Conservative Democrats Expect a Health Deal
By CARL HULSE
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/us/politics/02bluedogs.html?th&emc=th
WASHINGTON — Like her colleagues, Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a South Dakota Democrat and leader of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, has been weathering the summer of health care discontent.
There have been the angry constituents, the worried business leaders and even productive talks on what an acceptable health care overhaul should look like. Despite the clamor, Ms. Herseth Sandlin said she still believed that she — and perhaps a majority of the more than 50 Blue Dogs — could ultimately get behind a health care package if it was reasonable and represented a consensus Democratic view.
“I want to support necessary change,” she said. “But I don’t want to support radical change.”
Even after the tough town-hall-style meetings, unrelenting Republican assaults and a steady stream of questions from anxious voters, interviews with more than a dozen Blue Dogs and their top aides indicate that many of the lawmakers still believe approval of some form of health care plan is achievable and far preferable to not acting at all.
“I can’t tell you how comprehensive it will be, but I do believe something will get passed,” said Representative Michael Arcuri, a second-term Blue Dog Democrat from New York.
The political temperature of the Blue Dogs — and their ideological counterparts in the Senate — after the five-week recess is crucial. As representatives of some of the nation’s most conservative territory represented by Democrats, they potentially have the most to lose if a Democratic bill spurs a backlash. Even with healthy majorities in Congress, every Democratic vote is critical given the reluctance by some Democrats to consider a major overhaul and near blanket Republican opposition.
One lawmaker in the group, Representative David Scott of Georgia, said his determination to enact a health care overhaul had been increased over the recess because of what he called the spread of misinformation and other unfair tactics engaged in by the opposition.
“I think now more than ever we must get strong in our resolve to pass health care insurance reform legislation,” Mr. Scott said.
Another coalition member, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, said that despite the intensity of the health care fight over the last month, he was not sure the Democratic landscape had changed all that much from when House members left Washington in early August.
“The members that were skeptical of the public option going into the recess are still skeptical,” Mr. Schiff said. “Those who were supportive are still supportive.” He suggested the major transformation was among Republicans, who seem far less open to any health care proposals given the heated sentiments aired by conservative voters.
Administration officials, who have been talking regularly with lawmakers, said they found that most Democrats remained engaged and eager to explore ways to reach agreement.
“For the lion’s share of Democratic members of Congress, this isn’t about looking for a way to make this disappear,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, about the health care issue. “This is about trying to find common ground for a yes vote.”
Senate Democrats have similar internal tensions. Several more conservative Democratic senators have expressed reluctance about elements of proposals favored by liberals, especially the public insurance option, and concern about the overall price tag.
With the recess in its final week and the health care debate nearing a potentially critical moment, Congressional Democrats are also pressing the administration to move more aggressively to unite Democrats. On Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who oversaw the drafting of the Senate health committee’s bill, said President Obama must “step up and really frame this again for us.”
But even as some moderate and conservative Blue Dogs signaled they were still ready to move forward, it was clear that others could support only a substantially scaled-back approach. That could mean a bill that would fall short of the Democratic goal of extending coverage to the almost 50 million people without health insurance.
“Without wholesale changing the bills, I just don’t see how it’s going to work,” said Representative Jim Marshall of Georgia.
“I didn’t intend to vote on it before I left D.C., and I certainly haven’t changed my mind about it,” said Representative Walt Minnick, a Blue Dog from Idaho.
The sensitivity of the issue was demonstrated by how cautious lawmakers were in even discussing it. Several Blue Dogs declined to talk publicly about their views, while others said health care had become a proxy for general voter distrust of the federal government and fear about the Obama administration’s perceived intrusion into private markets.
But the sense from those who did consent to interviews was that once Congress resumes, Democrats need to figure out what they could agree on and how far they should go in remaking the health care system, given the political and fiscal restraints.
With Republicans essentially out of the health care picture for now, Blue Dog members from suburban and rural America said they could provide the ideological balance to the more urban members of the Democratic caucus, who are pushing for a sweeping plan of universal coverage that has drawn public criticism.
Still, the Blue Dogs are split on whether any new health insurance options should be packaged more like a cooperative familiar to voters in the less populated states represented by Blue Dogs or the public insurance idea being pushed by other Democrats.
“I’ve heard too many stories of Iowans who can’t afford health insurance, or can’t get coverage for the care they need,” said Representative Leonard L. Boswell, a Blue Dog member from that state. “I support a public option so that we can bring down the costs of premiums and curb the inflation of health care costs.”
But Ms. Herseth Sandlin, while not ruling out the idea of a public plan, said Democrats needed to think strategically, decide on the limits of a plan that can attract majority support and revisit the issue in the future if they cannot achieve all they want now.
“We have to be pragmatic and forge some deal that moves us in a positive direction,” she said. “We have expended unnecessary energy on elements of the plan that I don’t think are essential. I remain optimistic that when we come back in September, we will recognize how important it is to get half a loaf.”
Reporting was contributed by Bernie Becker, Andrea Fuller, Janie Lorber and Ashley Southall.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
C.I.A. Resists Disclosure of Records on Detention
C.I.A. Resists Disclosure of Records on Detention
By MARK MAZZETTI
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/us/02intel.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to make public hundreds of pages of internal documents about the agency’s defunct detention and interrogation program, saying such disclosures would jeopardize national security by revealing classified intelligence sources and operations.
The C.I.A.’s argument to withhold the material, laid out Monday in a declaration to a federal court in New York, comes a week after the Obama administration declassified documents about abuses in the C.I.A.’s secret overseas prisons and the Justice Department began investigating the actions of C.I.A. operatives.
Among the documents the agency is trying to keep classified are President George W. Bush’s September 2001 authorization for the C.I.A. to begin secretly holding terrorism suspects; cables between C.I.A. officers in the secret prisons, known as black sites, and their bosses in Washington; and assessments by C.I.A. lawyers about the legality of the detention program.
