GOP Blogger Diersen Hates All Sex (Even Between Dogs)

GOP Blogger Dave Diersen is a raving loon. That's readily apparent to anyone reading his "work." His is a grown man who routinely refers to political events as "very sad", believes that Everybody Is Out To Get White America, believes that coverage of political news is "promoting", and believes that all federal employee (other than himself -- he's got a long record of being on the fed payroll) are Democrats who hate America.

In his "column" on July 30, 2008, he hit what may be a new low. It is well known that Diersen hates all sex between humans. Now, it turns out, he even hates sex between dogs.

Diersen is outraged that the Chicago Sun-Times would come out against a proposed ordinance requiring that all pets be spayed/neutered. Since Diersen hates Chicago, it is unclear what he would care about Chicago pets. The answer appears simple: He simply hates all sex, even among dogs.

As I said: A new low.

But on the bright side, I got a good laugh.

Carlos Marmol? An Allstar?

It was bad enough when "The Big Z", also known as "The Fat Guy Who Never Once Tipped the Doormen or Garage Staff, or so I Hear" made the all-star team.
But Carlos "five runs in the 9th, let's show him how wonderful Peoria is in July" Marmol?
Things have gotten out of hand.

Today's Sheep: Emma Mitts (37)

Today's Aldermanic Sheep is Emma Mitts (37).

Mitts is one of the alderman who knows how to follow orders. She does what Mayor Daley tells her to do. She votes as she is told.

One of her votes was to confirm Jody Weis to run the Chicago Police Department. Emma Mitts did what Mayor Daley told her to do, and voted to confirm Weis. She also votes consistenly for Daley's budgets, despite the fact that Daley consistently fails to budget for enough sworn police officers.

But recently, there has been some bad publicity. There were shootings near Taste of Chicago. Over the past few months, crime statistics are moving in the wrong direction.

So what does Emma Mitts do? Does she call her local police commanders to sit down and find out what is happening in 37? No.

It turns out that Emma Mitts, who claims to represent the 37th Ward, does not even know who the commanders are in that ward.

How does an alderman not know who the police commanders are? What kind of Daley-ordering-following sheep is too lazy to look into who is running things for the CPD in her ward?

The answer? Emma Mitts is that sort of alderman. She's just following orders. She doesn't have the time to find out what is happening in 37, at least not until Mayor Daley issues the order.

Which is a shame, since the 37th Ward needs an alderman willing to do some work. And an alderman that is willing to stand up for the 37th Ward, and not just follow Daley's orders.

Today's Sheep Update: Isaac Carothers (29)

According to multiple sources, Alderman Isaac Carothers is VERY upset because Police Superintendent Jody Weis has not been "responsive" to Carothers. Apparently, Carothers wants people to blame Supt. Weis for the failings with regard to security on certain evenings during the Taste of Chicago, and for allegedly low morale within the Department.

There may be a simple solution: Weis can let out a "Baaa" in the general direction of Carothers. As one of Daley's sheep, Carothers should get the point.

During the years that Carothers has been in office, he has consistently refused to stand up to Mayor Daley. The result? Chicago does not have enough sworn police officers on the job. Our police department lacks the resources to do the job. But still, Carothers, like a good sheep, lines up and votes with Daley nearly every time.

It is almost funny to see Carothers play his role, acting the part of a man with integrity. His ward desperately needs an alderman with the guts to stand up to Mayor Daley and demand more.

Too bad the 29th has Isaac Carothers instead.

The Wacky Right -- Dishonest Again

Diersen, the GOP blogger over at Illinoize, is known for some zany stuff. He is one of the few allegedly grown males who consistently use the term "sad" and "very sad" to describe matters not involving the death of a close family member. He rarely has his facts straight. He also is a afraid of criticism. His posts do not allow comments.

Today, Diersen once again showed that he is not just wacky, but dishonest. Rather than speaking about Sen. Obama's records, Diersen chose to repeat a lie. According to Diersen, Obama "said that the nation’s chief priority should not be for immigrants to learn English, but for American children to learn Spanish."

That's not true at all, and Diersen knows it. Sen. Obama said the obvious: That although immigrants to the U.S. should speak English, Americans should learn foreign languages. Sen. Obama is right on that issue. If the U.S. wants to compete in the world, Americans need to learn to speak other languages. For what its worth, if the U.S. had more Arabic speakers, we may have been able to prevent 9/11 and we certainly would be doing a far better job in the fight against the outlaw terrorists.

Senator Obama never said that immigrants should not learn English. He never said that Americans learning Spanish was MORE IMPORTANT than immigrants learning English.

When Diersen made those comments, he was dishonest. Since that man who claims the moral highground, that is very very very sad.

Rock Out With Reilly

Brendan Reilly, one of the few Chicago Alderman not in the Mayor's pocket, is holding "Rock Out With Reilly" on July 15, 2008, at House of Blues. That's a great place to hear music, and this is a great way to support one of the few who have shown a willingness to stand up to Daley.

For more details, see here.

SOAR Blueprints 2008

The Streeterville Organization of Active Residents (SOAR) will be presenting

Blueprints 2008

An Evening of

Art & Architecture

Monday, August 4, 2008

Museum of Contemporary Art

Tickets are $100 each

Daley's Transportation Failures

A few weeks ago, after spending over $200 MILLION to put a hole in the ground at State and Washington, Mayor Daley came to the conclusion that truly rapid transit from downtown to O'Hare was not possible. As a result, Daley agreed that the CTA should spend an additional $45.6 million in order to complete that hole.

