Unions and Corruption Plague Chicago’s Convention Business

January 12, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Chicago, Cook County, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Mayor Richard Daley, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center is one of the largest convention halls in the world. With a total of 2,670,000 square feet of exhibition space and clocking in at a building cost of nearly one billion dollars it had better be one of the biggest, after all Chicago does do things big. Sadly that includes big corruption and unfortunately that corruption is turning “the city that works” into the city that lost its jobs.

This week Chicago’s Mayor Richard “King” Daley railed against the conditions that have made Chicago’s convention business a wreck these days. Along with Governor Pat Quinn, Daley has unveiled new work rules that would prevent unions from striking and would change union policies so that the high, high costs of bringing a convention to Chicago might come down.

Naturally, Daley was too weak-kneed to assign the blame where it mostly belongs: unions. Even as all his fixes center on alterations in union operations, Daley refused to say this is mostly the fault of the overweening and costly unions.
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Rahm Emanuel for Chicago Mayor?

January 6, 2010 | Filed Under Chicago, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Mayor Richard Daley, Rahm Emanuel, Society/Culture, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In her Jan 5 column the Washington Post’s Sally Quinn just reported a “rumor” that Presidential Chief of Staff !

Here is the relevant graph:

Emanuel, the most political animal in this town, also should understand that keeping Rogers on as social secretary reflects upon the president’s judgment. It’s possible that he has other considerations. Emanuel is said to have told people that the chief-of-staff role is an 18-month job and that he is considering a run for mayor of Chicago. And Rogers is a major social and political player in the Windy City.

Not quite a shocker if true, but interesting news nonetheless.

I say not shocking because Rahm is a well known Chicago strongman having served in Congress from the city and being one that has always looked for that next big power grab. Looking to take the Mayor’s seat would be a very logical effort for diminutive Emanuel.
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Chgo. Mayor Daley’s Bro Pleads for Dems to Return to Center

December 26, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Chicago, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Mayor Richard Daley, President, Socialism, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s brother, William, is warning the Democratic Party that it is going too far left and will end up “in the wilderness” in 2010. William Daley has been a longtime political operative that has been connected with the Clintons for many years but that doesn’t make him an extremist lefty, apparently… at least in his opinion.

Daley wrote an op ed for the Washington Post today where he warns that the Democratic Party is in danger of going over the leftwing cliff.

With the revelation that Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama is jumping the sinking Dem. ship and has declared that he is now a Republican and with the several Dems retiring from Congress, Daley warns that all the centrists are running away from the party and that will cause it to lose future elections.

In fact, he’s sure its too late to prevent major loses in 2010. He warns that if the party doesn’t return to the center they will lose more than just the next election.
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Chicago to Waste Millions on Park Plan

November 22, 2009 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Chicago, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Mayor Richard Daley, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Park District is wasting millions more of the taxpayer’s money by hiring a New York landscaping firm to redesign portions of Grant Park and Northerly Island just as it recently announced plans for employee lay offs to try and balance its $400 million budget.

Chicago residents will recall that in the dead of night in the Summer of 2003 Mayor Daley sent bulldozers onto Northerly Island to destroy the Meigs Field airport runways so that he could reclaim the property as another one of his vaunted park space projects. In 2003, Daley made the silly excuse that Meigs Field airport was a “security risk” in a post 9/11 world, but everyone knows this was just another example of Daley’s arrogance.

Since 2003 little has been decided about that space but that appears to be changing.
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Cook County Board Hijinx: Peraica vs. John Daley

November 17, 2009 | Filed Under Chicago, Cook County, Cook County Board, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Mayor Richard Daley, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at WBEZBlog, Tony Arnold posted his “soundbite of the day” featuring an insinuation, an angry reply, and a slam from today’s Cook County Board meeting.

Apparently, during a roll call vote, Commissioner Tony Peraica made some sort of veiled jab at Mayor Daley’s son who recently moved to Russia. I’m not sure what the heck Daley’s son has to do with anything — and Peraica said later that he regretted even saying it — but whatever Peraica meant it sure set John Daley (brother of Mayor Richard Daley) off about “attacking my nephew,” that’s for sure.

After Peraica said his line about the younger Daley’s move to Russia, John Daley started yelling back and that caused Board President Todd Stroger to shut off the mic, saying “You don’t know when to shut up,” to our erstwhile member of the Daley brood.