The C.I.A.’s 33-page court declaration, made public on Tuesday, said that releasing C.I.A. interrogation procedures “is reasonably likely to degrade the U.S.G.’s ability to effectively question terrorist detainees and elicit information necessary to protect the American people.” (The abbreviation “U.S.G.” refers to the United States government.)
“These interrogation methods are integral to the U.S.G.’s interrogation program” and are therefore considered top secret, said the C.I.A. declaration, written by Wendy M. Hilton, an officer in the agency’s clandestine service who reviews documents for public release.
President Obama signed an executive order on Jan. 22 banning the harsh interrogation methods used by the C.I.A. during the Bush administration. The procedures, called “enhanced interrogation techniques” by the C.I.A., included waterboarding and “wall slamming.”
Paul Gimigliano, a C.I.A. spokesman, said that the reference in Ms. Hilton’s declaration was to questions that were asked of detainees “and the procedures used to ask them, not to enhanced interrogation techniques, which are no longer employed.”
Lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the government in 2003 for release of the detention documents, said the C.I.A.’s declaration undercut the Obama administration’s pledges of greater transparency.
“There’s really no distance at all between this declaration and the declarations the C.I.A. was filing during the Bush administration,” said Jameel Jaffer, an A.C.L.U. lawyer.
Mr. Jaffer said the A.C.L.U. would petition the judge in the case, Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court, to get the documents declassified.
Last week, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appointed a federal prosecutor to investigate abuses enumerated in a 2004 report by the C.I.A.’s inspector general, including a number of cases involving the deaths of detainees in C.I.A. custody.
The decision brought a stinging rebuke from some Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, who contended that the abuse cases had already been investigated and that Mr. Holder had appointed a prosecutor to placate liberals.
“It’s clearly a political move,” said Mr. Cheney, appearing on “Fox News Sunday.” “I mean, there’s no other rationale for why they’re doing this.”
The C.I.A. declaration is similar to a court filing in June by Leon E. Panetta, the agency’s director. For months, Mr. Panetta had been urging the Obama administration not to reveal classified operational details about the program, and in July he sent the C.I.A.’s top lawyer to the Justice Department to try to persuade Mr. Holder’s aides not to begin a criminal investigation into the detention program.
Although Mr. Obama banned the C.I.A. interrogation methods and Mr. Panetta later ordered that the secret prisons be closed, the agency has sought to protect some still-classified aspects of the program, including the exact locations of the prisons and the help that the C.I.A. received from foreign spy services.
According to the C.I.A. declaration, the agency put these classified details into a top secret program “to enhance protection from unauthorized disclosure.”
By MARK MAZZETTI
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/us/02intel.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to make public hundreds of pages of internal documents about the agency’s defunct detention and interrogation program, saying such disclosures would jeopardize national security by revealing classified intelligence sources and operations.
The C.I.A.’s argument to withhold the material, laid out Monday in a declaration to a federal court in New York, comes a week after the Obama administration declassified documents about abuses in the C.I.A.’s secret overseas prisons and the Justice Department began investigating the actions of C.I.A. operatives.
Among the documents the agency is trying to keep classified are President George W. Bush’s September 2001 authorization for the C.I.A. to begin secretly holding terrorism suspects; cables between C.I.A. officers in the secret prisons, known as black sites, and their bosses in Washington; and assessments by C.I.A. lawyers about the legality of the detention program.
The C.I.A.’s 33-page court declaration, made public on Tuesday, said that releasing C.I.A. interrogation procedures “is reasonably likely to degrade the U.S.G.’s ability to effectively question terrorist detainees and elicit information necessary to protect the American people.” (The abbreviation “U.S.G.” refers to the United States government.)
“These interrogation methods are integral to the U.S.G.’s interrogation program” and are therefore considered top secret, said the C.I.A. declaration, written by Wendy M. Hilton, an officer in the agency’s clandestine service who reviews documents for public release.
President Obama signed an executive order on Jan. 22 banning the harsh interrogation methods used by the C.I.A. during the Bush administration. The procedures, called “enhanced interrogation techniques” by the C.I.A., included waterboarding and “wall slamming.”
Paul Gimigliano, a C.I.A. spokesman, said that the reference in Ms. Hilton’s declaration was to questions that were asked of detainees “and the procedures used to ask them, not to enhanced interrogation techniques, which are no longer employed.”
Lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the government in 2003 for release of the detention documents, said the C.I.A.’s declaration undercut the Obama administration’s pledges of greater transparency.
“There’s really no distance at all between this declaration and the declarations the C.I.A. was filing during the Bush administration,” said Jameel Jaffer, an A.C.L.U. lawyer.
Mr. Jaffer said the A.C.L.U. would petition the judge in the case, Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court, to get the documents declassified.
Last week, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appointed a federal prosecutor to investigate abuses enumerated in a 2004 report by the C.I.A.’s inspector general, including a number of cases involving the deaths of detainees in C.I.A. custody.
The decision brought a stinging rebuke from some Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, who contended that the abuse cases had already been investigated and that Mr. Holder had appointed a prosecutor to placate liberals.
“It’s clearly a political move,” said Mr. Cheney, appearing on “Fox News Sunday.” “I mean, there’s no other rationale for why they’re doing this.”
The C.I.A. declaration is similar to a court filing in June by Leon E. Panetta, the agency’s director. For months, Mr. Panetta had been urging the Obama administration not to reveal classified operational details about the program, and in July he sent the C.I.A.’s top lawyer to the Justice Department to try to persuade Mr. Holder’s aides not to begin a criminal investigation into the detention program.
