By Steve Rhodes
I thought President Obama gave a fantastic speech. A home run. It was disingenuous in places, it was too late, and it wasn’t much different than what we’ve been hearing forever, but it was a fantastic speech.
But here’s what I said back to the TV during the proceedings.
I also feel I had a good night on Facebook:
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Steve Rhodes When I scratched my nose, so did Joe Biden. So I did it again to see if I was controlling him. I wasn’t.
Yesterday at 8:02pm – Comment – Like
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Steve Rhodes Was that Kirk Van Houten delivering the Republican response?
Yesterday at 8:21pm – Comment – Like
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And then commenting on some Facebook friends’ pages.
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Steve Walsh What is that sign some of the GOP congressman are holding up at the president’s speech?
Yesterday at 7:55pm – Comment – Like / Unlike
Steve Rhodes
I’m With Stupid?
Yesterday at 8:08pm – Delete
Steve Walsh
I guess it was someone’s bill. I wonder who yelled “you lied”
Yesterday at 8:09pm
Steve Rhodes
Hillary.
Yesterday at 8:14pm
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Craig Branson really enjoyed the president’s speech. He also wonders, like his friend Eric, why you can’t buy health insurance from an out-of-state company.
Steve Rhodes
Because Allstate and State Farm would have to change their names to Country State and Country Farm, and the new stationery alone would cost billions.
Yesterday at 8:49pm – Delete
Blain Stanley
Drink the koolaid Branson. It’s my job to pay for dirtbags health care why? National security is a 2nd tier concern why? Please, give me a freakin’ break.
Yesterday at 8:45pm
Steve Rhodes
I don’t know you, Blain Stanley, but I don’t like you already.
Yesterday at 8:54pm – Delete
Blain Stanley
Awesome.
Yesterday at 8:54pm
Blain Stanley
But, I’ll still have nto pay for your toothache, Steve Rhodes.
Yesterday at 8:55pm
Steve Rhodes
I’m going to go to the ER right now just to spite you.
Yesterday at 8:58pm – Delete
Blain Stanley
I hope you call 911 and request a Medic, ’cause that’d be me hauling your buttocks…….
Yesterday at 8:59pm
Steve Rhodes
No worries, Blain, I’ll just drive myself over in my uninsured car.
Yesterday at 9:00pm – Delete
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Bush Bernard wonders why the GOP keeps getting guys from Louisiana to respond to the president’s speeches. La. has had a government run-health system since the days of Huey Long. (Bobby Jindal ran it for a while.)
Yesterday at 8:46pm – Comment – Like / Unlike
Steve Rhodes
Is it called LongCare?
Yesterday at 8:48pm – Delete
Bush Bernard
It used to be called the Charity Hospital System and Earl K. Long Hospital in BR was one of them. LSU runs the show now, so I think it’s called Death Valley in honor of the football stadium.
Yesterday at 8:53pm
Steve Rhodes
It’s not called Death Panel Valley?
Yesterday at 8:55pm – Delete
Bush Bernard
The Republican governor, who used to run the hospital system, won’t let them call it that.
Yesterday at 8:56pm
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Courageous Council
The city council gave themselves a standing ovation after unanimously handing the mayor a black check with the taxpayers’ signature on it to pay for the inevitable Olympic overruns.
Then they all jammed into a tiny clown car and drove to their next appearance.
*
“The council debate on the ordinance often took on the tone of a pep rally for the 2016 bid,” Dan Mihalopoulos reports in the Tribune.
Ed Burke and Carrie Austin were named king and queen as a proud Mayor Daley looked on.
Council members were reminded that chaperones are required for the dance on Friday.
*
“Ald. Edward Burke (14th), chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, said Daley showed ‘courage and fortitude’ in championing the bid and believes the 2016 Olympics would go down as a landmark in city history, on par with the 1893 Columbian Exposition.”
Then Burke put away the Mark Brown column he was reading from and spoke from his heart.
“But of course what else would we expect from a Chicago Mayor Daley,” Burke said.
A) Indictments?
B) Backstabbing?
C) At least that’s what we thought he said. It was hard to tell, what with his face so far up Daley’s ass.
*
“Daley suggested that [skeptical public] sentiments are due to ‘continual misstatement of facts’ by the Chicago media.”
Like when they reported his insistence that no tax dollars would be spent on the bid.
*
“I know that we will receive the bid. I feel that in my spirit already,” said Ald. Carrie Austin (34th).
Too bad her spirit was on vacation during the parking meter debacle.
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Matt Farmer puts the “over/under” at 2.5 for the number of current Chicago aldermen who will be in prison at the time of the 2016 Olympics, no matter where the Games are held.
Yesterday at 9:31pm – Comment
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That’s Fran!
Looks can be deceiving, Fran Spielman writes today in an “analysis” of the council vote.
By her calculations, a 49-0 isn’t as lopsided as you think it is.
For example, the city council will get to place two of its members on the organizing committee to provide “oversight.”
Great! Manny Flores? Scott Waguespack? Joe Moore?
Um, no. What Spielman fails to tell you is that the lucky winners will be Burke and Austin.
And while Spielman argues that the council won major concessions from Daley, the council didn’t win bupkus.
The council, including Flores, whose proposed oversight ordinance was met with an alternative from the mayor’s office – and guess who won – got rolled.
If you put on your decoder glasses, though, you can read Speilman’s analysis a different way.
* “Daley could have avoided the controversy if he had simply leveled with taxpayers from the beginning.”
* “Instead, the mayor waited until the last minute to come clean.”
* “If Daley’s hide-the-ball approach persuades aldermen to act like the deliberative body they’re supposed to be . . . ”
How many ways can you say the mayor lied without just coming out and saying the mayor lied?
In fact, a real analysis might take that a step further: If the mayor had told the truth from the outset, this bid might very well have been dead long ago.
Another way of looking at it might be that if the media had started asking questions earlier, this bid might very well have been dead long ago.
The city council isn’t the only rubber stamp in this town.
That’s Michael!
“Bid leader expects no Jordan aid.”
They buy shoes in Rio too.
Morning Line
“Like the drive for the 2016 Olympics, Daley will convince the city council that 11 wins are free, only to discover in the playoffs that the team isn’t worth all that time and money,” our very own Eric Emery writes in Over/Under.
Stroger’s New Low
Blames Sam Zell for 10% approval rating.
Daley [Hearts] United
Can’t shovel enough cash into their pockets.
Fighting Illini Meet-Up
Awkward!
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Courageous .
Posted on September 10, 2009