Still, later in the session, John Daley got his chance to throw out a jab at Peraica and in his blog post, Arnold expressed puzzlement over the comeback.
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Chgo’s Mayor Daley: Guns, Not Islam, Caused Fort Hood Massacre

November 11, 2009 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Chicago, Constitution, Cook County, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Guns, Liberals, Mayor Richard Daley, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just like an unprincipled, self-interested, tin-eared politician, Mayor Richard Daley decided to use the massacre at Fort Hood to flog his prosaic anti-gun message in Chicago.

When asked if Islam had anything at all to do with the Fort Hood massacre and if Muslims might expect some sort of backlash or anti-Islamic movement because of Nidal Hasan’s evil act of terror, Daley replied:

“Every day in society people are getting killed, unfortunately. America loves guns, we love guns to a point that we see the devastation on a daily basis. You don’t blame a group, you don’t blame a society… i,i,immigrant community because of actions of one group, uh one individual, you cannot say that.”

So, guns caused the Fort Hood massacre? Of course, this absurd claim does not square with the Major Hasan’s history of radical Islamism, but, hey, if you can use someone else’s “tragedy” to push your political message… what the heck, eh?So, not only was Daley his usually inarticulate self, but he found himself not above using this crime to push his own particular political message; his anti-gun zealotry.
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Chicago’s Tax Informing Rats

October 29, 2009 | Filed Under Capitalism, Chicago, Cook County, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Mayor Richard Daley, Socialism, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mad at your job? Torked at your neighbor? Snoop around in their tax info and if you find something damning… REPORT THEM! And the kindly folks down at Chicago’s City Hall are happy to help with their new tax rat program.

The Sun-Times reported that Daley’s Rat Line program could be added to the 2010 budget.

Mayor Daley’s tough-times, 2010 budget includes a first-ever “Tax Whistleblower Program” expected to include cash bounties for informants who deliver the goods on unpaid business taxes.

The cash reward would be a percentage of the amount recovered, but specifics are still being worked out. The dreaded employee head tax and lease tax are just two of the most frequent targets for tax cheats.

What the heck, eh? It worked for the Soviets and the East Germans in keeping their citizens in line, didn’t it?

Daley is telling us in his own inimitable way that, “Vee haf vays of making zure you pays das taxes, zitizens.”
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Mayor Daley’s Empty Property Tax Rhetoric

October 26, 2009 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Chicago, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Mayor Richard Daley, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Paul Kroenke wrote a great piece on the empty bravado of Mayor Richard Daley and his populist claims that he won’t raise property taxes. Kroenke pretty much shows that because of the tax zones that Daley has set up across the city, he really can’t raise property taxes even if he wanted to do so.

Back on October 14, Daley played the populist by claiming that he was ruling out property tax hikes.

“You can’t [raise property taxes] … That would hurt people tremendously,” Daley said.

“You can only take so much. People are being laid off on a daily basis. People are getting cut back. They don’t have the money anymore. Government has to look at itself and find out what they can live with and what are their priorities. Simple as that.”

Don’t you feel all warm and fuzzy inside already?

It’s not an easy story to relate because of how convoluted the legal situation is, but Kroenke does fairly well putting it all out there. What the final take seems to be is that Daley has created what are called Tax Increment Financing zones across 30% of the city where property taxes are frozen at current rates for a 24-year period so, as it turns out, he can’t raise property taxes there anyway.
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Now Mayor Daley is Floating a Water Sale?

October 24, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Chicago, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Mayor Richard Daley, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

To save his bloated city budget Mayor Daley sold the Chicago Skyway toll road. Then he sold the city parking meters. And now? Now Daley wants to sell the city water system in order to keep paying all his broken nosed pals their monthly stipend.

CBS Channel 2 is reporting that that Chicago is considering leasing its water system.

Apparently there is a local precedent for this idea already in the Will County city of Homer Glen that leased its city water services to a German-owned company.

Amusingly enough, the mayor of Homer Glen is also named Daley (no relation) and he told Channel 2 that his residents pay about three times more for their water than neighboring communities. Just imagine what Chicago’s residents will end up paying if Richard Daley sells off the city water contract!
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