Although Mr. Obama banned the C.I.A. interrogation methods and Mr. Panetta later ordered that the secret prisons be closed, the agency has sought to protect some still-classified aspects of the program, including the exact locations of the prisons and the help that the C.I.A. received from foreign spy services.
According to the C.I.A. declaration, the agency put these classified details into a top secret program “to enhance protection from unauthorized disclosure.”
IOC report notes problems with Chicago's bid
IOC report notes problems with Chicago's bid
By Phil Hersh
Copyright 2009 by the Chicago Tribune
September 2, 2009 7:24 AM
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/09/chicago-2016-olympics.html?track=email-alert-breakingnews
The contenders (from left): Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo
An International Olympic Committee document assessing the bids of the four cities vying for the 2016 Summer Olympics noted several problems with Chicago's bid.
The report, which runs 98 pages, was released this morning on the Internet.
While saying all four finalists could organize the 2016 Olympic Games, the IOC's evaluation commission report noted several flaws in the Chicago bid that could increase what the report called the ``risks...inherent to each project.''
The report found:
• Increased risk in Chicago due to an ``emphasis on major temporary or scaled-down venues;''
• The transport plan includes factors that could be a ``major challenge;''
• A lack of a full guarantee against shortfall, an issue that remains problematic even after Mayor Richard Daley said he would sign the contract that makes the city the financial backstop;
• The Chicago budget was ``ambitious but achievable'' but the city needs an ``extensive sponsorship program'' to make it work.
• The Olympic Village plan a potentially ``special experience for the athletes'' but noted no full financing guarantee for its construction was provided when the commission visited in early April.
Read the document on the IOC's Web site.
By Phil Hersh
Copyright 2009 by the Chicago Tribune
September 2, 2009 7:24 AM
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/09/chicago-2016-olympics.html?track=email-alert-breakingnews
The contenders (from left): Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo
An International Olympic Committee document assessing the bids of the four cities vying for the 2016 Summer Olympics noted several problems with Chicago's bid.
The report, which runs 98 pages, was released this morning on the Internet.
While saying all four finalists could organize the 2016 Olympic Games, the IOC's evaluation commission report noted several flaws in the Chicago bid that could increase what the report called the ``risks...inherent to each project.''
The report found:
• Increased risk in Chicago due to an ``emphasis on major temporary or scaled-down venues;''
• The transport plan includes factors that could be a ``major challenge;''
• A lack of a full guarantee against shortfall, an issue that remains problematic even after Mayor Richard Daley said he would sign the contract that makes the city the financial backstop;
• The Chicago budget was ``ambitious but achievable'' but the city needs an ``extensive sponsorship program'' to make it work.
• The Olympic Village plan a potentially ``special experience for the athletes'' but noted no full financing guarantee for its construction was provided when the commission visited in early April.
Read the document on the IOC's Web site.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Chicago Tribune Editorial: Reckoning with Stroger/Cook commissioners fail again to cut sales tax/Chicago Tribune Editorial: Bring on the election
Chicago Tribune Editorial: Reckoning with Stroger
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 1, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/chi-0901edit1sep01,0,3628899.story
Monday's selection of a new Cook County Board member should assure that President Todd Stroger loses half of his beloved sales tax hike. The board keeps passing reductions in the tax, and Stroger keeps vetoing them. Tuesday, though, ought to be the day when enough board members finally vote to override a Stroger veto.
That's not a prediction: We'll believe the outcome when we see it. Stroger still could sway some board members to renege on their commitments and vote against the interests of their constituents. Although, as the little calendar beneath this editorial attests, only 22 weeks remain until the Feb. 2 Illinois primary. Any board member who flops into Stroger's camp now -- or who invents some reason not to show up Tuesday -- is begging to be defeated.
That risk is particularly menacing for Edwin Reyes, whom Democratic ward bosses chose Monday to replace Roberto Maldonado on the County Board. Maldonado, who left county government to become alderman of the 26th Ward, was one of 14 County Board co-sponsors of the half-point reduction in Stroger's tax hike. To his great credit, Maldonado also worked hard to assure that his County Board replacement(a) would be selected before Tuesday's override vote and (b) would vote to override Stroger. That's crucial, because if 14 of the 17 members don't vote against Stroger, his tax hike stays whole.
Reyes said Monday that he'll vote for the override. That would put him in the company of board members who want to improve Cook County's business competitiveness -- and slow the death of jobs and employers hobbled by high taxes.
We applaud the 13 remaining co-sponsors and trust that they'll vote accordingly. They are Forrest Claypool, Earlean Collins, John Daley, Bridget Gainer, Elizabeth Doody Gorman, Gregg Goslin, Joan Patricia Murphy, Tony Peraica, Tim Schneider, Pete Silvestri, Deborah Sims, Robert Steele and Larry Suffredin.
(Note to potential County Board candidates: Three board members -- William Beavers, Jerry "Iceman" Butler and Joseph Mario Moreno -- repeatedly have fought to preserve all of Stroger's tax increase. They'll likely do so again Tuesday.)
So we'll all see whether the County Board finally relieves some of the pressure Stroger's regressive tax increase imposed on poor households. The rest of the increase probably won't be killed until voters dump Stroger for a board president who wants to modernize and streamline this too-costly government.
-- -- --
Tuesday also is the day the five women board members, joined by an unknown number of male co-sponsors, introduce a measure to outlaw video gambling in unincorporated Cook. Companies that stand to make bazillions from the legalization of video gambling have been hiring the usual insider suspects as their lobbyists. If, as expected, the measure is referred to committee, public hearings likely will follow.
Good. We're eager to see who approaches the microphone to speak for or against video gambling in Cook County. Just as we're eager for the County Board to eventually follow Gainer, the lead sponsor, in voting to opt out of this scourge.
First things first, though: Tuesday needs to bring a slashing of the Todd Stroger sales tax hike that never should have been.