The fact that Mayor Daley wasted nearly $250 million is not the biggest issue. In fact, it gets worse. According to the March 2008 Atlantic, rail delays in and around Chicago cause $4.0 BILLION in losses. The reason, according to the Atlantic's Bruce Katz describes, is that rail system issues cause freight trains going through Chicago to travel at the speed of zambonis.

Despite Daley's conclusion that truly rapid transit to O'Hare is not possible, persons can get from Shanghai's Pudong Airport to downtown Shanghai in eight minutes, using trains that travel at nearly 300 mph.

Mayor Daley spends millions and says it cannot be done. Mayor Daley has done nothing to speed freight service through the Chicago area, causing the U.S. to lose billions.

And, meanwhile, the Chinese can get from Pudong to downtown Shanghai in eight minutes.

Twenty years of Daley rule, and this is what we get?

Red Bull Running

As most people who know Skeeter know, Skeeter may be Chicago most avid BMW Sauber fan.

Still, I must give credit where credit is due, and today that credit goes to Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing, for putting his machine on the front row at Silverstone. For Webber to out-qualify the Ferraris was an incredible accomplishment.

In honor of his fine effort, see the brilliant Running of the Red Bulls.

Daley Drops It On the Fourth

The Fourth of July showed once again that Mayor Daley's priorities are not those of his city.

Taxes have gone up, spending has gone up, but we still do not have enough sworn police officers on the job to effectively handle a crowd.

On July 3, 2008, two individuals were shot in the Loop. That follows a pattern of fights and shootings in prior years during the Taste of Chicago. You would think that after twenty years, Mayor Daley would learn that, for the Taste of Chicago and for the July 3 and July 4 fireworks, the City needs police officers on the scene and ready to respond.

Traffic control this year was worse then ever. For reasons that remain unclear, east/west streets, including Grand and Illinois, were allowed to remain open. On both nights following the fireworks, those streets were filled with pedestrians and with cars trying to edge their way through the people. No sworn officers were seen. Instead, the job was left to incompetent traffic control aides who added nothing.

A competent mayor would have seen to it that those streets were closed, that pedestrian and car traffic was coordinated so that the streets did not re-open until the pedestrian flow had slowed, and most importantly, that uniformed, sworn officers were on the job.

Too bad that after twenty years, Mayor Daley still hasn't learned how to make a city work.

"Fatal Disregard for Political Reality in the Middle East"

Dorothy Wickenden, writing in the June 30, 2008 issue of the New Yorker, used the phrase "fatal disregard for political reality in the Middle East" to describe the actions of the B-Team with regard to the war in Iraq.

As the 2008 Presidential elections draws closer, the same phrase could be used about Sen. McCain. When a United States Senator does not know which countries in the Middle East are predominantly Sunni and which are Shiite, there is a serious disregard for the political reality in the Middle East.

To digress slightly, in the same column, Wickenden provides a quote from Barack Obama from October 2, 2002:

"I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rational and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than the best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars."

With 50/50 hindsight, it looks like the man who was just a State Senator from my home district in Illinois was able to analyze the situation better than just about anyone else.

And that's why Barack Obama should be elected President of the United States.

Pride Parade and the Creepy Right Wing

IR types are often strange and offensive. One of their regulars, on his own site, has gone beyond strange and offensive to "creepy." Dave Smith, writing at his home site, has provided a list of all companies and politicians who participated in the Pride Parader.

For a guy who claims to be hetero, Smith sure is fascinated with all things gay.

Hey Dave -- Real heterosexuals don't think that seeing gay things will make them change sides. In addition, people who like freedom have the idea that people should say and do what they want. Too bad Dave Smith either doesn't believe in freedom, or is really really fascinated by homosexual behavior.

The Case Against Steven Sauerberg, Part 1

Although I admit to being a huge fan of Sen. Durbin, people may want to consider a vote for Steven Sauerberg, since if he's in the Senate, he might stop seeing patients. The following is the start of a list of cases that feature "Steven Sauerberg, M.D." as a defendant. Unless somebody shows me some other doctors by that name in northereastern Illinois, I am going to assume that they involve our friend in the GOP:

Christine Laheta v. Adventist Health Systems, 2006 L 012080. The caption on this one is a bit confusing, since it is labeled "motor vehicle." Given the names of the defendants (all of which are medical providers), it looks like the court clerk mislabeled this case.

Good Early National Numbers

Although it is early, these numbers have to please Democrats. According to electoral-vote.com, the most up to date numbers show Barack Obama with a 317-221 lead over McCain. The recent polls show Ohio, PA, Virginia, and Indiana all going blue. Realistically, Barack should take three of the four in November. In the Senate, the latest numbers show the Dems taking a 55-45 lead. Mississippi continues to be very close (the Republican holds a small lead). Also, Bruce Lundsford continues to poll well in Kentucky. Ted Stevens in Alaska also has a very close race on his hands. Potentially, the Democrats could end up with 58 seats.

Things Looking Up in the 42nd Ward: Office Vacancy Rate Drops

The 42nd Ward got some good news this week. Crain's is reporting that the downtown office vacancy rate dropped to 10.8%. That's the lowest rate since the third quarter of 2003.

According to Crain's and Chicago Real Estate Daily, the reason might be that two large hotel projects took 650,000 square feet of office space off the market.

From Skeeter's vantage point, things are continuing to look good, despite a slowdown elsewhere. On the residential side, in Streeterville three large condo projects are nearly complete, two more have just been complete, and at least two more are in their early stages. That doesn't include the Spire. On that project, ground has been broken and the sales program is going full bore (including ads in national publications). On the commerical side, a lot more office space is expected to go on line by 2011.

Despite all the stories in the media about crime and taxes and other issues, Chicago and in particular, the 42nd Ward, remains an outstanding place to do business.