By Steve Rhodes

Did Barack Obama ever do any favors for Tony Rezko?
Obama says No. The New York Times says Yes.
“In one instance, when he was running for the Senate, Mr. Obama stopped by to shake hands while Mr. Rezko, an immigrant from Syria, was entertaining Middle Eastern bankers considering an investment in one of his projects,” the Times has reported.
“Former Rezko associates said that Governor Blagojevich attended one of the dinners, and that at Mr. Rezko’s request, Mr. Obama dropped in at one for Middle Eastern bankers in early 2004, just as he was starting to pull ahead in the Senate primary. The visits, Mr. Rezko’s partners said, helped impress foreign guests.

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Posted on January 29, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

“The real zoning code in Chicago is unwritten, but developers know it well,” the Tribune reported on Sunday in an investigation that proves beyond a doubt how our neighborhoods have been ravaged in the last 20 years of gentrification that was neither “natural” nor well-managed. “Changes in zoning go hand in hand with contributions to aldermanic campaigns.”
That might not sound like news to you, but the portrait the Tribune paints is devastating: “[A] building boom greased by millions of dollars in political donations to aldermen has remade the face of neighborhoods, changing the feel of streets where people live and work . . . Anyone driving around town has seen how the face of Chicago has been transformed: Three- and four-story condo buildings dwarf century-old workman’s cottages on quiet side streets. Mini-mansions cover entire lots, their facades sticking out like crooked teeth in an otherwise uniform line of homes.”
Aldermen, the paper found, “routinely [ignore] city planners who oppose out-of-scale development . . . And it’s a city where advisory groups that review zoning proposals are sometimes stacked with developers and real estate agents who will profit from the projects.”

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Posted on January 28, 2008

By Natasha Julius

It’s that weekend again, readers. The weekend when we stand at the edge of the abyss and peek down; when we begin to contemplate, after five glorious months, the idea of a Sunday without football. Worse, there’s still one more game waiting in the future, tantalizingly close but still too far away to be a reality. So what can you do to fill the final bye week? Fear not. As a service to you, we present the patented Beachwood Reporter Weekend Desk Super Bore Sunday Distraction List. These time-tested techniques will see you through to the Big Game in no time.

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Posted on January 26, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

1. “Heath Ledger . . . completely disappears into this fairytale fanboy who can’t believe he has stumbled onto a real-life enchantment after years of fervently collecting stories that he silently believes,” our very own Marilyn Ferdinand wrote in her review of 2005’s The Brothers Grimm. “He is taken with Angelika (Lena Headey), the town’s ‘cursed one,’ not because she’s beautiful and available, but because she’s versed in folk arts and a believer in enchantment. At one point, he must awaken her, like Sleeping Beauty, with a kiss of pure love. The love he uses successfully to revive her is not for her, however, but for the fairytale she stepped out of.”
See also Rod Heath’s review of Brokeback Mountain.

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Posted on January 25, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

I would really like to get away from this Obama stuff, if even for just a day, but the media madness is just too much to let go.
First, there’s the Tribune’s Eric Zorn accusing Hillary Clinton of lying because while Obama said the Republicans were the party of ideas for the last 10 to 15 years, he didn’t say they were the party of better ideas.
That’s a stretch. Obama’s remarks – to a conservative editorial board he was trying to woo – were admiring and approving. Not only is Clinton’s interpretation reasonable and fair, it’s a lot more accurate than Obama’s later rendering of his comments about Ronald Reagan which Zorn curiously does not call a lie.

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Posted on January 24, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

“Obama charged that the Clintons have shown a willingness to ‘fudge the truth,'” the Tribune reports. “‘What this country needs most is a president who says what he means and means what he says,” Obama said.”
Perhaps now would be a good time to review the Tony Rezko files.
* “Mr. Obama has portrayed Mr. Rezko as a one-time fund-raiser whom he had occasionally seen socially. But interviews with more than a dozen political and business associates suggest that the two men were closer than the senator has indicated.”
See “My Pal Tony.”

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Posted on January 23, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

Wow! Did Obama really say that?
CNN’S JOE JOHNS: The Nobel Prize-winning African-American author, Toni Morrison, famously observed about Bill Clinton, “This is our first black president, blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime.”
Do you think Bill Clinton was our first black president?
OBAMA: I have to say that, you know, I would have to, you know, investigate more of Bill’s dancing abilities.
You know, and some of this other stuff before I accurately judge whether he was in fact a brother.
*
Yes, he did.
And he also explained Tony Rezko this way: “I was an associate at a law firm that represented a church group that had partnered with this individual to do a project and I did about five hours worth of work on this joint project.”
A church group! This individual!
We all know there’s just a smidgen more to the story.
Barack Obama got waxed last night – and not just by Hillary Clinton, but by John Edwards in the sidekick role as her Boy Wonder.
Catch up with the madness in our latest installment of Mystery Debate Theater 2008. Best Debate Ever?

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Posted on January 22, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

1. A tribute.

2. “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” was originally a song about Reagan.

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Posted on January 21, 2008

By Natasha Julius

You just stay close to the space heater this weekend. We’ll keep an eye on the news.
Market Update
Just to clarify: when Congress tries to spend money “like a teenager with a new credit card,” it’s a sign of fiscal irresponsibility. However, when the President tries to funnel more money to millions of people who have already spent like teenagers with new credit cards, it’s stimulating the economy.

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Posted on January 19, 2008

By Steve Rhodes

Programming Note: There will be no Papers today, but I am scheduled to appear on Chicago Tonight: Week in Review tonight, 7 p.m. on WTTW (Channel 11). And watch for our Weekend Desk Report tomorrow.
*
The [Thursday] Papers
I’m assured this is real: Highlights from new Tribune Company owner Sam Zell’s employee handbook. It sounds too good to be true – and represents a wholesale culture change from the TribCo of old.
–
UPDATE 7:30 A.M.: Crap, the Los Angeles Times already has this story. As does The Washington Post. At least I beat the Chicago Tribune. Here goes.
–
* Rule 1. Use your best judgment. “Unless we made a serious mistake when we hired you, you have good judgment. You know what it takes to succeed.”
* Because it “has always been done that way” or because “the boss said so” aren’t reasons for doing anything.
* Keep your word. If you promise something to a reader, you are expected to uphold it.
* Playing bagpipes in the newsroom is annoying and considered bad judgment.
* Coming to work drunk is bad judgment.

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Posted on January 18, 2008