Cook commissioners fail again to cut sales tax
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
Posted by Hal Dardick at 1:02 p.m.; last updated at 1:13 p.m.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/09/cook-commissioners-fail-again-to-cut-sales-tax.html?track=email-alert-breakingnews
Cook County commissioners today couldn't make their roll back of the county's controversial sales tax stick, failing by one vote to override Board President Todd Stroger's veto of their attempted tax cut.
That means the county sales tax rate remains at 1.75 percent, despite a majority of the county board wanting to reduce it to 1.25 percent.
Tax-cut backers needed 14 of 17 commissioners to override Stroger's veto. The vote was 13-4.
Commissioner Deborah Sims (D-Chicago), who had been part of the tenuous coalition supporting a roll back, today chose to support Stroger and sustain the veto. In July, Sims voted to roll back the sales tax increase, but today she switched positions and voted in favor of keeping the tax hike. (You can read about the board's July vote to cut the sales tax by clicking here.)
Sims said it’s too early in the 2010 budget process to determine whether the entire sales tax increase will be needed next year. “I hope that we will not rush to do anything here today,” she said.
“I want to make an intelligent vote here,” she added. “That’s what the people elected us to do, and we can’t do that if we don’t have all the information.”
Sims added, "This is a decision I made that I feel is in best for the people I represent."
Since the county sales-tax hike of a penny-on-the-dollar was approved in late February 2008, Stroger has remained the target of intense criticism but held fast that it’s needed to prevent decimation of the county’s vast public health system.
“It will make very little difference to most consumers,” Stroger said today, accusing roll back supporters of being dishonest with constituents. “It will devastate our public-health system.”
But Stroger's argument was somewhat undercut earlier today when officials with the county's independent Health and Hospitals System announced their preliminary 2010 budget asks for $74 million less in tax funding.
During the debate, Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-Evanston) said lowering the tax will discourage shoppers in far-flung Cook suburbs from going to collar counties to do their shopping. He cited a Chicago-region sales-tax study released Monday.
Suffredin's argument was countered by Commissioner William Beavers (D-Chicago), who said a survey of his constituents indicated they support the sales-tax hike by an overwhelming margin.
“It’s not for food, it’s not for medicine,” he said of the sales tax. “People are willing to pay that one penny.”
Chicago Tribune Editorial: Bring on the election
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 2, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/chi-0902edit1sep02,0,4415333.story
"We are as good or as bad as the people who elect us."
-- Earlean Collins, Cook County
commissioner, Sept. 1, 2009
The lesson from Tuesday's vote of the Cook County Board couldn't be clearer if Moses hand-delivered it on chiseled tablets: The costly Democratic patronage machine known as Cook County government won't slim down to a size you can afford while Todd Stroger is board president. The targets of Stroger's unneeded sales-tax hike -- consumers taking their buying elsewhere, employers moving to the collar counties, poor families throttled by this regressive tax -- won't get any relief until Stroger is gone.
Voters, you have to make that happen. The County Board as currently composed cannot override Stroger's repeated vetoes of measures that would roll back even a part of his tax increase. Owing to an onerous requirement that four-fifths of the board -- that's 14 of the 17 members -- needs to agree on an override, Stroger needs only four commissioners on his side to see his vetoes sustained. Tuesday's vote to override: 13-4.
If you know anybody who wants a part-time job that pays $85,000 a year plus a staff, perks and expenses, suggest that he or she run to unseat one of the four Democrats who sustained Stroger's veto: William Beavers, Jerry "Iceman" Butler, Joseph Mario Moreno and Deborah Sims.
Sims deserved Tuesday's award for Most Bizarre Commissioner, a floating distinction for which there often are many qualified candidates. In July, Sims co-sponsored, and voted for, a measure to cut in half the full-percentage-point tax increase that took effect 14 months ago. Sims evidently had enough information to justify casting that July vote. Inexplicably, though, she didn't have enough information Tuesday to override Stroger's veto of the very measure she co-sponsored in July.
Her money quote from Tuesday's debate was an acknowledgment that furious Cook voters may take revenge against tax-happy county politicians in the Feb. 2 primary: "I don't know why, when it comes to [Cook] county government, we always take the heat for what we've done!"
Gee, Ms. Sims, that's a mystery, isn't it?
Stroger and his four accomplices had to feel humiliated by an announcement before Tuesday's vote: The county's independent Health and Hospitals System divulged that in 2010 it likely will ask for $74 million less in tax money than it's receiving this year.
That demolishes the whining from Stroger and his cronies that Cook County needs the roughly $400 million a year it gets from the sales-tax hike in part to . . . keep the health system afloat. Stroger's warning about threats to health care sounds scary. It just isn't true.
So, voters, pay heed to Earlean Collins' words: The politicians are as good or as bad as the people who elect them. You can continue to pour money by the hundreds of millions into the Stroger jobs machine. Or you can show Stroger what it's like to be unemployed and still paying the high Cook County taxes he adores.
Several people want to replace Stroger. So let's start hearing: Will you make a firm commitment to repeal the sales-tax increase on Day One?
Once again, the primary is Feb. 2.
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 1, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/chi-0901edit1sep01,0,3628899.story
Monday's selection of a new Cook County Board member should assure that President Todd Stroger loses half of his beloved sales tax hike. The board keeps passing reductions in the tax, and Stroger keeps vetoing them. Tuesday, though, ought to be the day when enough board members finally vote to override a Stroger veto.
That's not a prediction: We'll believe the outcome when we see it. Stroger still could sway some board members to renege on their commitments and vote against the interests of their constituents. Although, as the little calendar beneath this editorial attests, only 22 weeks remain until the Feb. 2 Illinois primary. Any board member who flops into Stroger's camp now -- or who invents some reason not to show up Tuesday -- is begging to be defeated.
