By Steve Rhodes

“When Barack Obama took office 20 months ago – and what a long 20 months it seems – there was a lot of talk about the great ‘Team of Rivals’ he was appointing around him,” the Daily Telegraph writes (via the Sydney Morning Herald). “Parallels were drawn with the cabinet of substantial talents and big personalities assembled by Abraham Lincoln to rebuild the nation after the civil war.
“Now, in a new book, Obama’s Wars, the veteran reporter Bob Woodward has confirmed in intricate detail what has been known in Washington for some time: that some of the team could barely stomach working with each other. General David Petraeus, then the military overseer of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, avoided contact with David Axelrod, the President’s chief strategist, whom he regarded as a ‘complete spin doctor.’ No one had a good word for General James Jones, the national security adviser and former Nato commander, while his number two, Thomas Donilon, was regarded as a ‘disaster’ by the Defense Secretary, Robert Gates.

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Posted on September 23, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Normally I would say that a politician’s affairs are his or her own business unless that politician has been an outspoken preacher of “family values.” But Jesse Jackson Jr.’s plea to the media to respect the privacy of his marriage – as if that’s ever worked – is complicated by the allegation that he asked a campaign contributor to pay for the travel of Jackson’s “social acquaintance.”
Big, big mistake – if true.
And you thought nothing could take the air out of the Chicago mayoral race.

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Posted on September 22, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

1. How does Michael Sneed keep her (high-paying) job? Shouldn’t someone with a track record like hers – full of errors, items read elsewhere passed off as her own, and status as a favorite patsy to pols everywhere – sort of be fired? Maybe the Sun-Times oughta put its Watchdogs team on it.
2. Compare and contrast.
The original Tribune story: “Plans for a Muslim cultural center in southeast DuPage County were sent back to square one today as the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals chose to restart the public hearing process.”
The CBS2 rip-and-read: “Plans to build a Muslim center in southeastern DuPage County are back at square one. The DuPage Zoning Board of Appeals has voted to restart the public hearing process.”
And some folks think Google steals content.

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Posted on September 21, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Right now, no matter how you rationalize it, these Cowboys are a bad football team,” Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News writes.
“They’re overrated. And overhyped.
“A 27-20 loss to Chicago, hardly an NFL powerhouse, simply drove home the point.”

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Posted on September 20, 2010

By Natasha Julius

The good news? We’ll start tracking these stories for you this weekend. The bad? We probably won’t figure them out for another month and a half.
Market Update
With the threat of deflation all too real, it appears key commodities such as Joy and Ridership have already been devalued.

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Posted on September 18, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

First, a correction. I will be opening the bar at 3 p.m. on Saturday, not 5 p.m. as I stated in a previous post. Two bonus hours! Please stop by, it will be just one of the small ways you can support our efforts here. Many of the bar regulars will be in Michigan at the annual Beachwood Picnic so if they’ve scared you off in the past, you can have full run of the place – under my supervision, of course. I’ll post drink specials and so on through our Facebook page, I don’t have them at the ready. But yes, there will be specials!
Also, I will be guest bartending tonight from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. (My Saturday shift ends at 9 p.m.)
Forget citizen journalists; that’s a wank. I’m a bartender journalist, as it should be.
Now, on to the news.

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Posted on September 17, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Most of the two dozen former pimps and madams questioned by DePaul University researchers for a study on Chicago’s sex trade had suffered both physical and sexual abuse as children,” the Tribune reports.
This reminds me of someone I know who is close to the porn industry who has told me that they never met a stripper or actress who wasn’t abused as a child.
I’m not interested in porn – borrrring! – and find the recent glorification of porn stars and strippers a bizarre and perverse (no pun intended – or sexual judgement) male-fantasy phenomenon (the fantasy being that of highly sexually charged females who are always available. Oh, if only!).

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Posted on September 16, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“The rancor between Chicago’s top police official and the union that represents rank-and-file officers continued to escalate on the eve of a protest planned for today outside police headquarters,” the Tribune reports.
“Leaders for the Fraternal Order of Police called on officers and their families to march at 10 a.m. to police headquarters at 35th Street and Michigan Avenue to protest what they called Weis’ lack of leadership.”
I’ve never been a fan of Weis, but if forced to choose between him and the FOP I’d take Weis eight days a week.

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Posted on September 15, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has commissioned his longtime pollster, Stanley Greenberg, to survey Chicagoans about a potential mayoral bid,” Lynn Sweet reports. “Meanwhile, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun will accept a mayoral “draft” at a Monday news conference in Chicago.
“Sources told me that polling calls for Emanuel were being made over the weekend and that Emanuel has activated his Chicago network of pals to reach out to political figures in Chicago on his behalf. While Emanuel backed out of a Chicago visit this past weekend, I’m told he will be in Chicago by the end of the month.”

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Posted on September 14, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

1. If there was ever a question as to whether the Bears had lost the faith of their fans, it was answered on Sunday in two reactions to their strange, undeserved victory that I witnessed while watching the game at the Beachwood Inn. From what I’ve read and heard, the reactions were not unique across Bears Country.
First, instead of the usual prism of seeing every play and every call through hometown eyes, the entire bar was in agreement immediately that Calvin Johnson made a legal catch to win the game for the Lions. Even as the play was being reviewed, there was no hope or cadging (even if the bar’s resident astrophysicist noted to my previous scientific objections that the Bears were in a time of superposition while the review was occurring.)
Wow. Especially after having to listen to Hawk Harrelson and White Sox fans whine about every damn ball and strike call over the last month.
Second, after the Bears were declared the victors, nobody celebrated. Nobody even wanted to claim the win. Hey, Bears fans, what happened to the usual win-at-all-costs, no-apologies, we’ll-take-it attitude I’m so used to? The post-Daley era has begun!
Even the Bears themselves must not feel too good about this win. It’s gonna be a long season.
*
Our very own Jim Coffman, though, notes this in SportsMonday: The NFL Rule Book Is Ridiculous:
“[A] majority of the officials knew Calvin Johnson hadn’t lived up to the letter of the law and so did analyst Brian Billick.”
Or, as Bob Costas said, the refs got the rule right, but the rule is wrong. And a little jury nullification may have been in order to see justice done.
2. Daley rumored for next Legally Blonde sequel.
3. “But Ball says these gentrifiers weren’t the ones sustaining his bakery. People from the low-income households were the ones who kept him in business.”

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Posted on September 13, 2010