Sunday, February 19, 2006

Poor People as Battle Shields

From Today's Trib's endorsement of Claypool,

Instead, Stroger uses poor people as battle shields, pretending that criticism of the payrollers he employs is an attack on the impoverished citizens they're supposed to serve.

During a telling moment in January 2005, Stroger let slip his vision of how to cover the county's exorbitant personnel costs. At the time, he wanted authority to levy new taxes on cell phones, pagers and other telecom devices. Asked if Cook County provides any services whatsoever to the citizens he was seeking to gouge, Stroger replied with welcome candor: "We would like to get their money from a tax."

That's what it's all about at Cook County: We would like to get your money from a tax. Because we have more cousins to employ. Because our campaign donors need more contracts.
I knew Ubi Est Mea was the slogan on the shield but didn't realize poor people were the shield. Makes sense though.

Cross Posted at Bill Baar's West Side

11 comments:

Anonymous,  2:35 PM  

I really hope Stroger loses. Whenever the machine loses, citizens win, and this is the best and biggest opportunity to defeat the machine this year.

Levois 8:07 PM  

It seems at times that those who claim to speak up for the poor kicks them in the teeth all the time. Unfortunately the poor may not always realize that.

Anonymous,  6:09 AM  

Funny how the Tribune came out with their endorsement FOUR WEEKS before the primary. Why is there no poll on this race? I hear they're holding back because the result was soshitty for Claypool.

BTW, what a joke that Peotone press conference was. Claypool was crowing he had Jackson's endorsement all weekend. Ooops, did he get owned.

pathickey 11:19 AM  
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
pathickey 11:22 AM  

Now maybe Forrest earned one of those nifty campaign signs with Con. Tummy Tuck staring steely-eyed behind him. Maybe. Ask nice, Forrest.

fedup dem 3:42 PM  

Notice to wow... were you referring to the endorsement poll taken by Evanston Democrats a few weeks ago (Claypool 90%, Stroger 7%)? I can only assume that you are either one of Stroger's patronage lackeys or a relative of one. If that is the case, the Tribune has done you a favor by its early endorsement of Claypool. You now have that much more time to fix up a nifty resume.

Anonymous,  6:49 PM  

Wow is apparently a flack, and a not-so-good-one at that. I'm guessing that the Tribune thought it would be of interest to its readers to run thier endorsement before the start of early voting.

New flash Wow: we get to vote early this year, and not just precinct captains. Early voting, new equipment, it's a whole new shabang this year. You should check it out.

Expect most other dailies to print their Claypool endorsements over the next week or so.

Anonymous,  7:05 PM  

Is your only response to what I'm saying is to attack me?

Respond to the point. The fact that the Trib releases an endorsement now tells you they are doing their best to help out their man.

Don't you think they would have RUSHED a competitive poll to print if they had one?

Now that Claypool has an economic development plan for Will County, maybe he'll come up with one for Cook County. Neither of you has responded to the bare fact that he went to the south suburbs (for the first time ever) to get that endorsement and came away empty handed.

Instead of cheerleading for Claypool and trying to discredit people, why not address the point?

And, as I've told you before, Sherman, if Claypool cuts at the County like he did at the Parks, those cuts will reach you too.

Hey 47th Ward, believe me I know about early voting, and the candidate best organized to max out on it is certainly not Forrest.

Anonymous,  7:55 PM  

Wow,

Sorry if you felt attacked. It's just that I've seen your handle on other blogs on this very subject, so I know you to be extremely well informed/prepped on why President Stroger is the best candidate in this race. But I also know what you're posting is mainly spin and misinformation, and your ham-handed efforts make it too transparent for me to let it pass. Fortunately, blogs give us an outlet to both spew and respond to BS.

My comments were prompted because you sound a lot like a paid Stroger staffer, an SEIU apparatchik or an otherwise professionally interested commenter to me. I'll make it simple: I think your posts are being dictated by someone in the know on the Stroger side of this election. Am I wrong?

My original post meant to say I think it's BS to suggest that the Tribune is endorsing early for some anti-Stroger reason. It's also complete BS to suggest you know that the Tribune polled but hasn't published the results on this race to protect/help Claypool.

I'm no reporter, and certainly no apologist for the Tribune, which clearly hates the President. But there will be precious few newspaper endorsements for Stroger, and those who read newspapers will understand why.

Trust me, Wow, it won't be only the Tribune endorsing Claypool.

Anonymous,  7:49 AM  

Everything on a blog falls into spin, fact, rumor or lies. Everyone knows that. But doesn't the fact that the Trib has it in for Stroger dovetail pretty nicely with my theory on where the poll is? Honestly, what other races are out there that are as high a priority for the Trib? And no poll? Why?

On the endorsement--where are the rest? It's Tuesday, and only Cook County has been covered. Where's the gov's race? The others? Or, is it actually a coordinated response between Axelrod and Dold? As for early vote, I'm sure if the Trib was worried about the franchise, they would have trumpeted early vote in the op-ed. They didn't.

And be honest. Did Claypool really mean to put himself oposite Daley on Peotone? That was news? Obviously he went down there for a Jackson endorsement and left with his tail between his legs.

Besides, whatever my POV is, at least you're getting a real point of view, not just caricatures of candidates or stereotypes.

BTW, congrats on figuring out who my candidate is!

Cheers!

pathickey 1:15 PM  

John Stroger has my vote. Tom Dart has my vote. John T. Kelly has my vote. Edwin Eisendrath has my vote. Alexi Giannoulias has my vote. Cook County Commissioner Murphy has my vote.

I am a voter and I vote for people.

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