That risk is particularly menacing for Edwin Reyes, whom Democratic ward bosses chose Monday to replace Roberto Maldonado on the County Board. Maldonado, who left county government to become alderman of the 26th Ward, was one of 14 County Board co-sponsors of the half-point reduction in Stroger's tax hike. To his great credit, Maldonado also worked hard to assure that his County Board replacement(a) would be selected before Tuesday's override vote and (b) would vote to override Stroger. That's crucial, because if 14 of the 17 members don't vote against Stroger, his tax hike stays whole.
Reyes said Monday that he'll vote for the override. That would put him in the company of board members who want to improve Cook County's business competitiveness -- and slow the death of jobs and employers hobbled by high taxes.
We applaud the 13 remaining co-sponsors and trust that they'll vote accordingly. They are Forrest Claypool, Earlean Collins, John Daley, Bridget Gainer, Elizabeth Doody Gorman, Gregg Goslin, Joan Patricia Murphy, Tony Peraica, Tim Schneider, Pete Silvestri, Deborah Sims, Robert Steele and Larry Suffredin.
(Note to potential County Board candidates: Three board members -- William Beavers, Jerry "Iceman" Butler and Joseph Mario Moreno -- repeatedly have fought to preserve all of Stroger's tax increase. They'll likely do so again Tuesday.)
So we'll all see whether the County Board finally relieves some of the pressure Stroger's regressive tax increase imposed on poor households. The rest of the increase probably won't be killed until voters dump Stroger for a board president who wants to modernize and streamline this too-costly government.
-- -- --
Tuesday also is the day the five women board members, joined by an unknown number of male co-sponsors, introduce a measure to outlaw video gambling in unincorporated Cook. Companies that stand to make bazillions from the legalization of video gambling have been hiring the usual insider suspects as their lobbyists. If, as expected, the measure is referred to committee, public hearings likely will follow.
Good. We're eager to see who approaches the microphone to speak for or against video gambling in Cook County. Just as we're eager for the County Board to eventually follow Gainer, the lead sponsor, in voting to opt out of this scourge.
First things first, though: Tuesday needs to bring a slashing of the Todd Stroger sales tax hike that never should have been.
Cook commissioners fail again to cut sales tax
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
Posted by Hal Dardick at 1:02 p.m.; last updated at 1:13 p.m.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/09/cook-commissioners-fail-again-to-cut-sales-tax.html?track=email-alert-breakingnews
Cook County commissioners today couldn't make their roll back of the county's controversial sales tax stick, failing by one vote to override Board President Todd Stroger's veto of their attempted tax cut.
That means the county sales tax rate remains at 1.75 percent, despite a majority of the county board wanting to reduce it to 1.25 percent.
Tax-cut backers needed 14 of 17 commissioners to override Stroger's veto. The vote was 13-4.
Commissioner Deborah Sims (D-Chicago), who had been part of the tenuous coalition supporting a roll back, today chose to support Stroger and sustain the veto. In July, Sims voted to roll back the sales tax increase, but today she switched positions and voted in favor of keeping the tax hike. (You can read about the board's July vote to cut the sales tax by clicking here.)
Sims said it’s too early in the 2010 budget process to determine whether the entire sales tax increase will be needed next year. “I hope that we will not rush to do anything here today,” she said.
“I want to make an intelligent vote here,” she added. “That’s what the people elected us to do, and we can’t do that if we don’t have all the information.”
Sims added, "This is a decision I made that I feel is in best for the people I represent."
Since the county sales-tax hike of a penny-on-the-dollar was approved in late February 2008, Stroger has remained the target of intense criticism but held fast that it’s needed to prevent decimation of the county’s vast public health system.
“It will make very little difference to most consumers,” Stroger said today, accusing roll back supporters of being dishonest with constituents. “It will devastate our public-health system.”
But Stroger's argument was somewhat undercut earlier today when officials with the county's independent Health and Hospitals System announced their preliminary 2010 budget asks for $74 million less in tax funding.
During the debate, Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-Evanston) said lowering the tax will discourage shoppers in far-flung Cook suburbs from going to collar counties to do their shopping. He cited a Chicago-region sales-tax study released Monday.
Suffredin's argument was countered by Commissioner William Beavers (D-Chicago), who said a survey of his constituents indicated they support the sales-tax hike by an overwhelming margin.
“It’s not for food, it’s not for medicine,” he said of the sales tax. “People are willing to pay that one penny.”
Chicago Tribune Editorial: Bring on the election
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 2, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/chi-0902edit1sep02,0,4415333.story
"We are as good or as bad as the people who elect us."
-- Earlean Collins, Cook County
commissioner, Sept. 1, 2009
The lesson from Tuesday's vote of the Cook County Board couldn't be clearer if Moses hand-delivered it on chiseled tablets: The costly Democratic patronage machine known as Cook County government won't slim down to a size you can afford while Todd Stroger is board president. The targets of Stroger's unneeded sales-tax hike -- consumers taking their buying elsewhere, employers moving to the collar counties, poor families throttled by this regressive tax -- won't get any relief until Stroger is gone.
Voters, you have to make that happen. The County Board as currently composed cannot override Stroger's repeated vetoes of measures that would roll back even a part of his tax increase. Owing to an onerous requirement that four-fifths of the board -- that's 14 of the 17 members -- needs to agree on an override, Stroger needs only four commissioners on his side to see his vetoes sustained. Tuesday's vote to override: 13-4.
If you know anybody who wants a part-time job that pays $85,000 a year plus a staff, perks and expenses, suggest that he or she run to unseat one of the four Democrats who sustained Stroger's veto: William Beavers, Jerry "Iceman" Butler, Joseph Mario Moreno and Deborah Sims.
