging to a dying trade will go on practicing until they disappear. But frenzy’s in fashion.”
Really? I thought TV rewarded instant punditry. And gee, how did a flamboyant writer like Jay Mariotti succeed in attracting so many newspaper readers without the aid of the Internet? And how is the formula of page hits attracting advertisers any different than circulation attracting advertisers?
Olympic Summit
“Plans are well underway to bring a groundswell of talent, ideas and code together nationwide to support not only our country’s bid for the Chicago 2016 Olympics, but well beyond.”
So that’s what the Chicago New Media Summit is really about.
Phone Reform
Quick, someone give Barack some other numbers to call!
*
OBAMA: And there’s just one more thing, Emil.
JONES: What is it, my son?
OBAMA: Well, actually it’s about your son.
[pause]
OBAMA AND JONES: A-ha ha ha ha ha ha!
OBAMA: Never mind!
Jonesin’ for Reform
It’s still not gonna happen. But now Obama’s got cover.
Propaganda Wars
“Republicans were busy trying to build a positive narrative about Palin – the ‘hockey mom’ who was so folksy she could ‘field dress a moose’ and had ‘said no to the Bridge to Nowhere and other government waste’ and was overflowing with small town values’,” Kos writes. “McCain had shot up in the polls because of Palin. Common sense dictated it would be hard to knock him back down as long as she consolidated her popularity. So we set out to build the negative narratives about Palin. This is stuff straight out of Taking on the System. I have a whole chapter on it, in fact.”
Each side builds a narrative. Neither side traffics in truth.
Think for yourselves, people.
*
Sliming Palin.
Sliming Obama.
Cubs Jammed
I heard Eddie Vedder’s new song about the Cubs on the radio yesterday. It’s unbearably earnest.
Campaign Finance
A faithful reader writes:
I receive e-mails from the Democrats and the Republicans. At first I did it to keep up on things from both sides but then it became a pain in the ass. I created filters for both just so I wouldn’t have to see them all the time. I have one for each party. OK here’s the payoff: each folder has exactly 17 e-mails and that’s the way it goes. One sends out a money request, the other sends out a money request . . .
Tax Rap
“[W]henever I write about the need to reform the property tax system, which funds education in this state, someone living in a well-off south suburb inevitably will respond: ‘If people in poor neighborhoods want good schools, they should pay for them just like we do,'” Phil Kadner writes.
“Well in Ford Heights, one of the poorest suburbs in the nation, the property tax rate for a homeowner is more than 20 percent of his home’s equalized assessed value. Most of that money goes to the schools.
“In the villages of Northfield and Wilmette, two of the wealthier suburbs in Illinois, where the schools are top notch, the tax rate ranges from 4.8 percent to 5.3 percent.
“In Winnetka, the home of New Trier Township High School, where state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) recently brought Chicago students to register for school, the tax rates range from 4.9 percent to 5.3 percent.”
Evening Commute
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Best friends forever.
Posted on September 19, 2008