Sims deserved Tuesday's award for Most Bizarre Commissioner, a floating distinction for which there often are many qualified candidates. In July, Sims co-sponsored, and voted for, a measure to cut in half the full-percentage-point tax increase that took effect 14 months ago. Sims evidently had enough information to justify casting that July vote. Inexplicably, though, she didn't have enough information Tuesday to override Stroger's veto of the very measure she co-sponsored in July.
Her money quote from Tuesday's debate was an acknowledgment that furious Cook voters may take revenge against tax-happy county politicians in the Feb. 2 primary: "I don't know why, when it comes to [Cook] county government, we always take the heat for what we've done!"
Gee, Ms. Sims, that's a mystery, isn't it?
Stroger and his four accomplices had to feel humiliated by an announcement before Tuesday's vote: The county's independent Health and Hospitals System divulged that in 2010 it likely will ask for $74 million less in tax money than it's receiving this year.
That demolishes the whining from Stroger and his cronies that Cook County needs the roughly $400 million a year it gets from the sales-tax hike in part to . . . keep the health system afloat. Stroger's warning about threats to health care sounds scary. It just isn't true.
So, voters, pay heed to Earlean Collins' words: The politicians are as good or as bad as the people who elect them. You can continue to pour money by the hundreds of millions into the Stroger jobs machine. Or you can show Stroger what it's like to be unemployed and still paying the high Cook County taxes he adores.
Several people want to replace Stroger. So let's start hearing: Will you make a firm commitment to repeal the sales-tax increase on Day One?
Once again, the primary is Feb. 2.
Blagojevich as author gets it wrong again
Blagojevich as author gets it wrong again
By John Kass
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 1, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-01-sep01,0,7014736.column
With the FBI knocking on his door, Rod "Dead Meat" Blagojevich was about to be the first sitting Illinois governor hauled from his house in federal handcuffs.
Yet even in this time of abject panic and fear -- as he writes in his new autobiography -- Blagojevich thought of a Chicago politician.
No, it wasn't President Barack Obama.
About the only thing Obama and Dead Meat have in common is convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko. But Dead Meat didn't need Rezko's help to buy a mansion. Dead Meat already had one, in Springfield.
So at 6 a.m. on Dec. 9, the phone rang in his Northwest Side home and the then-governor was told he'd be arrested any second. That's when Blagojevich started thinking about a politician:
His good buddy, and shadow-governor, state Sen. James DeLeo (D-How You Doin?).
"I honestly thought that for a fleeting moment, that someone was actually playing a practical joke on me," the former Democratic Illinois governor writes in his autobiography "The Governor" ( Phoenix Books, $24.95).
"I was quickly trying to gauge the voice and run through my mind who might be doing it. Which one of my friends could this be? ... state Sen. Jimmy DeLeo, a lawmaker and a friend, and a guy known for his sense of humor -- could this be him? For a moment, I thought it was him."
But it wasn't Jimmy.
It was Rob Grant, special agent in charge of the Chicago FBI, and Dead Meat was going down on corruption charges.
This first of several DeLeo references was on page 9. But the book goes downhill from there.
Dead Meat, scheduled to stand trial in federal court in June, takes all 259 pages to send messages to former friends and to enemies, like the Madigans, and U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald.
Throughout, Dead Meat writes he's a regular fellow, like Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life," fighting for the little guy, fighting for his country, fighting against all those evil Mr. Potters of the world.
But regular guys don't quote Shakespeare's "Henry V" to a bunch of Northwest Side Democratic machine precinct captains belonging to his ward boss father-in-law, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd).
Dead Meat, whom Mell picked to become a state legislator in 1992, said he felt the need to impress Mell's troops.
So he quoted from "Henry V," the part where Henry encourages the outnumbered English before their historic battle with the French at Agincourt, a battle that would mark the end of chivalry for all time, though Blago didn't mention chivalry. Yet he insists he quoted Shakespeare in that Northwest Side VFW hall.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, and gentlemen in England now abed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhood cheap, while others speak that fought with us on St. Crispin's Day!"
Now, I've been covering Chicago politics for years. And I've seen Mell's precinct captains in action. They're pros, and very good at getting out the vote. But picture them at a political meeting, guys on loan from DeLeo like Dominic Longo and Ronnie "Little Pistol" Calicchio, wearing their knit shirts and gold chains, their leathers, smelling of cigars and of Paco Rabanne for Men.
Then out comes the son-in-law with the dry look hair-do, a 30-something Dead Meat screeching at them about St. Crispin's Day and men who hold their manhood cheap.
"What's he talkin' about, this 'gentlemen in England now abed?' Who the #$%^ is this Crispin guy!?"
"He wants to hold my manhood cheap? What the @#$%? Nobody's touching my manhood. Especially this Elvis lookin' spacone."
What's astounding is that after such a display, they elected him to a public office. I'm surprised they'd elect him to the mosquito abatement district.
I can handle the fantastic exaggerations in this book. But what I can't handle are all the bizarre literary references, especially when you get the feeling he never read the books and only watched the movies.
He invokes Daedalus and Icarus, but Blago gets the ancient myth wrong and insists Icarus fell to the ground after flying too near the sun rather than into the sea. Shakespeare's "Richard III," "Othello," "King Lear," "Julius Caesar" are all represented. There is even a misused "Godfather" reference, and another to Robert De Niro's character in "Raging Bull." This is autobiography by Google.
It's all very frightening, with Blago the tragic hero of every story, until you realize that he's just seeding the jury pool. But there is another moment of truth, on page 135, after he compares himself to every hero in Western literature.
"The truth is, I would probably never have had a start in politics if it wasn't for my father-in-law."
And he would never have had so many laughs, if it weren't for Jimmy DeLeo.
jskass@tribune.com
By John Kass
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 1, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-01-sep01,0,7014736.column
With the FBI knocking on his door, Rod "Dead Meat" Blagojevich was about to be the first sitting Illinois governor hauled from his house in federal handcuffs.
Yet even in this time of abject panic and fear -- as he writes in his new autobiography -- Blagojevich thought of a Chicago politician.
No, it wasn't President Barack Obama.
About the only thing Obama and Dead Meat have in common is convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko. But Dead Meat didn't need Rezko's help to buy a mansion. Dead Meat already had one, in Springfield.
So at 6 a.m. on Dec. 9, the phone rang in his Northwest Side home and the then-governor was told he'd be arrested any second. That's when Blagojevich started thinking about a politician:
His good buddy, and shadow-governor, state Sen. James DeLeo (D-How You Doin?).
"I honestly thought that for a fleeting moment, that someone was actually playing a practical joke on me," the former Democratic Illinois governor writes in his autobiography "The Governor" ( Phoenix Books, $24.95).
"I was quickly trying to gauge the voice and run through my mind who might be doing it. Which one of my friends could this be? ... state Sen. Jimmy DeLeo, a lawmaker and a friend, and a guy known for his sense of humor -- could this be him? For a moment, I thought it was him."
But it wasn't Jimmy.
It was Rob Grant, special agent in charge of the Chicago FBI, and Dead Meat was going down on corruption charges.
This first of several DeLeo references was on page 9. But the book goes downhill from there.
Dead Meat, scheduled to stand trial in federal court in June, takes all 259 pages to send messages to former friends and to enemies, like the Madigans, and U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald.
Throughout, Dead Meat writes he's a regular fellow, like Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life," fighting for the little guy, fighting for his country, fighting against all those evil Mr. Potters of the world.
But regular guys don't quote Shakespeare's "Henry V" to a bunch of Northwest Side Democratic machine precinct captains belonging to his ward boss father-in-law, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd).
Dead Meat, whom Mell picked to become a state legislator in 1992, said he felt the need to impress Mell's troops.
So he quoted from "Henry V," the part where Henry encourages the outnumbered English before their historic battle with the French at Agincourt, a battle that would mark the end of chivalry for all time, though Blago didn't mention chivalry. Yet he insists he quoted Shakespeare in that Northwest Side VFW hall.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, and gentlemen in England now abed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhood cheap, while others speak that fought with us on St. Crispin's Day!"
Now, I've been covering Chicago politics for years. And I've seen Mell's precinct captains in action. They're pros, and very good at getting out the vote. But picture them at a political meeting, guys on loan from DeLeo like Dominic Longo and Ronnie "Little Pistol" Calicchio, wearing their knit shirts and gold chains, their leathers, smelling of cigars and of Paco Rabanne for Men.
Then out comes the son-in-law with the dry look hair-do, a 30-something Dead Meat screeching at them about St. Crispin's Day and men who hold their manhood cheap.
"What's he talkin' about, this 'gentlemen in England now abed?' Who the #$%^ is this Crispin guy!?"
"He wants to hold my manhood cheap? What the @#$%? Nobody's touching my manhood. Especially this Elvis lookin' spacone."
What's astounding is that after such a display, they elected him to a public office. I'm surprised they'd elect him to the mosquito abatement district.
I can handle the fantastic exaggerations in this book. But what I can't handle are all the bizarre literary references, especially when you get the feeling he never read the books and only watched the movies.
He invokes Daedalus and Icarus, but Blago gets the ancient myth wrong and insists Icarus fell to the ground after flying too near the sun rather than into the sea. Shakespeare's "Richard III," "Othello," "King Lear," "Julius Caesar" are all represented. There is even a misused "Godfather" reference, and another to Robert De Niro's character in "Raging Bull." This is autobiography by Google.
It's all very frightening, with Blago the tragic hero of every story, until you realize that he's just seeding the jury pool. But there is another moment of truth, on page 135, after he compares himself to every hero in Western literature.
"The truth is, I would probably never have had a start in politics if it wasn't for my father-in-law."
And he would never have had so many laughs, if it weren't for Jimmy DeLeo.
jskass@tribune.com
Daley welcomes Oprah party on Michigan Avenue
Daley welcomes Oprah party on Michigan Avenue
Posted by Dan P. Blake at 11:40 a.m.
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 01, 2009
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/09/daley-welcomes-oprah-party-on-michigan-avenue.html
Mayor Richard Daley today said closing a three-block stretch of Michigan Avenue for two days next week for the Oprah Winfrey show will be a great public relations boost for the city.
Daley said the talk show host will reimburse the city for the costs of the show, which will shut down Michigan Avenue between Ohio Street and Wacker Drive from 12:01 a.m. Monday, Labor Day, until 5 a.m. on Wednesday.
"This is a great thing we're doing, I wish we could do this everyday in the city of Chicago," Daley said at an unrelated event this morning.
Daley said the taping of the Oprah show will help create jobs and bring worldwide publicity to the city.
"She's an icon for the industry. Take New York City, Los Angeles, take all of them for the filming industry. They do this everyday, unfortunately," Daley said.
Asked by reporters about the inconvenience to downtown motorists, Daley said it's worth it.
"I think they'll understand how important this is dealing with jobs, dealing with international exposure...this is a great opportunity," Daley said.
The event, a kickoff for the 24th season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," will tape on Sept. 8 at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Ohio Street and will be open to the public on a first come, first serve basis, according to show officials. Daley echoed the invite.
"It's filming, it's open to all ages," the mayor.
The list of guests has yet to be released, but the show will feature an appearance by the Black Eyed Peas. The episode is scheduled to air Sept. 10.
Posted by Dan P. Blake at 11:40 a.m.
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
September 01, 2009
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/09/daley-welcomes-oprah-party-on-michigan-avenue.html
Mayor Richard Daley today said closing a three-block stretch of Michigan Avenue for two days next week for the Oprah Winfrey show will be a great public relations boost for the city.
Daley said the talk show host will reimburse the city for the costs of the show, which will shut down Michigan Avenue between Ohio Street and Wacker Drive from 12:01 a.m. Monday, Labor Day, until 5 a.m. on Wednesday.
"This is a great thing we're doing, I wish we could do this everyday in the city of Chicago," Daley said at an unrelated event this morning.
Daley said the taping of the Oprah show will help create jobs and bring worldwide publicity to the city.
"She's an icon for the industry. Take New York City, Los Angeles, take all of them for the filming industry. They do this everyday, unfortunately," Daley said.
Asked by reporters about the inconvenience to downtown motorists, Daley said it's worth it.
"I think they'll understand how important this is dealing with jobs, dealing with international exposure...this is a great opportunity," Daley said.
The event, a kickoff for the 24th season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," will tape on Sept. 8 at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Ohio Street and will be open to the public on a first come, first serve basis, according to show officials. Daley echoed the invite.
"It's filming, it's open to all ages," the mayor.
The list of guests has yet to be released, but the show will feature an appearance by the Black Eyed Peas. The episode is scheduled to air Sept. 10.
N. Korea Reopens Border With South
N. Korea Reopens Border With South
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: September 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/world/asia/02korea.html?ref=global-home
SEOUL — North Korea restored regular border crossings for traffic going to South Korean factories in the North on Tuesday, while its leader, Kim Jong-il, reiterated his government’s call for a peace treaty with the United States.
North Korea had previously called for talks with Washington to replace the truce — which fell short of a formal peace treaty — that ended the Korean War in 1953.
“We can ease tensions and remove the danger of war on the peninsula when the United States abandons its hostile policy and signs a peace treaty with us,” Mr. Kim said in a commentary carried on Pyongyang Radio, which broadcasts North Korean government statements abroad.
The dispatch, which was broadcast late Monday, did not say when Mr. Kim made the statement. But the remark was the latest in a number of recent conciliatory overtures from the North.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, North Korea restored regular trucking and personnel traffic for South Korean companies that have operations in a joint industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. The North had sharply curtailed such traffic in December as cross-border tensions grew.
The border will now open 23 times a day to traffic to and from Kaesong, up from six times, said Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman with the Unification Ministry in Seoul. Some 110 South Korean factories employ about 40,000 North Korean workers at Kaesong.
Ian Kelly, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said Monday that Washington was “encouraged” by the North’s recent gestures toward the South, but he said he had no comment on the North’s call for a peace treaty.
Mr. Kelly urged North Korea to return to six-nation talks with regional powers about the dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs. The North, which prefers a bilateral dialogue with the United States, has said the six-party framework is dead.
Also Tuesday, a diplomatic delegation left Pyongyang for a visit to Beijing, according to KCNA, the official North Korean news agency. The group was led by Kim Yong-il, a deputy foreign minister, although KCNA gave no further details.
China is North Korea’s principal trading partner and its biggest supplier of aid. It also has been the host of the six-party talks that include the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Washington has said that negotiating a peace treaty with Pyongyang is possible only as part of a broader process that addresses the North’s nuclear disarmament. North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in May, and there is a growing suspicion among analysts in Seoul that the North is trying to win diplomatic recognition from Washington while also being accepted as a nuclear power.
The United States headed the United Nations forces that fought on South Korea’s behalf during the Korean War and afterward signed the truce. North Korea has tried for years to drag various American administrations into peace talks while arguing that it was building nuclear weapons because of Washington’s “hostile policies.”
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: September 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/world/asia/02korea.html?ref=global-home
SEOUL — North Korea restored regular border crossings for traffic going to South Korean factories in the North on Tuesday, while its leader, Kim Jong-il, reiterated his government’s call for a peace treaty with the United States.
North Korea had previously called for talks with Washington to replace the truce — which fell short of a formal peace treaty — that ended the Korean War in 1953.
“We can ease tensions and remove the danger of war on the peninsula when the United States abandons its hostile policy and signs a peace treaty with us,” Mr. Kim said in a commentary carried on Pyongyang Radio, which broadcasts North Korean government statements abroad.
The dispatch, which was broadcast late Monday, did not say when Mr. Kim made the statement. But the remark was the latest in a number of recent conciliatory overtures from the North.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, North Korea restored regular trucking and personnel traffic for South Korean companies that have operations in a joint industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. The North had sharply curtailed such traffic in December as cross-border tensions grew.
The border will now open 23 times a day to traffic to and from Kaesong, up from six times, said Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman with the Unification Ministry in Seoul. Some 110 South Korean factories employ about 40,000 North Korean workers at Kaesong.
Ian Kelly, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said Monday that Washington was “encouraged” by the North’s recent gestures toward the South, but he said he had no comment on the North’s call for a peace treaty.
Mr. Kelly urged North Korea to return to six-nation talks with regional powers about the dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs. The North, which prefers a bilateral dialogue with the United States, has said the six-party framework is dead.
Also Tuesday, a diplomatic delegation left Pyongyang for a visit to Beijing, according to KCNA, the official North Korean news agency. The group was led by Kim Yong-il, a deputy foreign minister, although KCNA gave no further details.
China is North Korea’s principal trading partner and its biggest supplier of aid. It also has been the host of the six-party talks that include the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Washington has said that negotiating a peace treaty with Pyongyang is possible only as part of a broader process that addresses the North’s nuclear disarmament. North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in May, and there is a growing suspicion among analysts in Seoul that the North is trying to win diplomatic recognition from Washington while also being accepted as a nuclear power.
The United States headed the United Nations forces that fought on South Korea’s behalf during the Korean War and afterward signed the truce. North Korea has tried for years to drag various American administrations into peace talks while arguing that it was building nuclear weapons because of Washington’s “hostile policies.”
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